* Posts by Mikel

2643 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2008

AMD, ARM, Imagination, Samsung alliance publish official shared GPU-CPU blueprints

Mikel

Memory maps for all the things

This is long overdue. Or seriously retro. Depending on your point of view.

But promoting the GPU and other elements to memory coherent with the CPU will usher in a new era of heterogeneous computing. Hopefully the security issues were dealt with.

This ISN'T Net Neutrality. This is Net Google. This is Net Netflix – the FCC's new masters

Mikel

Re: So the FCC set up a fight between ...

/Brandon 2

On Google's private network they design the hardware all the way down to the switch ASIC and laser PHY. It isn't even Ethernet, properly speaking. So... No FCC stickers in there. On the consumer devices, particularly radios, yes.

Cyanogen said to be hoovering up cash, but NOT from Microsoft

Mikel

Obviously

Microsoft direct ownership would prevent the effectiveness of the disruption. Naturally this means Cyanogen must be made a puppet with longer strings - Microsoft's interest laundered through multiple opaque investment groups. They're evil, not stupid.

Gamers! Ransomware will scramble your save files unless you cough up $1,000

Mikel

A careful analysis

>It attempts to infect Windows PCs by exploiting a vulnerability ...

Ah. More exciting opportunities for adventure in Windows land. It seems every day brings several more.

IDC downgrades sales outlook for PCs AND tablets

Mikel

HP and Dell can cancel Christmas due to poor Windows PC sales

What is that, five years running? Six? They may soon forget what holiday sales booms were.

Microsoft RE-BORKS Windows 7 patch after reboot loop horror

Mikel

Windows is such an adventure

Why have something boring when you can get exciting monthly updates?

Panda antivirus labels itself as malware, then borks EVERYTHING

Mikel

Ah, the joys of Windows

They never end.

Microsoft chucks patent sueball at Kyocera over Android phones

Mikel

Re: 1997

Patents prevent progress. This is well proven

Mikel

Proof Microsoft is not reformed

They should be ashamed of themselves. But at least he's we have proof that the bad old days are not over.

Will NASA's Dawn spot ALIEN LIFE on asteroid belt dwarf world Ceres?

Mikel

Re: And a 66 megapixel camera

I didn't know this.

The final survey images should be wonderful then. I liked the pics from 40,000 km above. 400 km should be amazing.

Mikel

Ceres is a jewel of the sky

Planetary Resources talks about mining asteroids. This one is the mother lode. 2.8 million square kilometers of surface area covered in high grade platinum group metals ore, endless water, 0.03 G surface gravity, immense caves for habitation, premade steam volcano to drive a turbine. As Dawn gets closer we will see much more.

It is a far better habitat for a colony than Mars. A bit far - twice as far as Mars - but Musk is sorting out the quick and inexpensive trip.

Whoever winds up owning this thing will have more wealth than anybody ever before.

Super SSD tech: Fancy a bonkers 8TB all-flash PC?

Mikel

Probably enterprise gear pricing

But the cost of SSD continues to go down and the density up. At some point spinning rust will die.

Which reminds me - I have a use for some of those mechanical parts. Off to the tech salvage store!

HP: Windows Server + OpenStack will lure biz bods from the Amazon

Mikel

It has finally happened

Microsoft Windows is a Linux app.

Microsoft working on 'Nano' version of Windows Server for web-scale ops

Mikel

Wow

Some have been PXE booting diskless servers for decades now.

FCC says cities should be free to run decent ISPs. And Republicans can't stand it

Mikel

Re: Opelika spent $7 million over 5 years for 30,000

@Craigness

Still sounds cheap. Especially compared to Comcast or TWC which not only costs more during the build out, but then the cost never goes down and the service level never needs to go up.

Mikel

Opelika spent $7 million over 5 years for 30,000

That is $4 per month per person to build out an essential service that will last 50 years or more.

Sounds like a heck of a good deal. Where can I get gigabit fiber for that?

