Posts by Charlie Clark

Honor has flown the nest: Announces first phone as an independent firm, inks deals with supply chain big dogs

Re: To the author : Thank you

Wireless charging has to be the worst, most inefficient way anyone could have invented to charge a phone.

Not really. Given a reasonable surface area and low enough current the losses are not that much greater than with many power supplies, which often have shitty transformers. Good phones with good chargers are now very good at getting this right. This is one of the reasons I switched to extension cables with integrated USB ports. I don't have any scientific data, but given the number of 5V devices I could switch to using them, I'm pretty certain it's had an impact.

And, overall, in the lifecycle of a mobile phone, the energy used to charge it is tiny compared with production and decommissioning.

Tesla axes software engineer for allegedly pilfering secret Python scripts after just three days on the job

Re: Ahummmm

The value will matter in any compensation claims, which may extend to any third parties: this is after all in America. From the brief description, I assume Dropbox will be required to turn over logs of which files were copied and who had access to them. Dropbox doesn't automatically sync the whole file system and in my experience doesn't bother with removable storage so any copying will have been done deliberately.

And just like that, Amazon Web Services forked Elasticsearch, Kibana. Was that part of the plan, Elastic?

Re: Once the Genie is out of the bottle

While there is no doubt a risk of major open source projects being held hostage by a few major players, tinkering with the licences is unlikely to change anything. The open source principles have proved their worth time and again and many of the large companies have embraced them so much that they provide stewardship and resources for some projects. Companies that release their software under an open source licence should not be surprised if their competitors adopt it: it was their choice to do so. There is a risk that they can use such projects to dominate the market. If this is the case the regulation may be required, just as it would in any other case of market dominance.

To any other startups listening. CHOOSE YOUR LICENCES CAREFULLY.

And choose what you open source even more carefully…

Re: Backfire!

Open source is a principle, not a movement.

President Biden selects Jessica Rosenworcel to head up FCC as acting chairwoman

Re: Cleanup in Aisle 45

This thread has been hjacked.

We're gonna bounce back, says Intel's Gelsinger: Don't worry, most of our chips will be made by us... in 2023

Downhil from here

Chip sales were given a double boost in 2020 by all the extra kit orderd for home offices, but also by stockpiling in China ahead of US sanctions. Data centres continue to expand, but so does their use of non-Intel (and non-x86) hardware. And Intel is still nowhere in the embedded market. Still, the company still has excellent engineers across the board and lots of cash so there is no reason to see why it shouldn't continue to be successful, though some restructuring is inevitable.

BOFH: Are you a druid? Legally, you have to tell me if you're a druid

Re: Ultraviolent

Lucky there were no Dvochkas around!

Mine's the one with the collected works of Anthony Burgess in the pocket…

Top engineer who stole trade secrets from Google's self-driving division pardoned on Trump's last day as president

Re: So..

I think the amendment was framed with something like a restoration in mind and citizens should be able to fight fire with fire… But, it's possible to argue that this threat has diminished over time or could be countered more effectively by limiting the powers of the executive branch.

But political reform always seems to need upheaval to be successful and, despite the many problems in US politics, it still looks a long way away from the kind of consensus needed for meaningful reform. In the meantime partisanship, gerrymandering and regulatory capture will no doubt continue.

Re: so why not change the period during which this is allowed?

Trump's actions suggest that the details of the presidential pardon should be reviewed and clarified. But it's difficult to see a majority in Congress for this in the foreseeable future. But, in general, in order for such a power to have the occasionally necessary impact, you have to live with the odd abuse.

The problem with Trump wasn't with his abuse of power, but with the fact that he got chosen as a presidential candidate in the first place (because the election was outsourced to the media), then elected (because the other candidate was weak), and then feted by a party that had become beholden to him. Had he been impeached first time round this would never have happened, and the GOP would have started its renwal earlier. And calls for sincere electoral reform (ending the primary system, reforming the electoral college, etc.) might have been heeded.

Pardons for the dead have no legal meaning and are entirely symbolic and are part of a more general reconciliatio: their pardon stands for others who were similarly convicted of a crime that society now considers should not have existed.

Re: Colour me surprised

I think he may find that more dificult now that he is no longer president and the shine is wearing off. Presumably, this is why he held so many rallies and fundraisers after the election.

Sure, he's guaranteed a slot on some of the more extremist channels, though he won't earn anything like enough to service his debts. But he might also learn that people drop their champions as fast as they raise them.

Re: So..

