Forums
New posts
Articles
Product Reviews
Policies
FAQ
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Can a base model i3 8GB MBA remain useable for 8-10 years for a basic user?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1851810" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>A bit of philosophical meanderings on how technology changes over time. Way back in the day of hard wiring business machines for punch card process (Yes, I go that far back, albeit through my Dad, who was just such a programmer on IBM 700 series.) the programmer's job was not just to figure out the order to process the cards to get to the desired solution, it was also to do that job as quickly as possible. So an efficient programmer could get to the result faster than an inefficient one.</p><p></p><p>When wiring panels were replaced with logic code (I think in the IBM 1403 series, but that was a long time ago and brain cells die.) the programmer still looked for efficiency in the code, using Assembler to move data from register to register to storage to output, etc. Again, an efficient programmer (and program) could solve the problem sooner, which allowed for more processing on the hardware. Milliseconds mattered because sufficient milliseconds wasted added up to seconds, and seconds to minutes. Time is money in business, so getting more done faster was the goal. </p><p></p><p>In the early days of personal computing the communications were over slow modems and phone lines. I started at 110 Baud, graduated to 300, then 1200, then 4800. Now I'm on an intermediate 200Mbps cable system. In the early days you never tried to download a megabyte of data, it too too long. Today I routinely move gigabytes around without thinking about it.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, my first "pc" was a breadboard homebuilt thing with 4,000 bytes of memory for program and storage while working, so my programs needed to be efficient and space saving or they would not run, period. When I upgraded to 64K memory, I felt like I had reached Nirvana--so much room!</p><p></p><p>Storage, too, grew. Originally storage was zero, the program ran, you manually entered data and the results showed on a strip of 8 Nixie tubes (remember them?), then cassette tape allowed for data storage (and programs). Floppy disks came along with an amazing 128K of storage, then double-sided made it 256K. The first hard drive, as I recall, was a Winchester drive from IBM that had, I think, 10 megabytes of storage for a paltry $5,000 (more than the cost of a car at the time). </p><p></p><p>Programmers no longer cared about saving a byte here or there, or trimming a bit of time here or there. CPUs and RAM sizes were accelerating in speed to the point where saving a cycle or two or a few bytes of code didn't matter any more. What became the focus was to get the code done the fastest, to beat your competitor to the market with it, even if it was full of inefficient code. Nobody cared about register to register transfers any more as higher level languages allowed faster development with large libraries of code to do things for you. But the resulting machine code was really inefficient compared to the "good old days" of Assembler. Nobody cared because the inefficiency was covered up by technology growth.</p><p></p><p>So why that trip down memory lane? </p><p></p><p>Because no matter what you buy now, technology will move on from where you are and in 10 years that "snappy" machine will SEEM to be less snappy, even if the CPU, drives, etc, are all just fine. What will have moved will be the rest of the world. Today's "hot thing" will be pretty lame in 10 years if technology continues to grow. That is just how it is.</p><p></p><p>That said, the best advice is to buy as much machine today as you can afford. That way when the world moves on to Petabyte storage, 3d display, terahertz processors, Tbps connectivity, 128 bit programming and whatever unimaginable applications will be around in ten years, that machine just might be able to be used, although it won't feel snappy because the software will get even more inefficient and bloated than it is now. That is just the way it is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1851810, member: 396914"] A bit of philosophical meanderings on how technology changes over time. Way back in the day of hard wiring business machines for punch card process (Yes, I go that far back, albeit through my Dad, who was just such a programmer on IBM 700 series.) the programmer's job was not just to figure out the order to process the cards to get to the desired solution, it was also to do that job as quickly as possible. So an efficient programmer could get to the result faster than an inefficient one. When wiring panels were replaced with logic code (I think in the IBM 1403 series, but that was a long time ago and brain cells die.) the programmer still looked for efficiency in the code, using Assembler to move data from register to register to storage to output, etc. Again, an efficient programmer (and program) could solve the problem sooner, which allowed for more processing on the hardware. Milliseconds mattered because sufficient milliseconds wasted added up to seconds, and seconds to minutes. Time is money in business, so getting more done faster was the goal. In the early days of personal computing the communications were over slow modems and phone lines. I started at 110 Baud, graduated to 300, then 1200, then 4800. Now I'm on an intermediate 200Mbps cable system. In the early days you never tried to download a megabyte of data, it too too long. Today I routinely move gigabytes around without thinking about it. Similarly, my first "pc" was a breadboard homebuilt thing with 4,000 bytes of memory for program and storage while working, so my programs needed to be efficient and space saving or they would not run, period. When I upgraded to 64K memory, I felt like I had reached Nirvana--so much room! Storage, too, grew. Originally storage was zero, the program ran, you manually entered data and the results showed on a strip of 8 Nixie tubes (remember them?), then cassette tape allowed for data storage (and programs). Floppy disks came along with an amazing 128K of storage, then double-sided made it 256K. The first hard drive, as I recall, was a Winchester drive from IBM that had, I think, 10 megabytes of storage for a paltry $5,000 (more than the cost of a car at the time). Programmers no longer cared about saving a byte here or there, or trimming a bit of time here or there. CPUs and RAM sizes were accelerating in speed to the point where saving a cycle or two or a few bytes of code didn't matter any more. What became the focus was to get the code done the fastest, to beat your competitor to the market with it, even if it was full of inefficient code. Nobody cared about register to register transfers any more as higher level languages allowed faster development with large libraries of code to do things for you. But the resulting machine code was really inefficient compared to the "good old days" of Assembler. Nobody cared because the inefficiency was covered up by technology growth. So why that trip down memory lane? Because no matter what you buy now, technology will move on from where you are and in 10 years that "snappy" machine will SEEM to be less snappy, even if the CPU, drives, etc, are all just fine. What will have moved will be the rest of the world. Today's "hot thing" will be pretty lame in 10 years if technology continues to grow. That is just how it is. That said, the best advice is to buy as much machine today as you can afford. That way when the world moves on to Petabyte storage, 3d display, terahertz processors, Tbps connectivity, 128 bit programming and whatever unimaginable applications will be around in ten years, that machine just might be able to be used, although it won't feel snappy because the software will get even more inefficient and bloated than it is now. That is just the way it is. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Can a base model i3 8GB MBA remain useable for 8-10 years for a basic user?
Top