He's baaack: Microsoft's axeman Nadella to give Chinese staff the chop

Mikel

Made in Vietnam

Maybe somebody ought to check the working conditions in that one. For humanitarian reasons.

Net neutrality secrecy: No one knows what the FCC approved (BUT Google has a good idea)

Mikel

What I posted in May here

Over before it began

The only thing better for the cable giants than a weak FCC rule is a completely muddled, unintelligible and unenforceable rule. That way they can do whatever they want for years and the courts will protect them.

Bloody TECH GIANTS... all they do is WASTE investors' MONEY

Mikel

Apple has a cash hoard

It's big enough to buy control of Intel, AMD and HP, and colonize Mars. All at once, without borrowing any money.

$533 MEEELLION – the cost of Apple’s iTunes patent infringement

Mikel

Re: If there is to be any hope ...

Apple now has enough cash on hand to buy both Intel and AMD.

HP cloud reorg shock: Ex-Eucalyptus boss Mårten Mickos backs off

Mikel

It can't be comfortable for a real nerd to be working in the corporate world of HP.

Hellooo, NSA? The US State Department can't kick hackers out of its networks – report

Mikel

They use Windows

They are reinfected several times a second. They can't find the source because every device, server and user is the source. Even if they shut down the whole thing, wiped every device, every bit of data in the system, and reloaded their software from known good copies, it would still be hacked before the first useful work was done. There's probably backup hacks lodged in every printer, network switch and server firmware by now - just in case they decide to air gap the entire network. And if they wipe every piece, the replacements new from the factory will come with exploits preinstalled and the first one will propagate through the network contaminating everything again within seconds of being switched on. It is hopeless.

Sony has the same problem. Actually, everybody who uses Windows does.

AT&T suddenly finds demand for 1Gbps fiber in Kansas City – just after Google arrived

Mikel

Hey AT&T, this is Comcast and Time Warner

You throw your hat in on our Google Fiber cities and we'll throw ours in on yours and maybe united we can make it unprofitable for them. We'll blanket the cities in advertising and lock everyone up in long contracts. Maybe they'll give up.

Big Brother in SPAACE: Mars One picks first 100 morons to suffocate, er, settle on Red Planet

Mikel

4.5 billion

Of course if Musk makes his reusable rockets work and reduces launch costs by a factor of 100 as hoped, that would be only $45 million. Easily within reach. May it's time James Cameron considered shooting on location on Mars. For his movies that's just the catering budget.

Google founders to offload $4 BEEELLION in shares

Mikel

Billionaires do financial management

Shocker!

Gates has been selling off Microsoft stock since the 80's, and will be fully divested this year. This is normal.

Google cuts Microsoft and pals some slack in zero-day vuln crusade – an extra 14 days tops

Mikel

>meaning cyber-crooks have access to working exploits the minute Google's disclosure goes live.

Cyber crooks had access to the bug the day the offending error was published. Let us not forget that disclosure or not, the bug is there for anyone to exploit.

Elon Musk: Hover rocket? Check. Hover ship? Check. Let's DO THIS

Mikel

Re: Soft land test

Where did you get the idea NASA is their only customer? On the 27th of this month they are scheduled to launch for Asia Broadcast Satellite. In Q2 one for SES World Skies. Orbcomm by midyear. Launches this year for Argentina and Turkmenistan.

Cite: http://spacexstats.com/upcoming.php

Mikel
Pint

Re: A Double Dose of Disruptive Technology

Reusable rockets are a big deal, but let's not go too far over the top. SpaceX has not even been in business 13 years, not 30-40, and this reusable rocket notion is a fairly recent development*. Once Musk proves it can be done others will have no choice but to start a crash program to reproduce his successes. The work is probably already begun.

* Pulp science fiction notwithstanding. It had been roundly dismissed as infeasible for so long that everyone had a good laugh when Musk said he would do it. Sheepish looks and cold lager all 'round.

