One step closer to the goal

[avevale_intelligencer]

Jan has a new computer. As well as the necessary USB 2 sockets (about ten of them, as far as I can see) it has an Intel Core i3 processor, 3Gb of memory and half a terabyte of hard drive, which I think should be more than enough for at least a few years or so*. Windows 7 and Office 2010 seem to run, and should be easier to see than Office 2007 on XP was.

We're not sure yet what we will do with the previous thinkybox once I'm sure everything's been reclaimed (though dusting it leaps to mind as a short-term possibility). As far as I know it's in reasonable working order, but is quite old as computers go.

*It's been said in my hearing that the speed of technological advancement in this field is increasing exponentially. I take leave to doubt this--I don't think there will ever come a time when a new computer is being released every ten seconds, or even every day. Zeno rears his Grecian head. I think there will be a point when computers do all we want them to do as fast as it's convenient to us for them to do it, and if we've got any sense we will then turn our inventive zeal to other directions, like a workable real-time FTL drive.

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"*It's been said in my hearing that the speed of technological advancement in this field is increasing exponentially."

Hmmm... It depends what they actually mean by "the speed of technological advancement". If they mean good old Moore's Law (doubling the number of transistors/computation power every 18 months), which is indeed an exponential increase against time, then that's been running dead on schedule for several decades... but is now at last slowing down.

"I think there will be a point when computers do all we want them to do as fast as it's convenient to us for them to do it, and if we've got any sense we will then turn our inventive zeal to other directions, like a workable real-time FTL drive."

For the average man on the street, we've already reached that point several times before. What happens is that Certain People turn their creative zeal in the direction of inventing new and more demanding things for everyone to want to do with their computers! Meanwhile, the folks who are trying to invent a real-time FTl drive are precisely the folks for whom the biggest and most powerful computers on the planet still aren't celever enough or fast enough. Have you seen the data storage requirements for the LHC (never mind the processing requirements for figuring out what the hell the bugger's trying to tell us)? I could fit a good few more seasons of Doctor Who onto *them* drives, even in Ultra High Definition Fluid Flow 3D (or whatever probably much pithier and less comprehensible name they end up giving to the next big advance in TV "quality")... =:o>

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I seem to be filling up terabyte drives at an alarming rate. But video is big -- text and music are much more reasonable.

Tech advancing exponentially -- this is the basis behind the 'singularity' concept, that it will eventually get so fast that it all goes 'boom' into a completely different paradigm and the human race either dies out or is transformed into gods or something even less recognisable.

Moore's Law has held for far longer than it was ever expected (it was, like other "laws of nature", a descriptive not prescriptive 'law') but is showing definite signs of flagging. We're reaching the point where the behaviour of individual atoms is beoming important, and unless we have a radically new breakthrough we're probably going to be limited by that. The capabilities (and price per unit capability) may not be as limited, though -- things like half a million processing 'cores' in a single machine are quite possible.

(Incidentally, Jan's new machine is probably twice as powerful as anything I have. I'm nowhere near the "bleeding edge" of technology...)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Yay for good new tools. :)