Posts by Stoke the atom furnaces

Intel reveals Optane SSDs: 375GB to start, at surprising speed

Re: Competition at last?

"Optane is not supported on AMD."

Why not? Optane is just an SSD.

Microsoft kills Windows Vista on April 11: No security patches, no hot fixes, no support, nada

Microsoft "Technology"

"Microsoft ... invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences."

Apart from shiteware like cortana, metro interface, edge etc., is there any technology that is useful in Windows 10 that Vista (or stable OSes like XP or NT4.0 come to think of it) did not have?

Spies do spying, part 97: Shock horror as CIA turn phones, TVs, computers into surveillance bugs

"Anyone know what channels they need to go through to hack a telly?"

Spy-TV of course.

Did your in-flight entertainment widget suck? It's Panasonic's fault, claims software biz

Obsolete.

In the days of cheap tablets who still uses these crappy airline IFE entertainment systems?

So. 256GB. 3D NAND. MicroSD. SanDisk. $199. Any further questions?

256GB MicroSD? WOW.

And I remember thinking that it was very cool that 1.44MB FDDs had become cheap enough to give way on the front covers of computer magazines.

Hopping the flash stepping stones to DIMM future

Move from 64 to 128bit addressing?

I would say that 16 exbibytes of memory (2^64 bits) is enough for anybody :-)

Thanks for the Memory (article)

Great article!

I guess at some point larger on chip CPU SRAM caches and low latency high bandwidth Flash based non-volatile storage combine to make DRAM redundant for many low end systems.

I still wonder though why the DIMMs fitted to current high end machines have not yet dumped DRAM in favour of SRAM. For applications that are not so sensitive to price and power consumption (a high end gaming rig for example) the lower latency of the SRAM would give a useful performance boost.

Intel reveals Optane will need a 7th-gen core and a PC-centric launch

Anyone understand what Intel are doing here?

Have they finally gotten around to plumbing flash memory directly into the address space of their CPUs, rather than having all processor<->SSD I/O squeeze through a serial ATA interface?

Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

"Trump drained the swamp."

Seen his tax returns? Trump is the swamp.

Brexit could further harm woeful rural payments system

Cheaper food at the supermarket.

Here's to the end of all price support mechanisms and agricultural production subsidies that keep food at the supermarket expensive.

Microsoft's device masterplan shows it's still fighting Apple

Why !

My car does not mow the lawn or wash the dishes, so why do I need a 2in1 computer? I like different devices for different tasks.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update crushed exploits without need of patches

Why?

Microsoft Windows was originally launched in November 1985.

You have to wonder why after 30+ years it is still has vulnerabilities that need patching.

Qualcomm, Microsoft plot ARM Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones

BBC BASIC V

All for Windows on ARM if it runs ARM Basic.

Silicon Valley VCs: We're gonna make California great again – on its own

Re: Last time

The US Pacific Fleet is based at Naval Base San Diego, CA.

Microsoft goes back to the drawing board – literally, with 28" tablet and hockey puck knob

The WIMPs interface was a mature technology 20 years ago, anything that was worth adding to Windows was added to it years ago.

MS should concentrate on debugging and rewriting its bloated Windows software, not producing a bunch of new crap that no one outside of MS marketing department is remotely interested in.

Ubuntu 17.04 'Zesty Zapus'

'[' follows 'Z' in ASCII.

Re: An den......?

Like hurricanes, Ubuntu can start using the Greek alphabet. Watch out for Alpha African Swallow next year.

US Marine Corps to fly F-35s from HMS Queen Lizzie as UK won't have enough jets

Harrier Jump Jet

The USMC also operates ahighly versatile STVOL aircraft called the Harrier.

Maybe the MoD could look into operating an anglicised version of this aircraft from the Queen Elizabeth?

Windows 10 Anniversary on a Raspberry Pi: Another look at IoT Core

BSODing IoT devices.

Can a headless Windows 10 device automatically reboot itself when it BSODs?

SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in Pacific carrying 12 moustronauts

Re: Deja Vu

Good point, and it is hardly as if dozens of humans have not been born after their parents went into space. Go experiment on them!

'Second Earth' exoplanet found right under our noses – just four light years away

Re: Red Dwarf

Given the planet is probably tidally locked to the star then the working day would never end - ever.

Re: Green? Blue? Brown?

Wouldn't a blue ocean also require an oxygen atmosphere for the same reasons the sky and oceans of the Earth are blue?

The calm before the storm: AMD's Zen bears down on Intel CPUs

Blakes 7

For these of us who remember late 70s/early 80s BBC SciFi, 'Zen' is an awesome name but is each core now called a Tarriel Cell?

Shocker: Computer science graduate wins a top UK political job

Re: SSEE-U

I thought the SSEE-U was the 'Sexit'

James Callaghan

James Callaghan did pass the Oxford University entrance exam, but coming from working class Portsmouth was too poor to take up his place.

England just not windy enough for wind farms, admits renewables boss

Re: Erm, wot?!

The industrial revolutionaries ditched sailing ships and machinery powered by water wheels when coal fired steam engines became available.

Wind power is a dead duck in the UK.

Very few people want an onshore wind turbine anywhere near their backyard, not least because of the negative impact on house prices. As for the eye wateringly high price of offshore wind, that has been well and truly undercut by cheap Chinese built solar panels.

SpaceX adds Mars haulage to its price list

Trip to Mars

"$90m buys you up to 13,600kg of cargo on a Falcon Heavy."

Interesting. Admittedly designed for a weaker gravity field than Mars, but the gross mass of the Ascent Stage of the Apollo Lunar Module was only 4,700 kg.

