You were going on about how X11-over-SSH is so slow, and using VNC is so much better/faster as there's no SSH in the way.

I was saying that SSH is not slow, as we use VNC-over-SSH all the time.

And that X11-over-SSH is not slow, as we use the NX Client all the time (which is X11-over-SSH).

X11 by itself can be very slow over the network. But it doesn't have to be (just look at NX as an example).

Thus, doing things in a similar way to X11 doesn't mean it will be inherently slow.

What's funny about that is that we use VNC-tunnelled-over-SSH everyday (remote helpdesk connections to Windows and Linux stations) without issues. Even when the remote desktop has dual-monitors configured, although that can take a bit of horizontal and/or vertical scrolling of the local VNC client window.

Tunnelling over SSH is not slow. Especially if you enable the NONE cipher on boths ends. :) Not recommended if you are going over public Internet links, but can work wonders within an organisation.

Tunnelling X11 over SSH can be slow, but can also be made fast using NX. Downside to that is that it's full-desktop remoting, not per-application remoting. But it works wonders for staff and students to access their Linux accounts at the schools from home (even across ADSL links).

We can even watch 480p youtube videos in Firefox via VNC-over-SSH across ADSL links (it's choppy but watchable). E10 (10 Mbps) sites make it no different than watching locally (with the exception of the complete lack of sound). Using NX makes even the ADSL link enjoyable. And that's all done over SSH (without compression enabled in the SSH client/server).

IOW, tunnelling over SSH is not slow. Whatever app/protocol you are tunnelling will determine the "speed" of the remote app.

Since when does Netflix have their own datacentres? Everything Netflix does is hosted in the Amazon cloud.

Isn't Quartz based on Display PDF, though?

The reasons for introducing mir are performance, ability to run on low footprint devices, and cross device compatability.

Jolla would like to know why the need for Mir when they have a Wayland compositor and window manager running on low-end/mid-range mobile devices with excellent (compared to other similar-spec devices) performance.

I'm hoping they move away from the "tiny post with pins sticking up inside the slot" setup that USB of all stripes uses, and toward a "the pins are on the outside of the slot".

There's nothing worse than having that tiny post inside the micro-USB slot break off.

Look at the 3.5 mm headphone jack for inspiration. Look at the Lightning connector for inspiration. Hell, look at the old mini Christmas light bulbs for inspiration. Make the end plug solid, and connect to pins/connectors around the slot that it plugs into. Nothing to break off inside. Nothing to bend.

The USB3 micro plug, as seen on some Samsung phablets, is a micro-USB2 plug + an extra plug. So, you can either connect a micro-USB2 cable and get USB2 speeds, or you can connect a micro-USB3 cable and get USB3 speeds.

However, it's a HUGE connector, almost twice as wide as a micro-USB2 connector.

I believe the Note 3 uses it.

The EU mandated microUSB charging ports on phones, thus reducing the "cable clutter" that existed 5-odd years ago.

Now, the EU is mandading the other end of the charging cable, the actual, physical charger is plugs into. Meaning, you'll only need a single charger, with a USB port in it, to charge your flip phone, your 4" mini-smartphone, your 6" phablet, and your 10" tablet.

Right now, each device has it's own charger, with it's own specs (how many volts at how many amps). And you generally can't charge a tablet using an older phone charger.

So you end up with a handful of different chargers in your drawer that you have to pick through to charge each device, or you end up with a drawer full of chargers you never use as you just plug everything into the most power charger you have (generally the one for the tablet).

Standardising on a single charger would eliminate all the extra chargers gathering dust in people's junk drawers.

I always preferred Role Master for this reason. Everything was based on percentages and tables. You only needed 2 dice (D10). And everything else was left up to the imagination. There were enough rules to keep everyone in line without getting bogged down in minutia.

Of course, the best Game Masters didn't both with 90% of the "rules" and looked at the books more as "guidelines" to keep the action going. The more talking, role-playing, and action, the better the session. If you spent most of your time trying to figure out "how do I ..." in a stack of books, you were missing the point.

ARMv8 supports both AArch32 (32-bit ISA) and AArch64 (64-bit ISA), similar to how AMD (and now Intel) CPUs support both x86 and amd64 ISAs.

Meaning, you can run a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit chip, and get access to all the improvements to the architecture, and it will run like a faster 32-bit chip.

Or, you can run a 64-bit OS on the 64-bit chip, and still run 32-bit apps, and get access to all the improvements to the architecture, and it will run like a 32-bit chip with access to a full 64-bit address space (for the OS, the apps are still limited to 4 GB each).

Or, you can run a 64-bit OS on the 64-bit chip and run 64-bit apps and get access to all the improvements to the architecture, including access to the full 64-bit address space within each app.

Or, you can mix and match the last two as needed. Which is what Apple is doing with their A7 SoC (64-bit CPU, 64-bit OS, mix of 32-bit and 64-bit apps).

There's a lot more to the ARMv8 architecture than just 64-bit-ness. There's a lot more memory bandwidth, there's a lot more registers, there's a lot of clean-up to the ISA, etc, etc, etc.

You don't need more than 4 GB of RAM to get improvements from running a 64-bit SoC. Just like you don't need 4 GB of RAM on the desktop to get improvements from running an AMD CPU in 64-bit mode with a 64-bit OS.

Ever considered spending $20 on a surge protecting power bar that includes RJ11 plugs? They're designed specifically for this, and go between the wall outlet and the ADSL modem.

Coupled with surge protectors on ask the AC adapters, you'd be set.

Not really, no. I've seen 30-year olds that make tweeners seem like model citizens, and 16-year old that make middle-agers seem young. While you would expect the older driver to have better judgement, I wouldn't count on it.

No, inexperienced drivers, regardless of age, are the worst actuarial risk. A 30-year old new driver is no better than a 16-year old new driver is no better than a 60-year old new driver.

And someone who drives less than an hour a week over the course of 20 years is really no more experienced than someone who drives everyday for the past 6 months since getting their license on their 16th birthday.

Age isn't an issue. Experience behind the wheel is.

Fortunately the syntax for the new nft utility seems to be easier to understand...

Compared to what? Learning Japanese using Russian textbooks?

You want easy-to-understand, look at IPFW or PF. Those read like actual English sentences, not gibberish like iptables/nftables.

About the only good thing nftables does is enforce the ordering of rules elements so that everyone's rules will be written the same; and finally get rid --of --that --annoying --CLI --syntax --that --iptables --uses.

Here's hoping the devs actually document things correctly and accurately, though. Considering their track record, though ...

Not to mention that a lot of Microsoft software doesn't use the "native widgets" available on the OS. Just look at every new version of Office on the (at the time) current version of Windows.