Posts by Spazturtle

What a surprise! Apple found a way to deliver browser engine and app store choice

Except you can't lock them down as tightly as iOS was before, and many users won't know how to anyway.

Previously they had the choice of buying a locked down platform or an open platform. Now they can only buy an open platform.

Yes but the fact that is it possible is enough of a worry in itself. For example you now need to worry that your kids might install a 3rd party app store to bypass parental controls, or your elderly mother might click on a disguised advert and follow the instructions to install malware.

Hopefully there is someway to permanently disable the ability to install 3rd party app stores, preferably with a hardware fuse. Otherwise iOS devices have lost one of their main attractions and users have less choice than before.

Dell exec reveals Nvidia has a 1,000-watt GPU in the works

Re: Bitcoin mining 2.0?

EDIT: Opps, for the 8 GPUs per 1U it should be 384kW for a 48U rack.

Which is why backside power delivery is the next big thing in chips, so that the wire run inside the chip is minimised.

Re: Bitcoin mining 2.0?

You can fit 4 GPUs into a 2U air-cooled SXM server, so for a 48U rack that is 96kW of GPUs alone, then add the CPUs, other parts and the monster fans you need to cool 4kW+ from a 2U chassis. For water-cooled SXM servers you can get 8 GPUs per 1U so 192kW per 48U rack.

These won't be PCI-e cards, they plug into a big CPU style socket called SXM. I can't find a pinout diagram so this is just a guess, but at 12v you have could have 1000 pins carrying 0.08A.

HDMI Forum 'blocks AMD open sourcing its 2.1 drivers'

Re: Does AMD

Earlier HDMI was just DVI with a custom connector.

HDMI 2.0 and onwards are a completely different spec, packet based like DisplayPort.

AMD may have failed to dumb down its chips enough to allow China sales

Re: Makes sense not to sell to Russia...

Given Xi Jinping's behaviour it is pretty much a guarantee that there will be a war between the west and China within the next 15 years. When China's economy collapses due to their demographics the CCP will be overthrown, so they will start a war to invade Taiwan before that happens to try and distract the population.

German defense chat overheard by Russian eavesdroppers on Cisco's WebEx

Re: Paranoia Is Mandatory In 2024!!

"So why is anyone surprised when we learn that the Russians have figured out some of the Fort Meade "enhancements" to Cisco products?"

The Russians didn't hack in or intercept anything, the meeting was left open and a Russian agent simply joined it and left his camera off.

Palantir boss says outfit's software the only reason the 'goose step' has not returned to Europe

Social justice is the term Hitler used to describe punishing people for the supposed crimes of their ancestors and others of their racial group, it's the argument he used as justification for going after the Jews.

On-disk format change beckons for brave early adopters of Bcachefs

Re: I don't trust btrfs either...

Yeah I have lost systems to btrfs before as well, every time they promise it is now stable some new data eating bug pops up.

Today in tech layoffs: Sony Interactive and Expedia

Just to add that Jim Ryan was in London for his retirement party 5 days ago hosted by the very studio that Sony just shut, being the head of Sony's gaming division he would have known.

So he had made them throw him a party and then shut them down.

That home router botnet the Feds took down? Moscow's probably going to try again

Facebook and Google won't send embassy staff to beat you up on the street or send agents to kill you.

Capita wins uncontested extension to mega millions Northern Ireland Education contract

Capita is a very poor company to have shares in, their share price has plummeted and they haven't paid dividends since 2017.

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

Re: Fire in haste, regret at leisure

It doesn't need to be proven, if a judge asks you to provide the password and you don't then they can just throw you in prison for contempt.

UK courts do not accept forgetting a password as a valid excuse for not providing it.

The same applies if the police ask you to provide a password under a Section 49 notice of the Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act.

Just don't fuck around with this sort of thing to try and troll somebody, just tell them to fuck off and block their number.

Re: Fire in haste, regret at leisure

Careful with that, UK law considers passwords to be the same as physical keys, so they remain the property of your employer. What you are suggesting can land you in the dock for extortion.

Trident missile test a damp squib after rocket goes 'plop,' fails to ignite

Re: What the hell?

"Still not convinced it was cheaper than a steel or titanium tube."

It was because they purchased sheets of pre-impregnated carbon fibre that Boeing was getting rid of because they had expired (already cured too much waiting to be used).

When I first read about the sub I assumes that they had ring spun the whole tube as a single piece of carbon fibre, but no, they got a plastic tube and started sticking sheets of carbon fibre to it overlapping them. They might of well have used papier-mâché.

Re: What the hell?