Microsoft takes lid off .Net Common Language Runtime sauce

Mikel

At a loss

To a six year old with a hammer, everything is a nail.

Mikel

Microsoft and Linux

Goes together like mustard and chocolate.

Microsoft eyes slice of Raspberry Pi with free Windows 10 sprinkled on top

Mikel

Re: Been nice knowing the RasPi

@James Hughes 1

Whatever they used to corrupt the president of the RPF was weapons grade stuff. He eagerly admits drinking the koolaid, and the announcement is a veritable catalog of Microsoft products and talking points. It is an ad. There is no way he could have personal knowledge of all that stuff already, yet he preaches it like it is the gospel. It's already over. RPi is already dead.

Mikel

Re: Good work MS

Re: ANDRIOD

Astroturfers are not allowed to use the actual name of the product they are bashing, as in increases the notoriety of the product. In the case of Android it is a little absurd, but that is what this is about. And no, it is not going to stop. Rules are rules.

Carmakers DEFLATED by AIRBAG FLAW as US watchdog recalls TWO MEELLION vehicles

Mikel

Ow

It turns out that making devices that are designed to blow up in your face without killing you is really hard.

Microsoft tells big biz: No free Windows 10 for you, crack wallets open

Mikel

Re: It just doesn't matter

@Charles 9

>You can't remote desktop without a desktop, and the software selection in Windows is still much superior to any other platform in certain markets such as games.

I don't think this is going to matter to the billions of people who have never seen a desktop or video game. Or at least not seen one as advanced as you can get on the cheapest Android tablet. In much of the world they are dealing with late 90's hardware and XP at best. Apps and performance, display and responsiveness are not as good as you can get on a $25 Android tablet. India alone is going to give away one billion of these tablets to students in the next ten years. Probably sooner.

Mikel

Re: It just doesn't matter

iOS and Android devices already do all those things. They have for years. My Android devices support wireless remote displays through Chromecast or Miricast, Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (I prefer the Model M which is USB only). Also wired HDMI, USB inspection cameras, GPIO devices and more. It can be the brain of a drone or satellite, a FullHD video recorder or editor, and remote desktop to any sort of desktop or server device I like.

What do you mean by "come back"? Most of these people will have never been to Windows-land in the first place.

Mikel

It just doesn't matter

Three years from now Microsoft may have gotten 300 million people to try Windows 10 and will doubtless be deprecating it for whatever they call Windows 11. It will have its challenges and triumphs, its controversies and surprises. Microsoft will declare victory after a week and again periodically thereafter. It will generate Microsoft a lot of money.

In that three years one billion iOS devices and 7 billion Android devices will have been sold. Together more than one for every living human. All people everywhere will be abundantly aware they don't need Windows, and will be delighted and amazed, enabled and empowered by the myriad devices that just work together without fiddling, without antivirus, without ActiveX, DirectX and Active Directory, without BHOs, GPOs, registry tweaks, activation servers, Microsoft online accounts, IE and Bing, without waiting breathlessly for Microsoft to decide whether they get the next version free or not. Together, but not the same. And the 2.5 billion devices that have already been sold that don't use their ware will mostly still be working too, like the 2013 Nexus 7 I am writing this on.

The era when Microsoft owned the technology industry is long over.

Mikel

Re: Sounds like a winner to me

>Thus businesses get to hire people who can use computers,

There is quite a whole world of computer using that ain't got any Microsoft in it. And for 30 years I've enjoyed watching folks like you try to pretend it doesn't exist. Now your difficulty is much higher: even Microsoft is making their software for non-Windows platforms like iOS and Android, building their cloud for Linux, and so on.

Android moved a billion phones last year. It runs computers. IOS, OS X, Linux, Android... They run the world now. Windows is a dim and tiny corner of the computer using realm. And getting less every year. What little of it there is is fragmented across four mutually incompatible major versions, so it doesn't even have the power of numbers it might have.

