Posts by Duncan Macdonald 1151 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Mar 2009
Unfortunately it IS being done over the public internet as it is cheaper and does not require the power companies to hire skilled network technicians.
Given the choice between insecure and cheap or secure and expensive mismanagement will always choose the cheap option.
If the electricity grid controls have NO connection to the internet (airgap Airgap AIRGAP AIRGAP) then the attackers have no point of entry.
Unfortunately mismanaement insists on connecting everything to the internet.
Industrial control systems should NOT be connected to the internet.
Unfortunately politicians are corrupt. If a proposed measure would harm the profits of big companies then a few well placed backhanders will ensure that it does not pass (or at least is delayed for decades).
For a couple of examples look at the tobacco industry delaying laws that would require health warnings and the auto industry fighting the ban on lead in petrol.
If you do not care about pollution and do not have taxes on coal or CO2 emission then coal fired generation is much cheaper than gas fired generation. Coal can be mined in large opencast mines with outputs of millions of tons per year. Allowing for the current cost of coal and natural gas and the higher energy content per ton of natural gas gives an energy cost advantage to coal of almost 2 to 1 (2MWh from coal for the same price as 1MWh from natural gas). Coal also has the advantage of being easy to store in large quantity at power stations removing the risks of being dependent on pipelines.
Pollution restrictions and taxes on CO2 emissions can easily overcome the basic price advantage of coal (as has happened in the EU where coal fired generation is being phased out).
Not even practical with water - silicon + water + heat + metals + voltage = a certain recipe for corrosion. (And given the atomic scales of modern chip structures only a very tiny amount of corrosion would be enough to disable a chip.)
A liquid other than water would be needed - something that can not react with silicon (or any other constituent of a chip) is needed.
With the large cost increase arising from the Broadcom takeover of VMWare, it is time to consider the alternative of actually having trained staff that can manage OpenStack.
Training costs money BUT it can save far more money even over a short term let alone the long term (consider future price increases from Broadcom).
Staying with Broadcom (or another firm that Broadcom could purchase in future) will cost far more than having a trained staff that are competent with OpenStack.
Following the above procedure still leave M$ with access information to your PC. They can still use the Microsoft Account to connect to your PC as an administrator. The missing step that needs to be added - log in using your new local account and delete the Microsoft Account.
AI does have a few good artistic uses (for examples see the videos produced by Music-and-Songs on YouTube) but so far I have yet to see any serious use for AI as the results are far too likely to be incorrect. Until AI can produce results that are more accurate than the average YouTube video there is very little justification for the huge hype and expenditure.
Politicians take bribes - Google and Apple can easily buy enough politicians to ensure that this sensible idea never becomes law.
The only practical solution is for each new version to go through verification before it is allowed onto the Google or Apple stores. An automated process could check for significant changes and flag new versions with significant changes for manual checking. This would not be perfect - but it is better than the current situation.
Unless a computer has a heavy traffic load a smart NIC is not going to make much difference to CPU loading.
Some servers (especially shared ones in datacentres) have enough network traffic for the reduction in CPU loading from the use of a smart NIC to be worthwhile - however for most servers (and almost all end point devices (desktops,laptops,embedded computers etc)) the CPU loading caused by the network traffic is too low to make a smart NIC economic.
The simple fix - prohibit datacentres from being powered from the grid - require them to use on site generation.
But as this would add to the capital cost of each datacentre you can be certain that the US lawmakers would never make such a rule (instead they will pocket backhanders to not make such a rule).
Any competent programmer of the day knew that assembler was going to be mainly replaced by high level languages long before C appeared.
FORTRAN made it apparent that the days of large assembler programs were dying.
Good programmers could write approximately the same number of lines of correct code per day in Assembler or FORTRAN - but each line of FORTRAN could do the same amount of work as a dozen or more lines of Assembler. Also FORTRAN (and other later high level languages such as COBOL, ALGOL, PL/1, C etc) no longer required the programmer to know the inner details of a computer and a properly written FORTRAN program could be moved from one type of computer to another with little effort.
