Posts by bernardo.ortiz

What is Google doing with its open source teams?

FYI - definition of layoffs (as opposed to firing) is getting rid of those you do like, including best and brightest. You do it because you don't have the resources to keep them employed. Layoffs are never a good thing.

Arm execs: We respect RISC-V but it's not a rival in the datacenter

Re: What goes around comes around

The whole concept of RISC was that the bottleneck was in the decoder. Three things happened:

1) heavy use of caching during the 90's hide the problems with CISC architectures

2) The second generation of RISC added instructions, since they did not fit in existing instruction counts, they added escape codes - becoming CISC themselves. Such instructions include the SIMD instructions added by CRAY to their processors.

3) RISC is and was a project out of Berkley. More value from the University was added by supporting current infrastructure, and peripheral needs (OS development (UNIX-bsd), compilers, etc.) Now that we are reaching scaling limits (atomic sizes), reducing transistor count for the same operation once again makes sense (unless we figure out how to make sub-atomic transistors).

Typical definitions. Right now, what is already on the market. Near future, already tapped out and in validation (can take up to a year). Always a huge deal, marketing wise. Doesn't really matter, engineering wise. I mean, it really doesn't tell you what people are working on, what's already in the pipeline.

I agree. RISC-V appears to be following the same foot steps as ARM. First develop embedded processors to get the volume on your side, then move upmarket. All the pieces are there to take RISC-V to the data center and supercomputer realms, does not appear that anyone is going there yet. Remember, it does take significantly longer to develop a datacenter processor, post silicon validation takes more than twice as long. More corner cases, more sense of "state".

Embedded requires better knowledge of time precision of an operation, meaning the difference in time between best case scenario and worst case scenario needs to be minimized. Here, RISC-V appears to do very well, competitively.

Re: More bad news for Intel

It appears that Intel joined the forum to build RISC-V hardware emulators, for RTL design. Intel just recently put these systems up for sale to processor developers. It appears that Intel has never had the intention of developing their own RISC processors, but just the development tools.

Tesla's autonomous lane changing software is worse at driving than humans, and more

Unconstrained College Students Dataset:

In this article the collection of student images was collected and redistributed. This is illegal in California, if not world wide, for violating copyright laws. In California you can take a picture in a public area without permission only for private use. To sell or share with Gov or private institutions (even if non-profit) you must acquire a written model release form from all individuals (and pets) in the scene. All models have the legal right to control how there image is used and a legal right to demand financial compensation. The model release forms were clearly not generated prior to sharing these images. The individuals (or pets) do not need to be professional models to be covered under this law. Don't know if there is a right of privacy issue here, but commercial law, specifically copyright laws, have been violated. Yes, I have run up against this myself (required deletion of images I have taken), both in California and Florida. Do not know if these laws can be applied to traffic cameras, ie speeding tickets by contractors to the government definitely constitute commercial gain.

Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

Re: Hmmm...

By the sound of things it looks like the bug allows users (non-admin) to see the guts of the OS. This means, that once published, hackers will be given details as to how to take over the computer if you haven't upgraded (security risk).

What is naturally to fear is that the first generation code (patch) will be to block these details. New, ad-hoc code means there may be stability issues (return of the blue screen ??). If the OS developers run all their security test vectors, no old holes should open up. The question I think you have is will there be some new hole, I'm not sure anyone can know for sure - we can only demand that old bugs don't return.

What we can expect is for code to run slower. If I interpret the description well, the more threads you have the slower the code should run, ie it should impact JAVA code (scripts/interpreted code) more than C++(compiled code). It'll expose individual coding styles and change coders tactics for performance optimization.

Irony's lost on old Pope Francis: Pontiff decrees fake news a 'serious sin'

Have you guys read the 10 commandments

Here, I pulled this off wikipedia:

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, found in the Ark of the Covenant are:

I am the Lord your God, You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Honour your father and your mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour,

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour

If you look, number 9 states that bearing false testimony is a sin. The pope is only restating one of the 10 commandments which all Jews, Christians, and Muslims hold as true. In any and all of these religions and various sects, these statements are blasphamous!

