French censored answer to Google Earth.
in [Europe]
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From: Mxsmanic on 29 Jul 2006 08:39 Martin writes: > You aren't in the computer industry. Why not? -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.
From: Mxsmanic on 29 Jul 2006 08:43 Dave Frightens Me writes: > I think we all know this came down to the definition of what a > computer is. A typical definition is an electronic device that can perform a finite set of operations on information contained in a memory, in accordance with a list of instructions also contained in a memory, and receive information from the outside world and send information to the outside world. This is about the only definition that applies to everything people call computers, and it's also a very broad definition that makes all sorts of devices computers. As ubiquitous as the PC seems, it is only one very specific type of computer. There are many other types in common use. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.
From: Jim Ley on 29 Jul 2006 08:43 On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:32:27 +0200, "Terry Richards" <terryr999(a)removethis.orange.fr> wrote: > >"Jim Ley" <jim(a)jibbering.com> wrote in message >news:44cb3ed7.88700093(a)news.individual.net... >> On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 12:26:39 +0200, "Terry Richards" >> <terryr999(a)removethis.orange.fr> wrote: >> >> >- most households that own a computer also own a car, possibly more than >> >one. >> >> Except you're ignoring a lot of things - children own a lot of >> computers, > >Children count as part of the household. Indeed, but they rarely own a car, but have very high computer ownership. >They generally sell them to somebody else. There is virtually no 2nd hand market in computers. >I suspect that 4 computers (I'm assuming you mean PCs) is probably on the >high end. But, even with that, if the cars are reasonably new you still have >more CPUs in cars than you do in PCs. No you don't (but I didn't know we were doing anything about cpus I was purely discussing cars/computerss) , if you're seperating out the "computers" in the cars into individual processing units, then you also need to seperate out the individual processing units inside the individual computers. >Now expand your sample a bit and include everybody you know on the same >street. I bet some of them have cars but no PC... I don't know anyone else on the street... >The point I was responding to was "The great majority of computers worldwide >are general-purpose desktop computers." were you, I was responding to some comment about the ratio of cars to computers, you seemed to think it relevant. > PDA's and Games consoles are obviously not. Are obviously not computers - I may well agree with you, I'll tell you one thing a car is definately not a computer - it may contain a lot of processing power, but it's not a computer. >Anyway, even if we get up to 50/50, it still doesn't get >anywhere near "The great majority". It seems reasonable to me, the problem is are PDA's, smartphones, games consoles - are they computers, some may well be. Are laptops "desktop computers" - probably not, so the great majority claim is gonna be a struggle, and are servers computers, indeed they are, so it's still gonna be a struggle. With that result it seems clear that the claim of a great majority isn't sustainable - but that's got absolutely sod all to do with cars, which are not computers. Jim.
From: Mxsmanic on 29 Jul 2006 08:44 Jim Ley writes: > Nope, never running untrusted code is excellent virus protection. Virus protection is not a reason for running only trusted code. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.
From: Jim Ley on 29 Jul 2006 08:54
On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:43:00 +0200, Mxsmanic <mxsmanic(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Dave Frightens Me writes: > >> I think we all know this came down to the definition of what a >> computer is. > >A typical definition is an electronic device that can perform a finite >set of operations on information contained in a memory, in accordance >with a list of instructions also contained in a memory, and receive >information from the outside world and send information to the outside >world. No, that's not a typical definition of a computer at all, that's a highly technical definition > This is about the only definition that applies to everything >people call computers, Nope, computers used be people are things they interact with, with a screen etc. this isn't a technical group >As ubiquitous as the PC seems, it is only one very specific type of >computer. There are many other types in common use. Not by people, unless you consider a smartphone a computer - it meets your highly technical definition of course, but it's not, it's a phone. You've got to understand that language is controlled by its users, and the usage here is not of technical language, it's a common mistake of many in the group, and it's a shame as we spend so much time discussing what words mean, rather than travelling in europe... Jim. |