Jason Dodson wrote:

>That is a blanket statement that isn't necessarily true. LZW for
>instance, while not the most efficient, uses a very small footprint in
>every regard, and is about as fast as you are gonna get.
>
>

LZW, friends, and relations is patented technology, i.e. forbidden fruit
unless you can find a donor to buy a Unisys license. And since IBM also
has a parent that comflicts with th Unisys, you probably need a license
from them, too.

>
>
>You certainly can HAVE it work with default settings set to what you
>think is best. This recommendation is for the flexability to change that
>behavior if special circumstances arise. Sure, everyone can drive a car,
>if it can only turn right, but someone along the lines NEED to turn
>left, instead of turning right three times. Maybe someone would like to
>be able to turn up into the sky... who knows.
>
>
>

You're talking about functionality. Does your car have downloadable
microcode? If you have a better idea of how the fuel injection system
should work, shouldn't you be able to replace the default code with your
own? Or do you just want to get into the car, turn the key, and go
someplace?

Life is too short to require DBAs and system administrators to have
learn about something they don't care about just to use the system.

>A mentality like that is why we need multi-gigahertz machines with ram
>approaching gigs simply to run a consumer OS, browse the web, and check
>email. I mean, if we are going to simply recommend "Get a better
>machine", then you may as well do this all in Java.
>
>
>

You got it. A faster, bigger machine means better software, better
GUIs, and easier to use. If you want a really efficient machine, get
an IBM 7040. 32K, support for both tape drives and a console
typewriter, and, for a measly $1M, a disk!

Big, fast machines are wonderful. Cheap, big, fast machines boggle my
mind regularly. Snear away, fella, but I won't trade my $599 AMD64 for
all the PDP-11s in the world. These machines are great! Anyone who
wants to play in the past is welcome to borrow my time machine.

--

Jim Starkey
Netfrastructure, Inc.
978 526-1376