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Date:      01 Nov 2001 13:10:12 +0100
From:      Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org>
To:        "Nicpon, John" <John.Nicpon@SouthTrust.com>
Cc:        <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Unix Philosophers Please!
Message-ID:  <xzp8zdqvgij.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
In-Reply-To: <2AACFCDB6086274CA42D44085EF1BAA2293FF3@msm-001.msg.stcorp.com>
References:  <2AACFCDB6086274CA42D44085EF1BAA2293FF3@msm-001.msg.stcorp.com>

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"Nicpon, John" <John.Nicpon@SouthTrust.com> writes:
> Please specifically define where data goes that is sent to /dev/null

It goes into a special data sink in the CPU where it is converted to
heat which is vented through the heatsink / fan assembly.  This is why
CPU cooling is increasingly important; as people get used to faster
processors, they become careless with their data and more and more of
it ends up in /dev/null, overheating their CPUs.  If you delete
/dev/null (which effectively disables the CPU data sink) your CPU may
run cooler but your system will quickly become constipated with all
that excess data and start to behave erratically.  If you have a fast
network connection you can cool down your CPU by reading data out of
/dev/random and sending it off somewhere; however you run the risk of
overheating your network connection and / or angering your ISP, as
most of the data will end up getting converted to heat by their
equipment, but they generally have good cooling, so if you don't
overdo it you should be OK.

I hope this answers your question.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smorgrav - des@ofug.org

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