One of the biggest security hazards in programming at the moment is the runtime inclusion of mountains of untested code in languages such as JavaScript. Because the linkage to the libraries is done at runtime from "somewhere on the internet" which may itself include more code from "somewhere on the internet" it is perfectly possible for a program to work properly when released but fail later because something changed in a library 4 or more levels deep in a "somewhere on the internet" tree which the original programmer never knew was being used.
Even on Windows 11 it is fairly easy to create a local account by using the NET USER command - once you have created a local admin account you can then use that account to delete the one that Microsoft knows (Use a throwaway new hotmail account when setting up Windows 11 - it will never be used again.)
Run cmd as an administrator
to create a new user
NET USER username password /ADD /EXPIRES:NEVER
to make the user an administrator
NET LOCALGROUP Administrators username /ADD
to disable a user
NET USER user_to_disable /ACTIVE:NO
to delete a user
NET USER user_to_delete /DELETE
Of course the better answer is to use Linux instead of Windows if practical
Look for a 4U rackmount PC case. This size will provide enough room for even the largest graphics card. The horizontal motherboard and vertical GPU card removes the bending strain on the GPU PCIE slot. A quick search showed several available at SCAN
One that caught my eye - Inter-Tech IPC Server IPC 4U-40255 Server Case - £109.99
See https://www.scan.co.uk/products/inter-tech-case-ipc-server-4u-40255-55cm
The disadvantages of this type of case is that it is WIDE - designed to fit a 19 inch rack and usually with no sound dampening of any sort and not compatible with liquid cooling.
Alternatively get a full tower case and replace (or cover) the side window with a metal sheet and put multiple stick on feet on the motherboard side of the case then put the case on its side.
Ending the USA as a democracy seems to be the aim of the MAGA Republican politicians - they seem to envy the personal power that Putin has.
As I said in another forum, if the Trump administration openly defies an order from SCOTUS without getting punished, then the US constitution and its laws will join the Charter of the League of Nations as dead historical documents.
All the federal policing systems (FBI, US Marshal Service etc) are part of the Administration. If SCOTUS ordered the arrest of Trump and the Department of Justice said NO then there would be nothing that SCOTUS could do other than ask Congress to impeach Trump - given the current Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate any impeachment attempt would be certain to fail.
Enforcing the TPM 2 requirements will slow down the adoption of Windows 11 so why are MS doing it ?
Possibilities that come to mind
1) MS is getting a kickback from the makers of new PCs
2) MS plans to use the TPM to block other software (eg Linux, LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird etc) that competes with MS software
3) MS plans to use the TPM to embed an undetectable backdoor
I can not think of any reasons for requiring a TPM 2.0 module that would actually benefit the users of Win 11 - can you ?
The Earth has been hit many times by large meteorites (eg the dinosaur killer). Many of these impacts have been large enough to eject debris from the Earth that could hit other solar system objects.
Given the toughness of many microbes, other planets must have been contaminated by microbes carried on such Earth originated meteorites.
It is currently thought that Mars still had liquid water up to around 3 billion years ago. Earth has had life for over 3.7 billion years. This implies a period of several hundred million years when both Earth and Mars could host life. During that period both Earth and Mars would have been hit by many object large enough to eject rocks (with bacterial passengers) to the other planet.
This leads to an interesting question - did life originate on Earth and contaminate Mars or did it originate on Mars and then contaminate Earth
The icon seems fitting ==========>
Unfortunately there are a number of enterprises that are not sane and even more that do not care in the slightest about adverse effects to innocent people. (Examples - Big Tobacco, the leaded petrol lobby, Putin's war with Ukraine, CEOs trying to destroy unions and environmental legislation.)
With the dismissal of Pat Gelsinger, Intel does not have a viable strategy to escape from its current woes. I would rate Intel as B- at best and more likely a CC or C rating.
