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Comment Re:Security in a complex system is hard (Score 1) 84

Yeah I think we both know that is not true. I love open source, but know that is not some magical force field against hardware-level bugs, so stop claiming there is. The most common examples of these exploits are done IN LINUX.

These are brilliantly done exploites, and the Linux-x64 house is made of just as much glass as Windows.

Difference being, Microsoft and Intel actually have to report to shareholders, so there is some accountability.

I'm a little off the reservation on what the proper path is since all is currently properly fucked.

Comment Re:No, it's shitty government (Score 1) 266

Airports skam240, it is mainly the airports. SJC and SFO, not to mention Moffett Field pretty much limit the development height in the South Bay. Not to mention the whole seismic thing which makes it vastly more expensive with each story added.

Yeah, there are some local gov't regs that limit how tall buildings are in Mountain View as an example, but that is partially to preserve said mountain view and limitations on infrastructure that isn't easily fixed.

You can't transition from 10,000 single family homes built in the 1950's to even medium-density housing without basically ripping everything apart. Ask PG&E what they would like the local bus voltage to look like vs is what it currently is. I personally exploded one of their 7.5 kVA transformers from the 1920's while turning on some fairly normal equipment.

I honestly very much await you our someone else with clever and viable solutions to these problems. I don't see an easy or popular clear path.

Comment Re:Learn the definition of stability (Score 1) 712

Preface: I love me some Linux and hate replying to A/C's. However, this fanboi shit needs some reality . . . Unix / Linux has been pretty much "hacked" into existence. To claim that there was some sort of collective forethought from a collective herd of strangers is, well, a blog-worthy utopian sentiment. Furthermore, Linux does not have a "blue screen" mainly because there is no central authority to detect / report when something is truly wrong. Sure when the kernel is shitting the bed, you'll get a kernel panic, but that is a 1-second pre-reboot screen dump to the console that only luck would enable you to see. Logging may or may not happen. Uptime is really the only reliable diagnostic. That extends to all platforms. As for you comment on "mission critical" stuff - don't be so naive. In space stuff, mission critical things are done in orthogonal triplicate because you MUST assume that at some point, the hardware / software combination will screw up. With any luck, watchdog timers will reset stuff back to a responsible state before the next "event". No reasonable person would trust their $2 billion space widget / industrial plant to software that was pulled from a CVS repository 15 minutes before implementation. THAT is how you get disasters. Put some skin in the game next time you troll / post while high on ground-up Slackware install floppies.

Comment Re:MIPS and 5x (Score 1) 154

Let's also not forget the upcoming Intel MIC. Sure it may be just a series of souped up vector processor, but it is "48+ cores" (whatever that even means in this context) worth of said processors. When Intel has a 4X advantage on density, it is hard to imagine how competitors will be able to effectively and responsibly scale until they catch up to that. From the looks of it, interconnect and lithographically, said competitors are several years back.

Comment Re:and it's going to get worse due to market force (Score 2) 327

You know, I keep hearing this, but I do not understand how that is true. Were it true, you, being a slashdotter and thus years ahead would be composing this on a tablet. Apparently the soft-keyboard and such are no bother, nor is the lack of easy copy/paste functions. Personally, I'm typing this on my workstation which will never, ever, ever leave my office. Nor should it. I create content and solve problems on it. People may later consume said content but if you want to actually get anything more serious than email done, you need a real computer. Furthermore, could you imagine spending 8 hours a day on a tablet? That is a laughable suggestion. Given that unemployment is less than 50%, I suspect most people using computers for something other than leisure will still use a keyboard at some point during the day.
Hardware

Submission + - An 8,000 Ton Giant Made the Jet Age Possible

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Tim Heffernan writes that when "The Fifty," as it’s known in company circles, broke down three years ago, there was talk of retiring it for good. Instead, Alcoa decided to overhaul their 50,000-ton, 6-story high forging press, now scheduled to resume service early this year. "What sets the Fifty apart is its extraordinary scale," writes Heffernan. "Its 14 major structural components, cast in ductile iron, weigh as much as 250 tons each; those yard-thick steel bolts are also 78 feet long; all told, the machine weighs 16 million pounds, and when activated its eight main hydraulic cylinders deliver up to 50,000 tons of compressive force." The Fifty could bench-press the battleship Iowa, with 860 tons to spare but it's the Fifty's amazing precision—its tolerances are measured in thousandths of an inch—that gives it such far-reaching utility. Every manned US military aircraft now flying uses parts forged by the Fifty as does every commercial aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing making the Jet Age possible. "On a plane, a pound of weight saved is a pound of thrust gained—or a pound of lift, or a pound of cargo," writes Heffernan. "Without the ultra-strong, ultra-light components that only forging can produce, they’d all be pushing much smaller envelopes." The now-forgotten Heavy Press Program (PDF), inaugurated in 1950 and completed in 1957, resulted in four presses (including the Fifty) and six extruders—giant toothpaste tubes squeezing out long, complex metal structures such as wing ribs and missile bodies. "Today, America lacks the ability to make anything like the Heavy Press Program machines," concludes Heffernan adding that "The Fifty" will be supplying bulkheads through 2034 for the Joint Strike Fighter. "Big machines are the product of big visions, and they make big visions real. How about a Heavy Fusion Program?""

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