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Comment Re:bad news to start the week (Score 3, Insightful) 138

by Anon E. Muss (#60503274) Attached to: Nvidia Reportedly Acquiring ARM For $40 Billion

The best outcome would be a shift to an open-hardware architecture that no one owns.

I agree! And the good news is that it's already here -- it's called RISC-V.

RISC-V is one possibility, but it is based on MIPS and has architectural limitations.

To some extent, all RISC processors are "based on MIPS." So what?

Can you describe the specific "architectural limitations" in RISC-V that you are concerned about?

A new clean design by an independent foundation would be best.

Because designs produced by committee have such a great track record. :-(

Comment Re:Why not $40 billion into RISC V ? (Score 3, Interesting) 138

by Anon E. Muss (#60503222) Attached to: Nvidia Reportedly Acquiring ARM For $40 Billion

What if instead of buying ARM, they put $40 billion into developing RISC V?

Actually, NVidia is already using internally developed RISC-V cores in their GPU's. These cores aren't exposed to the outside world, but they're integral to the internal functioning of the GPU. People from NVidia have publicly presented this work at RISC-V events over the last few years. Here's a recent example: https://youtu.be/7Lx3692cbAg.

Comment Re: Who hates OOP? (Score 3, Interesting) 386

I'd argue that the Windows GUI API *is* object oriented. How else would you describe window classes, WndProc's, message passing, GDI objects, etc? Windows just does it with C rather than an OO programming language. Win32 is just Win16 on steroids, and Win16 was designed in the early 1980's. IMHO, the Windows GUI API design (USER and GDI) has held up remarkably well after 35+ years.

P.S. I'm choosing my words carefully. Windows has many moving parts, of which the GUI API is just one piece. Some of the other parts turned out to be Really Bad Ideas, but that doesn't detract from the GUI API design.
Google

Google Removes QAnon Apps From Play Store for Violating Terms (cnet.com) 207

Posted by msmash from the taking-a-stand dept.
Google last week removed three apps related to the QAnon conspiracy theory from its Play Store digital marketplace. From a report: The apps -- called QMAP, Q Alerts! and Q Alerts LITE -- were taken down for violating Google's policies against "harmful information," the company said. The removal was earlier reported by Media Matters for America, a progressive not-for-profit. The QAnon conspiracy theory has become popular among a group of supporters of President Donald Trump. One claim is that celebrities are involved in child sex trafficking and pedophilia. Another tenet is that Trump is working to take down the so-called "Deep State," a secret network that manipulates and controls government policy. The theory revolves around "Q," an anonymous user who began writing about the conspiracies on imageboard site 4chan.
Programming

What Happens When Software Development Environments Move to the Cloud? (ieee.org) 117

Posted by EditorDavid from the coding-on-a-cloud-server dept.
An anonymous reader quotes IEEE Spectrum: If you're a newly hired software engineer, setting up your development environment can be tedious. If you're lucky, your company will have a documented, step-by-step process to follow. But this still doesn't guarantee you'll be up and running in no time. When you're tasked with updating your environment, you'll go through the same time-consuming process. With different platforms, tools, versions, and dependencies to grapple with, you'll likely encounter bumps along the way.

Austin-based startup Coder aims to ease this process by bringing development environments to the cloud. "We grew up in a time where [Microsoft] Word documents changed to Google Docs. We were curious why this wasn't happening for software engineers," says John A. Entwistle, who founded Coder along with Ammar Bandukwala and Kyle Carberry in 2017. "We thought that if you could move the development environment to the cloud, there would be all sorts of cool workflow benefits."

With Coder, software engineers access a preconfigured development environment on a browser using any device, instead of launching an integrated development environment installed on their computers... To ensure security, all source code and related development activities are hosted on a company's infrastructure — Coder doesn't host any data. Organizations can deploy Coder on their private servers or on cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform. This option could be advantageous for banks, defense organizations, and other companies handling sensitive data.
One of Coder's customers is the U.S. Air Force, the article points out -- and thats not the only government agency that's interested in their success.

