* Posts by Alexander Giochalas

24 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Apr 2007

The biggest microcode attack in our history is underway

Alexander Giochalas
Thumb Up

An excellent piece

I seem to be a minority here in the comments section, since I find the microcode metaphor excellent and to the point.

I will not join the discussion about politics etc.; that would be feeding the trolls.

Thank you Mr. Goodwins.

Google doubles minimum RAM and disk in 'Chromebook Plus' spec

Alexander Giochalas

Typo?

IPS is an LCD tech.

LCDs work using light polarization, hence the viewing angle problems. They only use white LEDs for backlight.

(O)LED displays should not suffer from this problem.

(sorry for the pedantic post)

Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO: Help us pick his replacement

Alexander Giochalas

I propose our PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Greece)

I think he is the best for the job:

* has the gigantic ego (but unfortunately lacks the IQ/intelligence)

* thinks he owns everything and can do whatever he likes with it all

* successfully brought Greece in position 108 globally for freedom of the press issues

* has a proven record of not standing even mildly "uncomfortable" questions from journalists

* has a proven record (family tradition, following his father) of eavesdropping on everyone's communications, no matter the medium

* is expert on the blame (the others) game

* he is a master of the highest level in using QAnon-style arguments, un-truths, and aphorisms against the opponent of the moment

Original Acorn Arthur project lead explains RISC OS genesis

Alexander Giochalas

I owned an Archimedes 310, until it got zapped in an attempt to expand its RAM.

I loved this fanless, quiet, powerful (for the time) machine.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon this lecture:

https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10703-the_ultimate_acorn_archimedes_talk

about (mostly) the hardware design of the machine and I enjoyed it very much.

I hope you will, too.

Hardware has never been better, but it isn't a licence for code bloat

Alexander Giochalas

Niklaus Wirth talked about it...

("A Plea for Lean Software", Computer, Feb 1995), googling it returns the article in PDF format.

The discussion had started somewhere in the 1970s.

Bloated s/w always existed, but now it is much easier to miss, just because it runs on machines with much better specs.

Apple kills eavesdrop bug in FaceTime

Alexander Giochalas
FAIL

The tin-can phone in the article picture...

you know it cannot possibly work the way it is, eehhmmm, pictured, right?

Microsoft sets date for SQL Server on Linux

Alexander Giochalas
Devil

This is a severe comment (or, maybe, severed?)

"Microsoft sets date for SQL Sever on Linux"

Somewhere an "r" was severed and noone heard it screaming...

AI pioneer Marvin Minsky dies at 88

Alexander Giochalas

He also co-authored an SF novel:

The Turing Option, together with Harry Harrison, about (what else?) an AI.

Libertarian hero: 'Satoshi Nakamoto', government funds, the NSA and the DHS

Alexander Giochalas

Neuromancer revisited

I would say that most of the information contained is fictitious, taken from Gibson's Neuromancer (and therest oof The Sprawl trilogy):

* Tessier-Ashpool is the name of the (fictional) super-rich family that owns the space station where a big part of Neuromancer takes place and also the computer that contains the AI (Wintermute).

* The Sprawl is the colloquial name for BAMA (Boston- Atlanta Metropolitan Axis), so this is at the east US coast.

* Ciba City is in Japan.

These references might reflect his real location, but they might also mean that he just really likes Neuromancer (which is obviously the case for me, since all these references immediately rang a bell).

Oohhh, where is my Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7?

Trials of 'Iron Man' military exoskeleton due in June

Alexander Giochalas

Another case of filling the initials with words?

I assume that they started backwards: they wanted the exoskeleton to be named Talos, (in greek mythology, Hyphestus- Vulcan in latin- the god of fire & metallurgy made it from copper and it is assumed to be the first robot ever, even if it is mythological), so any real meaning or relevance is optional...

Wanna make your own Azure? Now you can: Microsoft joins Open Compute Project

Alexander Giochalas
Terminator

Do the OCP specs include...

an open design ED-209?

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboCop_%28franchise%29#ED-209)

Will an open design Robocop follow soon?

