Comment Not the first computer (Score 1) 126
ENIAC is merely the first _electronic_ computer. The Zuse Z1 was the first programmable computer, and it was built on private funds, by Zuse himself.
How Intel and Micron May Finally Kill the Hard Disk Drive 438
itwbennett writes: For too long, it looked like SSD capacity would always lag well behind hard disk drives, which were pushing into the 6TB and 8TB territory while SSDs were primarily 256GB to 512GB. That seems to be ending. In September, Samsung announced a 3.2TB SSD drive. And during an investor webcast last week, Intel announced it will begin offering 3D NAND drives in the second half of next year as part of its joint flash venture with Micron. Meanwhile, hard drive technology has hit the wall in many ways. They can't really spin the drives faster than 7,200 RPM without increasing heat and the rate of failure. All hard drives have now is the capacity argument; speed is all gone. Oh, and price. We'll have to wait and see on that.
Comment Re:Remember how fast the USSR copied the nuke? (Score 1) 117
I would love to see the US go broke. (Well, they are, but the thing would be for the rest of the world to realize it...)
Comment Re:Remember how fast the USSR copied the nuke? (Score 1) 117
In many cases, yes. In other cases, things will escalate slower, which is always a lot cheaper and always a lot better under control. Accelerating military progress is a losing game in a globalized world.
Comment Re:Remember how fast the USSR copied the nuke? (Score 1) 117
So would have anybody else, as we now would be very deep into an ice-age. Suicide is not a victory.
Comment Re:Useless rant of an article (Score 2) 127
For any new language, adoption is a problem. Interesting languages like Eiffel, Smalltalk, etc. never really made the big-time and never will.
The reason is simple: Most of today's programmers are not very good at their job. They just do not get what makes these languages impressive and exceptionally effective. As soon as programming is recognized as a very demanding engineering task that actually requires the best and brightest (and that using them pays off handsomely), this will change. Of course, that realization may never materialize.
Comment Remember how fast the USSR copied the nuke? (Score 1) 117
Those that the US wants to fight with robots will just do the same and everybody will be a lot less safe as a result. These people are incapable of learning from history and just make the same dumb and expensive mistakes over and over again.
Regin Malware In EU Attack Linked To US and British Intelligence Agencies 131
Advocatus Diaboli writes The Regin malware, whose existence was first reported by the security firm Symantec on Sunday, is among the most sophisticated ever discovered by researchers. Symantec compared Regin to Stuxnet, a state-sponsored malware program developed by the U.S. and Israel to sabotage computers at an Iranian nuclear facility. Sources familiar with internal investigations at Belgacom and the European Union have confirmed to The Intercept that the Regin malware was found on their systems after they were compromised, linking the spy tool to the secret GCHQ and NSA operations.
Comment Re:Hardly surprising (Score 1) 338
Indeed.
Comment Re:Well of course (Score 1) 338
Same here. Not that I would want to go to the US though, for a number of other reasons.
Comment Re:"Two" times, not ten times (Score 1) 203
What, actual physical properties? These are meaningless for marketing!
Comment Re:In a Self-Driving Future--- (Score 1) 454
Indeed. Same here. With decent public transportation, a car is far more hassle than it is worth. And even if you have to pay for delivery of some things occasionally, that is still far cheaper than owning and maintaining a car. I had a car-sharing subscription for a year and found that I did not need it even once.
Comment Re:Are we being utterly stupid now? Party balloons (Score 1) 116
They are also a fail on a different level: Rubber balloons hold air under far higher pressure than hot-air balloons, so these are not even comparable if the volume aof a party balloon was somehow a defined quantity.
Comment Re:Are we being utterly stupid now? Party balloons (Score 1) 116
Use k/G/T/E/... for SI and ki/Gi/Ti/Ei... for IEC. Peopls not following standards have no business expecting that anybody understands what they are talking about. Really, do not blame your cluelessness on me, blame it on yourself.
You are of course right about the useless units, like miles, gallons, stones, etc.
Comment Are we being utterly stupid now? Party balloons? (Score 1) 116
What happened to actual units like cubic-meters? Too difficult for slashdot? Or is the number to small and just shows that "Google engineering" is not nearly as impressive as some people want it to look?
