OT: This Swift thing

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 08 June 2014 10:51:24 Roy Smith did opine
And Gene did reply:
> In article <5393dd6a$0$29988$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
> 
>  Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> > On Sat, 07 Jun 2014 20:09:37 -0400, Roy Smith wrote:
> > > We've also got machines that are so fast, it's not longer critical
> > > that we squeeze out every last iota of performance.  Oh, but wait,
> > > now we're trying to do absurd things like play full-motion video
> > > games on phones, where efficiency equates to battery life.  Sigh.
> > 
> > That's where there needs to be a concerted push to develop more
> > efficient CPUs and memory, in the engineering sense of efficiency
> > (i.e. better power consumption, not speed). In desktop and server
> > class machines, increasing speed has generated more and more waste
> > heat, to the point where Google likes to build its server farms next
> > to rivers to reduce their air conditioning costs. You can't afford
> > to do that on a battery.
> > 
> > Even for desktops and servers, I'd prefer to give up, say, 80% of
> > future speed gains for a 50% reduction in my electricity bill.
> 
> For desktops, I'm more concerned about physical size.  On my desk at
> work, I have a Mac Mini.  It's about 8 inches square, by an inch and a
> half high.  It sits in a corner of my desk and doesn't take up much
> room.  The guy that sits next to me has a Dell running Linux.  It's
> about 8 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 24 inches high.  In terms of
> CPU, memory, disk, video, networking, etc, they have virtually
> identical specs.
> 
> I've never compared the power consumption, but I assume his eats many
> time the electricity mine does (not to mention makes more noise).

You may want to reconsider that statement after the first fan failure in 
your mini.  We've had quite a few Mac's in the tv station, as video 
servers, graphics composers, etc.  The airflow for cooling in them is 
controlled by baffles to get the maximum air flow past the hot spots, but 
a fan failure usually cooks the whole thing.  And at that time, Macs 
warranty did not cover collateral damage from a fan failure. Cooked cpu? 
Too bad, so sad.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS