madcow

Details how Intel’s advances in processor horsepower gets eaten by Microsoft code bloat. Actual tests, in vm and on real hardware.

“The net result is that, surprise, Vista + Office 2007 + state of the art hardware delivers throughput that’s nearly on par (~22% slower) with the previous generation of Windows XP + Office 2003 + the previous state of the art hardware. In other words, the hardware gets faster, the code base gets fatter and the user experience, as measured in terms of application response times and overall execution throughput, remains relatively constant.”

Read it here:

Abstract

“The wide application of digital technologies to scholarly communications has disrupted the model of academic library service that has been in place for the past century. Given the new Internet tools and the explosive growth of digital content available on the Web, it is now not entirely clear what an academic library should be. This article is an attempt to provide a strategy for academic libraries in what is left of the first quarter of the 21st century.

There are five components of the model:
1.) Complete the migration from print to electronic collections;
2.) Retire legacy print collections;
3.) Redevelop library space;
4.) Reposition library and information tools, resources, and expertise; and
5.) Migrate the focus of collections from purchasing materials to curating content. ”

(found and copied from Stephen Abrams’ Lighthouse

“Freedom of choice is not always good for democracy. This observation is at the heart of University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein’s book “Republic.com 2.0” (an update of “Republic.com” in 2001), which argues that our country’s political discourse is fracturing in the information age. Sure, the Internet has been a boon to democracy in all sorts of ways, Sunstein acknowledges — but if new technology gives us unprecedented access to information, it also gives us more ways to avoid information we don’t like.”
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