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Comment What? (Score 1) 92

[T]he Sparc M7 will have technologies for encryption acceleration and memory protection built into the chip.

Well, encryption acceleration has been available on x86 for a while and memory protection has been available on... well, I seem to remember that was the big feature the 286 had over the 8086, and it was only new to PCs at that point. That's a rather peculair thing to brag about, especially as the SPARC chip has always had it since it's inception.

Whatever though. I am kind of in two minds about this. Yaaay cool new sparc chip! ew, Oracle.

Comment Re:It's really not much fun... (Score 1) 307

KCC's switching to LED means that longer term it'll cost the same as the half-lighting that goes on now

Where did those figures come from? High pressure sodium lamps still beat out LEDs handily in lumens per watt. Both have ancillary electronics of which the sodium ones are a bit less efficient, and the sodium ones tend to need bigger reflector assemblies which lower the efficiency, but the resulting overall the efficiencies are awfully similar. They also have similar overally lifetimes. HPS lamps also don't dim with age.

Personally, I think LEDs are the future, an eventually they'll beat out pretty much all other forms of lighting. But if the council can save a factor of 2 (!) by switching to LEDs, they probably could have saved that 10 years ago by switching to non ancient vapour lamps instead.

The low pressure lamps are about twice as good as LEDs, but if one takes into visual perception the monochromatic light sucks. The HPS ones are orangish white and fine. There are very white one which are less efficient than the normal HPS ones, but still good. Also, top end metal halide lamps match LEDs for efficiency.

Comment Re:So they stayed home. So what? (Score 1) 307

So we should waste money and resources and pollution lighting up roads so you can bike home?

Should one waste money on road repairs, and resources on pollution from cars just so you can have fewer lights? You're assuming (unwarranted) that the bike is somehow special and the car is the default option.

Comment GCC, stable APIs and subversion of Free software. (Score 5, Interesting) 359

Hi RMS,

Firstly I am fan of what you've done and what you have given the world. I also asked you a weakly related quesion about two decades ago when I was a teenager and didn't realise one shouldn't just email random well known people on the internet. You were kind enough to take the time to write a thoughtful reply.

The question is about subversion of Free software via a stable API. If a stable API exists in some popular library/piece of software, it is possible to write a shim layer, where the GPL shim serialises the interaction then sends that to a non-free component[*]. The non-free component of course has the interesting and useful logic. Since it's not linking to the Free part, then it's not covered by the GPL.

Via such a mechanism, one could use a significant GPL component in a non-free program. Naturally this is very much at odds with the spirit of the GPL, but not the letter. From what I recall, you explicitly warned about this sort of thing when GCC were creating an API for interacting with external tools. GCC being arguably the leading compiler in the world[1], would be prone to such subversion.

I believe your suggestion at the time was to essentially neuter the plugin API so that there was nothing left to subvert. Naturally though that comes with downsides is that it also makes it harder for the Free software community to work with GCC. GCC did eventually decide to go with the plugin API.

Do you still think that not having an API would have been the right choice? If so, what to you think the relative tradeoff is between making Free software better and as a side effect making it easier for non-free software development? If not, what made you change your mind? Either way, where do you draw the line---gcc always could be used to compile non-free software and of course making GCC better makes such things easier.

It also seems that GCC went with the plugin interface because they believed that the improvement to the usability of GCC was worth it relative to the risks. Do you think it's possible in theory to have flexible plugin interfaces without openning the door to non-free software, such as some hypothetical license change?

Thankyou for your time :)

[*] related: if one has two libraries offering identical APIs such as the various libcs, then it's hard to argue that something using libc is a derived work of a particular implementation. Especially if it's dynamically linked it could easily pick up any number of several different compatible ones. The concept of derived work is what gives the GPL and indeed all of copyright its teeth.

[1] To anyone who wants to argue that LLVM or Intel CC or etc is better please don't. GCC is arguable the best in that I and others could make reasonable arguments for that case. It's not provably the best.

Comment Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever (Score 2) 698

I never understood the hate for the Windows key. Well, sure as a youthful Linux user I was snobbish when it was introduced, but after mapping it to something useful I started disliking keyboards without it.

