* Posts by Charlie Clark

12166 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2007

Apple to keep Intel at Arm's length: macOS shifts from x86 to homegrown common CPU arch, will run iOS apps

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Probably, for the two who do it. It was fashionable when the Intel Macs came out for people who wanted the status of Apple hardware to run their Windows apps but virtualisation was generally good enough for most things - I was certainly using Windows XP on Parallels to remote control InDesign in 2008 without many problems.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: It'll work.

Macs started out on 68k Motorola CPUs. 68k failed to keep up, so Apple went for PowerPC (Motorola/IBM)

PowerPC was a planned replacement for the 68k series and Apple. The move to x86 would never have happened without Intel's support.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Rosetta

Rosetta is something that the user will not even notice.

Bollocks. The approach will be very similar to that done on Android after every update which tries as much as possible to apps through a JIT to get native code. Intel was able to make use of this for a lot of stuff of Android for Intel. Except, it didn't work for everything and for some stuff it definitely was noticeable.

Most stuff using Apple's APIs should transpile pretty well but there will always be exceptions and anything making heavy use of x86 specific optimisations could be noticeably slower.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Rosetta

The MacBooks have been replaced by the MacBook Airs and this is where ARM probably makes the most sense because new MBAs get hot pretty quickly and have to start throttling. But they'll have to be pretty careful not to cannibalise the market they've just refreshed.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Rosetta

The original Rosetta from 2006 worked pretty well: PPC applications mostly did run on new Intel Macs without trouble.

They did but it was big hit in performance for anyone coming from the PowerPC.

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Stop

Re: "Intel never thrilled me"

There's no reason to suggest that Apple's engineers will make chips that are any more "secure" (for users) than Intel's.

ARM designs are inherently more customisable, which means Apple can put more stuff in silicon that it wants whether it's video codecs, encryption algorithms or machine learning. This, in turn, should lead to less demands on the CPU which should be good for battery life and heat generation. Custom hardware also makes software even more Apple specific, ie. increasing lock-in for users.

That said, I'm looking forward to the first devices to see how they stack up.

What's the Arm? First Apple laptop to ditch Intel will be 13.3" MacBook Pro, proclaims reliable soothsayer

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Cheaper macs *coff*

It wouldn't need for much for them to be able to cream off the higher end Windows users. Currently, similarly specc'd Intel notebooks are similarly priced whether they're from Apple, Dell, Lenovo or HP. Microsoft has a far higher investment in the x86 software stack than Apple. But let's wait and see what is actually announced.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

If the last 20 years have told us anything, they've told us that Intel is the only company that manages CPU desing and manufacturing effectively and even then it's become increasingly difficult. This is why contract manufacturing from TSMC, Samsung, etc. where the enormous capital can be spread out making CPUs, GPUs, memory for phones, routers, PCs, TVs.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Depends on what you're doing

OSX is much, much faster than Windows for some workloads.

I doubt that. If the application code is well written then it should be running as fast as possible on the same CPUs. There are always edge-cases relating to I/O speed, networking, etc. but in most cases the OS no longer makes much difference and, indeed for things like video-encoding, Windows is easier to get hardware acceleration working.

Where MacOS generally shines is the integration of tools for certain workflows. For me, as a developer, I find the posix side of MacOS just so much more convenient, not least because of the path names.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: It's different this time

I've only run Bootcamp a couple of times and that was 10 years ago. Since then virtualisation has been more than good enough, assuming you have enough RAM.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: And now it gets interesting

Why not both? Though Apple doesn't need to change CPU architecture for the second one. But you also forgot: margins. Intel chips are not cheap. If Apple can use the same chips in desktop devices as phones and tablets then it has even more margin to play with.

Russia lifts restrictions on Telegram messenger app after it expresses ‘readiness’ to stop some nasties

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Two Questions

If telegram is truly a secure E2E platform

It isn't and shouldn't be considered as such, unless you setup a "secret chat", though even then it's only published details of the cryptograpic protocols used but no code. Otherwise Telegram stores details on its servers, which is one of the reasons why it's so good for multiple devices.

