Re: mainframe career advice

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:36:06 GMT, "Defaultuser"
<Defaultuser@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>A mainframe can be be (also) :
>
>"a large fast computer that can handle multiple tasks concurrently"

"large" is relative. I'm not sure mainframes have to be fast
depending on what that word means - (create real-time graphics vs
allow a hundred real time users to check their databases
simultaneously)

>which I think means that my desktop is lexically speaking, a mainframe AND a
>PC though one could argue that the concurrency is built into the OS and
>perhaps my OS of choice doesn't actually do concurrent processing as much as
>time slicing - but the fact is that my machine can more than likely handle it.

Mainframes do time slicing as well, and PCs perform concurrent tasks
as well.

>My example therefore was at least as reasonable as the original.
>
>Please replace house with "house with stairs" - I didn't qualify the house
>with specific type in the original comment as I believed the context would
>have suggested that it be a non-bungalow house with stairs. I considered
>saying multi-storey or just non bungalow, but a maisonette is mult-storey
>and wouldn't have a stair lift either (in most examples that I have seen it
>wouldn't).

I had to look up another word:
Quick definitions (maisonette)

# noun: a small house
# noun: a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a
larger house and with its own entrance from the outside
? noun a set of rooms for living in, typically on two storeys of a
larger building.

You must be using the 2nd definition, in which a chair lift would be
rare.

This illustrates the problem in pre-conceived definitions. The 1st
and 3rd definitions can have stair lifts. And mainframes can have
time slicing, and PCs can have multiple processors, and mainframes can
run Linux, and PCs can run batch CoBOL...

>Given that you have an unabridged OED - is it preferable that it be
>multi-storey or multistory ? The latter seems to indicate an americanization
>to me as it is a spelling to which I was unaccustomed prior to this somewhat
>bizarre thread.
>
>I was thinking about this (Lord knows why) but I wondered why anyone had
>terminals anymore anyway - and if they did, I'm sure the terminal could have
>a built in screensaver like my digital box or DVD player to prevent that age
>old "why does every screen look like the main menu in this light" problem
>associated with the old terminals.

Hardware technology has improved. A new PC won't have burn-in if it
stays on all the time without a screen saver. (Of course old
terminals could be turned off).
.

Relevant Pages

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