Modern-day Frankenstein invents CURE for BEHEADING

Alexander Giochalas
Coat

Canavero...

or is it Cadavero?

Greek journo who published list of Swiss bank account holders cleared

Alexander Giochalas

Re: I'm impressed

OK, on greek law the Public Prosecutor can order the arrest of someone who commits an "obvious crime" (is "flagrant crime" the english legalese?). In this case the person is arrested (if found) immediately and goes to prison until his/her trial, which is scheduled to happen very shortly.

It just happens that the greek law is very selective about what crimes happen to come to their attention and what they do about them... See my first post, above.

Alexander Giochalas

It's NOT a minority

... In fact, we are talking about 50% of the tax-paying population (don't rely on my word, check the eurostat statistics). This has been happening for many decades now and no government ever did anything about it --not by accident. This 50% is comprised mostly of those that their income source is not a salary/ pension. From the richest to the not-so-rich, they are deeply intertwined with the status-quo politicians of all ranks, hence their constantly getting away with it, using both legal (but not fair) and illegal ways.

As an example, check about Mr. Sallas, owner of Piraeus Bank. There was a major report on him and his family last spring from Reuters (if I remember correctly). (Also note that all things reported had appeared a few years before on reports in greek newspapers) What happened? The greek press printed only his answer and did not mention the report at all, and a few weeks later the government gave him for peanuts ATE bank, whis was in trouble, but its role is crucial ('A' stands for agricultural).

OK, this post is getting too long... Bye!

Alexander Giochalas

A couple of corrections

1. Hot Doc is bi-weekly.

2. "Ta Nea" published a couple of weeks ago a list of artists and their tax forms, i.e. the income they had declared and the tax that they had paid. This was a completely different list, it violated privacy in much more profound ways, it proved to be quite inaccurate and, most importantly, the law did absolutely nothing against the paper, as it should have. In my opinion, this was just a rouse, but being greek and trying to live in Greece, I won't start talking about all these things. Let's just say that justice may be blind, but the Law has wide- open eyes, ears and pockets (which also are rather deep).

M.R. James, master of the ghost story, was born 150 years ago

Alexander Giochalas
Happy

Article about GHOSTS in Reg H/W!?!?!?

let me state that I enjoy ghost stories very much, but I cannot remember if I have read any of Mr (MR?) James's stories.

But reading an article about GHOSTS in Reg H/W really triggered my irony sensors.

I expect very soon an article under the title...

(The) Ten... Most Substantial Ghosts

or something similar.

Very nice tip though, I 'll be checking Mr James's stories

(... and I assume Gutenberg covers the IT angle)

Asus Zenbook UX31E

Alexander Giochalas
Linux

Typing from an eee pc 901...

running Gentoo Linux, I have to ask:

did you try any linux distro on it?

(ubuntu is usually easier for a first check for drivers, h/w support, etc., PCLinuxOS is usually equally easy to run from a live CD-- and faster than ubuntu)

It would be nice to know if Linux runs ok.

Reg h/w reviews often include a paragraph or two reporting on this issue. It may be a little more difficult, since there is no optical drive, but an external one should be OK.

Please consider adding it to your standard review procedures, I think it would be appreciated by your readers.

As for ASUS reliability, etc.:

I have been using this small thing ever since I bought it, 3 years and a couple of months ago (Sep '08) for at least 8 hours every work day, usually continuing at home and on weekends (I usually ssh from it to my desktop machine from my home network) and, apart from some trouble now and then with the left touchpad button, it works extremely smoothly.

I consider it one of my best buys, and I bought it after reading the Reg review.

It may not be a lightning-fast machine, but (with the extra space provided by an external drive) it has compiled quite a few linux kernels, firefox, even OpenOffice, to name a few things.

Stargazers spot oldest supernova yet

Alexander Giochalas
Linux

Elementary...

Correct me if I am wrong, but AFAIK, elements up to iron are actually produced by the fusion

reactions in the heart of the stars. This is because iron is the most stable (regarding its

nucleus) element and the energy levels available in common stars cannot add any protons

to it.