Telegram has drawn Putin's ire because it has repeatedly refused to provide the details for specific users. And it has sucessfully found workarounds round most government attempts to block it, which is why it remains popular in Russia.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Telegram's. It doesn't earn money from the app or platform, so Putin doesn't have much leverage over them. But that doesn't mean it thinks Bitcoin spam or extremists in the Caucuses are fine.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Not necessarily, no, though if you want secure messaging I'm not sure if Telegram is the way to go anway because, in contrast to say Signal, it stores account data on its servers.

Telegram remains popular in Russia, even with Russian politicians, so this is probably some kind of compromise that allows both sides to get on. Spam, presumably including hate stuff, is not unknown in Telegram groups.

Good luck using generative adversarial networks in real life – they're difficult to train and finicky to fix

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: An intelligent networlk

Apart from the fingers, which have become the colour of the door frame – edge and object detection in the discrimnator have probably assigned to the doorframe: it's about the height of a lock – that picture is fantastic.

Folk sure like to stick electric toothbrush heads in their ears: True wireless stereo sales buck coronavirus trends

Charlie Clark Silver badge

The fit may depend a lot on the shape of your ear: I have relatviely small channels so generally struggle with in-ear solutions. Out cycling they generally work loose after an hour so. But then, as someone who wears glasses, find anything that is secured over the ear uncomfortable. :-/

My Jabra Sport did sterling service for several years, though I tended to ride with one ear free so that I could hear my surroundings. Switched to Sony's sport model with an external driver this year which don't exclude the surroundings as much but the cable is a bit short and floppy which means it catches quite easily and can start pulling at the bugs, but I reckon I might be abe to solve this with a small length of tubing.

A memo from the distant future... June 2022: The boss decides working from home isn't the new normal after all

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: More Middle Manager insecurity

Middle managers are there to act as a brake so that things can't run out of control.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: New Normal?

Exceptions prove the rule.

Remote working some of the time is fine for some stuff, especially when a team already works well together. But it is far from suitable for everything. I'm freelance and generally work from home but, on big projects, I realise the importance of being with the team as much as possible and I think the researchs tends to back this up.

Winter is coming, and with it the UK's COVID-19 contact-tracing app – though health minister says it's not a priority

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: The German one seems to work

The whole point is that they make life easier / the process quicker once you have been tested positive.

It has no effect for anyone tested positive. What it might do is help track the spread in other people with anyone who may have been in contact. That's the theory, we'll find out over the next few months as to whether this is much more useful than the existing approaches, which after a poor start, have proved very effective in Germany.

Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that the registration of people in restaurants, et al. may prove more effective because it provides the locus. But nothing has been done to digitise this. But time will tell.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Well that aged well

Sweden has the most data on this and it does indeed seem that closing schools had little effect on the spread. Not that they don't carry the virus, but they're not the biggest risk. Which is why neighbouring countries quickly reopened schools once their peaks had passed. We're now also seeing data on how keeping kids out of school has affected their learning and it's not good.

Doesn't stop the usual kneejerk reactions though: schools and nurseries have been closed in Gütersloh in Germany due to infections in a local meat processing plant, where the majority of the workers are from south east Europe and who live without families in what are basically barrracks.

Science, we've heard of it.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Well that aged well

Yes, it is available as open source and, because it uses the Google/Apple API compatible in theory at least with similar apps in other country, though apparently no one has actually done any work on interoperability.

Anyway, now that it's finally available the news has stopped reporting on it as much. Which is good. In a couple of months we'll know more about its effectiveness. More important was the decision that anyone who wants a test can have one and the health insurance will always pay for it.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Well that aged well

The general news is not a good source because it focuses mainly on the numbers and then the "human interest". There's so much other stuff going on, but this is how the news cycle works and fatigue is normal.

