Author Archive
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
The Red Queen Race is over and we can coast for the duration.
It is very popular among economists to bring up the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Notably when assessing the challenge of China and India, to the old world economies of Europe and the United States.
In case you have forgotten.
The Red Queen is Regent of a “Fast” [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Economics, Optimizing Heuristics by Sebastian Stadil
Saturday, January 20th, 2007
A Strategy for microprocessor procurement
This article argues that it’s preferable to measure a microprocessors performance in relative terms. Relative to the highest industry performer at any given point because the requirement for increased computing power is predominately driven by external factors. Moore’s law in its broader sense can then be restated as follows: Any specific speed grade processor decays [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Optimizing Heuristics by Sebastian Stadil
Sunday, January 14th, 2007
Algorithm for Storage replacement optimization
A friend asked me what size disk drive to buy. Is there an optimal size?
It turns out the answer is yes and the optimal size is e = 2.72. The base of the natural logarithm times the size of the drive you have now. Isn’t this marvelous?
Here is why.
Unless you have very special needs you don’t need to worry [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Optimizing Heuristics by Sebastian Stadil
Thursday, January 11th, 2007
Skate to where the puck is going to be!
Wayne Gretzky famously said he never skated to where the puck was, but always to where it was going to be.
This adage has been part of the design philosophy for start-ups for years and increasingly it is being incorporated into the design philosophy of product development of major corporations. Even as product design and life [...]