Millions of x86 developers?
I seriously doubt that the existence of Visual Basic programmers for Windows is at all relevant in the HPC space.
Posts by Mikel
2643 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2008
Page:
Nvidia to Intel: 'Which HPC chip brain will win? Let the people decide'
Wireless pay-by-bonk? Yawn... Google Wallet now lets you pay by CARD
Intel: 'Y'know that GPU-accelerated computing craze? Fuggedaboutit'
Android mobes outsell iPhones, but Apple gets MORE PROFIT THAN ALL
Sunday 17th November 2013 01:03 GMT
If you only look at half the market
"To be scrupulously fair, it should be mentioned that AppleInsider's Cannacord Genuity source told them that Chinese phone folks Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, and Coolpad were not included in the analysis because their profitability numbers aren't available, and that if those profits – or losses – were factored in, Apple and Samsung's value share would likely be lower."
These figures ignore the thousands of "other" android vendors as well who comprise almost half of global sales by units of both smartphones and tablets. Those figures are also unavailable, so I guess they don't count even though they sell 100 million units a quarter.
Personally I think if you are going to ignore half of the market you probably should not be doing analysis at all.
Sony's new PlayStation 4 and open source FreeBSD: The TRUTH
Sunday 17th November 2013 00:16 GMT
Re: Another win for the open-source world
@diodesign - There are going to be any number of folks attacking PS4 in any way they can and they are going to first post. This particular incident attempts to incite a Freetard Rebellion pitting the Linux fans against the BSDers, focusing ire on Sony so as to benefit XBone. Fortunately the short-term contractors used for this sort of thing have no understanding about how these things relate and so cannot do a good job of mixing it up.
Acer's new Haswell all-flash Chromebooks sip power for less than $200
Sunday 17th November 2013 00:01 GMT 
An amazing deal
I will probably put one of these under the tree for me. Am not sure about ChromeOS but in the worst case I can make it a Linux laptop with Haswell, SSD and 8 hours of battery life. That's a heck of a backstop to the downside risk: I have to take something I wanted anyway. Will give ChromeOS a try. If I like it I can boot my Linux from a USB and leave the thing as it is, and have both.
Do you remember when we used to talk dreamily about the day in the far-off future when laptops would cost less than a thousand dollars?
'I'm BIG, I'm BALD and I'm LOUD!' Blubbering Ballmer admits HE was Microsoft's problem
Investors on Microsoft: What, Ballmer, leaving? Hand me my wallet
Fukushima fearmongers: It's your fault Japan dumped CO2 targets
Friday 15th November 2013 19:19 GMT
Humans aren't responsible enough for nuclear power
We still have no plan for a deep geological repository and vitrification for the spent fuel we have already accumulated over the last 50 years. How about we figure that out first.
The Fukushima disaster isn't over yet and won't be for over 60 years. Chernobyl isn't either. The Ukraine estimates the exclusion zone (30KM radius) will be uninhabitable for 20,000 years. 37 years later we still haven't managed to build a shed over the thing to keep the rain off it.
"Carbon or nuclear are the only choices" is not a valid argument. PV solar, wind and geothermal complement each other nicely and are available in Japan.
"Nuclear is cheap." Let's add in the costs of a 20,000 year lease on the Chernobyl and Fukushima exclusion zones, the costs of vitrification and repository, the lost money from ruining the Japanese food export industry. The unknown costs of future nuclear disasters. The costs of decommissioning both retired plants and exploded ones. Wait, we don't know what those costs are. Until we do we can't say what the cost is, cheap or dear. Let's get some definitive numbers on those costs before we decide to go in this direction. Until then exploring alternatives with known costs that don't leave large tracts of our only planet uninhabitable seems the fiscally conservative, socially cautious choice.
Google SO CAN scan ALL BOOKS onto its sites - judge
Friday 15th November 2013 17:00 GMT
The court of appeals
The court of appeals, which this judge now sits on, was the court that sent the case back down to this judge to settle the "fair use" question before ruling on a different issue, certifying the class action. In doing so they strongly suggested this was the result they were looking for. It can't be a class action if it was legal in the first place.
The Guild can appeal to that court of course. It should not take them long to rule, and then it's on to the Supremes to see if they will weigh in on the matter. They usually don't.
Android in FOUR out of 5 new smartphones. How d'ya like dem Apples?
Friday 15th November 2013 03:37 GMT
Re: Does this mean people will consider building Android apps first?
From 2007 to 2011 while they were ahead in share Apple accrued a huge installed base. While most of the earliest devices have been retired some iPhone 2 and 3 are still in use as hand-me-downs, and of course iPhone 4 is still on sale. Most people generally don't throw away a $700 device that has resale value and remains a great media and gaming handheld. Android devices have a shorter life cycle for a variety of reasons. It takes a while for growth of the market and gross quarterly sales to achieve a dominant installed base. We are just turning that corner now as web usage numbers are achieving parity.
IPhone will still draw first developer interest for a while yet because premium device customers make premium app customers, and developer inertia. There is a definite cost to moving to a new unfamiliar platform, though that cost is less than finding a new popular idea.
If the Android:iPhone sales ratio continues at 5:1 for another year none of that will matter any more. It turns into the Windows vs Mac uneven battle again. Then we get to have this discussion again in reverse.
Wednesday 13th November 2013 00:26 GMT
Re: Pinch of salt
Also, the 211M units of smartphones sold figure replicates multiple authors' errors on this subject - probably pasted from an errant press release in email. The actual figure for total smartphones shipped in the IDC report is 261M units. The 211M units figure is just the Android portion.
