Comment Re:I've always heard Apples are easy (Score 1) 40
They are if you never do anything outside of the click click drool UX.
They used to be pretty simple even then, but now they have all the complexity of any other system.
Comment Re:GTA? (Score 1) 37
This is the console release, but even the last GTA game required connecting to the internet occasionally for a blessing, though it did/does run on Linux including the online component. However, the game is also absolutely full of cheaters, so I won't be surprised if the new version requires kernel DRM.
Comment Re:Bejesus - Beer and Circuses (Score 1) 37
If society is so fucked, you fantasise about dropping out and breaking it, here's an idea, spend that time trying to change yourself and society, the real world is so much more fun, you can live and feel it.
That's what the rich folks do.
Rich folks like Elon, who broke USAID, killing tens of thousands so far and projected to add up to millions?
Submission + - Power Grids on 5 Continents Pulse Every 60s. Scientists Think They Know Why (sciencealert.com)
fahrbot-bot writes: ScienceAlert is reporting that researchers may have finally determined why, for many years, power grids around the world have been pulsing every 60 seconds: uninterruptible power supplies running routine battery checks.
Every minute, some uninterruptible power supplies perform routine battery checks, creating small but measurable surges in electricity demand. And it's like clockwork.
"Even benign control routines can become systemically relevant when many devices act coherently," writes a team led by physicist Dirk Witthaut of the University of Cologne, Germany, in a paper published in Nature Energy.
"Unintended synchronization can generate recurrent and potentially amplified oscillatory behavior in large-scale cyber-physical energy systems."
To figure it out, Witthaut and his colleagues analyzed high-resolution electricity measurements from buildings at the Forschungszentrum Jülich research campus in Germany. They found the 60-second pattern appeared in four buildings, all of which contained uninterruptible power supplies. None of the buildings they measured without these systems showed the same pattern.
Following the electrical signals more closely, the researchers detected tiny bursts of current from the batteries at precisely one-minute intervals. They were able to trace the resulting fluctuations through one building's electrical system, all the way to the connection with the public high-voltage grid.
The manufacturer subsequently confirmed the culprit's identity – routine battery self-tests, conducted automatically by the systems' management software.
But why would equipment in different buildings, let alone different countries, be doing this at the same time? The answer appears to lie in the clocks. Digital devices can synchronize their internal clocks using external time signals, meaning that independently operating systems can end up performing their scheduled tasks together.
Individually, these small checks are insignificant. But when enough devices act in synchrony, their combined electricity demand can produce a measurable effect across an entire power grid.
Every minute, some uninterruptible power supplies perform routine battery checks, creating small but measurable surges in electricity demand. And it's like clockwork.
"Even benign control routines can become systemically relevant when many devices act coherently," writes a team led by physicist Dirk Witthaut of the University of Cologne, Germany, in a paper published in Nature Energy.
"Unintended synchronization can generate recurrent and potentially amplified oscillatory behavior in large-scale cyber-physical energy systems."
To figure it out, Witthaut and his colleagues analyzed high-resolution electricity measurements from buildings at the Forschungszentrum Jülich research campus in Germany. They found the 60-second pattern appeared in four buildings, all of which contained uninterruptible power supplies. None of the buildings they measured without these systems showed the same pattern.
Following the electrical signals more closely, the researchers detected tiny bursts of current from the batteries at precisely one-minute intervals. They were able to trace the resulting fluctuations through one building's electrical system, all the way to the connection with the public high-voltage grid.
The manufacturer subsequently confirmed the culprit's identity – routine battery self-tests, conducted automatically by the systems' management software.
But why would equipment in different buildings, let alone different countries, be doing this at the same time? The answer appears to lie in the clocks. Digital devices can synchronize their internal clocks using external time signals, meaning that independently operating systems can end up performing their scheduled tasks together.
Individually, these small checks are insignificant. But when enough devices act in synchrony, their combined electricity demand can produce a measurable effect across an entire power grid.
Comment Re:Conflating two things (Score 1) 208
Why tear down a bunch of fossil fuel power plants still in their prime just to replace them with a technology that's still rapidly getting better?
Certainly don't tear anything down. Mothball those plants in case they are needed in wartime, during unprecedented weather activity that disrupts solar production for long periods, etc. Maintain a reserve of fuel for them in the bargain. Coal is great for this because it's great at lying around. You certainly don't want to use it if you don't have to, but it would be foolish to dismantle it. It's worth paying to store it.
Comment Re:Conflating two things (Score 1) 208
reducing effectively the fossil fuel consumption
No, this isn't a thing. It's either being increased or reduced. The USA is doing worse by increasing, but we also need to be actually decreasing the use of fossils.
Comment Evaluation (Score 5, Insightful) 40
Apple told MacRumors that it decided to sunset the forum after a careful evaluation of strategy and customer needs.
What customers need is information, so Apple has decided to bury some, because customer needs run contrary to Apple greed.
I had a B&W G3 with the Rev.1 logic board defect which caused data corruption on UDMA transfers. Apple elected not to include their page on remedies when they brought the old TechInfo Library into their new Knowledge Base, because instead of replacing the defective hardware, they told you to buy an expansion card and use up one of your four slots for it, at a time when literally the same card was $20 for PC or $100 for Macintosh.
Hiding information is what Apple does. That's how people can think their hardware is high quality.
Comment Re:Range? (Score 1) 42
I put WiFi 7 in my PC for twenty bucks, counting the antenna. They've got WiFi 6 that can only reach 24'? What year is it?
Comment Re:Conflating two things (Score 0) 208
Increasing the energy demand is their problem, though. We can and should build societies in ways which use less power, like designing them to not need commutes. China wants to call itself Communist, let's see some Communism! Let's see them Commune! But the best they've managed so far is to do some minor riffs on the western strategy like building their big square skyscrapers with bamboo. (Yeah they have some amazing buildings, so does everyone else, let's not get into a dick measuring contest because that would be too ironic.)
As you say, the west is totally repugnant in this regard. The USA exemplifies this. But it makes me sad to see others repeat our mistakes.
Comment Re:Renewables are the way to go (Score 0) 208
There's no fair measure, there's only equivalent ones.
Measuring per-capita is only fair if the capita is making the decisions.
Comment Re:Renewables are the way to go (Score 1, Insightful) 208
Yes, we all need to change, but China accounted for 31.84% of global CO2 emissions in 2025.
That's not a "but", if anything, it's an "and".
Comment Re: Die in a fire (Score 0) 18
Learn to read. Five months of deflection is not due to a single employee. It's due to a single employer.
Comment Re: Someone (Score 1) 97
"Huang is being investigated, Trump reached out to him directly (not the investigating bodies, the subject of the investigation), and asked his friend"
fuck this posting delay on desktop is so stupid, only the absolute lowest-wits need 20 seconds to think of something to say on this turd
Comment Re: Grow A Pair (Score 1) 185
"Their prophet married a 6 year girl and raped her when she was 9. In the west we shit on (child) rapists while Islamists celebrate and pray for them."
But no, you don't. If you did then you could claim some moral high ground, but you support the marriage of children to adults under Christianity which is going on in the USA right now, so you are factually in favor of child rape, and you only complain about Islam because of your racism.
Comment Re: Design (Score 1) 42
Since then they have been exploited by the US, Russia, and China.
If you knew anything about anything it would be a miracle.