Space archeologist discovers new evidence of Vikings invading America

Not the first

Didn't the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu reach America before the Vikings ?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hLTgMY-IhXY

Sir Clive Sinclair in tech tin-rattle triumph

The original Spectrum Vega has a Freescale i.MX23 SoC, so I guess it is safe to assume that the Vega+ will have the same hardware. And it does have an ARM9 core.

It would be awesome if you can write your own programs for the device. Spectum or Z80 BBC Basic anyone?

Is it known know what CPU / microcontroller the device is build around (irony of ironies if it is Acorn/ARM based 8-) ) ?

Toshiba rolls out PC-busting monster: 1 terabyte TLC flash SSD

Why SATA

Why do SSDs still use disk drive interfaces such as SATA?

Surely a computer would be much faster if, like DRAM, these flash memory chips were wired directly to the CPU's data and address buses?

SpaceX breaks capsule 'chute world record

Re: The correct number of parachutes to own is n+1

"Apollo could land (albeit quite bumpy) after losing a chute."

Apollo 15 did loose a chute :-

http://www.universetoday.com/103983/apollo-15-stand-by-for-a-hard-impact/

NASA books space shuttle delivery truck

Re: Waste

"But...but... they look cool."

But only in a 1970s retro-futuristic way.

Like SpaceX, let's build Apollo-shaped capsules that can go to Mars rather than space planes with heavy but superfluous wings and undercarriages.

Waste

NASA confined itself to low earth orbit for half a century when it foolishly scrapped Apollo style capsules in favour of the winged Space Shuttle. Winged spacecraft have lower reentry speeds and squander payload mass boosting both wings and the undercarriage into space, which is why the Russians (Soyuz) and SpaceX have stuck with capsules and parachutes for re-entry and landing.

Let's hope that there is an outbreak of common sense before NASA wastes too much more money on winged or lifting body space vehicles..

Re: Awful

"some of the more fragile payloads that need returning from the ISS will be damaged or destroyed on landing"

Amazon solve that problem millions of times a day with bubble wrap.

Awful

So, lots of potential payload mass wasted carting the lifting body shape and the undercarriage into space each flight.

Honest to goodness Apollo style parachutes work just fine, are far lighter, and do not result in loss of vehicle if the glide approach to the runway is screwed up (No Buran-style jet engines for a go around).

Why is NASA wasting money on this frivolity?

Petrol cars are dead in the water, says Tesla CTO waving numbers on the back of an envelope

Re: @Derpity Still a bit confused

Bio diesel is terrible stuff for the environment, especially when burnt in an old car. Bio fuels take farmland out of growing useful food, increasing fuel prices so the poor go hungry, whilst diesel engines degrade air quality with carcinogenic particulates. Fracked shale gas to power CNG vehicles is a better option; lower CO2 emissions than petrol or diesel and much cleaner exhaust emissions.

Wrap up warm

Your Norwegian arctic guy is stuffed if he wants to drive any distance in an ev with the heater on, better wrap up warm; brrrrrrr.

Hurrah! Windfarms produce whopping one per cent of EU energy

Well said Lewis.

The wind energy industry needs to go and put its collective thinking cap on and come up with a solution to how to keep the lights on when the wind does not blow, other than relying on the existing fossil fuel fired infrastructure that produces all the CO2 that the enviros are so exercised about. Until then, the UK should be building nukes.

China wants to build a 200km-long undersea tunnel to America

Barrage

Wasn't there a geo-engineering proposal to build a barrage across the Bering Strait to prevent warm water from the Pacific entering the Arctic and melting the ice cap? The same barrage would have a road and railway line running across it.

PLUTO: The FINAL FRONTIER – best image yet of remote, icy dwarf planet REVEALED

"What about the petunias?"

Did 'Oh no, not again' go through its mind?

PLUTO: the FINAL FRONTIER ???

There are at least 3 dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Pluto (Eris, Haumea, and Makemake).

Surely we do not want our ignorance of these worlds to remain intact?

Land Rover's return: Last orders and leather seats for Defender nerds

The life of the Austin FX4 London taxi cab was extended by fitting it with a more modern Nissan diesel engine.

Why not something similar for the Landrover?

Comcast flees $45bn monster-merger with Time Warner Cable

Adios Comcast

We switched from Comcast to phone company internet at the start of this year, ditching ad laden cable TV in the process.

We were concerned that Verizon internet would not be fast enough to stream video across, but its performance seems similar to what we were getting from Comcast cable at a fraction of the price, so we made a good move :-)

'Camera-shy' Raspberry Pi 2 suffers strange 'XENON DEATH FLASH' glitch

Blu-tack was Sir Clive's solution to 16kbyte RAM packs falling off the back of his ZX81 computers. Raspberry Pi Foundation are recreating the computing experience of those of us who were lucky enough to be around in the 1980s in more ways than one.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: The Red Dwarf chilli chutney egg sarnie

Student fayre

Beat three large eggs together with curry powder, fry in butter, and serve between two doorstep wedges of granary bread with liberal amounts Sharwoods lime pickle. Delicious.

Why Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2? Upton: 'I drank the Kool-Aid'

Windows 10.

When you look at the dark side, careful you must be... for the dark side looks back.

It’s payback time as humans send a probe up alien body

Nuclear RTG Battery

ESA, next time take some plutonium-238 with you, instead of relying on unreliable, intermittent solar panels.

Of COURSE Stephen Elop's to blame for Nokia woes, says author

Re: So...

""He was wrong, but could anybody have reliably predicted it at the time?"

Bollocks, it didn't take the brains of an Archbishop to see that Elop, Windows Phone and Nokia were a slow motion train wreck.

Re my El Reg comment of the 15th August 2012 :-

"Long shot The best thing that Nokia can now do is to fire Elop and switch to the Android platform.

It would be messy, but it would offer Nokia their best chance of survival as an independent company."