Simply stated, the Paradox of Speed is: The faster the hardware, the slower it runs. I first noticed this paradox emerging in computer technology years ago, with the introduction of the Pentium processor. Our office at that time was full of Intel 486 PC's. We got one of the new Pentiums, and I had the idea of staging a race. I was on one of the 486 66MHz, which had 4Mb RAM and a 9.6k Modem. Another guy was on the Pentium 100MHz, with 16Mb RAM and a 36.6k Modem. Here is how the race was set up. We started with both machines turned off. At the signal, we each booted up, established a remote connection over the Modem, located a particular document, downloaded it, and printed it out. On paper, it should have been no contest. The Pentium, with a much faster processor, more RAM, and faster Modem, should have won easily. However, on my 486 I had the document printed out before the other guy on the Pentium even had his remote connection established. The faster hardware ran slower.
How can this be? The answer is in the factors that I have not yet mentioned. The difference was made in the software. The 486 was running DOS and was dialing directly into a Bulletin Board Service. The Pentium was running Windows 95 and was dialing into an ISP for browsing HTML pages. An ancient 286 12MHz will boot DOS with lightning speed. It will be ready for action in DOS before a Pentium has managed to paint the color graphic Windows splash screen. Likewise, the old original Pentium will boot Windows 95 faster than the newest Intel Duo-Core with Gigabytes of RAM can manage to paint the color graphic Windows Vista splash screen. The faster the hardware, the slower the software runs.
The reason for this is because software development always out-paces hardware development. Software engineers always imagine doing all kinds of things that the limitations of the hardware will not allow them to do. As the hardware storage capacities become larger and processing and transfer speeds get faster, the software engineers already have ideas in storage gathering dust that they haul out, brush off, and implement. Software engineers always push the hardware to its limits. When the hardware limits expand, the software immediately exhausts the new limits. Think of software as water and hardware as a container. The software engineers start pouring water into the container and when the container fills up they just keep pouring. The hardware guys see that a bigger container is needed. They get one in place, but it is not long before it also is overflowing. They keep substituting larger and larger containers, but the software guys just keep pouring.
The software guys will "win" because they have limitless human ideas to work with, while the hardware guys are limited by physics. But, a "win" for software engineers is a loss for those of us who just want a lean, efficient, reliable computer to work with. Such an ideal is entirely possible. However, it is terribly frustrating to realize that it probably will never happen. The Paradox of Speed has become a deeply ingrained trend over the last 20 years. The more software engineers work to improve the PC, the more users of PC's, who just want to get some work done, want to throw it out the window. If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say that…..
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Windows STOP Button
A persistent feature of Windows since Windows95 has been the START Button. For equally as long, Windows has been in dire need of a STOP Button, but they never have gotten around to devising such a thing. It would prove most useful, and it would boost Windows’ popularity among a growingly cynical public. But, for some reason Microsoft has not seen the wisdom of adding it.
For some examples: A print job is not printing. Windows already told you that the job failed to print, and you dutifully have canceled the failed job. The status of the job in the queue has changed to “Deleting…” And then you could sit and watch it for hours as it seems to be working real hard trying to delete that job. Wouldn’t it be great to have a STOP Button you can click? Clicking it would tell Windows, “Whatever it is you are doing, just STOP!” Or, how about the time when you double-click a folder, and an outline of a window paints on the screen, and then you sit and wait….and wait….and wait some more for Windows to fill in the list of folder contents. There is no HDD activity. You check the Task Manager, and the CPU is 99% Idle. What on earth is Windows doing? It is times like these when that STOP Button would come in handy. “Whatever it is you are doing, just STOP!”
Maybe Microsoft felt that they really didn’t need to include a STOP Button in Windows because all PCs already have a STOP Button on the case. It’s that little Button with the figure of a partially open circle and a vertical line through the gap in the circle. Whenever Windows seems lost in thought and won’t stop, just push in on that little Button and hold it in for about 5 seconds. (I still think it would be cooler if Microsoft put a STOP Button in Windows!)
For some examples: A print job is not printing. Windows already told you that the job failed to print, and you dutifully have canceled the failed job. The status of the job in the queue has changed to “Deleting…” And then you could sit and watch it for hours as it seems to be working real hard trying to delete that job. Wouldn’t it be great to have a STOP Button you can click? Clicking it would tell Windows, “Whatever it is you are doing, just STOP!” Or, how about the time when you double-click a folder, and an outline of a window paints on the screen, and then you sit and wait….and wait….and wait some more for Windows to fill in the list of folder contents. There is no HDD activity. You check the Task Manager, and the CPU is 99% Idle. What on earth is Windows doing? It is times like these when that STOP Button would come in handy. “Whatever it is you are doing, just STOP!”