The Second Amendment does cover all firearms. But you might expect it to be revised from time to time to reflect changes in society and technology. A bigger issue, as I understand it, is that the right to bear arms (whether small pistols, AK47s or whatever) is intimately coupled with the right to challenge an abusive king, ie. not for everyday use.

We turn away for a second and Corellium is already showing off Ubuntu on Apple Silicon

Re: Linus Torvalds

Not having hardware acceleration is nowadays more than just a minor irritatiion, especially on ARM.

The best bet is to wait until another manufacturer sees the opportunity and releases their own ARM-based stuff. Though this would be easier if Microsoft or Google were keener on providing support.

Negative Trustpilot review of law firm Summerfield Browne cost aggrieved Briton £28k

Nah, that wouldn't be liabel. However, you could construe contempt of court, depending on the ruling.

Re: If you're going to represent yourself...

Even more so if you don't even turn up.

Chip fab Intel said to be using better chip fab TSMC to make 5nm Core i3 processors, 20% of its non-CPU parts

They've been suffering from quantum effects for different generations and have come up with some fairly ingenious solutions such as geometry and different doping. But this is what drives up the costs. If we only had PCs we probably wouldn't be anywhere near 5nm but the several billion smartphones have changed things a bit.

Re: Single point of failure

That only reduces the geopolitical risk. If things continue, we'll have a duopoly at best and a monopoly at worst. Until the Chinese have enough IP for their own fabs… But even so there is potentially a huge risk in price rises. And what if TSMC decided to get into the design business as well?

Single point of failure

As Intel scrambles to get its mojo back, it makes sense to offshore some of its manufacturing to foundries like TSMC

What are the alternatives to TSMC? Aren't we running the risk of becoming dependent on a single manufacturer for such key components?

Maker of crowd-sourced coronavirus spread tracker app sues Apple for 'arbitrary and capricious' iOS store snub

Re: Good luck.

Users are free to post what they want in the knowledge it will be published, so this wouldn't be relevant to GDPR even if it was in the EU, which isn't. The app itself is not that different in principle, let's say, from a weather tracking app. It wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a myriad of similar apps for colds, etc.

In the US the problems would arise if the app were making claims based on the data submitted. But even then it would be the FDA who decides. Letting the various app stores act as gatekeepers is a problem.

Re: Good luck.

Even though the app looks to be of questionable utility – it's basically just a mashup – it's difficult to argue why it should be banned when hundreds, if not thousands, of similar, in the sense that they rely on people providing information along with their GPS, apps are available. As long as the app itself isn't mailicious and the provider is handling data correctly, it's difficult to argue that the ban isn't discriminatory, which is key for whether Apple has the right to do this.

With depressing predictability, FCC boss leaves office with a list of his deeds... and a giant middle finger to America

Almost certainly not because he was a political appointee.

Re: PDNFTT

Healthcare is a bit more than emergency treatment…

MediaTek's latest Dimensity phone chippery is 25 per cent faster than its predecessor, supports 200MP cameras

Re: Being lossless is easy when you start with having nothing to lose

For your value of useless. Others may see value in the ephemeral.

Nice chips, shame about the drivers

Mediatek has a terrible record about keeping the software for its chips up to date. I guess their opinion is, if the chips are this cheap, then people can just buy a new phone.

Indian government slams Facebook over WhatsApp 'privacy' update, wants its own Europe-style opt-out switch

Re: GDPR

You can put your pedant hat away.

It seems that WhatsApp lumps lots of countries together into the "Europe" region where it follows GDPR whether or not the countries are part of the EU. Course, it may only be a matter of time until, like Facebook, UK users of WhatsApp are considered part of "rest of the world".

Re: GDPR

Yes, but as El Reg reported it, as far as WhatsApp is concerned, the UK is still part of Europe.

Re: GDPR

Given how capriciously, including retroactive tax grabs, various Indian governments have enacted legislation in the past, I don't think that would matter. It's also not shy to wield the ban hammer.

But this is probably just standard posturing and sabre-rattling: not a day goes by in India without it. Presumably, a suitable donation to the BJP will help resolve the issue…

Samsung tones down sticky stuff in the Galaxy S21 series, simplifying repairs massively

Re: A revolutionary new idea

My S5 was "waterproof", well, water resistant, but good enough for practical purposes such as navigation on a bike and it had a removable battery.

I think the biggest argument for non-removable batteries is that it is not a problem for most people. If it were, you could expect the market to say no. Lithium Ion batteries last much longer than NiCd or NiMH and most people are probably happy with the battery lasting from dawn to dusk most of the time. For heavy use, a powerpack is more flexible and packs a bigger punch. That said: I'm all for more modularity and repairability.

