Posts by druck

Dell to color-code staff based on how hybrid they really are in RTO push

In the same way that Zoom don't believe in their own product either.

BASICally still alive: Classic language celebrates 60 years with new code and old quirks

Re: BBC Basic

BCD was very useful for calculating values to display on the screen in decimal, without having to do any dividing by 10 on a CPU without a divide instruction.

Starlink geofence appears to have some gaping holes

Re: Another headache in the making

Starlink should ask John Deere about how to do it, as they managed to brick a load of tractors stolen from occupied Ukraine which turned up in Chechnya.

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Got an old Raspberry Pi spare? Try RISC OS. It is, literally, something else

My parents could only afford to buy me an Electron, and I was disappointed it was slower than a BBC Micro in the high resolution modes, so while my BBC owning friends wrote programs in BASIC, I had to learn 6502 assembler to get sufficient speed. This really helped in my first job during university where I happened to see the boss of another department struggling to get get his BASIC code on a BBC Master (the successor to the BBC B) fast enough to sample an eddy current probe detecting cracks in an axle stub mounted on an old record desk turntable, it couldn't keep up with a whole revolution at 33 rpm, and he was due to demo it to Ford the next day. I had a Master 128 myself by then, so I volunteered to take it home overnight and rewrite it in assembler. First thing the next morning I tried it out, and it kept up at 33rpm, and 45rpm, it even managed 78rpm (I said the desk was old). The demo to Ford when well, the boss was elated, and I was promptly moved from the messing around with dirty bits of power station department, to the writing software for the non-destructive test instrument department. After the job I dropped the Physics course, switched to UCL to do computer science (projects all written on an Archimedes) and software engineering has been my career ever since.

Google pulls RISC-V support from generic Android kernel

China can, whenever it wants, stop paying ARM for licenses and still crank out as many ARM chips as they want.

I think they already tried that when the Chinese join venture with ARM went rogue.

Tesla maps out new territory in China with Baidu deal

One way?

GCJ-02, which can convert WGS-84 coordinates into BD-09 but not vice versa.

How on earth can you have a coordinate systems which cannot be converted bi-directionally?

Tech industry sheds some light on the planet's situation via LinkedIn

Being an IBM spin-off I'm sure they are doing their bit for the planet by recycling the over 40's into Soylent Green.

China to launch sample return mission to the far side of the Moon – maybe next week

Re: Shambles

Scoping up any random bit of Mars 'dirt' and bringing it back might be a propaganda victory for the Chinese, but the real scientific value lies in returning the carefully selected rock samples extracted by Perseverance.

Ford's BlueCruise driving assistant probed by US watchdog after deaths

Re: I don't care if it is "hands free"

It's performing the mundane tasks which keeps up your level of concentration - the less you have to do the less engaged you are.

BTW: If you really are using half your cognitive ability to maintain speed and stay in lane, you should serious consider giving up driving for your own safety, and those around you.

TikTok ban could escalate US-China trade war, ex-White House CIO tells The Reg

Re: Who will actually lose out

Say no to Vertical Video Syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dechvhb0Meo

Strong electric car sales expected for 2024, but charging grid needs work

Re: Cheaper

He's not talking about a combined cycle gas power station for which would be true, he went over the top by claiming the power station would be more efficient even if running on petrol.

Re: Large scale new tech

Wind generally decreases greatly at night, with the exception of large storms, but those aren't good generating conditions anyway.

Re: Cheaper

You need to have a think about that last statement.

Re: "Expected" = "Hoped for"

And I'm sure the government will maintain the price with increased fuel duties.

Re: while making registration and road tax for EVs cheaper

EVs are generally at least 30% heavier for the same class of car, and damage to the road is to the forth power of weight, which means almost 3x as much as an ICE.

While an an electric car isn't as heavy as a fully loaded van or a lorry, there are a lot more cars on the roads, and particularly on local roads that are (poorly) maintained by local authorities, which are exactly the ones suffering far more damage this year, despite a mild winter.

Re: while making registration and road tax for EVs cheaper

Exactly the opposite, larger contact patch, lower loading on the road surface and less damage.

Forget the AI doom and hype, let's make computers useful

Re: There are two kinds of fools...

Religion is useful to try to make the masses behave themselves most of the time, right up until you want them to do something wrong in its name. AI is probably quite the opposite, most of them time it will be used for something wrong (better scams), and the masses wont behave themselves if it has put them out of a job.

Law prof predicts generative AI will die at the hands of watchdogs

Re: "Generative AI is destined to drown in a tsunami of regulation"

I don't want to get paid a paltry amount of royalties, I don't want any of the content I've created since the beginning of the Web to be used to train AI without my permission, and I certainly don't want any of my work to be used to further enrich Microsoft, a company that I have been fighting against my entire career.