After Windows 10 increases the number of mutually incompatible versions by one we will all have a good laugh. By the time they can try again, we may have forgotten how much influence Microsoft used to have in technology.

Microsoft Outlook comes to Android, iOS: MS email now a bit less painful on mobile

Mikel

Re: Convenient timing

You expected O365 to improve your Android experience? Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the owner of the service.

Intel brings Broadwell to businesses with 5th-gen Core chips with vPro

Mikel

But what does it do for you?

I'm afraid processors for desktop PCs had far surpassed my needs 15 years ago, and I've accumulated no new needs for them since that would require more performance. These new pocket things are nice though.

Microsoft 'showers gold' on anti-Google Cyanogen and its Android alternative

Mikel

Spending more time with family

The Microsoft exec who thought this up and leaked it will soon have more time to prune his rhodies. This is old Ballmer Microsoft, not new Nadella Microsoft.

The new Falcon Heavy: MOST POWERFUL ROCKET since the Apollo moonshots

Mikel

Next Landing attempt is February 9

If it launches on time. For a newish space company they have a rather full dance card.

http://spacexstats.com/upcoming.php

FCC will vote to cut off 41 million broadband users this Thursday*

Mikel

Muni broadband

Also, suitable accommodations should be found for every cable executive above "junior vice president". Someplace cruel and inhumane, like the American Idol studio audience.

SpaceX makes nice with U.S. Air Force, gets shot at black ops launches

Mikel

Landing a rocket on its jet is impossible.

We have been told this so many times. It is exciting to see it being done. No doubt everybody in the business is working on it now too.

Developers, developers, developers! But WILL they support Windows 10?

Mikel

Re: Real programmers ...

There is no reason not to separate the logic and data processing from the presentation through the standard protocols that make up the Web. The protocols and browsers are rich enough for your UI, and doing this makes your app more portable.

As for this "Holographic UI" nonsense, it's been done. Does no one remember Microsoft's VRML? I seem to remember a file manager with a Doom UI back in the day. Hit the file with a shotgun to delete, or something like that.

Google signs up Sprint and T-Mobile to sell its cellphone plans – report

Mikel

OK Google

Shut up and take my money!

It would be a pleasure to have Google be my cellular provider, doing VOIP where there is WiFi, falling over to a MVNO network at need.

NASA probe snaps increasingly detailed shots of MOIST DWARF goddess

Mikel

No doubt survey tools will be onboard.

Advanced mass , temperature and neutron emissions measurements will be made. It is maddening to have to wait, but that is the nature of exploration.

I am betting on liquid water near the metallic core, heated by fission and insulated by 200 kilometers of ice. And ice. A thin coating of concrete. And many, many caves where asteroids pierced the concrete and the sun excavated a nice hidey hole for a colony.

Free Windows 10 could mean the END for Microsoft and the PC biz

Mikel

Good Enough Computing

It seems Microsoft has decided we reached good enough computing on a low end laptop in 2007. That means a high end desktop from 2003 should be good to go. And frankly, that has been my experience with Linux.

Remember to blow the dust out now and then.

Google: What this planet needs is INTERNET FROM SPAAACE

Mikel

Google and SpaceX united

What an amazing place the future will be.

Completely unrelated: Microsoft spends half a billion dollars to get talking heads and American football coaches to pretend to use their tablet.

Scientific consensus that 2014 was record hottest year? No

Mikel

Re: Thermometers - Dani Elder

>As far as "hottest year on record", looking at air temperature alone is idiotic. The oceans have 5000 times the thermal mass of the atmosphere, and melting ice absorbs as much energy as raising liquid water 80C.

Ah, yes. Did you know how much energy it takes to raise sea level 120 meters by melting ice? 16 Yottajoules. This happened about 2,000 years ago. That is a lotta Joules. 32,000 times the world annual energy usage.

Mikel

Thermometers

Were all the thermometers used calibrated to 0.01 degree?