G T Smith said the following on 09/14/2010 07:21 AM:
I am sure someone would have said something like this about the QWERTY keyboard layout (which was designed to slow down the typist), non-QWERTY keyboards are still relatively uncommon in the English world.
Good illustration. I'd add VHS in the VHS vs Beta debate. There's _almost_ a AC vs DC issue. While Tesla may have been right in the context that existed back then, "that was then, this is now". We make a lot of use of DC - all our electronics runs on it, mostly low voltage. I also have a lot of low voltage (and high efficiency) DC lighting in my house. By contrast, at work I have racks of equipment that _runs_ on 5V and 12V and each unit in the rack has its own transformer and regulator to step down from 110V (you may be use 220V) to 5V, each generating its own heat. What is more ironic is that in the net room there is this huge UPS that takes AC power (220V actually) and converts it to 12V. It uses that 12V to charge batteries. The batteries then power an alternator that converts it back up to 110V which goes to the racks. Where the units I just mentioned convert it back down to 12V and 5V. I can't say this makes a lot of sense to me. Surely taking that 12V from the batteries to the racks (with some regulators etc) would make things more efficient? Its not as the usual benefits of AC apply here, its not as if this power is being transmitted over great distances.
History tends to show that the adoption of technology is not just about whether it is best, but also whether the technology addresses an important perceived need or provides a new service that there is a demand for, the cost of adopting it, and the vested interests involved.
I realise that in the past many small communities ran on locally generated DC. Converting them to AC and putting them on National Grid was a matter of efficiencies of scale, reliability and management. When I talk of running a computer room on DC, I am not talking about giving up the efficiencies that go with AC - generation, distribution and voltage manipulation. The heat produces but the per-device transformers & regulators when they step down from 110V to 5V is local to the equipment and a waste because the low voltage is already available. Eliminating the DC-to-AC-to-DC conversion would reduce the overall heat loading as well as the electrical efficiency of the plant. I just betcha someone is going to tell me that many places DO run on per-rack DC.
Readers of the runes will tend to suspect by the time agreement is made something new will come along.
Indeed, the Start Trek theme can continue ...
AFAIK the Europe/US take up is not good. NAT made the immediate problem go away. It yet another kludge that has become a default (as is the QWERTY keyboard). At the moment IPv6 provides roaming internet/IP capabilities, (something IPv4 does not do) but that is mainly of interest for suppliers of mobile networks.
Its quite possible that two separate "worlds" might exist for a while: the wired and the mobile. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org