US government reportedly ponders crimping China's use of RISC-V

Re: This is cute

>>So, first of all, RISC-V is shit.

>So was ARM when it was first used. It was pitched as small core that was intended to go into ASICs to do menial tasks like handling user controls and displays.

> Attempts to use it for anything else failed spectacularly because the architecture assumed a large ecosystem of coprocessors, standalone its performance was miserable.

Shows how much you know on the subject.

The first ARM chip powered the first 32 bit desktop computer (Acorn Archimedes) which had better performance than the x86 of the day, later chips powered the first PDA powerful enough to do handwriting recognition (Apple Newton). After ARM concentrated on low power, DEC leant their Alpha technology to create the StrongARM which was faster than the contemporary Pentiums for a short while, but kicked off the PDA market, which lead to the creation of smartphones.

Waymo robotaxi drives down wrong side of street after being alarmed by unicyclists

And the unicyclists, who were all over the place, including travelling in the wrong lane too.

Microsoft really does not want Windows 11 running on ancient PCs

Re: Alternative

The reality is that most people DO know Windows (and Microsoft Office).

They don't, they really don't.

The slightest thing out of the ordinary happens, they run to someone that does, and get them to waste time fixing the most trivial issues. The amount of time I saved since abandoning Windows after 7 is huge, every time one of the bleaters comes asking me a question, I say "sorry I've never used Windows 10 or 11, so I don't know". They then have to either find someone else, or spend time cursing it themselves.

Ex-CEO of 'unicorn' app startup HeadSpin heads to jail after BS'ing investors

That would have been HeadCrash.

Microsoft teases deepfake AI that's too powerful to release

Microsoft just ensuring...

...they get in first to make the tools that will be performing the Microsoft scams from now on.

Meta lets Llama 3 LLM out to graze, claims it can give Google and Anthropic a kicking

No more

Let's hope they find the 400bn parameter version is no better than the 70bn one before they burn the entire planet for electricity.

AI PCs are here but a killer application for biz users? Nope

Re: If you're refreshing your laptop anyway, should you pay extra for an NPU is the question

FP16 and FP8 are completely useless for any real work, so don't waste any silicon on them.

NetBSD 10 proves old tech can still kick apps and take names three decades later

I want a 64 bit RISC OS with preemption and multi-core SMP, but can still run all the 32 bit cooperative multitasking programs transparently on the same desktop. I don't think I'm getting any time soon though.

Tesla asks shareholders to reinstate Musk's voided $56B pay package

Re: Fuck that!

If Musk is there more, he might find the crayons again and draw something worse than the cyber truck.

Crypto conferences liquidated after biblical flooding in Dubai

Ban Crypto...

...and eliminate 99% of cyber ransom and other online fraud, help the planet by avoiding the equivalent of burning billions of tons of coal.

What is the downside, seriously?

Whistleblower cries foul over alleged fuselage gaps in Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Flaps in aircraft are commonly driven from a single motor via shafts to both wings, rather than individual motors or hydraulics, as the consequences asymmetric deployment are non recoverable.

Some smart meters won't be smart at all once 2/3G networks mothballed

British Gas new computer fsck up

British Gas are probably blaming 1st gen smart meters stopping working due to 2G/3G being phased out, but it is not, it's their own fsck up. I don't know if it is intensional or not though.

Despite having been built in 2017 our house has an 1st gen smart meter. It worked for first year we were with British Gas, then didn't for other suppliers as expected, when we came back to British Gas the meter started being smart again. However about 2 years ago British Gas upgraded their computer system which resulted in not being able to log in for several weeks, then we found they couldn't read the smart meter any more, and they started emailing us every month for readings. Now they are bugging us to upgrade to a 2nd Gen meter, normally using an unintelligible overseas call centre which drops the call half way through.

BTW: We are nowhere near ready to turn off 3G anyway, I was trying to read The Register on the train from Waterloo to the Portsmouth on Monday and it spent most of the time on 2G (so slow it might as well not be connected) or 3G (will display a page eventually), only patchy 4G and no sign of any 5G on O2.

Latest AMD Ryzen Pro chips are similar silicon, more smarts

I'll pick something that doesn't waste silicon on FP16 or FP8 which are useless for anything other than 'AI'.

SIM swap crooks solicit T-Mobile US, Verizon staff via text to do their dirty work

Re: Take the money

The have the cell Co's employees details, which no doubt includes their home address. You don't think they might come around and ask for their money back, nicely if course.

Open source versus Microsoft: The new rebellion begins

Re: EOL of Windows 10 makes choice easier

I wonder why Microsoft seems to spend more time looking for bugs in rivals products than they do their own.