For example, German news yesterday decided to report that Sweden now has > 5000 deaths and a mortality rate five times that of Germany's. It didn't mention that reported cases have increased recently as Sweden is now testing more. Nor that admittances to ICU wards and fatalities continue on a downwards trend. It also claimed that Sweden's approach is controversial but failed to mention that the main party of government continues to rise in the polls. All policies are detabable but FWIW in Sweden the main difference has been not closing schools and nurseries or restaurants. But people have still been asked not to travel even in Sweden and hospitals and care homes have strict hygiene regimes.

The focus on numbers keeps people scared, makes whipping boys easy to find but doesn't explain much. It also doesn't really prepare us for a possible spike in the autumn: we're not going to eradicate infections before then and we still don't really know what the best protective measures are. Oh, and along wih age, socioeconomic status is the biggest determinant for morbidity and mortality. But let's not talk about that because poverty implies class and discussions about prevent the middle-class from feeling self-righteous.

Try and listen to a general science report if you can as this should contain less repetition and more information. With so many resources being poured into research there is some very interesting stuff coming out and cooperation worldwide is impressive. But there is also an awful lot of duplicated research based on undersized studies, which means opportunities lost.

I'm generally a big fan of the news but this focus on quantitative reporting and the "won't someone think of the children" outrage as justification for removing people's freedom has made me increasingly sceptical: I know what the news will be before it's broadcast.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Well that aged well

Bluetooth doesn't do any detection, it can just be used to swap keys and provide an approximate distance between devices. So, yes, there are still technical problems to solve.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: The German one seems to work

The German one cost a mere € 20 million. Mind you, it was developed by T-Systems and SAP so what do you expect. As to whether it works: only time will really tell. They might help a bit.

But these apps can never replace testing. The faster you can test people, the less contact-tracing you have to do. But testing is more expensive…

No surprise: Britain ditches central database model for virus contact-tracing apps in favour of Apple-Google API

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Duplicate article

Don't you hacks check to see if someone else has already covered this?

Customers of Brit ISP Virgin Media have downloaded an extra 325GB since March, though we can't think why

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Nice to know you've been selflessly conducting research!

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Coat

Yes, but soon there won't be any new content due to social-distancing rules…

Mine's the mac with the box of mansize tissues…

Looking for a home off-world? Take your pick: Astroboffins estimate there are nearly 6bn Earth-likes in the Milky Way

Charlie Clark Silver badge
Alien

Re: Call and ask for help

Not all reptiles are cold-blooded. Hence, the fossils in Antartica from the time before it was cut off from the other continents.

But any fule no that fossils are fakes anyway planted by our lizard overlords!

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Question your assumptions and define your terms. Tiny changes in a planet's geology and chemistry would have profound implications of the development of life and thus ideas like sentience. Even taking the temporal dimension into account, our solar system is relatively young, this does not imply that things could have started elsewhere much earlier while taking a similar enough path, especially if some of the universal constants turn out to be slightly less than constant in spacetime.

That said, I'm sure the universe will continue to surprise us.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: In theory

And if it turns out most of our problems are due to being cooped up on one increasingly overcrowded rock

Then we're likey to have the same problem on any other rock.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Venus and Mars

Not the same but comparable: low gravity is one of the reasons for little atmosphere, which does more than give us something to breathe: space is a hostile environment!

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Venus and Mars

Gravity is so low on Mars as to make the comparison reasonable: human life on Mars is nothing but a fantasy.

Only true boffins will be able to grasp Blighty's new legal definitions of the humble metre and kilogram

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Lawyers rule that a thing is the thing that the thing is

Indeed, and repeatedly defining a second in different clauses introduces redundancy and errors. Far easier to refer to the SI, perhaps with a specific revision or date. Job done.

We cross now live to Oracle. Mr Ellison, any thoughts? 'Autonomous self-driving computers eliminate human labor, eliminate human error'

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Yes, but when have the facts ever stopped a beancounter signing off on the promise of savings through automation?

Google and Parallels bring Windows apps to Chromebooks, in parallel with VMware and Citrix

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: "evidence of [..] greater interest in working from home"

WFH is the first step to being outsourced.

