Posts by missingegg

Singapore software maker says own hardware in colo costs $400M less than cloud

My company has come to the same conclusion.

I work at a tech company that operates around 24,000 servers. We also believe we're saving a lot of money. But large scale infrastructure does take a fair bit of in-house expertise compared to using the cloud. Just for example, there isn't much in the way so usable bare metal fleet management software, from either commercial vendors or an open source project. But even with the incremental engineering costs needed to provide the software layer, we still think we're saving a lot of money. And those savings will grow as our business expands.

Larry Ellison fought internal battle to kill Oracle's first-generation cloud

Why would you want to do business with Oracle?

For databases, Oracle has an offering that might compel you to put up with their business practices. Even if you don't want the Oracle database directly, there are a lot of applications that are only designed to run on top of Oracle. But for cloud infrastructure and services, why the heck would anyone voluntarily do business with Oracle? Oracle now has a decades long pattern of building antagonistic relationships with their customers. I've unfortunately been on the receiving end of that. Even for databases, I'd normally pick a less capable database in order to avoid doing business with Oracle again.

AWS creates a quantum computing cloud with classical testbed plus rentable qubits

Drinking Game

Vulture central hasn't thought this one through. Considering the current uncertainty about the utility of quantum computers, it's obvious enough that Amazon is admitting anyone trying to build a quantum system will also need a good drinking game to help blow off steam.

FUSE for macOS: Why a popular open source library became closed source and commercially licensed

Open source is a tough business

There aren't that many examples of financially successful open source software businesses. It sadly doesn't surprise me that he's been forced to take this step. Most companies I talk to are basically unwilling to pay for software. They're so used to getting what they need for free, most of their staff don't even know how to go about negotiating a software license even if they wanted to. Not to mention that they'll generally prefer to use bad open source software over paying a nominal amount for a well written closed source competitor. While I benefit as much as anyone else from all the open source software available, I do feel bad for those who are trying to make a living from writing it.

Cops storm Nginx's Moscow offices after a Russian biz claims it owns world's most widely used web server, not F5

Re: Nah

At least in the USA, that's not how copyright works. You don't have to actively enforce your rights to retain them. Perhaps you're thinking about trademark rights, which have a very different legal framework?

Massachusetts city tells ransomware scumbags to RYUK off, our IT staff will handle this easily

Re: If you have a Russinovich at hand...

I worked at a particular well known tech company last year. They had a well funded and quite experienced security team. They felt that best practices called for destroying client devices that had even potentially been compromised. It was just too challenging to keep up with all the potential hacks and risks that each device was subject to, and that's not even getting into the issue of zero day attacks.

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

Yay for whoever designs highway construction safety measures!

That is a really good video. Stepping away from the Tesla specific conversation, I'm impressed at how well the highway crew's safety measures worked. The large but light plastic barrels appear to have done minimal damage to the vehicle. They also don't seem to have risked the vehicle going out of control and causing a more severe accident than was already in the cards. And I'm guessing that the impact noise rapidly woke the driver up, and thus he was able to pull to the side before hitting the truck. Seems like a good outcome all around.

Now I'd like to see a video of vehicle colliding with the safety truck, to see how well it's engineered.

Tesla driver killed after smashing into truck had just enabled Autopilot – US crash watchdog

Re: What's the point?

I agree that in an ideal world, human drivers would first be well trained, and then when operating a vehicle would maintain complete focus on the task of driving, taking breaks whenever they're unable to continue doing so. But we just don't live in an ideal world. Across any large population of drivers, many people will fall short of what I'd like to see. The question for driver assist technology is whether or not it results in fewer accidents, injuries, and deaths. Tesla claims their data says that it does. I'd like to see an independent analysis of that, but I'm inclined to believe them.

Big Tech leapt on the blockchain bandwagon but its applications are stuck in cryptocurrency

Re: Coffee chain

What exactly would be the benefit of a blockchain in such a system, compared to a traditional centralized tracking system? I'm guessing there's no real benefit, just substantial costs.

A2 Hosting finds 'restore' the hardest word as Windows outage slips into May

Frontloaded

If you think about it, any length outage fits in 99.9% uptime. They're just calculating over a longer timescale than you expected.

