Posts by Steve Todd

Re: Emergeny calls

“And why does SCADA, DCS, etc need gigabits/second to poll its RTUs in pumping stations or whatever? Sometimes those things need very low (or at least very predictable) latency, and the need to packetize serial data into IP packets can get in the way. IP is trendy though.”

Who said you needed to buy gigabit links? They are a available if you want them, but lower speeds are available. Yes, there is more overhead compared to simple fixed links, but packets can contain small blocks of data if responsiveness is key.

“Figures. Like a parallel universe, where for some weird reason switching from message parsing in software to message parsing in (e.g.) FPGA to save a millisecond or so ”

Now you’re demonstrating your own ignorance. You’re talking about High Frequency Trading, which normally co-locates hardware in the exchange data centre and connects to their core network. Any leased line is extremely short (between two routers in a rack).

I was talking about near real time reporting and recording, where a single exchange can produce hundreds of thousands of messages per second, which needed to be converted to a standard format and merged with the converted message traffic for all other supported exchanges. Industrial quantities of data here.

Re: Four 9’s on a 24x7 system is pretty poor

Math error (99.99% != 0.99), withdrawn.

Re: One fan here

Hmm, must be a different channel from the embedded Tempest video. He hasn’t posted anything there for 2 years and has only 108 subscribers.

Re: Heat detector

One of ours is convinced that the best place to lay down when she wants my attention is on top of my work’s laptop. After she managed to lock my account out by stomping up and down on the keyboard I now use an external keyboard, mouse and screen. The laptop runs with its lid closed, and she’s still happy to sit on it.

Re: Why case law?

You need to remember that most lawmakers are lawyers. It’s a job creation process. They want the original language to be vague to catch as many cases as they can, and having to trawl through case law creates more work for their brethren.

Re: Sorry but you're wrong...

You’re only partially right also. Apple threatened to revoke the developer keys for UE, but was restrained from doing so. See https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21949772/gov.uscourts.cand.364265.118.0.pdf

The UE was never in the App Store, and revoking its keys would not have blocked any app that was currently using it. The problem would have been releasing fixes/patches to it.

Re: Price is key

I’m not sure a 4th gen i3 can manage 4K60 either.

Re: Fairly Frequent Flier

A number of years back I was helping a friend ferry a light aircraft down from the US to the Caribbean. I was down as P2 (copilot), and after we had landed at St Martin had taken my life vest with me to the hotel (life vests being compulsory equipment for single engined flight over water). It took a while to convince security to let me airside when I tried to return to the plane next morning (oddly things like life vests and life rafts count as dangerous goods and can’t be shipped as normal freight or carried in baggage).

Re: Why?

Is 10 year old SPARC hardware worth hanging on to though? You would have thought that 10 years worth of development and improvements would have resulted in commodity X86 machines that outpace it with lower capital and operating costs.

Re: Well done AMD

AMD have said that this is the last generation to support the AM4 socket, but then it’s going to be at least 12 months before Zen4 and the next socket (presumably AM5).

Re: Presumably also less power usage ...

Not necessarily. Most modern CPUs turn off the power to bits they aren’t using, so the whole 32 bit subsystem could draw no power while running 64 bit code.

Re: “the decline of trustworthy sources of news"

I think you can safely say that there isn’t a non-partisan source of news, not that it’s Democrat only (there seem to be plenty of sources that have a heavy Republican bias, or even further to the right). Saying that, even the Democrats are right wing compared to most european parties.

Re: Fragile source code

If you think Agile means that, you’re doing it wrong. It’s perfectly possible to be Agile and still produce code tested to the n-th degree. What it defines is an iterative approach where small batches of work are completed, tested and demonstrated to the users. Their feedback then goes into future cycles. Individual sprints may not be perfect, but they shouldn’t be released to the users.

In my experience very few companies use the methodology correctly, but stick the name on some bastardised version that looks closer to Waterfall.

Re: Sickening

Erm, Apple DO offer reconditioned stock for sale (take a look at their web store sometime), plus they replace BER kit in for repair with recond kit also. Older models that are out of support however...

Re: As it could have been done *decades* ago

RDP may have been there since 2001, but the internet infrastructure to allow large numbers of remote workers wasn’t. You need fast and economical connections at both ends to make it work.

And how many of those

Are still british owned, and building in quality?

Re: Structural Batteries?!

Tesla model 3’s built in China are using LiFePO4, so the density isn’t that bad, but still a Standard Range model weighs as much as a US Long Range model.

Nickel isn’t sourced from unethical locations, and according to Tesla’s battery day presentation they are planning to move to a Silicon-Nickel chemistry.

Re: Premeditated Software Development?

The Unreal Engine is developed under a different account than Epic’s games. I don’t even think it is provided as signed binary to other developers. It isn’t in the store as an item that can be downloaded. The risk from a developer point of view is that it will become unsupported and increasingly stale (I.e.not tracking changes in iOS).

Re: Do what?

But the point about it being extortionate to get 28 cores stands, It’s a $9000 option on the Mac Pro. It’s a Workstation class CPU and is priced accordingly. Desktop is already inside the performance range of the A13. A Workstation class A series CPU will be along in due course.

If you ONLY want the time then may I suggest the Citizen Skyhawk AT rather than a mechanical watch. Charges it’s self via a built-in solar panel, checks against long wave atomic clock signals for accuracy (and can handle the switch to/from daylight savings time automatically because of that), needs little to no servicing and is cheaper than a good mechanical chronograph.

Having said that, i find myself using the Apple Watch most of the time because of all the extra things it can do that a normal watch can’t. Pay for items or mass transit. Tell me the weather forecast (am I going to get rained on). Control the music I’m listening to. Tell me who’s calling my phone (and even answer or make calls if needed) without having to fish the phone out of my pocket etc. It’s surprising just how much you end up using it.

Re: But surely ...

No, ripping to FLAC, then selling the original media is breach of copyright.

Either deleting the FLAC before selling or keeping/destroying the original means the artist is paid for the number of copies in circulation (you are buying a license to listen to your copy). Selling the original media transfers that licence, so the artist makes no extra money but has been paid for all copies in use.

Re: Microsoft Has anyone else noticed...

Not according to Kantar

https://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/#

Roughly 45% at the moment according to them. Also Europe as a whole has a much lower iOS uptake than the UK (which seems to be an outlier). Germany is at about 25%, while Italy is at around 16%