In practice it wasn't made out of carbon fibre, it was made out of the glue holding the carbon fibre together.

The carbon fibres in carbon fibre composite provide no strength in compression. Like a piece of string when you push both ends together they just crumple up. The carbon fibres only add strength when it expansion, so when each end is being pulled. Which is why they are so good for compressed gas tanks where the pressure is on the inside.

Re: What the hell?

US subs are also steel, only the USSR made titanium subs. Titanium subs have the issue that they are limited to around 300 dives due to micro cracks accumulating in the hull. Steel hulls don't have this limit due to the 'self-healing' capability of steel.

Rice isn't nice for drying your iPhone, according to Apple

Re: Maybe isopropyl alcohol ?

"Or just shut the thing in a box with a small peltier dehumidifier ?"

Or just use Silica Gel Desiccant?

Neuralink patient masters mind-mouse maneuvers – if Musk is to be believed

Re: Long term care after the tech is declared obsolete

From what I have read it is highly unlikely that the patients selected for this trial will live beyond the length of the trail due to the nature of their illnesses.

The FDA requires that the device either last for the remainder of the patient's natural life or there be an approved process for removing it, since we have not seen Nuralink submit a process for removing it we can assume that they have gone for the first option. Once the patient is dead they will likely use the body to develop the removal process prior to testing it on living patients.

WATSON picks up slack on Mars for SHERLOC as Perseverance gadgets show age

Re: Ingenuity also far outlived all expectations before its retirement.

And how do you expect Congress to react when NASA comes to them asking for more money for a new rover/probe after shutting down a working rover?

Re: Ingenuity also far outlived all expectations before its retirement.

Lasting longer than planned does have downsides.

Spirit and Opportunity had a listed mission of 90 days but engineers expected them to last 120 days before the solar panels got covered in dust. They didn't know about the wind being able to clean the solar panels until after landing. Spirit and Opportunity lasting years longer meant that extra staff and budget had to be allocated to them which meant that over projects got cancelled.

Moving to Windows 11 is so easy! You just need to buy a PC that supports it!

Re: cool beans!

"half of that is waiting for the Bios to do whatever it does" "64Gb memory"

The more memory you have the longer it takes to initialise all of it.

Tesla's Cybertruck may not be so stainless after all

Alcohol is a bad choice for cleaning product as it damages all the seals that re used on cars for example around the windows. Petrol is a better choice and is what people used with the DeLorean.

This is one of the reasons why airlines stopped using 'naked' liveries for their planes. Even aluminium corrodes too fast if unprotected, so they needed a clear coat to protect them. But the clear coats actually weigh more than white paint.

Please install that patch – but don't you dare actually run it

Re: This must rate as the most moronic management policy ...

"What's to stop a motherboard with a battery in it having the battery tracks / pins shorted?"

The little sticker or pull tab keeping the battery disconnected during shipping. Most motherboards also can survive quite a lot of shorting, good ones even give different errors codes/LEDs for different parts shorting. A lot of people forget to use the standoffs when installing the motherboard and short it against the case.

Closure of Windows 10 upgrade path still catching users by surprise

Re: To be fair…

The easiest way to get a Win 10 licence associated with a Microsoft account was to install Windows 7, activate it with KMS-Pico (which activates it with a generic OEM licence) and then download the Windows 10 upgrader and run it.

Upgrading a copy of Windows 7 that used a consumer licence key was much less reliable at getting a Win 10 licence added to your account.

Fujitsu finance chief says sorry for IT giant's role in Post Office Horizon scandal

I don't think he is unwilling to do it, I think he is just incapable of doing his job. Look at his flagship new bills, banning disposable vapes, this is the sort of thing that is normally done by backbenchers with private member bills.

Dems and Repubs agree on something – a law to tackle unauthorized NSFW deepfakes

"There is no 1st Amendment right to make porn with someone's image"

That's not what people were saying when newspapers published comics of Trump sucking Putin's penis.

Linus Torvalds flames Google kernel contributor over filesystem suggestion

Re: If the didn't insist on sticking with a monolithic kernel they wouldn't have these arguments...

The Management Engine in all modern Intel CPUs runs Minix 3 which is a microkernel OS. The Nintendo 3DS and Switch run a microkernel OS called Horizon.

Logitech warns of logistical impact of Houthi attacks in Red Sea

Re: Welcome to the future

This is part of why Turkey/Azerbaijan have recently renewed conflict with Armenia. Erdogan wants to establish a pan-Turkic empire, you could have an overland/rail trade route going Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan and onwards.

Microsoft hires energy mavericks in quest for nuclear-powered datacenters

Re: I finally wish them well

No sure if you are aware but they have had multiple changes in leadership and philosophy since then.