Hipster whines at tech mag for using his pic to imply hipsters look the same, discovers pic was of an entirely different hipster

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

That's why I wanted to name my daughter Ilkris the Destroyer. Sadly, the hubby wouldn't go for it. I got the last laugh though: she does have a knack for breaking things.

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

Re: Good article. Assuming TheRegister is clean with our data.

"Grifter" is American slang for a con man.

Tech world mulls threat as new round of US China trade tariffs looms

Re: Foot, meet bullet

Does it have to be either or? In the past I've found the combination of bending over and pushing back has resulted in a most satisfying, er, "transaction".

I'll get my coat now.

Oracle's new Java SE subs: Code and support for $25/processor/month

Give Azul a call

Why anyone would enter into a business arrangement with Oracle baffles me. Azul has a supported build of OpenJDK, as well as their commercial version of Java with a garbage collector that won't randomly pause your applications, along with a variety of other nice improvements. The only way I'd use Oracle Java is if I got the license "free" along with other Oracle products that I was using.

Hate to ruin your day, but... Boffins cook up fresh Meltdown, Spectre CPU design flaw exploits

Re: Time for NUMA, Embrace your Inner CSP

I love Rust, but it doesn't do that much to enable performant software in NUMA systems. Rust protects against various kinds of memory misuse. Good NUMA software requires clever planning to get the data needed for an operation on the same node the code is running on. Naively written CSP code will flood whatever memory fabric the hardware uses, and prevent code from executing for lack of the data it needs.

WhitTVman to head mobile-first media platform

Paypal?

I imagine the board of directors at Ebay will be very surprised to learn about Whitman's work at PayPal.

Mass limit proposed so boffins can tell when they've fingered a brown dwarf or a fat planet

Makes me cringe

That artist's conception is just terrible. The diameter of the Sun is roughly 1% of the distance from the Sun to Earth. If the actual scale of the solar system even vaguely resembled the picture, the Sun would fill most of the day time sky.

Users clutch refilled Box boxen after 'empty' folder panic

Re: 3-2-1

I agree with you. But considering most users appear to do absolutely nothing to ensure they don't lose their data, moving it into a cloud storage service probably provides a significant increase in reliability for them.

Last week: Microsoft accused of covering up rape claim. This week: Microsoft backs anti-cover-up law ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: It's a start

I don't see why it would be up to Microsoft. If she has a valid restraining order, she can have it served on the other person, and they have to follow it, regardless of what Microsoft says. If the order requires the other person to take appropriate action to stay some distance away, then it's not her responsibility to move. Restraining orders can be challenged, and the person should get a lawyer if they think they have a case.

Leaky-by-design location services show outsourced security won't ever work

It's a matter of incentives

Companies, whether app vendors, cloud service providers, OS makers, or device manufacturers will never put constant ongoing attention into user privacy and security until they have a strong incentive to do so. The situation in the USA is particularly bad, but AFAIK it isn't that much better anywhere else.

Short of legislation that gives end users clear rights to monetary damages without the need to demonstrate financial harm, companies will continue to sacrifice privacy and security for other goals where they have clear incentives. I promise you, the moment that companies are exposed to risk of damages at a scale that threatens the profitability of their enterprise, we'll see an abrupt change in attitudes.

The problem, of course, if how to write such legislation that gives clarity to both companies and end-users what privacy and security is expected. Privacy actually seems a little easier to tackle to me, but certainly isn't easy in any absolute sense.

You've been baffled by its smart thermostat. Now strap in for Nest's IoT doorbell, alarm gear

Re: They haven't quite figured this out

RIng appears to live up to their promise: my best friend has a Ring that was stolen, and Ring supplied a replacement without any hassle.

Taken a while but finally here's the first proper smart-home gizmo

Re: Want/need?

So now corkscrews will need an antennae, a GPS chip, and enough power to operate them? No thanks, I stick to my trusty analog one.

Revealed: The naughty tricks used by web ads to bypass blockers

Advertising is malware

In my view, everyone should avoid all ads, because all ads present a security problem. Online ads certainly have the potential to have an embedded browser exploit, but even offline ads are still usually malware. Advertising takes heavy advantage of psychological research on the flaws in human decision making, and a large proportion of all advertising is attempting to bypass the viewer's rational processes and influence them to make a decision that is not well considered.

I understand that many businesses depend on advertising for their revenue. But I don't see why I should subject myself to adverting because of that. My desire to avoid attempts to hack my brain overwhelms any concern I have for the economic viability of a business.

