Re: How to make money fast (in science fiction)

In rec.arts.sf.science Tim Little <tim@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On 2008-04-02, Michael Ash <mike@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Even running the Dreaded Windows, a modern computer should be using
>> sleep/hibernate functionality, which will go from off to ready in a
>> few seconds at worst.
> 
> We use Windows PCs at work, and it takes more than a minute to return
> to a functional state from hibernation.

Clearly Microsoft is not to be underestimated.

Still, this seems highly unusual. I've seen Windows do this operation a 
*lot* faster, and I don't recall seeing it go anywhere near that slowly.

For what it's worth, my computer takes approximately two seconds, although

for obvious reasons I haven't measured it. That is, when it actually does 
it at all; every few weeks it decides that it doesn't want to wake up and 
wants me to reboot it instead.

>> I have distinct memories of various times during my childhood where
>> I would turn on the computer, then go hunt for snacks or something
>> to wait for it to boot.
> 
> Throughout the computers in my life, the boot-up time had increased
> monotonically.  From a fraction of a second for my first computer,
> through a second or two for the later ones, to about 10 seconds, then
> up to 30 seconds and now up to a couple of minutes.

Booting to a command line has pretty much always been quick. Less so on 
more modern OSes where the command line is just an interface to a big 
universe behind it.

Booting to a GUI has always taken quite a while. This is the sort of thing

I mean where the speed cost is actually due to more stuff being done, not 
just greater complexity that isn't directly useful.

>> It's an interesting question. I would say that "fast enough" won't
>> be achieved [...]
> 
> You could stop there.  Computers will never be fast enough to do
> all information-processing tasks in reasonable time.

Never say never. A lot can happen before the heat death of the universe. 
It's entirely conceivable, although beyond anything we currently know to 
be theoretically possible, that ways would be found to perform infinite 
computation in a short amount of time.

For boring finitely-fast computers like we have today, it's probably 
better to reformulate the question in terms of the percentage of users for

whom the computer is effectively instantaneous. Anyone whose computer 
usage is limited to driving a car and using a phone is experiencing this 
today. Many people with "e-mail computers" and other such low-intensity 
users probably also fall into this category. If available computing power 
continues to increase as it has then there would eventually be a point 
where only a small fraction of power users actually have to wait for 
anything to happen on their computers.

-- 
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software