I am not very religious, but at least I try to be respectful!

Flash, Sam, wallop: Samsung crashes ahead as top NAND chip flinger

Drop in FLASH prices due to increase in supply??? That only occurs when you have a fixed volume commodity, with FLASH memory the demand has been increasing faster than supply. What may shift, with sufficient supply, is the minimum FLASH memory size. There is a demand for more memory in cell phones, the limit is how much one is willing to pay for the phone. Laptops would all be FLASH memory to avoid hard disk crashes, the main cause of failure of a laptop. Again, pricing due to insufficient volumes has been the limit. I'm sure that there are other markets that would grow in volume given that FLASH memory supplies come close to matching demand.

Google says broader right to be forgotten is 'serious assault' on freedom

I think the solution is easy. Similarly to the Brexit issue for freedom of transit of the involved citizens falls the data of these citizens. Namely, if Google is unwilling to respect the data it has on EU citizens outside of EU countries then that information cannot be gathered and sent to a server outside of the EU. Anyone who does do this legally, must also set up firewalls to prevent entities, such as Google, from accessing that data. This process already exists in the US with HIPA rules on medical information.

This would allow for Google operation and compliance with EU and US laws by strictly keeping any and all EU citizens information strictly within EU boundaries (ie firewall required). The burden then jumps onto 3rd parties to institute firewalls on data kept outside of the EU to protect the EU data, and therefore abiding by EU existing EU law. I don't see that Google has any legal argument against being forced to abide by these principles (which are existing EU laws). Lets remember that Google is a business, not a government or human rights organization (or it would have to change it's legal status)

Keep your voice down in the data centre, the HDDs have ears! I SAID, KEEP...

Faster hard drives???

This is very interesting. This means that if I apply noise cancellation technology used in headphones I can prevent the hard drive from stopping getting higher throughput from existing hard drives. Wonder if this can be done by an external device or if I need to work with the hard drive manufacturer to get it built in.

Pence v Clinton: Both used private email for work, one hacked, one accused of hypocrisy

Re: A suprise?

Hate to defend VP Pense, but...

Clinton was secretary of state - secrecy is required due to the nature of the job!

Pense was governor - any high official in any company or government is expected to use the official e-mail for official business. This is bad practice, not illegal. This gives the government the right to review all his e-mails, personal and government, and hold retention policies, becoming part of the public record in it's entirety, regardless of how private a matter he is discussing (the whole reason we have different e-mail accounts).

As for hypocracy, Clinton fired direct employees who used their personal e-mail accounts for business duties while serving as Secretary of state. I have heard of no such similar complaint from Pense.

Don't get me wrong, Pence should be called to task and forced to use his government e-mail account for all official duties. This in and off itself is bad policy, not illegal, as Clinton's action were. Just to add, if he does this as VP, then his actions would be illegal ( a matter of breach of national security).

Let's replace Ethernet with infrared light bouncing off mirrors!

The elephant in the room

I just see this as trading one set of problems for another. Imagine an technician pulling out one system to fix or replace it and physically blocking a bunch of IR signals in the process.I have an IR remote on my TV and dread the problems you will encounter based on that experience.

The elephant in the room: The problem is the connection speed between computers. We are limited by modulation speed, not carrier frequency.If you can toggle a bit at 1 Gb/s, you want a carrier frequency of 8 GHz or higher, 10 Gb/s = 80GHz or higher. Moving to THz and higher frequencies does not increase the bandwidth between computers. Physical connections (as opposed to wireless) between computers prevents cross-talk, interference, and inadvertent blocking. This reduces the amount of bandwidth needed do to lost bits you are very likely to get through a wireless transmission system.