Intel's net loss for the last quarter was over 16 billion dollars and its balance sheet shows an excessive amount of "Goodwill" of over $24 billion.
Years ago Intel got rid of a lot of its R&D staff to boost its profits when AMD was struggling - and in the process destroyed the future of the company.
With the beancounters having got rid of Pat Gelsinger's because his plans to rescue Intel had a high short term cost, I would not be surprised to see Intel failing.
Big lesson - DO NOT have beancounters running a high tech company,
This icon seems to fit Intel =============>
The Russian Dead Hand system is capable of launching Russia's ICBMs without needing command approval from Russia's leaders.
It was intended to ensure that a surprise attack that killed the Russian leaders would not stop Russia from launching its missiles in response.
The icon seems appropriate ==========>
All UK smart meters have a remote disconnect facility that allows the consumer electricity supply to be turned off. This facility is mandated by the government. The smart meters would be cheaper to produce is there was just a wire link instead of the relay.
UK governments realize that there will be times when there will insufficient electricity supply (eg a cold calm winters night) as the UK has become too dependent on non-constant generation (principally wind) and the electricity demand is expected to rise due to heat pumps and EV charging. The smart meters remote disconnect will allow the government to ensure that only the "non-important" people shiver in the cold while they and their friends are comfortable.
Unless I am forced, I will not have my meter replaced by one of these smart meters.
Icon for what should happen to lying politicians (about 99.99% of them) ======>
It is also quite possible that Israel learned of a planned Hezbollah attack and triggered the explosions to disrupt or prevent the planned attack.
Between the Hezbollah casualties and the disruption to their communications, any attacks that were planned to be launched by Hezbollah over the next few months are unlikely to now take place.
At a cost of a few innocent casualties, Israel has taken a large number of Hezbollah out of the combat - some permanently and has massively damaged their communications.
This attack on Hezbollah caused far fewer innocent casualties than would be possible by any other attack causing the same number of Hezbollah casualties.
The pagers were not made in Israel - just modified by them to become a very effective anti-Hezbollah weapon system.
Congratulations to Israel for one of the most effective strikes to date against the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Icon for what should happen to all terrorist groups =====>
If the chip manages to boot Windows 11 then much of it would need to be functional, if however it was just booting MSDOS then huge chunks could still be inoperative.
The fact that this bit of PR guff did not mention booting Windows 11 makes me think that it just booted MSDOS (something an 8086 could manage).
If the legal system was just (haha) Cloudstrike would be liable for damages from every organisation and individual adversely affected by their incompetence.
However the chance of it happening is on a par with the chance of the US having an honest competent government.
Some lawyers will get richer but I bet that Cloudstrike will end up with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and perhaps a nominal fine equal to less than one weeks profits,
Make it known that you have it available for sale and watch the bids come in. There are a LOT of firms that are hoping that their own antique hardware will last a few more years and will be happy to accept second hand parts to keep their vital systems working. Several maintenance firms know this and are happy to buy old hardware.
(Also - a cynical note - make sure that the data on the tape library is copied off somewhere - otherwise there will be a critical need for some of the data 3 months after the tape library has been removed!!!)
E5-2697v4 £90
32GB DDR4 ECC £45
Assuming 90% good parts the CPUs would be worth £650k retail and the memory would be worth another £300k
Even after allowing for the much lower wholesale prices, just the CPUs and memory should pay for the purchase price and transport.
Scrap metal (inc gold recovery) should make a decent profit even if none of the other parts are used.
If any of the nodes are sold as working systems then the profit could be very nice.
A new advanced complex chip design costs upwards of $500 million with much of that being specific to the type of fab (ie much of the costs would have to be repeated if the production was moved from one fab company to another). When eventually Intel's new fabs come online Intel will have an uphill battle to attract customers as not many will want to pay over $500 million on an unproven process when they can use TSMC for the same price. Intel will probably have to operate at a loss with deep price cuts to customers for years until their processes are proven.
