[kwlug disc.] 'Blackberries make you stupid!'

[Donald Tees]

Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:
> While no desktop or cluster today has the I/O throughput of even an old 
> mainframe, aren't we getting to the state where there's enough balls in some 
> of these handheld processors to challenge some (older) mainframes on raw 
> compute power, and clusters of commercial processors which are winning the 
> top supercomputing prizes?
>
> What's your draw to the big iron?  My brother's got a similar draw to the big 
> iron of interconnects which is why he works at Bell, but what about you?
>
>
>   
You are quite correct, or course. What i have now *is* a mainframe, as 
far as usage goes. (I use a small network of four PC's on a server 
switch).  But then I have been using a small network of four computers 
on a server switch since the 80's. (The second screen is not switched, 
so I can drag stuff onto it and watch it while working on another 
computer). The only advantage of a mainframe today is sheer I/O 
throughput, which I really do not need.

I'm quite happy with the computing power I have today, but do not really 
know what usage I'd get out of a hand-held. Aside from communications, 
that is, and I am out of my home for maybe three hours a week. When I 
am, I do not want to be bothered. I simply cannot think of anything I'd 
use it for, when I have a real computer with a real screen 20 feet away.

That was a bit of a joke, actually. Not much existed below a mainframe 
when I started. The "mini-computer" did not come out until about ten 
years after I started programming.

I did have a mainframe at one time. A Dec-system10. Not mine personally, 
of course, but I was the guy that set it up and ran it. It was great 
fun, and quite a thrill to get as a beginning programmer.  Long time ago 
now.  My first "home" computer was a PDP8-E, with an SR-33 teletype, 
later upgraded to a VT52.  I still remember getting pissed on for 
"yelling" on that VT-52.  Some people could not get it through their 
skull that the equipment did not *have* lower case, so caps was the only 
way I *could* post.

Times change, for sure.

Donald