My recommendation, stick to wires (or optical fiber). Look at materials that have higher switching speeds than silicon, such as GaAs, InP, etc.

Intel's Q4 was 'terrific' and 'record setting' says CEO as profits dip

I can understand the statement, if your patient and follow along, you may to.

Intel started last 2016 by having a major project blocked by the government. Intel was to provide the Xeon and Xeon Phi's in the largest Chinese supercomputer at the last minute. These parts were already built, so they had to be sold off at huge discounts. In the computer industry, main stream pays for process updates, profits are made on servers, supercomputers, and after-market sales (for graphic cards). Intel's published forecast after this situation was abysmal. Intel had to redo they're strategy and bring in products to replace the lost sales and fab usage. This was done very quickly and Intel did much better than expected, given the situation that many of it's products were now blocked from being sold in their largest market. It was as extreme as blocking one product from the development partner, meaning that version of the Xeon Phi.

This is not an example of poor business management, but how government regulations and last minute changing of opinions within the government hurt US corporations, hurt jobs.

Apple eats itself as iPhone fatigue spreads

I think you are right. Apple charges premium prices for their phones. Yet give a smaller phone, less DRAM, less FLASH than other premium phones. This is important for the Chinese market. It is similar to the days when Cadillac people quoted that pound for pound they were cheaper than a VW bug.This did not make Cadillacs cheap, nor does it make a premium phone superior to another premium phone. But, this is how the market appears to be selling in China, the largest and fastest growing market in the world.

Don't know who I am quoting, but "the customer is always right, even when he's wrong". Apple needs to adapt. Supersize me Apple!

NOTE: Per apple technical posts, Apple justifies higher prices by buying premium FLASH memory which is faster than typical FLASH used, offsetting the costs with less DRAM which no becomes unnecessary. Don't know if technically this strategy is working, business-wise it is not anymore.

Climate change bust up: We'll launch our own damn satellites if Trump pulls plug – Gov Brown

This of course ignores statistics. The absolute number of registered Democrats in California continue to increase, registered Republicans continues to decrease.

As far as support someone like Trump, who promised to deport all Spanish speakers, regardless of legal status or country of origin, to Mexico. California just passed the 50% point of it's citizens self identifying as Latino or of mixed heritage including Latino. Why would someone who lists themselves in this way ever vote for someone who is campaigning on having them deported. FYI- I am not one of those who registered themselves as Latino, despite my name.

BTW - I love California, that state that is most likely subsidizing your state to keep it afloat, as many states operate with a huge deficit to the federal government.

I like Gov Brown, but I think this is the wrong approach to keep the satellites and databases. The satellites were launched for weather prediction, navigational aid. The further forward we can predict bad weather, the better we can re-route ships and planes, etc. If we can go far out enough we can apply this to farming. So we need the weather satellites to lower business costs, something Trump is supposedly in office to do.

Please note, there are multiple ways of predicting the weather, we can use a physical model of the environment, or a statistical model of the environment. Note that both are computer models. The statistical approach is not just what is the typical weather for this time of year and range. The statistical model is when similar conditions occur, these are the likely outcomes. This statistical approach requires the existing databases of weather conditions to predict the weather.

The physical model also requires the data,. As computers become faster, we can take more variables into account, creating better, more refined models that can predict further into the future.To validate these models we need historical data, ie if the model cannot predict weather conditions that have already occurred, then it is a bad model.

It is also a good idea to keep obsolete models. The reasons are two fold. First, it keeps you from repeating the same old mistakes. It also allows you to take a step back in the model if you find that when you add new variables that make your model better show that some of the variables you added in before were modeled wrong, or lead to a false adjustment due to "other variables" that you have not figured out yet.

Global warming, climate change are both issues that i believe to be real, but that discussion is separate from the need to maintain and update the existing databases and satellite infrastructure. It just makes good business sense. If someone uses that data for issues beyond immediate business needs, ie Global warming, it's their own business and does not change the need for the satellites.