Observational humor

[jc-8FIgwK2HfyJMuWfdjsoA/w at public.gmane.org (John Chambers)]

markw wrote:
| I'm compiling a custom Linux kernel.  Sort of walking down memory lane as
| it were. Can someone please explain to me how doing this in 2009, with a
| very fast dual core CPU and very fast SATA disks takes LONGER than it did
| back in 1999 (10 years ago)? (rhetorical question)
|
| I mean come on? How much faster are systems today than 10 years ago? Has
| the Linux kernel REALLY grown that much?

It may also be partly due to growing C compilers, that do a lot  more
optimizing  than they used to.  If you still have a compiler that you
were using back then, you might try feeding a  few  kernel  files  to
both compilers and see how long they take.

It reminds me of this quote:

| The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry
| is  its  continuing  cancellation of the steady and staggering
| gains made by the computer hardware industry ...
-- Henry Petroski

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I ??? Unicode