When Coder closed $30 million in Series B funding last month (bringing total funding to $43 million), one of their backers was a venture capital firm with ties to America's Central Intelligence Agency.

Comment Re:Jared is gonna be pissed (Score 2) 236

... his hoard of that stuff is gonna lose him money.

HCQ is a cheap generic drug. India is a major manufacturer of generic drugs; they have the infrastructure to crank out millions of HCQ pills (they probably already do!). Nobody is going to make windfall profits on it. This is why big pharma would rather come up with something new, like Remdesivir, that they can sell for $1,000 per pill.

Comment Re:When was HQC given. (Score 1) 236

The study says "Hydroxychloroquine-treated patients were more severely ill at baseline than those who did not receive hydroxychloroquine". So, like most/all prior HCQ studies, this one is worthless too. Anti-viral drugs need to be administered at the VERY START of the infection. By the time somebody realizes they have COVID-19, and become sick enough to be admitted to a hospital, it's probably too late for any anti-viral (including HCQ or Remdesivir) to have much effect.

Comment Re:RISC-V is the future (Score 1) 40

Almost every section talks about some advanced features that were considered, but rejected because they were "too complex". All in all, I don't find the architecture to be very interesting ...

You're missing the key point of RISC. "Advanced features" and complex instructions look good on paper, but end not being used by compiled code. Research over the last 30+ years has confirmed this time and time again. You think RISC-V is boring, and you're not wrong. Their goal was to be useful, not exiting.

If you want to see an interesting architecture, check out The Mill. Unfortunately, they're five years away from having real chips, and always will be :-(. Same with compilers that can fully exploit VLIW -- they're also five years away, and always will be.
Mozilla

Internet Group Brands Mozilla 'Internet Villain' For Supporting DNS Privacy Feature (techcrunch.com) 273

Posted by msmash from the topsy-turvy-world dept.
An industry group of internet service providers has branded Firefox browser maker Mozilla an "internet villain" for supporting a DNS security standard. From a report: Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA), the trade group for U.K. internet service providers, nominated the browser maker for its proposed effort to roll out the security feature, which they say will allow users to "bypass UK filtering obligations and parental controls, undermining internet safety standards in the U.K." Mozilla said late last year it was planning to test DNS-over-HTTPS to a small number of users.

Whenever you visit a website -- even if it's HTTPS enabled -- the DNS query that converts the web address into an IP address that computers can read is usually unencrypted. The security standard is implemented at the app level, making Mozilla the first browser to use DNS-over-HTTPS. By encrypting the DNS query it also protects the DNS request against man-in-the-middle attacks, which allow attackers to hijack the request and point victims to a malicious page instead. DNS-over-HTTPS also improves performance, making DNS queries -- and the overall browsing experience -- faster. But the ISPA doesn't think DNS-over-HTTPS is compatible with the U.K.'s current website blocking regime.
AI

Amazing AI Generates Entire Bodies of People Who Don't Exist (futurism.com) 87

Posted by msmash from the pushing-the-limits dept.
A new deep learning algorithm can generate high-resolution, photorealistic images of people -- faces, hair, outfits, and all -- from scratch. From a report: The AI-generated models are the most realistic we've encountered, and the tech will soon be licensed out to clothing companies and advertising agencies interested in whipping up photogenic models without paying for lights or a catering budget. At the same time, similar algorithms could be misused to undermine public trust in digital media.

The algorithm was developed by DataGrid, a tech company housed on the campus of Japan's Kyoto University, according to a press release. In a video showing off the tech, the AI morphs and poses model after model as their outfits transform, bomber jackets turning into winter coats and dresses melting into graphic tees. Specifically, the new algorithm is a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN).
Businesses

Trello Limits Teams on Free Tier To 10 Boards, Rolls Out Enterprise Automations and Admin Controls (venturebeat.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the show-me-the-money dept.
In this week's episode of which popular service will reduce its offerings to the non-paying users, Trello said it will have a go. From a report: Trello, a Kanban-inspired project management app organized around the idea of boards containing cards with attachments, to-do items, and comments, is getting a few much-needed improvements. Today, the Trello team announced that Trello Enterprise, a corporate-class subscription tier launched in 2015, will gain 13 new features this week, including improved admin controls, a new visibility setting, and compliance certifications.