Will Intel's shareholders agree to keep funding the fab construction or will they lose their nerve?
Unfortunately a huge amount of performance is lost if speculative execution is not used. The CPU pipeline has to stall every time a conditional branch is encountered until the branch has executed and memory prefetch past the branch will probably also be blocked. With a CPU pipeline in the order of 10 cycles and code having conditional branches in the order of 1 branch every 10 instructions, disabling speculative execution could drop the performance by around 50%.
Try remembering that wind power is NOT reliable power - there have been times when the UK 18+GW peak wind capacity has actually generated under 0.5GW. In addition to that the EV energy consumption of 300Wh per mile is under optimum conditions (daytime, clear road, no heating or air conditioning needed) - in winter months the requirements for heating and lighting massively increase the needed electrical energy. ICE vehicles have effectively free heating as they use the waste heat from the engine but as an example the Tesla 3 heater takes over 4kW from its battery.
In winter when the electricity demand is already the highest, EVs will require far more energy from the electricity system than they do in summer. The electricity system margin is already too low to cope with 10% of ICE vehicles being replaced by EVs during a calm spell in winter let alone 100%. (I do however agree that during a windy spell in late spring there would be enough power.) Generation and transmission systems have to be sized to handle the peak load (and still have a safety margin to cope with equipment outages). Generators and major overhead power lines take years to build once someone puts up the money for them. As both the generating companies and National Grid are businesses they will not make the multi-billion pound investment needed themselves until they are certain that they will make a profit from such investment and there is no sign that the UK government is prepared to fund the investment.
One of the other big problems with the electricity supply is likely to be the local 240 volt distribution systems - the underground cables are sized for the current loads - adding a significant number of EVs charging overnight is likely to need the cables (and transformers) to be upgraded needing a lot of roadworks to replace the cables.
Icon for an EV owner who can not charge his/her vehicle =======>
Remember a huge number of UK vehicle owners do not have dedicated off street parking. For these people charging at home is difficult or impossible. The cost per kWh at public charge points is far higher than the cheap off peak rates available for people who can charge at home and the higher charge rates reduce battery lifespan.
A further point - there is NO WAY that the UK mains electricity supply can handle the replacement of a significant proportion of the current ICE vehicles with EVs. Locations with a number of high power charge points will probably need to install their own diesel generator to handle the load - and if they do then the "NO EMISSIONS" part of EV advertising rings rather hollow.
Current UK peak electricity demand is just short of 50GW (50,000,000,000 watts) and the UK population is a bit over 67 million giving a current average peak electricity consumption per person of under 750 watts (total peak load divided by population). Charging EVs at home even using a basic 3kW charge rate (ordinary UK mains plug) adds the equivalent of 4 extra people per EV while charging. Replacing just 10% of the current ICE cars (33.5 million) by EVs (ie 3.35 million) would if they were all charging at once using basic 3kW charging add an additional electricity demand of 10GW - more than the electricity consumption of London!!! Neither the generation nor the electricity transmission systems are even close to being capable of handling such an additional load.
Icon for those people who insist on replacing ICE vehicles with EVs when there is insufficient electrical power to charge them. ===>
Intel processors are being outperformed by AMD processors. To try to make the Intel processors look competitive they have to run the chips faster which cuts the timing margins. Instead of using speeds and power usage that are safe for every chip they are taking them to the bleeding edge of their capability - and like most equipment run at the bleeding edge there are failures. At least SO FAR the failures do not seem to be causing actual chip meltdowns. (But I would be uneasy about using them for critical calculations (financial or engineering) without down clocking them to increase the margins.)
Icon for users who applications give incorrect results ===>
Pushing an incoming asteroid away with a nearby nuclear explosion is likely to be better than fragmenting it with a contact explosion.
If the asteroid was intercepted one month before impact, a velocity change of 10km/hour would be sufficient to make it miss the Earth. An intercept one month before impact would also be far enough from Earth that there would be no EMP problems for the satellites orbiting Earth.
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