You really are coming up with a lot of excuses for sticking with the borg, work as a Window's admin by any chance?

Re: The 3 assistants with fantastic people skills who effing hate computers

Are you seriously telling me you couldn't set a shortcut of ctrl+alg+g to a browser on Linux?

Re: Fingers crossed

I just can't get over the boat that's gone in to so many window mangers that KDE has become a relative lightweight.

Re: I wish them luck

Of course it is.

75% of enterprise coders will use AI helpers by 2028. We didn't say productively

Tl;dr

AI helps shit coders produce shit code faster.

Apple's failure to duck UK antitrust probe could bring £785M windfall for devs

Competition amongst devs should lower the price of apps, as long as the app store owner isn't allowed to bar having more than one of the same type of app, as Apple do.

Space Force boss warns 'the US will lose' without help from Musk and Bezos

Re: Just what we want

An idea would be to pack your satellites with 100Kg of ball bearings, so even if they are destroyed by accurate kinetic missiles, it will cause Kessler Syndrome anyway.

US broadband internet: Now with mandatory 'nutrition' labels

Monthly Rental?

In civilised nations you get the modem for free, and often the WiFi extender too. Even if you didn't you could buy your own and be up before two years.

Hailo's latest AI chip shows up integrated NPUs and sips power like fine wine

Running AI models on a laptop is as sensible as fitting a semi-tailer hitch to a bicycle.

PC shipments up for first quarter thanks to AI, say analysts

Re: expected demand is already pushing up the price of DRAM

No, it will be wasting a lot of silicon on FP8 performance, which is bugger all use for anything else. But at least it will have enough memory to last you through a few OS upgrades.

Post Office slapped down for late disclosure of documents in Horizon scandal inquiry

Re: her credibility for preaching & giving sermons on Christian values

Maybe we should have MPs on a jury duty style system?

Having served on several juries, I've seen that 12 people who have been pulled away from their lives to attend court every day, do not want to be there, and have no knowledge of how things work, is not the best way of doing anything never mind running the country. Generally one or two people with forceful personalities will come to the fore, and the others will go along them them just to get out of there quickly, and it wouldn't be long before you found yourself in a dictatorship.

MPs ask: Why is it so freakin' hard to get AI giants to pay copyright holders?

Wow

Following last nights US House mulls forcing AI makers to reveal use of copyrighted training data

A rare bit of joined up thinking on this side of the pond too!

US House mulls forcing AI makers to reveal use of copyrighted training data

Great news, but..

This is the best news I've heard on AI so far, but I'm pretty sure it will never be passed. The companies who have already invested billions in AI based on scraped and stolen data, wont hesitate to spend some more on lobbying against it.

Engine cover flies from Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 during takeoff

Re: Video looks like a landing not a takeoff

One of the interesting 'historical' features of the 737 is that it can't dump fuel so you either have to fly around ion circles for a few hours - not recommended if you suspect you have a bit of wing missing, or you land overweight and risk damaging some expensive concrete

You've got the last bit a bit backwards, a 737 isn't going to be too heavy for any runway long enough for it to land on as, but landing overweight may cause damage the landing gear or buckle the airframe.

Head of Israeli cyber spy unit exposed ... by his own privacy mistake

Re: "9% of them do so within three days"

It's not just cheating at games. I worked for a company making screen readers about 15 years ago, and the only way it could gather the information it needed to be able to describe and navigate another application's windows with sufficient detail was to install a DLL in it's process and read from it's memory. Terrible for security, but a god send for visually impaired users, and the reason why screen readers are not nearly as good on other platforms.

Want to keep Windows 10 secure? This is how much Microsoft will charge you

None of the dozens so far have.

Intel's foundry business bled $7B in 2023 with more to come

Re: Missed the mobile market

While I agree with you they made a massive mistake selling off their ARM business, there is no guarantee it would have given them much of a foothold in mobile - if you consider technical merit rather than marketing muscle.

The DEC engineers did a fantastic job to take the low power 40MHz ARM7, add Alpha cache technology and create the 230MHz StrongARM, but left in droves when Intel took over. Intel's development was the XScale, they upped the clock speed to 400 to 600 MHz but it was the worst ARM core ever produced, a long pipeline full of instruction barriers and extra cycles all over the place, pathetic memory bandwidth, and an errata that was longer than the ARM7s entire reference manual - basically the Pentium 4 of the ARM world. ARM very quickly regained the lead in performance with the ARM11, and has never produced anything so inelegant or broken.

But where did those DEC engineers go you ask? The answer is PA-Semi which was subsequently bought by Apple, and their magic is now behind the extraordinary performance of the M series Apple Silicon.