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Comment Re: even in the cloud (Score 3, Interesting) 69

It won for clear reasons - on the same hardware, Linux is faster, and this is well-known. https://blog.zorinaq.com/i-con... SQL Server scores posted on TPC.org were faster for many years, although now that does not appear to be the case (perhaps for political reasons, as only Microsoft may post scores). Still, patching is profoundly easier on Linux, which is a critical feature for cloud deployments. https://www.tpc.org/tpch/resul...

Comment "Rugs, Chickens, and Automobiles" (Score 2) 71

UMC/Mediatek exists because RCA engaged in a technology-sharing agreement with the Taiwan government, before RCA management attempted to become a conglomerate. TSMC actually got later technology from Erickson.

RCA bought Banquet Foods, AVIS, and a carpet company. The resulting distraction ended their semicondutor division, and all the patents were sold to UMC.

Is the United States actually capable of producing a focused semiconductor company, that doesn't try to build an Itanium?

I have my doubts.

Comment OpenBSD Chromium (Score 1) 97

There is actually a Chromium package in OpenBSD that uses pledge() and unveil(), and it's interesting. The browser is only able to see your ~/Downloads directory; the kernel will either block or kill it for trying to open anything else.

If Microsoft is serious about Edge, then I would like to see a relevant OpenBSD package. I would also like to see an F-Droid listing.

Barring these, Edge is a Windows-only browser.

Comment process, legacy (Score 1) 137

First, I'm assuming Intel's is a 10-nm part, which I understand is roughly equivalent to TSMC 7nm. I believe that Apple is producing a 5nm part. When Intel's designs start rolling out of TSMC's 3nm production line, the wattage questions may shift somewhat, but Apple and Intel will be on (more) equal physical footing.

Second, Intel has much more legacy hardware to support than Apple. Fujitsu doesn't support anything outside of AArch64 for their supercomputer, for example, but I am assuming that Apple retains AArch32, Thumb, Neon, perhaps the Java extensions, and others. Intel has a much larger tract of legacy support, going down to 8086.

I am confident that Intel will always have more legacy baggage, and higher transistor counts as a consequence. Still, when both designs appear at 3nm, it will be somewhat more fair to compare them.

Comment PostQuel (Score 2) 297

Should I mention that the original query language of Postgres was not SQL, it was PostQuel

. Many past databases that embraced SQL began with something different. Perhaps we should mine the past for ideas of a superior query language.

Or perhaps the more direct approach would be to return to dBase 3 syntax, of which I have a dim memory.

Comment Webb telescope drawbacks (Score 1, Troll) 60

Let's just check the wiki.

  • Infrared telescopes have a disadvantage: the telescope must be kept very cold in order to observe in the infrared without interference... below 50 K.
  • The telescope's sunshield ripped during a practice deployment.
  • JWST will operate... 1,500,000 km beyond Earth's orbit. Hubble orbits [at] 550 km.
  • The Webb telescope will use 126 small motors to occasionally adjust the optics.
  • ...most infrared telescopes have a lifespan limited by their coolant, as short as a few months, maybe a few years at most.
  • [The JWST] is designed to cool itself without a dewar, using a combination of sunshields and radiators, with the mid-infrared instrument using an additional cryocooler.
  • The review also found JWST had 344 potential single-point failures, any of which could doom the project.
  • 2010 Nature article: "The telescope that ate astronomy."
  • Its nominal mission time is five years, with a goal of ten years.
  • JWST needs to use propellant to maintain its halo orbit around L2, which provides an upper limit to its designed lifetime, and it is being designed to carry enough for ten years.

Do not expect 30 years of service from this device.

Comment 32-bit Pro*C (Score 2) 107

At work, we have an internal queuing system that runs critical data to our VAX and Univac OS/2200 minis. I fought like a bandit to get the Oracle Pro*C port written in '93. It still compile with -m32, and adding FORTIFY_SOURCE let me find quite a few bugs. I recently prepared fresh binaries for RedHat 8, and this code will likely outlive me.

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