Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
From: Eric Chomko (echomko_at__at_polaris.umuc.edu)
Date: 03/14/05
- Next message: Vendicar Decarian: "Re: Sneezing on Greenpeace"
- Previous message: Eric Chomko: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- In reply to: Jeff Findley: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- Next in thread: Eric Chomko: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:32:05 +0000 (UTC)
Jeff Findley (jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com) wrote:
: "Eric Chomko" <echomko_at_@polaris.umuc.edu> wrote in message
: news:d0tstb$463$3@news.ums.edu...
: > Jeff Findley (jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com) wrote:
: > : Yesterday's mainframes are similar to today's servers, but yesterday's
: > : terminals are not similar to today's PC. There is a very good reason
: that
: > : we called them DUMB terminals. They could do absolutely nothing without
: > : being connected to a mainframe. The only memory they had was screen
: memory.
: >
: > A PC without the Internet is dumb. You miss that. Sure we can do a lot
: > more with a PC than we can with a dumb terminal, but the analogy still
: > holds (i.e. client/server).
: This is absolute b.s.
Are you going to tell me that a terminal isn't the client and a mainframe
hook-up with phone and modem is the server in a client/server model?!?
: The new laptop I bought my wife has Microsoft Office
: 2003 Professional edition installed on it (which made the cost of the latop
: jump 50% in and of itself). She's doing lots of work on that machine,
: despite the fact that it's never been connected to the Internet or to *any*
: computer network.
Which nowadays is the exception rather than the rule. Heck terminals had
both 'remote' and 'local' modes. Granted a dumb terminal pales in
comparison to PC, but the Internet is much more than a PC as well.
: To print, you simply attach the printer directly to the laptop. To share
: files, you burn them on a CD-R or CD-RW using the laptop's drive and use the
: "sneakernet" for file transfers.
I know how all that works. But from a networking point-of-view a dumb
terminal does more, simply because it is hooked up. These are relative
terms. You can't compare computing power of the 2000s with that of the
1970s per se. But, you can make a client/server analogy and THAT is the
point, not computing power.
: > : Personal computers today are "real" computers. You can use them to do
: > : meaningful work without being connected to a server.
: >
: > But you cannot have the Internet without getting on-line. Sure PCs are
: > superior to dumb terminals, but you still need to log-on like you did with
: > mainframes and terminals.
: Not everyone needs the Internet to do "real work" on their PC. Just because
: web browsers, email, and instant messaging are considered the latest
: "killer apps" doesn't mean that everyone needs to run those apps to get
: their job done.
I never said that a computer was uesless without the internet. All I was
saying is that from a networking point-of-view a PC of today is like
a terminal from 30 years ago, and, and the Internet is like a mainframe of
way back then.
Eric
: Jeff
: --
: Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.
- Next message: Vendicar Decarian: "Re: Sneezing on Greenpeace"
- Previous message: Eric Chomko: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- In reply to: Jeff Findley: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- Next in thread: Eric Chomko: "Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
