Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!cyclone.austin.rr.com!fe2.texas.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: "alexi" <apredtechen...@austin.rr.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
References: <73YTc.1740720$Ar.603012@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com> <pan.2004.08.16.07.24.01.673386@consulting.net.nz> <bI2Uc.164545$eM2.20139@attbi_s51> <cfqdgg$9lu$1@home.itg.ti.com> <488Uc.167734$eM2.83710@attbi_s51> <ByhUc.635$E7T1.234@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com> <pan.2004.08.17.12.52.33.543548@consulting.net.nz>
Subject: Re: Here's a Dell story you don't see too often
Lines: 24
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
Message-ID: <XkWUc.811$v86.564@fe2.texas.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 04:51:03 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.9.190.201
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com
X-Trace: fe2.texas.rr.com 1092891063 67.9.190.201 (Wed, 18 Aug 2004 23:51:03 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 23:51:03 CDT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com


"Adam Warner" <use...@consulting.net.nz> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.08.17.12.52.33.543548@consulting.net.nz...

> Everyone who multitasks cares about how much work is being done in the
> background.
>

Not true for everyone. For example, playing music is a background task, but
as long as
the stream is delivered isochronously, the amount of work doesn't matter
much
and hard to quantify, only to the extent it affects timing of the foreground
task.
Same for video playback, or CD burning without buffer underrun.
Also, some non-time-critical tasks like backups, virus checks, or
multi-megabyte
movie downloads are of little concern about time as compared to some
foreground
time-critical task.

 - aap