'It's better to burn out, than to fade away on worst audio in history'

It's been a week of petite planets, weird Windows and hacked hospitals. So, without further ado, let's get on to the quotes of the week: With its sales decidedly in the toilet, AMD boss Lisa Su admitted that, yeah, the chipmaker should probably try to knock a few bucks off its budget. Su made the following suggestion: The …

[Doctor Syntax]

Torvalds & Gmail

Reading the commentary on the Gmail item is a salutary experience.

I'd have thought that El Reg's readership would know that:

1. The Linux kernel is developed in public via a mailing list. That list has an easily discovered archive that anyone can read. There is no message on there that needs to be kept confidential because no message on there can be kept confidential.

2. Because the content of the mailing list is public there is no disadvantage in any member of the mailing list subscribing with an address run by a provider who will mine the mail contents.

3. Running a large email server is a pain and a waste of time you don't need unless it's your specific job. So it's something to outsource to someone whose specific job it is.

4. Neither an email server nor a spam filter has any place in the Linux kernel.

5. The kernel is the only part of a Linux distribution in which Linux participates.

And yet so many commentators seem unaware of some or all of the above. Did they wander in here off the street?

BTW I nominate Esme's comment that thread for comment of the week.

[John Gamble]

Re: Torvalds & Gmail

Number one in particular seems to hit newcomers particularly hard, especially if they've only had experience with webforums. It frequently takes them time to figure out how to handle the bursts of messages (seriously people, threading is your friend), and the notion that their e-mail is automatically public after sending is something that takes a while to settle in.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Torvalds & Gmail

"the notion that their e-mail is automatically public after sending"

And their email address. I only realised I hadn't included that after the 10 mins were up. It means that anyone posting there needs an email provider that has good spam filtering.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Torvalds & Gmail

"in which Linux participates."

s/x/s/

Damn!!

[AJames]

Nothing new for Neil Young

He's been ranting for years about the sound quality of compressed music. The current battle over streaming quality is just his latest opportunity to go public about it again. I'm sure he's sincere, but a lot of people sincerely believe things that are wrong. Could he pass this test?: http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

(note that a Neil Young track is included in the test suite)

[Wyrdness]

Re: Nothing new for Neil Young

If he thinks that streaming audio is "the worst quality in the history of broadcasting", then he's obviously forgotten all about AM radio.

And obviously we all need ultra-high fidelity to fully appreciate Mr Youngs guitar feedback and distortion </sarcasm>

Much as I love his music, I think he's totally off-base with this one.

[TeeCee]

Re: Nothing new for Neil Young

He's also a big fan of guitar effects pedals. Three of the most popular of which (fuzz, flanger and phaser) exist to reproduce that "AM radio" sound.

I guess it's less about distortion of the music and more who controls the distortion(!)

I also don't recall him, back in the day, refusing to allow cassette sales or banning his stuff being played through anything sporting a noddy graphic equaliser[1]......

[1] Cassette and the eighties boom box. The greatest crime against music ever. Bar none.

[R Callan]

Which gmail is being refered to? Is it g(oogle) mail, an e-mail service provider, or g(nome) mail, an e-mail client. Both utilise, I presume, spam filters.

I am not concerned as I use K(ool) mail as a client and my ISP as the e-mail provider.