Maybe Microsoft felt that they really didn’t need to include a STOP Button in Windows because all PCs already have a STOP Button on the case. It’s that little Button with the figure of a partially open circle and a vertical line through the gap in the circle. Whenever Windows seems lost in thought and won’t stop, just push in on that little Button and hold it in for about 5 seconds. (I still think it would be cooler if Microsoft put a STOP Button in Windows!)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Price / Quality Ratio
As people compare computers today vs. computers of thirty years ago, two things usually dominate the comments: 1) how much smaller and faster computers are today, and 2) how much cheaper today's computers and peripherals are. Of course, they mean "cheaper" in the sense of less costly. However, just like adjusting prices for inflation, with computers we need to adjust prices for quality, because computers also have become "cheaper" over the years in the sense of "shoddy." I can remember when a "Hard Drive" was an external device about the size of a microwave oven, had a capacity of 50 megabytes, and a price tag of about $5000.00. (These were the days before the PC - such a contraption typically connected to a "mini-frame", such as the DEC PDP11-23) These days you can't get a Hard Drive any smaller than 80 gigabytes (more than a thousand times larger), and the cost is only about a hundred bucks. We tend to be wowed over the price / capacity ratios of then compared to now. But some of the wow diminishes when we stop to factor in the price / quality ratio. That big, old, expensive, external Hard Drive would run forever. You connect it, configure it, and then it just runs. After years have gone by, it still is running. Now, I realize that there are a lot of the new, smaller, cheaper Hard Drives that also run reliably for years. But, there is a scene these days that is all too common, and which was a rarity in the old days. Anyone reading this blog probably is familiar with it: The damn thing doesn't work - spend hours on the telephone trying to convince the Vendor that it is defective - if successful, they will ship a replacement - all of which is assuming that it still is under warranty. If warranty has expired, then you simply shell out another hundred bucks or so for a replacement really-small-really-fast-super-cheap component. It seems that all the manufacturers are caught up in the price war. Maybe I am too old and nostalgic, but I have to wonder whether there just might be a market out there for some rather pricey but well-made and reliable computer hardware.
The Magical Land Of eBay........
As you may remember about two months ago eBay drastically changed their feedback system in the following ways:
· eBay sellers no longer have the capability to leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer under any circumstance. This put sellers in a very disadvantageous spot where there was a ton of risk and little reward, all of the while unpaid buyers could run the eBay community amuck without consequence.
· Neutral feedback counts toward the overall positive rating of a member meaning for example:
If “member A” has 10 blatantly negative feedback's and 10 positive feedback's their rating would be identical to that of “member B” who has 10 neutral feedback's, 10 positive feedback's, and 0 negative.
· These changes also came at the same time eBay significantly raised the percentage taken on final value fees.
As a result of these changes many members lost their Power Seller status because their overall positive feedback percentage dipped below 98%. eBay’s phone support was drowned for weeks with questions that could not properly be answered, and many members closed or threatened to close their accounts.
Today part of this system has been reverted, and though not admittedly I’m sure this is in response to the eBay community’s downright hatred for this among other policy changes. As a result of this change in policy our overall positive feedback rating increased from a mediocre 98.7% to a 99.9% immediately. I thought this was an interesting development that should be shared in light of our recent problems with eBay. I am not surprised really that the system has been changed back, however it makes the original question of how a clearly flawed system was ever put into place even more pertinent. It is always quite a task when trying to exist in a community that lacks on every level the ability to communicate and reason but today can certainly be counted as a victory for the little guy in the magical land of eBay.
To be continued……………………………………………..
· eBay sellers no longer have the capability to leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer under any circumstance. This put sellers in a very disadvantageous spot where there was a ton of risk and little reward, all of the while unpaid buyers could run the eBay community amuck without consequence.
· Neutral feedback counts toward the overall positive rating of a member meaning for example:
If “member A” has 10 blatantly negative feedback's and 10 positive feedback's their rating would be identical to that of “member B” who has 10 neutral feedback's, 10 positive feedback's, and 0 negative.
· These changes also came at the same time eBay significantly raised the percentage taken on final value fees.
As a result of these changes many members lost their Power Seller status because their overall positive feedback percentage dipped below 98%. eBay’s phone support was drowned for weeks with questions that could not properly be answered, and many members closed or threatened to close their accounts.
Today part of this system has been reverted, and though not admittedly I’m sure this is in response to the eBay community’s downright hatred for this among other policy changes. As a result of this change in policy our overall positive feedback rating increased from a mediocre 98.7% to a 99.9% immediately. I thought this was an interesting development that should be shared in light of our recent problems with eBay. I am not surprised really that the system has been changed back, however it makes the original question of how a clearly flawed system was ever put into place even more pertinent. It is always quite a task when trying to exist in a community that lacks on every level the ability to communicate and reason but today can certainly be counted as a victory for the little guy in the magical land of eBay.
To be continued……………………………………………..
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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