Back to the office with you: 'Perhaps 5 days is too much family time' – Workday CEO

They're now looking at how much expensive office space they can offload. Also, if they're lucky, they don't need to worry about health and safety directives for their soon-to-be-freelance employees.

But the thing that annoys me most about this discussion is how much of it is a first-world problem. Lots of people doing really important work don't have an option of doing it from home and some of them regularly work in far riskier environments. I wonder how they feel when the subject dominates the headlines.

Cynic, moi?

Signal boost: Secure chat app is wobbly at the moment. Not surprising after gaining 30m+ users in a week, though

Re: why phone number required

Phone numbers and SIMs make sense on mobile devices and are used only to set things up. You can read the Signal docs about what they use, and why. Access to contacts is local only and purely for convenience, it's not a requirement.

But there other options: neither Threema nor Wire require mobile numbers to use. Threema even has different levels of trust depending on how well contacts know each other.

Re: GDPR

That's what I thought too but Johannes Caspar the Hamburger Data Privacy Commissioner, and in this role one of the leading lights in Germany, considers the changes problematic and the matter will be referred to the Irish Data Privacy Commissioner.

Based on what I've seen over the last week it looks like that, in Germany at least, WhatsApp has blown it. Lots of people are popping up on the other services and it's probably only a matter of time until the network effect sets in as "influencers" drag their users with them to other platforms.

There are other currents: Corona protesters have long been using Telegram groups and channels; and recent developments in America are pushing people onto alternative platforms.

Horses for courses. Telegram is more user friendly, has excellent desktop apps, and scales brilliantly: it has some of the largest groups on the internet and has recently added audio calls to groups: this makes it much more interesting for me than, say, Zoom. There is some concern about ownership and location of servers: data does get stored on their servers. That said, it's extremely resilient, which is why it's being used in Belorussia to coordinate protests and Russia gave up trying to block it. There are also some concerns about encryption, especially with data being kept on the servers, but at least it doesn't leak telephone numbers like WhatsApp does.

Signal was designed for security which meant it is less user friendly than others but that minimal data was stored on their server. For example, until recently, you couldn't administer groups or have group calls because groups were essentially chains of bilateral chats. They have since done some very interesting research on zero knowledge group management which means that even you control the server you don't know who belongs to which group. In addition, they have have added support for group audio and video calls (up to 10), which is about all you can do without a server-based solution. The software has been peer-reviewed and the server has survived several subpoenas with Signal demonstrating how little information about users they can provide.

It's probably worth noting that there are other options such as Threema (costs € 4 one-off, developed and hosted in Switzerland and partly financed by a for suits version), which does not require a telephone number, and Wire, which has also had its software peer-reviewed.

Personally, I use Signal, Telegram and Threema for different groups. Interoperability would be great but prepared to use the right tool for the job and share as little compromising information as possible whatever the network, because even if you know the information can't be intercepted, you can't always be sure who's on the other end nor what they do with it.

Apple reportedly planning to revive the MagSafe charging standard with the next lot of MacBook Pros

Re: MagSafe is the best charging connector

I also think the MagSafe connection is a brilliant solution for charging. I only wish that Apple would push to have it standardised: this is the sort of thing that patents are supposed to support the adoption of. Easier enough to have an USB-C - MagSafe adapter so that proprietary chargers are not required.

The risk of the computer being dragged around is, however, less than that of permanent damage to the socket. And this is where Apple could certainly improve: last year I had to have the whole USB sub-board replaced because having everything to the side can lead to unnecessary strains on the arrangement. On my MacBook 2015 I had both the USB and HDMI in constant use and, even with short cable buffers and infrequent removal, it was obviously too much for the arrangement. Though presumably I should have rearranged my office so that the screen was always to the right of the Mac…

As for the touchbar: you can see why the designers thought it was a good idea. On something like a phone a virtual menu (like the sidebar on the newer Samsungs) makes a lot of sense, but bugger all at the top of a keyboard, which is why you can still buy dedicated peripherals for sequencers, etc.

Magsafe was/is a really, really elegant solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

Flying notebooks are maybe less of a risk than buggered sockets due to the stresses that they can be under and I reckon USB-C is more susceptible here because it's smaller. This is why Nokia and Ericsson also had "pop" connections for charging.

But whatever they do, please make an effort to standardise it.

Samsung rolls out new Galaxy S21 range, including extra-lux Ultra

Re: And yet they used an iPhone to announce it.

Samsung - or rather, their PR agency - used an iPhone to tweet a promo for the S21 launch.

So what? We know that agencies use I-Phones? The next thing is you'll be telling us they don't have Samsung washing machines either…

Re: Yet again ....

