Not a pentium



  • You are given a computer with a 1MB hard drive and hardware that can execute arbitrarily complex instructions in tp. You cannot attach extra storage or replace the internal drive. The drive is used for both memory and persistent data storage. Your magical processor has a cache, but it takes several seconds to read from or write to the disk. Your executable is stored on an alternate drive with an arbitrary amount of space.

    What do you use it for, and how do you prevent your house from becoming a gigantic fireball?



  •  @Ben L. said:

    it takes several seconds to read from or write to the disk.

    You can play music.

    @Ben L. said:

    how do you prevent your house from becoming a gigantic fireball?

    I assume the CPU is adequately cooled in a magical way.

     



  • I cobble together the largest collection of side-effect-less speed-up loops that I can manage in one program, and run it until the end of time.



    Something that is magically powerful needs to be balanced out by something absurdly useless.



  • @Ben L. said:

    You are given a computer with a 1MB hard drive and hardware that can execute arbitrarily complex instructions in tp. You cannot attach extra storage or replace the internal drive. The drive is used for both memory and persistent data storage. Your magical processor has a cache, but it takes several seconds to read from or write to the disk. Your executable is stored on an alternate drive with an arbitrary amount of space.

    What do you use it for, and how do you prevent your house from becoming a gigantic fireball?

    Conceivably you could perform any actions with this computer that you could have performed with a Commodore 64, only faster.  Your system specifications for the device are way to arbitrary.  I could assume, for example, that the magical processor has a cache size of several gigabytes, and that the several seconds is to read the entire "memory" of the hard drive.  The ability of the processor to perform any arbitrarily complex instruction in a single planck time unit would allow an arbitrarily advanced fractal compression/decompression algorythm that should enable such a processor to simulate the entire universe, in real time, within the constraints described, from any simple declaritive sentence.  After all the entire universe can be extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, after all.



  • @Medezark said:

    After all the entire universe can be extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, after all.
     

    To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first construct the universe.



  • @Medezark said:

    @Ben L. said:

    You are given a computer with a 1MB hard drive and hardware that can execute arbitrarily complex instructions in tp. You cannot attach extra storage or replace the internal drive. The drive is used for both memory and persistent data storage. Your magical processor has a cache, but it takes several seconds to read from or write to the disk. Your executable is stored on an alternate drive with an arbitrary amount of space.

    What do you use it for, and how do you prevent your house from becoming a gigantic fireball?

    Conceivably you could perform any actions with this computer that you could have performed with a Commodore 64, only faster.  Your system specifications for the device are way to arbitrary.  I could assume, for example, that the magical processor has a cache size of several gigabytes, and that the several seconds is to read the entire "memory" of the hard drive.  The ability of the processor to perform any arbitrarily complex instruction in a single planck time unit would allow an arbitrarily advanced fractal compression/decompression algorythm that should enable such a processor to simulate the entire universe, in real time, within the constraints described, from any simple declaritive sentence.  After all the entire universe can be extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, after all.

    And when you're simulating the universe in real time, assuming the computer is in the universe...


  • @dhromed said:

    To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first construct the universe.

    Whew, that was exhausting.. Okay, "Step Two: Acquire apples."

    Do I look like the fucking Pope here? Fuck you, Apple Pie Recipe, I'm just going to drink a fifth of vodka and lie on the floor. If I want desert, I'll eat a Twinkie.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @dhromed said:
    To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first construct the universe.

    Whew, that was exhausting.. Okay, "Step Two: Acquire apples."

    Do I look like the fucking Pope here? Fuck you, Apple Pie Recipe

     

    lol
       \




  •  Definitely, it will get me board. If all I can do with that kind of CPU is listen to music.


Log in to reply