Re: I finally wish them well

Implying that Microsoft dogfoods their own software, their critical servers probably run Linux.

Tesla Cybertruck gets cyberstuck during off-roading expedition

Re: Sports Futility Vehicle

Bethesda at least publishes documentation on their engine and supports mods.

Florida man slams 'tyranny' of central bank digital currencies in re-election bid

"Biden has quietly gone along and erased billions in student debt"

No he has added it to the pile of national debt that the working class have to pay for.

Japan's lunar lander is dying before our eyes after setting down on Moon

Re: A CHEST FULL OF DRAWERS! - As You Recall

The space suits needed tube shaped filters to fit in the backpack, the capsule needed flatter rectangular ones due to size constraints.

The decision was made that the lander would use the same filters as the suits rather then the capsule so that if there was an issue on the Moon they would have spares. Using the lander as a lifeboat and making a filter adapter were planned contingencies.

Perfect timing... US Navy throws Boeing $103M to update its sub recon jets

Re: Third-Party Inspections

The build in engine de-icer on the 737 Max series does not run on a timer or temperature sensor, it is just a switch that you turn on and turn off. But if you leave it on too long it gets too hot and damages the composite engine cowlings.

This issues is present on all versions of the 737 Max including ones currently flying, it's not considered a critical defect so the Max 8, 9 and 10 can continue flying, but since the Max 7 is not yet approved it is blocking that.

Boeing is paying Ryanair to inspect all of the grounded 737s not just the ones Ryanair has ordered.

Ryanair actually have very good maintenance teams, O'Leary knows that the one thing that will stop people flying Ryanair is seeing a crashed plane with the Ryanair name on the side.

Researchers confirm what we already knew: Google results really are getting worse

Google now assumes that all searches are written in dialogue. For example "How do I prune an Apple tree?" rather than "Apple tree pruning". So it will ignore words that it thinks are fluff.

But this has made it impossible to search for a less common thing that is only 1 word away from a more common thing.

BT to spell out contract price hikes in pounds and pence

Re: Where the fuck did UK journalists go to school ?

"Not a single journalist countered - "Er, excuse me. Don't you pay tax after subtracting how much you have invested ?""

No because the UK doesn't have 100% expensing for capital investment (except as of 2023 for plant machinery), instead it is split over multiple years.

You as a company buy a server for £1000, you can subtract 12.5% of it's current value (with its purchase cost as the upper cap) from your revenue each year for 8 years.

Year 1 you can subtract £125 from your revenue.

Year 2 the servers value has dropped to £800 so you can only subtract £100 from your revenue

Year 2 the server is only worth £500, so you can only subtract £62.50

Etc for years 4 to 8.

Buildings are 4% for 25 years.

This is why business don't invest in the UK, 100% expensing (I would prefer it to be over 100% like the temporary 130% during covid) + a higher corporation tax would boost investment.

Multinational companies invest in countries where they are rewarded for investing and pull dividends from countries with low corporation tax.

US Supreme Court doesn't want to hear Apple, Epic's gripes about in-app purchases

They are allowed to charge a fee for hosting and distributing the app on their app store as that costs them money.

Apple have long maintained that their 30% cut is split into a 27% hosting fee and a 3% payment fee. So by using a 3rd party payment provider you only save the 3% payment fee.

Asahi Linux team issues promising update on efforts to conquer Apple Silicon

Re: Meanwhile at Apple...

Meanwhile in reality Apple issued an update to make booting Linux easier.

Going green Hertz: Rental giant axes third of EV fleet over lack of demand

The problem is repairs, if you look at the mileage on them they usually have done around 20k to 30k miles so they are pretty much end of life and not worth the repair costs.

NASA, Lockheed Martin reveal subtly supersonic X-59 plane

Re: No Front Windscreen?

Forward vision in not needed to fly a plane, you can do landings without front windows or instruments. Lindbergh didn't have a front window on his plane.

Former Post Office boss returns CBE to sender over computer system scandal

No the Supreme Court in the UK doesn't have the power to strike down laws. Parliament changed the law to stop people being charged board and lodging.

eBay to cough up $3M after cyber-stalking couple who dared criticize the souk

This was a criminal trial, so the state is the victim (as they are in all criminal trials). It was the state's laws that were broken, so the offence was against the state.

It is the still ongoing civil trial where the Steiners are the victim.

PC 'price hike' coming as cost of memory soars – analysts

Production was cut a few months ago as they were making a loss, prices have already begun to rise. In this case Gartner is about 2 months late.