Salesforce sacks two top security engineers for their DEF CON talk

not significant in the USA

In the United States, "Director" is a title commonly assigned to middle managers, and is used to indicate you have significant responsibility, but are less senior than a Vice President. It is not a legally significant title.

Hey, remember that monkey selfie copyright drama a few years ago? Get this – It's just hit the US appeals courts

Re: Devil's Advocate

While I don't necessarily think that animals should be able to hold copyright, I completely reject your argument that giving rights to animals will somehow drag down humans. I believe human rights exist to try and prevent the ill-treatment of humans. Not because we need to be differentiated from animals. Your argument that giving rights to animals will diminish humans is perilously close to the argument that homosexual people can't be allowed to marry, because it somehow devalues traditional heterosexual marriage.

Five Eyes nations stare menacingly at tech biz and its encryption

Re: I need educating

I don't claim to have any expertise in Swiss politics. But it's not clear to me that there's no chance of the Swiss government deciding that they'd like a peek at your email. Are you confident that there isn't a certificate authority that won't hand over a private key to the NSA and allow them to man-in-the-middle your load of the web app? Are you confident that the US government can't exert enough pressure on Google or Apple to put a compromised version of the app into their respective stores? The structure of software businesses and distribution channels leave a lot of attack surface for a government to poke at.

Re: I need educating

Don't kid yourself: if a government with appropriate legal authority shows up and demands access, ProtonMail will have to make a choice: go to prison, or push a software update that compromises the security of their system. Any form of software that readily accepts updates from the vendor is inherently insecure. Lavabit shutdown their entire business rather than give in to the government. But how do you decide which vendors your trust to make that decision?

Tesla, Atlassian told to go through front door in effort to save Australian industrial civilisation

Re: Not fixing the problem

In what parallel universe do you live? Enron was the product of "free market" zealots thinking that deregulating power markets would be a good idea. The overlap of greenies and free market zealots probably isn't zero, but it's a pretty exclusive club.

Good guy Logic Supply resolves breach in days, unlike some companies

Re: They deserve an award

Agreed. Our security team has a defense-in-depth strategy, recognizing that there will always be vulnerabilities that allow someone to hack into your system. It's important to slow them down once they get in, and have good detection in place so that you realize something has gone wrong. Organizations that think they can stay on top of security patches and prevent anyone from ever breaching their front-line defenses are just setting themselves up for embarrassment.

'Completely offended' Sheila calls cops over price-gouging ganja dealer

Re: This:

No confusion there: that's why you breath in deeply and hold it. To capture as much "carbon" as possible. It's all very green.

At least, so I've heard. Wouldn't know myself, of course.

IETF 'reviewing' US event plans in the face of Trump's travel ban

Re: an anti-intellectual and racist presidency?

@Ian Michael Gumby

You don't seem to be doing too well with the facts in your comments on this story. First, Australia is receiving refugees from more countries than just the ones banned by Trump. Sri Lanka, for example. Second, Australia isn't refusing these refugees because they're dangerous. They take thousands of refugees every year, including from the 7 countries, just not ones who arrive by boat. The Australian government feels that accepting boat refugees will encourage criminal gangs of human smugglers. Those same people would have been able to apply as refugees if they'd been able to arrive by air.

Stanford boffins find 'correlation between caffeine consumption and longevity'

Re: So what I really need is.....

I think blueberries (possibly already covered by your "fruit" ingredient) and garlic need to be added if you really want to maximize the life extending possibilities.

Top of the bots: This AI isn't a cold, cruel killing machine – it's a pop music hit machine

Re: Call that music?

Not sure if Aibo is strong enough to pick up a TV, but it seems pretty clear that self-driving cars are advanced enough to drive into swimming pools. New form of Turing test?

Google crafts custom networking CPU with parallel computing links

Could be similar to Azul's Vega chips

Hard to say much without more detail, but Azul Systems very successfully built massively parallel compute appliances last decade. They put 54 CPUs on a die, and 16 fully meshed chips per server, for 864 CPUs in a flat memory space machine. And that was with floating point units and 64 bit support. Most of the transistor budget in such a chip goes into various levels of cache, but I'd expect an integer only 32 bit chip would be somewhat more dense.

Azul still makes a very nice JVM, but now they're focused on Linux/x86.