illa romza

seriously though, how hard is it to get a program to multi-thread? (if thats the right term; being a complete programming novice, i've no idea)

That really depends on the program, on how "parallelizable" the application is.

The simplest way to think of it is like this: Let's say you have a program that first has to calculate A. Then, when it's done that, it uses the result of A to calculate B. Then, when it's done that, uses the result of B to calculate C, then C to D, and so on. That's a *serial* problem there. The calculation of B can't begin until A is done, so it doesn't matter how many processors you have running, all computation is held up on one spot.

On the other hand, let's say you have an application that needs to calculate A, B, C and D, but those four values are not dependent on each other at all. In that case, you can use four processors at the same time, to calculate all four values at the same time.

Think of it like baking a cake. You can't start putting on the icing until the cake is done baking. And you can't start baking the cake until the ingredients are all mixed together. But you can have people simultaneously getting out and measuring the ingredients.

So that problem is partially parallelizable, but the majority of its workload is a serial process.

Some software applications, just by their very nature, will never be able to do anything useful with multiple processors.

I cycle to work and school daily (except in the coming winter months) and I gotta tell you, cyclists who listen to music while they ride are clearly not very concerned for their own or anyone else's safety! No offense, but for your mother's sake, I hope she keeps the volume REALLY low, or doesn't use the iPod at all. It's rather dangerous, IMHO.

She definitely tries to be safe about it and listens to her music at a low volume. It's more just to keep her mind off of the long ride. You're are totally right though - on my college campus, I see cyclists all the time who are completely oblivious to their surroundings, and have no regard whatsoever for traffic law.

Edit: It should be mentioned, as well, that the majority of her ride is on a bike/running path along a river, and far from any roads.

Hi,

I have had a look at Macrumor's buyers guide. Except for the MacBook that is even very new, everything else is apparently only half way through its life cycle. So it would really be surprising if something got updated. Is this even more of a reason to expect someting REALLY NEW??:eek:

i agree... we should stop looking at current products and start thinking of possible things that are new. True video ipod, iTV, and even the iphone, though i doubt apple is stupid enough to enter the cellphone market.

How long before it ends up in the MacBook Pro?
(joking)

Right after the G5 powermac!

I have had a Golf TDI for 10 years. I bought it new. It currently has 218K miles on it. It's been a fantastic car. I commute 80 miles daily and get 45-47 mpg (depending on my foot).

The reason the newer Common-Rail TDIs don't get the mileage of the VE TDI's from the early 2000's is the emissions equipment. The Common Rail engine uses a particulate filter. Every once in awhile, fuel is injected during the exhaust stroke to burn the particulates. That fuel goes against your fuel economy.

I've had diesel fuel gel twice, neither on the TDI. My old Rabbit Diesel had gel problems in NV and CO. Both times it was well below 0. Most of the time the stations know to treat the fuel. Sometimes they don't get to it in time.

The two major reasons for higher diesel prices in the winter are anti-gel additives and demand for home-heating oil. Generally the price of diesel drops in the summertime to approximately the cost of RUG.

When it comes time to buy a new car, I will definitely get another TDI. No question. I won't even consider a hybrid. More power, less complexity, better driving characteristics, etc.

I hope more car companies consider diesel for the USA. We really need to increase fuel mileage across the board or get off oil completely. Diesels would be a huge help in that regard.

edit: The big reason there hasn't been a diesel hybrid is cost. A Golf TDI-hybrid would start at $30K. Would you pay $30K for a compact hatchback? Even if it did get 60mpg?

i find 17'' way to small for a desktop computer.

You what? Well I guess its a matter of opinion but a 17" with a decent resolution is plenty! Heck, I even know people who use a 15" MBP as a desktop replacement. :)

I think it'll be a crime for Apple not to use Conroes in the iMac, they withstood the G5 processors so i dont see any reason as to why they cant do the same for Conroe. Using only merom or xeon processors is just to big a gap and is not ideal. Worse it may plumet the iMac sales unless there is a must have feature in the new revision.

Why would i want to upgrade from a current core duo imac to a merom imac when the performance difference is only 10-15% at best...for a desktop it makes no sense whatsoever and that means the iMac would purely be form over function. The again Apple fans tend to buy anything no matter how illogical