Re: [not about] Moving harddisk

[JFK@BOLD-EAGLE.varian.dialnet.symbolics.com (Joe F. Karnicky)]

    Date: Mon, 26 Aug 91 14:14:46 -0400
    From: hall@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (Marty Hall)

    In message entitled "Re: [not about] Moving harddisk" on Aug 23, 
    Gooch writes:
    [...]
    > I realize you were just making a joke, but it made me think about how we
    > perceive our computers these days.  Ten years old and obsolete, even
    > though it still runs like (or better than) brand new and the software is
    > the best ever.  I see no real reason to buy an XL<whatever> (sorry about
    > that, Symbolics), until such time as I get work involving frame throwers
    > or other such stuff that doesn't work in my 36xx machines. [...]

    Our attitudes are interesting, I agree. A while back we got an XL1200
    with a FrameThrower to provide faster processing and color graphics for
    our current program. When I use it, do I think "Gee, this is fast"? Nope.
    When I impatiently load an application that takes 10 minutes, do I remember
    that it took 5 times longer on a 36xx? Nope. Within days, I was considering it 
    "normal", but whenever I use any of my 36xx's I notice how "slowly" they do 
    everything. Shows how easily we (or at least I) get spoiled. :-)

					    - Marty
    ------------------------------------------------------

There's another aspect to this issue that I run into on my lisp machine
(a 3670) as well as other computing platforms I use:  As machines get
faster, the software produced for these machines tends to be more
demanding.   Thus, although I doubt that my 3670 has slowed up, some of
my frequently used operations (e.g. bringing up the system menu) are
noticably slower in 8.x then they were in 5.2     

Regards,
Joe Karnicky