I've heard from a few friends about how quality and productivity have nose-dived as a result of people working from home and meetings just get more tedious.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Rendering

RAS is well-regarded but has never rivaled the market share of application-publishing rivals Citrix and VMware, both of which are completely capable of bringing Windows apps to Chromebooks with plug-ins.

I thought that RAS offloads even more rendering to the server so that a plugin, which will essentially need to implement RDP in the browser, isn't strictly necessary. Licensing fees for any large install will be key to market acceptance,

Hey is trying a new take on email – but maker complains of 'outrageous' demands after Apple rejects iOS app

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: So...

How on earth do you organise anything with WhatsApp?

Charlie Clark Silver badge

I'm sure people have been doing this with mutt since the 1970s…

I'm currently using MailMate on MacOS for this kind of thing and Andew Cannion wrote a nice article on how to do the kind of things with MailMate (and SaneBox for the pattern-matched based stuff)

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Email already passé?

E-mail really just works. If you don't like your provider it's pretty damn easy to move all your old e-mail as long as you control the domain. This is example of why standard protocols are good.

Some people think that these IRC-like services will solve the problem of too much e-mail. Until the network effect kicks in and you're back to square one. Or worse, because chat is really inefficient. On a service which now owns your data: lock-in that you pay for.

Some companies (KLM) are trying to move to WhatsApp for customer service, probably because they benefit from the metadata that Facebook can provide them.

SoftBank to hang up on T-Mobile stake to shore up its balance sheet

Charlie Clark Silver badge

But a combination of a bad year for the firm's $100bn Vision Fund

It wasn't a "bad year", it was a "bad model". The Vision Fund was little more than a Ponzi scheme with big bets that were bound to sour at some point. Cross-ownership meant inevitable conflicts of interests and governance was virtually non-existent.

HTC breaks with tradition to push out 2 phones someone might actually want to buy

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: I'll take the "small" one

Or Headhpone Jack and Samsung?

Samsung phones still generally come with headphone jacks. And slots for SD-Cards. It was removable batteries that nearly everyone copied Apple's lead on.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: I'll take the "small" one

In the Far East, many people really do all that on their phone and it's a huge market.

Whatever happened to phone docking stations? That's the obvious answer - bung your phone in a cradle and use it to power a monitor, keyboard, mouse.

Samsung's DeX is excellent.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: I'll take the "small" one

screens so big you need a bloody handbag just to carry em around.

Because that's the main group of people buying them. Particularly in the far East the smartphone maybe the only personal computer people have,

Not so nice, we investigated them twice: EU opens double whammy of inquiries into Apple's biz practices

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: 30% is outrageous

Google doesn't also doesn't prevent companies from selling through other stores. Google simply copied the 30% from Apple having concluded that the market would bear it. But, it's also probably fair to say that there are more ad-funded apps on Android than on IOS, so Google is less focussed on app fees.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: 30% is outrageous

30% is supposed to cover not just distribution but also advertising costs. The real problem is the exclusivity clause.

Wow, Microsoft's Windows 10 always runs Edge on startup? What could cause that? So strange, tut-tuts Microsoft

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: @Chris G - Terminate

Glad to be of service, but I can't take credit that goes to another commentard and, of course, to OO Software themselves. But maybe El Reg should include a link in all future articles of this type.

It looks like you want to browse the internet with Chrome. Would you like help? Maybe try Edge? Please?

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: To be fair...

Of course it did and I mentioned it. This was indeed probably more effective than the adds on YouTube, bus shelters, etc.

Living up to its 'un-carrier' slogan, T-Mobile US stops carrying incoming calls, data in nationwide outage

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: What's an "un-carrier"?

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

I think you'll find that 7Up probably wasn't the first to try this approach either…

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: What's an "un-carrier"?

They came up with it after that, and probably after the failed merger with AT&T when they started going after marketshare by offering "unlimited" deals, in comparison with the eye-wateringly expensive deals of the other networks. This was successful enough to make Sprint want to merge.

Charlie Clark Silver badge

Re: Possible reason

Probably not the case: the network went down in large parts of Germany today as well.