It's Spelled 'Orgasm'

[strange_aeons]

Tesla is arguing with this guy on rasfc who ... okay, the subject of universal truth came up, and this guy, Richard Brown, who is such an idiot he once managed to misspell 'gesture' twice in a post in which the correct spelling of the word appeared in the quoted material, is attempting to define a universal truth. It's 'All cultures decry murder', with footnotes that modify the definitions of 'culture' and 'murder' in whatever way is necessary to defend his case. He and I have been going back and forth on the subject for a while -- basically, I dispute his definition of 'culture', and to a lesser extent his definition of 'murder', and I consider his attempt to dress a raging tautology up as something deeper and more meaningful than it is dishonest. And he thinks I'm a poopy-head.
Tesla says, "Which should give you a good idea as to how sophisticated his arguments are. It's like holding a philosophical discussion with Alastrann."
Whitney says, "Actually, as someone who's witnessed philosophical discussions with Alastrann, I'll say that Al's spelling is better but his logic is worse."

(If so inclined, you can find the thread in question here, the beginning of the Brown subthread here, and my first contribution to that subthread here, presuming I haven't fucked the URLs up.)

Also, shiny new overrides. I'd appreciate it if those of you who, for whatever reason, actually look at my journal page would nudge me if it looks fucked up (or just annoying) on your browser. This is not an entreaty to everyone to go look at the journal page in question, though I'm not stopping you.

Okay. Time to bathe the hydra that lives on my scalp.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

It's very simple: the world has simply not yet produced a desktop application that can usefully use more than 200MHz.

The world, as best I can tell, has not usefully tried to produce a desktop application that can usefully use more than 200MHz. Instead, it's produced the capability to put colored squiggles underneath words as you type when they twig some brain-dead grammar checker.

No, wait, even this computer doesn't have any problem doing that at fast typing speeds.

I have a little green box in the corner of my screen which monitors the CPU usage. It pegs when programs go runaway, and it pegs when Netscape hits one of its few really inefficient algorithms that were clearly programmed by particularly incompetent monkeys. (For instance, the algorithm to display a really really large table seems to take a few seconds or so.) Were I to use IE, I wouldn't have that problem. The rest of the time, it mostly sits below 10%.

Ergo, I conclude that an infinitely fast computer would save me maybe a couple of minutes per day. Lesser finite computers are therefore certainly not worth the money.

On the other hand, doubling the memory (64mb for $50) and putting in a far better video card ($39.95, does 1800x1440 at 32-bit color, and 1600x1200 at 85Hz) have been significantly worthy upgrades. (And, back when I bought this computer five years ago, it was a worthy upgrade, too -- memory bus speeds on a 486 computer are pretty lame.)

Of course, were I to do 3D renders on a regular basis, I'd buy a new computer. In particular, I'd buy a second computer specifically to crunch renders on, and still use this one for everything else.

- Brooks