Ugly Vegetables To Make A Comeback!

Sunday 12th July 2009

"Form" versus "Function" - which side do YOU support?

As far as Mother Nature is concerned, "Function" is everything and any apparent concessions to aesthetics exist only in the mind of the viewer.

In the Natural World, the primary purpose of any organism's existence is to pass on as many of its genes as possible to the next generation.  To this end, "Function" is all-important.  In times of shortage, by definition
there are no "surplus" resources and thus nothing to expend on aesthetic considerations.  Times of plenty, on the other hand, represent a golden opportunity for the organism to maximise its ability to pass on its genes.  Once again, nothing is left over for aesthetic considerations.

We humans are, above all other living creatures on the planet, blessed with the ability to arrange our affairs in such a way that we have spare time and energy left over after fulfilling all our biologically necessary functions. We also have the ability to use this leisure time to pursue activities of our own choice.  As a consequence, we can make a subjective judgement that one item has a more attractive appearance than another, broadly equivalent, item, without regard to their relative functionality.

Examples of what happens when we give in to the temptation to concentrate on the appearance and ignore the functionality, include the now-repealed EU regulations requiring cucumbers to be straight, rather than curved.  Many people feel that Vista fell into the same trap - although it is certainly well-endowed with eye-candy, it is surely more important that it runs quickly and reliably on a wide variety of hardware, without frequent crashes.  Fortunately, Microsoft appear to have made a great deal of progress towards redressing the balance with the release of Windows7 RC1.  Indeed, Microsoft is so proud of Windows7 that it is available for free download from their website, with the sole condition being that it has only a 12-month licence.

Like The Public Sector Borrowing Requirement, Hard Disk Capacities Just Keep On Growing!

Sunday 5th July 2009

Just like the PSBR, there does not seem to be any end in sight - or is there?

Only a few years ago, Tesco was notable for the size of the database it had built up as a result of its Clubcard loyalty scheme.  It was about 15TB, an amount of storage which, at that time, was difficult to imagine.  Nowadays, 1TB hard drives are commonplace, while 2TB drives are readily available for under £250.  To put these sizes into context, it is useful to note that a DVD holds a little under 5GB, while a CD holds about 700MB.  Since 1TB is 1000GB, which is itself 1000MB, even 1TB drives can store the equivalent of 200+ DVD's or about 1500 CD's.  That represents quite a large music collection!

As disk capacities have risen, so have the speeds at which they can read and write data.  Indeed, the engineers who develop hard drive technology are so successful that they continue to beat off the competition from solid-state disks, except in specialist situations.

A traditional, mechanical hard disk is basically one or more rotating platters of magnetic media, somewhat like a stack of CD's.  Between each platter is a read/write head,
which moves in and out as necessary.  The whole assembly is hermetically sealed inside a stout metal shell.  As a mechanical device, a hard disk generates noise, heat and vibration.  It also consumes energy, its contents are potentially subject to catastrophic loss if the disk's bearings fail or it is subject to excessive impact. 

Solid-state disks, on the other hand, being effectively a giant memory chip, have no moving parts.  They therefore operate in total silence with zero vibration and are effectively immune to shock.  Surprisingly, however, they are hardly any quicker to read and write data than their mechanical competitors.  In addition, they are still very expensive, although less so than formerly.

As a result, solid state disks are not yet a viable replacement for mechanical disks, except in niche marketplaces.  Because of their lower power consumption, they are gradually creeping into laptops.  Data centres are also adopting the technology, although in this case the solid state disk's reliability is a more important factor than any other. 

The mechanical hard disk is not dead, but after a long and distinguished reign its life is certainly beginning to draw to a close.

Hullo, John - Got A New Website?

Sunday 28th June 2009

Yes, it is rather good, isn't it?

Most people instinctively know a well-designed website immediately they see one.  The opposite is equally true, of course.  This is, in fact, merely a modern application of the old adage "First impressions count".  Research conducted in the housing market shows that, when a prospective purchaser goes to view a house, "kerb appeal" can make all the difference between a sale or a disappointment.  This "kerb appeal" is the opinion the viewer forms within the first 30 seconds of seeing the property from the road.  It is important to note that, at this stage, the viewer will not even have knocked on the front door, let alone seen inside the property.

In a similar way, websites have "kerb appeal", but with one vital difference - forget all about the housing market's "30 seconds to form an opinion".  Who in their right mind would spend anywhere near that long looking at the opening page of a web site before deciding whether or not to enter it?  In practice, between 1 and 2 seconds is all it takes for the visitor to decide whether or not to move on elsewhere.

The consequence of this instant "love it or hate it" reaction is that the opening page must load quickly - very quickly.  If it does not, most visitors will simply lose interest and go elsewhere.  High-resolution images and clever "Flash" graphics are all very well on subsidiary pages, when the visitor's interest has been secured.   The visitor cannot see how attractive, clear and well-laid out the opening page is until it has loaded.  He will then, hopefully, decide to explore other areas of the site.

Is Hard Disk Defragmentation Really Worthwhile - Or Is It Just A Waste Of Time?

Sunday 21st June 2009

As usual, the phrase "It all depends...." sums up the situation admirably

Modern hard drives boast vast capacities, lightning-fast read/write speeds and service lives worthy of Methuselah.  In addition, their power consumption and noise levels are lower than ever before.  As a bonus, their prices seem to be dropping almost by the week.  Nevertheless, even such marvels of modern technology may well be unable to deliver their designed level of performance if they have become severely fragmented.

Fragmentation will inevitably occur over time, as files are created, deleted or modified.  Many defragmentation utilities are available, some of which are more effective than others and some of which are less expensive than others.  Microsoft even build one into Windows.  The improvement such utilities can achieve on a heavily-used fragmented disk is often dramatic, although they may require exclusive use of the PC concerned for several hours while they work their magic. 

It may be significant that, by default, the defragmentation utility in Windows7 RC1 is configured to run automatically once every week....