It's the largest product update in Trello Enterprise's history, the Atlassian subsidiary says, but it's a tad bittersweet -- a new restriction will be imposed on teams that use the free version of Trello. Moving forward, they'll be limited to a maximum of 10 open boards at any given time. (Enterprise and Trello Business Class users get unlimited boards, and existing free teams will be able to add up to 10 additional boards until May 1, 2019.) Last week, it was Dropbox that introduced some limits to its non-paying users.
Google

Google's New SMS and Call Permission Policy is Crippling Apps Used by Millions (androidpolice.com) 56

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Ryne Hager, writing for AndroidPolice: Late last year, Google decided it was time to crack down on apps requesting SMS and call log permissions. Ostensibly, exceptions would be granted for categories including backups and automation, but as of now, there are still gaps which cover legitimate use cases. While some popular apps like Tasker have successfully secured exemptions, others like Cerberus have not. Instead, they've decided to strip out those permissions or risk facing the wrath of Google's upcoming January 9th banhammer, killing associated functionality and disappointing millions of long-time users to adhere to the Play Store's new policy.

The Play Console support page for the applicable set of permissions notifies developers that they can submit what is effectively an application for an exemption, categories for which are listed on the same page. (And that list of exceptions has grown since the original announcement.) Nonetheless, a further set of prohibitions are also included in the form itself, which explicitly preclude support for phone security/device location apps like Cerberus.
Science

Huge Reduction in Meat-Eating 'Essential' To Avoid Climate Breakdown (theguardian.com) 629

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Huge reductions in meat-eating are essential to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of the food system's impact on the environment. From a report: In western countries, beef consumption needs to fall by 90% and be replaced by five times more beans and pulses. The research [PDF] also finds that enormous changes to farming are needed to avoid destroying the planet's ability to feed the 10 billion people expected to be on the planet in a few decades. Food production already causes great damage to the environment, via greenhouse gases from livestock, deforestation and water shortages from farming, and vast ocean dead zones from agricultural pollution. But without action, its impact will get far worse as the world population rises by 2.3 billion people by 2050 and global income triples, enabling more people to eat meat-rich western diets.

Submission + - Construction of "Robot Brothel" in Houston halted by city

Submitted by Anon E. Muss
Anon E. Muss writes: The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the city of Houston ordered a Canadian company called KinkySDollS to stop the construction of a so-called robot brothel. KinkySDollS apparently didn't obtain the appropriate permits prior to starting construction. This will certainly delay the project, and may give those opposed (e.g. every politician in the city) time to kill it by other means.

Personally, I don't think humaniform robot tech is ready for prime time yet. The pictures on the KinkySDollS site look really creepy to me – I wouldn't fork() them with your pipe() :-). But the tech will get better, and I have no doubt that sex robots will become a thing eventually. There will be much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, but that won't stop it.
Chrome

Google Tests Curvy Chrome Tabs With Material Design Overhaul (cnet.com) 109

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Google is trying out a new Chrome interface that for the first time in a decade presents a very different look for the tabs and address bar at the top of the widely used web browser, CNET reports. It adds: Since its public debut in 2008, Chrome has featured a trapezoidal tab for each website you have open. But tabs now look very different on Chrome Canary -- a very rough-around-the-edges version used to test changes before they reach a broader audience. The active tab has a slope-shouldered look with curved corners. The grayed-out inactive tabs merge with the the browser itself and are separated only by thin vertical lines. In addition, the address bar's text box is a gray oval against a white backdrop, instead of a round-cornered white rectangle with a hairline border.

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