A supernova explosion produces enough energy to create the rest, heavier, elements.

How to backup and restore your netbook

Alexander Giochalas
Linux

SystemRescueCD + partimage...

booting from a USB stick is what I also use. My version of SystemRescueCD (v. 1.1.0, but

shouldn't it be called SystemRescueUSB?) has trouble with my eee901's ethernet, so I have

no network connection (no backing up straight to my desktop machine). I am forced to use

USB sticks for backup, but it all works very smoothly.

AlxUnder

NASA to sniff Martian atmosphere

Alexander Giochalas

Wasn't it settled?

I thought it was because of its low mass (much lower than earth's), which leads to a quite lower escape velocity, making it much easier (and probable) for the atmospheric atoms/ molecules to reach/ exceed it and disperse into interplanetary space.

Am I missing something?

The EU is out to get you, after all

Alexander Giochalas
Black Helicopters

Some animals are more equal than others

so they are allowed to watch each and every second of our lives (for our own safety and good, of course) but we are not llowed to know anything about their, ehhmmm should I say, tresspasses.

It wasn't too long ago (I can't remember exactly when right now) when there were articles about a secret EP report discussing the lifestyles of MEPs, spending loads of european taxpayers' money (and also from the corporations that "sponsor" them-- without asking for anything in return, of course) to lead excessively luxurious lives and answering to noone for that.

The report was locked Swiss Bank style and to read it you had to:

a) be an MEP

b) sign a lot of papers saying that you will keep it a secret

c) then move in a chamber thad held the report, one person at a time, taking any kind of notes was not allowed

A british MEP was by accident presented to sign the wrong papers and so was not bound in any way to keep the secret. This caused some panic but he did not go on to publicise the report findings. As a matter of fact, neither did any other member of the EP, all those who care soo much for the Public Good and stuff...

And we are talking about a total of 785 MEPs in total, if I am not mistaken.

But they are the pigs, after all...in the Orwellian way, of course.

IBM, PGP fill Bletchley Park's rattling tin

Alexander Giochalas
Unhappy

What an unpleasant surprise...

I thought these things only happened down here in Greece, where everything has been falling apart for years now and our PM pretends to be Nero (with a Sony PlayStation[1] replacing the lyra) and the rest of the government and the Opposition are in a stupor of mythical proportions.

----

[1] he is infamous around here for this little hobby of his, playing his PS for hours every day, instead of doing this rather boring little thing he was voted for: running -- and not ruining -- the state...

Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe

Alexander Giochalas
Linux

@Ondrej Doubek & The Other Steve & Anonymous Coward

...There' also me and a couple of dozen other Greeks that have seen this

pre-Jackson era NZ film...

The Tux, of course, because it will survive at least until 18/01/2038, no matter

(or energy) what...

Plants may be red and yellow in galactic boonies

Alexander Giochalas

green was an accident

The following are based on things I have read here and there, but I cannot reference any specific sources, these being mostly (pop) sci magazines and the odd science/ physics handbook.

Firstly, there cannot be that much red light coming from sources other than the Sun, because then we would be seen everything red, even in the deepest of nights (a red viagra effect?).

Secondly, green accounts for about 50% of sunlight. A better choice (to chlorophyll) would be a substance absorbing green, utilizing at least 50% of sunlight. Evidence suggests that chlorophyll was an accident: it was the first thing that "nature came up with" and thus it became the preferred solution.

Thirdly, some plants (I think they are sea plants mostly), have evolved with such a substance (i.e. a green-absorbing one) and subsequently their colour is purplish. Perhaps being underwater, receiving less sunlight and with red being filtered out pushed their evolution to develop a more efficient photosynthesizer.

(Actually, the green of chlorophyll should be a good argument against the "Intelligent Design" non-theory: if for quite a few million years plans have been using a much less than optimum photosynthesizer, there cannot be much intelligence in their alleged design. Perhaps it should be called "Idiotic Design"-- it even preserves the initials...;-)