Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Programming

No, It's Not Always Quicker To Do Things In Memory 486

itwbennett writes: It's a commonly held belief among software developers that avoiding disk access in favor of doing as much work as possible in-memory will results in shorter runtimes. To test this assumption, researchers from the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia compared the efficiency of alternative ways to create a 1MB string and write it to disk. The results consistently found that doing most of the work in-memory to minimize disk access was significantly slower than just writing out to disk repeatedly (PDF).

Comment Hatred (Score 3, Insightful) 333

The proletariat would cry out in fear, calling the extraterrestrial visitors everything from demons to terrorists. If the aliens' intentions are peaceful, then that would only encourage violence faster. The leaders of the world would try to pick them apart politically for financial gain, sending armies to meet them in battle hoping to grab a part of their (assumed) abundant technology and wealth. There's a good reason we're alone.

Comment Re:Depends on use (Score 1) 82

unless you're talking about a shop in middle Africa or even Outback, China that proposes to utilise such a system in a mesh network to bring remote communities one step closer to being Facebook zombies.

Hell, for that matter - how much processing power do you need to run a DHCP router? Or a DVR? Or a home automation system? Something as simple as an automatic garage door opener? An RFID reader?

There's a BUNCH of uses for low power/small iron that Big Iron would be utterly WASTED on. The aforementioned is not, by any means, exhaustive.

Keep in mind that modern Android phones have quad-core processors and will continue to grow in performance.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Well I don't see why I have to make one man miserable when I can make so many men happy." -- Ellyn Mustard, about marriage

Working...