more on DO LOOK AT THE DATE OF THE NYTIMES ARTICLE -- Concurrency in the real world

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Gillogly <scryer () gmail com>
Date: November 10, 2004 8:50:40 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Concurrency in the real world
Reply-To: Jim Gillogly <scryer () gmail com>

> From: Irwin Greenwald <irwingreenwald () uclalumni net>
> New York Times, 25 April 1989, in an article on new operating systems
> for the IBM PC:
>
> Real concurrency -- in which one program actually continues to function
> while you call up and use another -- is more amazing but of small use 
> to
> the average person.  How many programs do you have that take more than 
> a
> few seconds to perform any task?

Speaking for myself, dozens, reflecting my interest in cryptanalysis.  
Everyone
else should have at least one, drawn from any of a large number of 
useful CPU
sinks such as http://www.nfsnet.org or 
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ .

It's one of the great wastes of the computer age that 99.44% (my
seat-of-the-pants
estimate) of all CPU cycles in the world are spent running a Microsoft
screen saver
or the OS idle loop.
--
          Jim Gillogly

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