What I'd really like is some simple and commonly available system that lets you re-map or disable any key on the keyboard at will.

xmodmap works well for basic key remapping. If you want to do funky stuff like make it per-keyboard instead of global (useful for UK/US keyboard differences for example) then setxkbmap is really handy.

You can pseudo-disable a key by mapping it to None. It has minor effects, like triggering a key event but it will never do anything.

Of course that only works on X based systems, but it's really handy.

Comment AMD did well! (Score 2) 57

Interesting take-home from the benchmark: the AMD desktop processors did prtty respectably well compared to the i7s. Ususally a bit slower, sometimes actually faster and we know an AMD setup is certainly cheaper.

Interesting that in the open source, repeatable, examinable benchmarks the difference between Itel and AMD is a lot less pronounced.

Comment Re:Everybody List What You Think Went Wrong (Score 1) 552

Because I search sites that aren't blatantly biased pro-radical-feminist garbage?

I noticed you dismissed the site as "garbage" without actually addressing my point. Do youbelieve those IRC logs are a fabrication? If so, say so. If not, then being pro gamergate means you are pro that stuff.

I have a feeling that no evidence for my side of the argument is ever going to be good enough for you,

Touche. I like how you dismiss my evidence while claiming I *will* dismiss yours and then passing the buck on addressing it. Your sophistry has been noted.

Anyway, most (all?) of the evidence I've seen has been to show that some anti-gaters have done some shitty things. You know what? That doesn't make me pro gamergate because two wrongs don't make a right.

MRAs =/= MGTOW =/= Return of Kings.

Well, last time I addressed that point, you ignored my reply. I'll do it again because what the hell why not. No they're not all strictly identical, and sure they will all trade insults for not doing it "properly". From the point of view of someone at a distance, they all peddle the same brand of regressive drivel of which an amazingly large amount seems to be spent grousing about women. The fact that they've given themselves different names and have one or two points that differ by epsilon isn't a good reason not to put them under the same broad banner of "manosphere".

They are separate paradigms.

Barely. I've gone to the original sources, you know, the websites or subreddits where they're based and no, they're barely any different at all. Saying they're different reminds me of this:

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?" He said, "Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?" He said,"Reformed Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off. -- Emo Phillips

From the point of view of someone not in the manosphere, the difference between MGTOW and Red Pillers and ROTK etc is the difference between the reformed baptist church of god reformed 1879 and 1915. So sure they're technically different but not in any meaningful way no matter how much fuss they make about it.

In fact, RoK detests MRAs, but, if you'd even bothered to look past pro-feminist literature on the matter, you might know that.

You are under the impression I didn't know that. I do know that but I just don't care. Infact it's th opposite. The closer some split is to being the same I think the more likely they are to revile each other. The reformers of 1879 detest the reformers of 1915 but to everyone else they look more or less identical.

And to anyone not deeply embedded in the manosphere, they all share mostly the same regressive, blinkered views and no one except for them cares about the tiny, minor but very heartfelt differences.

Comment Re:Everybody List What You Think Went Wrong (Score 1) 552

Why aren't there more women in construction?

Curious thing. It's my personal observation, but I've seen a lot more women in hi viz round London recently. Other funny thing is they behave much like the guys and wolf whistle. I suppose it's something to do with large scale construction not relying on physical strength nearly as much as the smaller scale things.

Comment Re:Everybody List What You Think Went Wrong (Score 2, Interesting) 552

As someone who ends up on the side of the pro-GG side of the argument more often than not,

Out of interest, why are you pro these people:
http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/...

Or perhaps you'd like to wile away a few minutes watching "the sarkeesian" effect. I do notice that the gaters on Slashdot banging on about fraud have finally given up 12 months after literally no one asked for their money back from Sarkeesian.

much the same way that "MRA" is used and misused

I think you're confusing the men's movement with the men's rights movement. The latter is the one with return of kings, mgtow and so on and who's adherents are known as men's rights activists.

Comment Re:Who cares? (Score 0) 149

I guess the expected tsunami of techies eager for SJW articles never arrived

And yet here you are bringing it up. Funny how the people whining loudest about "SJW" and whatnot are tautologically the ones who make the biggest fuss about it.

How about you stick to the topic of the optimizer bug in .NET and not drag your hatred of bogeymen into it?

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