As long as onboard storage was so small and expensive, I'd have to agree but that has changed over the last few years. But, as Apple have shown, many people also appreciate not even having to worry getting additional storage. And there are probably also specious arguments about speed, especially for recording 8k video of the little darlings

My S10e has 128 GB and, although it will take an SD card, I haven't had the need for one yet. Personally, the next time I get a phone I'd still be looking for SD support but, given suffiicient onboard storage, wouldn't considere a deal breaker.

Dropbox basically decimates workforce, COO logs off: Cloud biz promises to be 'more efficient and nimble'

One word: lock-in.

I actually like being able to separate application from storage and Microsoft has yet to demonstrate that they deserve my trust.

Re: Is it just me.....

I don't it's great for one-off sharing but for friends and family it's pretty good: just set up the right folders and forget about it. A bigger PITA was the restriction in the number of clients.

Fortunately, because I got Dropbox early and Samsung did a deal with them, I've got a free account that is big enough to be useful. The paid tier is far too much to be interesting and also carries the risk of lock in.

China showing signs of brewing IPv6 eruption

Re: Privacy anyone?

Not really, the privacy extensions make it very difficult to tie a particular address to a particular machine.

UK network Three hikes pay-as-you-go rates by 400% to push punters to buy 'bundles'

I assume we can expect wholesale prices, which the MVNOs depend on, to rise as well.

Backers of Planet Computers' Astro Slide 5G phone furious after shock specs downgrade

Re: Peak Planet

Lucky for you that your Gemini is still working properly. Six months ago mine developed a fault that meant it kept switching the screen off and is so essentially unusable. :-(

Theranos destroyed crucial subpoenaed SQL blood test database, can't unlock backups, prosecutors say

Lying is usually a crime

While lying in press releases and interviews is reprehensible, it’s not necessarily a crime.

For companies it usually is, though there is leeway. Publically traded companies have to follows the rules of the SEC but even private ones can be held accountable by various agencies including, and probably most relevant here, the Food and Drugs Administration. Protecting patients should, hopefully, be considered more important than protecting investors.

Titanium carbide nanotech approach hints at hydrogen storage breakthrough

Re: it's really just an electron and a proton.

True, except that in many situations it doesn't really behave properly, hence the problems of adsorption an dispersion.

Re: 700 bars ! Yikes !

Methane isn't much longer but it is heavier and much easier to work with and transport not least because of some limited attraction between molecules: H2 doesn't particularly like to stick with H2 when there are things like metal surfaces to sink into.

It's much cheaper to produce hydrocarbons. But, because it is still above cost, to let anyone do so at scale would invite abuse in many situations. For example, if you provide and incentive for this by saying that fuel produced like this is exempt from fuel duty, it would immediately be attractive to burn hydrocarbons (power station sources is usually exempt) to produce electricity to produce hydrocarbons that are cheaper at the pump than if they were delivered there directly.

Re: It's not just the storage

Storage of hydrogen has always been and remains a problem: it requires really high pressures and still leaks and it also tends to degrade its containers.

Fuel cells themselves are brilliant but remain problematic – just ask Toyota.

The problems are related to the reactions involved: electrolysis of water is a huge step and thus requires a large amount of energy. Anything you can do catalytically (such as reducing CO2 to CO) will use less, much less. Hydrogen is really difficult to store, requiring very high pressures an even then it leaks and often damages the container. Not really surprising considering it's really just an electron and a proton. Storage is often a problem because chemistry tends to be messy.

But as long as you predicate producing hydrogen on the costs of electricity you are inviting at best arbitrage, at worst outright abuse because it quickly becomes attractive to use subdised electricity to produce the stuff and subsidies are almost by definition not cheap.

FWIW GCSEs weren't around when I was at school but I do have > their equivalent, even English which is maybe why I know how to spell deficit. Best not to make assumptions. ;-)

Re: It's not just the storage

The 700 Bar should help you decide. That's a lot of pressure and means thick and heavy containers. If we can ever get hydrocarbon fuel cells working and, hence, the yield up above 40% then we have really solved the problem. But even just burning hydrocarbons to drive an electric motor would increase the efficiency of modern vehicles because storage can be used to decouple consumption from production.

Re: It's not just the storage

Hydrogen production can be VERY cheap when produced by renewable sources during off-peak times

Making it indistinguishable from hydrogen made from very cheap electricity from nuclear or gas power stations… And I'll be happy to sell it to you by the tanker.

Hydocarbons that can be produced by reduction will always be cheaper than hydrogen produced via electrolysis.