Tuesday 12th November 2013 23:47 GMT
The two horse race is 94%
That's "niche" for everybody else. Also: no money. There is no profit whatever in the rest.
It would be possible to say Apple is falling behind here as well except gadzukes they are turning some huge and growing profits doing it. It's hard to call that an unsuccessful strategy. They're making hay while the sun shines. Also, they launched new phones and the holidays are upon us - both times when they traditionally do beyond well. The next report should have their registers ringing a merry tune.
Above it all we all get a pair of robust, growing ecosystems delivering ever more innovation and service, driving price points to new lows at the same time. Real progress in tech is nothing short of amazing. My phone has the power of a laptop and as many pixels as a bigscreen TV. It knows what I need and want, and is ever Johnny-on-the-spot. What a great time to be in technology.
Is it all up for LANDFILL ANDROID? BEHOLD, the Moto G
Thursday 14th November 2013 07:07 GMT
Re: This just in
I am interrsted too. I wasn't criticizing the phone. Obviously it is a great phone and the price is fantastic. Just thought the editorial slant of the article, viz moto attacking Google partners by making a good product at a decent price was overwrought. Of course this is ElReg, and that is their special sauce.
Sigh. I'll get my coat.
Microsoft, Xamarin give Visual Studio a leg-up for... iOS and Android?
High-end Samsung slabs, cheapie Androids take healthy BITE out of Apple's market share
Microsoft fears XP could cause Indian BANKOCALYPSE
'Daddy, can I use the BLACK iPAD?': Life with the Surface Pro 2
'Burning platform' Elop: I'd SLASH and BURN stuff at Microsoft, TOO
Internet Explorer 11 for Win7 bods: Soz, no HTML5 fun for you
PC market bombs in Blighty as Gartner tracks plummeting shipments
GIMP flees SourceForge over dodgy ads and installer
Nvidia CEO: Android 'the most disruptive operating system in decades'
Friday 8th November 2013 03:03 GMT
Nvidia is going to push hard for Steam box
They lost out on the XBone and PS4 to AMD, so their console win is with the Gaben. Intel too. That means more open drivers, more kernel contributions, more Linux support.
Android is a huge growth driver for everybody who's using it. Vast scale is being accomplished in a ridiculously short period of time. Five years ago there was no such thing and today it's moving nearly a quarter billion units a quarter when you add smartphones to tablets and other. That's bigger than the PC market has ever been.
Disruptive? Yupyoubetcha. And a wonderful disruption it is too.
Meanwhile, back in PC land they're still selling 15" laptops with lower absolute pixel count than my Nexus 5 5" phone. They have no intention of moving the lower bar to higher than 1080p any time soon, even though ordinary 10" fondleslabs go far beyond on this key spec. And they're making 3-5% margins on that: roughly, $10-$15 per low-end laptop. About as much as the shipping to simply deliver the thing is what they earn to design, build, test, advertise and sell it.
PC rivals weep while Lenovo dazzles with Q2 box-shifting numbers
Google 'fesses up: Yup, we're KILLING OFF IE9 support for Gmail, Apps
Microsoft CEO shortlist claim: It's just Elop, Bates, Mulally, Nadella and...
Google Nexus 5: So easy to fix, it's practically a DIY kit - except for ONE thing
'It's a joke!' ... Bill Gates slams Mark Zuckerberg's web-for-the-poor dream
Saturday 2nd November 2013 20:56 GMT
If you want to spend company money
There has to be at least a plausible benefit to the company in it if you want to use shareholder assets to do some good for the world at a significant level. I don't have a problem with companies spending some thought on how to achieve a social good in the course of business. The very idea that it can be profitable to lift the poorest of the world's poor out of poverty and misery deserves its own Nobel Prize.
Eradicating Malaria? That's not going to fit in the P&L. A worthy, laudable ambition with the scope perhaps only the B&M Foundation can reach. But the Foundation doesn't have to worry about shareholder lawsuits. This is a better pursuit for a nonprofit than the other.
'Tablet' no longer means 'iPad': Apple share PLUMMETS below 30%
Google RIPS aside curtain, exposes Nexus 5 phone, KitKat Android 4.4 coupling
Shy, bashful HUMPBACK DOLPHINS expose themselves to boffins
Why did Nokia bosses wait so long to pop THAT Lumia tab?
Reg mobile correspondent Bill Ray hangs up his Vulture hat
Surface 2 MYSTERY: Haswell's here, so WHY the duff battery life?
Wednesday 23rd October 2013 02:24 GMT
So as it has ever been, so it ever shall be
Verily I say unto you the wisdom of the ages: "Intel giveth. Microsoft taketh away."
From the dark days of yore as each increment of computer power, performance, efficiency came there was a need to blight the older tool with ware it could barely run, storage, memory and performance requirements it could barely meet, so as to sell unto the consumer a new box, a new license, new peripherals, and truly even all new apps. It is this plowing of the consumer population like a fallow field, turning over the harvested crop for new planting that drives the need for Microsoft's ware to do ever less well.
Their high priests became occult in the black art of obfuscating that most of the work applied by the wonderous new machine was applied to nothing at all, must contain more content never used, and ever more so in each generation until for them it became a Prime Doctrine never to be questioned. "Of course your computer no longer serves you as well as it did when it were new. Things wear out."
Though computers and software actually don't wear out, this heretical truth was driven from the land. Many generations of reaping they piled up the harvest of this plan. It was good to be King. Their installation grew ever more fat and slow.
That is the only answer to this question. Their art is bad because it is the art of bad.
Now there comes two new bands with new art, heretics who do not subscribe to such things. They each contend to be the new King. They must be warned: It is good to be king, but the retirement plan is very, very bad.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
