Microsoft squeezing virtualization

[Alex Beamish]

On 3/1/07, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 28, 2007 at 10:40:08PM -0500, Fraser Campbell wrote:
> > Sounds like cars and software have been on an identical evolutionary
> path.  I
> > am the 5th of 6 kids, the 8 of us used to drive around in an old british
> > station wagon (a much smaller car than north american wagons), 2
> youngest in
> > the trunk.
>
> There are efficient cars.  Minivans and SUVs are really only popular in
> North America, and really not at all anywhere else on the planet.
>
> So perhaps the best comparison is drivers of north america and
> programmers of computers.  Both on average seem to be getting more
> wasteful, although the drivers of the 50s were pretty wasteful too, so
> perhaps drivers just haven't changed that much.


Hi Lennart,

Just about all drivers were wasteful, right up until the Energy Crisis in
the 70's (good grief I sound old), when suddenly the small, gas-sipping
Japanese cars started to look most attractive, compared to the big, heavy,
thirsty American cars.

American car companies quickly made drastic plans, with mostly poor results:
witness the Ford Pinto/Mercury Bobcat; also the AMC Gremlin, essentially one
of their regular models with the back 1/3 chopped off.

> These days that old wagon we had would almost be too small for 2 people,
> let
> > alone 4 (now we need SUVs or minivans for the solo commutes to
> work).  The
> > comforts in vehicles have certainly increased though ... like seats for
> kids
> > 5 and 6 ;-)
>
> Safety concerns seem to have increased a lot over the years, as have
> expectations of comfort.  So yes that part has changed.  On the other
> hand how many families have 6 kids anymore?  It seems some people have
> minivans just so they can put the kids on seperate rows rather than work
> out how to get them to get along.


Ah .. and, may I ask, how long have you been a parent? ;) Sometimes kids
just don't get along, no matter how wonderful a parent you may be.

My wife and I got a minivan (a Pontiac Montana) with a second row of
Captain's seats because we knew that the boys would grow. Sure enough, five
years later they're now both 6' tall; the younger one is 15, and may still
grow a bit more.

  Or they have the excuse of needing to
> ferry around aunts/uncles/grandparents/etc, although hardly any of them
> ever seem to be doing that.


Just wait .. it'll come. :) Oh, and don't forget about boyfriends,
girlfriends, pets, bicycles, soccer balls, skates, hockey equipment, and
weekly expensive trips to the grocery store for the ever-hungry teenagers.


>   Similarly people who drive a pickup just
>
because they claim they might have to move something, which they do
> perhaps once or twice a year, when it would make much more sense
> financially (and confort wise) to drive a sensible car that takes less
> space, fuel, polutes less, etc, and get the stuff once or twice a year
> delivered, or get a friend with a legitimate reason for having a pickup
> to help out those few times.


At one point, I seriously considered buying a pickup truck .. I was single,
needed just basic transportation, and a truck was thousands less than a car.
I also considered a motorcycle (I was in California, it would have made
sense), but eventually ended up going with a VW Fox sedan .. small and
economical.

And a pickup truck isn't that great -- a van's got much more space, and is
enclosed, something that's handy when it rains on Moving Day.

Not sure how this has anything to do with linux of course... :)


Oh, absolutely nothing, I totally agree.

-- 
Alex Beamish
Toronto, Ontario
aka talexb
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