Peter Smithson wrote:

In article <T1098738901@djwhome.demon.co.uk>, david@djwhome.demon.co.uk says...

"Martin 53N 1W <ml_news@ddnospamddml1dd.co.uk.dd>" <> wrote:

Nice summary.

Not really.  It's basically still a gross oversimplification.

I think you're missing the purpose of the FAQ.  Have a look at the other answers - they are all very brief and non technical for normal people to understand.  Give your answer to Jo Bloggs and he'll give up after the first two sentences.

'Twas interesting to me (:-))

A very good answer answering another aspect of the original questions.

Even my programing collegues don't always know what CPU cache is never mind L1 L2 etc. - they don't need to know.  Never mind a non technical person.

If someone knew enough about computers to understand your answer then I suspect they would already know the answer!

True enough.

The question was "Will running SETI@home put any additional strain on my computer?".   Your answer tells us things about L1 cache, PDP 11's and CPU temprature in BOIS mode but doesn't actually give a yes/maybe/no answer.

"More" does not equal "Better".  The hard thing is to make a short answer which provides the information normal users will want in an understandable form.  Sure it's not going to be 100% accurate but at the

[...]

The real skill is in answering with 100% accuracy yet with appropriate detail. This is much better than the patronising 'lies' and lazy 'half truths' spoon fed to children and spewed out on TV.

The FAQ really needs a multi-level answer for this one (:-P)

...And the answer is "no". The greater details can then be introduced for 'normal usage', fractionally increased CPU power consumption running FPU intensive tasks (s@h and others), and power management/saving.


Regards,
Martin