Why computers are still slow

I just read an article on why computers still seem so slow today, in spite of the thousand fold speed. It was a bit of a turn-off for me, because most of the stuff I already knew, but I had no idea that all those things could use that much processor time. I don't agree on what he says about the GUI (graphical user interface), because I don't see my computer slow down when I use it, and it can't slow it down when I don't use the GUI; except that I agree that it slows down typing.

The article doesn't say anything about programmers using top of the line computers, who optimize their software until its speed is acceptable on their machine, while users without a lot of cash try to keep up with their old computers. I think that is also a considerable factor. Being a programmer I do think about the speed of my software, and get a kick out of it if I find an elegant way to do so.

The programming tools programmers have these days make it easy to eat up CPU time. E.g. in most GUI's, we can easily set the software to call a method to do something every time the mouse is moved, even if it's just a pixel. And that method can do as much as we like. In Microsofts Visual Studio, it shows a little pop up with information about the variable that the mouse is pointing at; but if you have a big program with a lot of variables, looking up that information can take a few seconds if you have too little RAM, so just moving the mouse can be annoying, like I experienced until a few years ago (I have more RAM now).

Engineers reunion

Last Friday I went to a reunion of the engineers that studied in Ghent. It was nice to see a lot of people after ten years. What surprised me was that most of them hardly changed. One man had become fatter, and one woman had shorter hair, but the others I recognized immediately!

Are we aging slower because of a better lifestyle? Or are engineers living healthier? The strange thing is that I hardly know any engineers who smoke. Of the about 50 engineering students I knew at the university, only 3 smoked, and one didn't finish the studies. This is amazingly little compared to the entire population. I think people who smoke are the people who have a I-don't-care-about-tomorrow-and-I-wanna-be-cool-now attitude, and they are not likely to study hard. On the other hand, stress and heavy meals (Belgian culture, you know) are a substantial part of an engineers life, so I don't think engineers are healthier.

Or did only the good looking ones show up? I know another engineer who looks ten years older than he really is, so maybe that's it.

I'm 33 now, and I am constantly estimated to be at least 5 years younger. Not bad, since I'm single, and I prefer to be interesting to single women who are mostly younger :-) Telling my real age is always tricky, they're always shocked.

Peugeot 907 with Windows Embedded

I just landed on this page, which tells about the new Peugeot 907. I was only going to look at it shortly, but then I saw it runs on Windows Embedded. Not being impressed with anything related to Microsoft, I feared the worst, although I thought they wouldn't write about Windows crashing or something. But the writer does tell about a serious problem: if the engine stops for any reason, you can't start it again immediately, because you have to wait for Windows to boot up! And according to the article this supercar isn't easy to master, so its engine can shut down if you don't handle it well.

I know Microsoft best by their products Visual C++ and Internet Explorer. Visual C++ was lagging behind the standards when free conforming compilers were available for a few years (they finally caught up in 2003). And Internet Explorer still isn't conform to the (not so) new standards for using CSS, while Mozilla and Firefox already are, Mozilla for years.

And those are just the two Microsoft products that I know of. So I'm not likely to buy a car with Windows in it.

Brahms' Fae Sonata

I have a collection of over 350 CDs, which I consider to be quite big (but some true musiclovers that I know consider it microscopic). About 80 of them are classical CDs, many of them I bought quite cheap, like 30 euros for a box of ten CDs. The result is that I hardly know what kind of music is on them, I buy a box of classical CDs, listen once to them all, and then start listening to another new CD.

So I recently decided to pay more attention to my classical CDs. Today I put on a CD by Brahms, and was pleasantly surprised by his scherzo called Fae Sonata (a scherzo is a lighthearted and fast-moving piece of music; the name is Italian for 'joke'). I was truly amazed by this piece, it's happy, uplifting music. I still have it on my mind, and I hope it won't be wiped out by muzak when I go shopping tonight.

My first blog message

So, I started my blog. For a long time I didn't even think about starting a blog. But recently someone asked on a YahooGroup if anyone of us had a blog, and I started to think about it again. Things happen almost everyday, that make me think, and I often don't get to share these thoughts with other people. Why not put it on a blog?

Well, I'm a very busy man. Don't say I should make time for it, like 'just 30 minutes a day'. There's a lot of things on which I would want to spend 30 minutes a day. But I took a look at the available tools, and damn, it's really easy to get your messages on a blog in no time - unlike making a website, my personal website is completely out of date.

I don't know if I'll be a good blogger. I'll definitely try to post a few times a week, but I don't think I'll read a lot of other blogs, too busy. I understand that there is some community-feeling in the world of bloggers, but I guess I'll stay on my own for that reason.

I decided to stay anonymous on this blog. I'll tell friends about it, but I don't want people to find me here with a search engine. The reason being that I have my own company, and I don't want (potential) customers to know all about my life. It's either that or less personal stuff. Heck, there's already too much personal stuff on my website, which can be easily found.

So, I hope you'll enjoy my blog.