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Comment As previously covered on Slashdot... (Score 4, Informative) 107

Hello,

This is the fourth time today Slashdot has shared this news. Here are the previous ones:

Today at 11:03AM: https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
Today at 7:21AM: https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
Today at 6:00AM: https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
(all times Pacific)

Perhaps limiting comments to just the first one will help Slashdot's editorial staff better curate the experience it is providing to readers.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Comment It wouldn't work. (Score 5, Interesting) 236

It wouldn't work beyond simple examples. Semantically C and Rust are quite different, so the AI will always have to make guesses about what the C is *really* trying to do when it does something like *((arr + i * M) + j2) and try to reimplement it properly in Rust since Rust doesn't have pointer arithmetic and encoding self referential data structures are hard in Rust due to lifetimes and borrow checking. It would be much more successful to use AI to disallow pointers and convert such C code into C++ with smart pointers and liberal use of std::optional . In such a conversion, much of the code could remain nearly the same and there is a direct translation for most common c options.

Comment Er⦠AMD, not Intel (Score 3, Informative) 44

Hello,

I was unfamiliar with the Intel 7840HS CPU mentioned in the article, and figured it was either some model for embedded systems, servers or other computers not generally used by the public.

One quick search later, and I found out is an AMD CPU for laptops, specifically the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS. Here are the specs for it: https://www.amd.com/en/product....

The changelog for the LZ4 release gives more information about the speed improvements: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/rel.... It does not mention the manufacturers of the CPUs used in benchmarking, which is probably why it was misidentified in the article.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Comment Re:George Kurtz has a history with Windows (Score 5, Interesting) 76

Hello,

To be fair, he had just been newly appointed to the CTO position at McAfee, Inc,, and was responsible for GRC activities.

I would imagine that after his experience with the bad DAT 5958 rollout at McAfee, he would have made sure that CrowdStrike had a robust set of processes in place to ensure that this never happened again. That's part of what makes this so interesting: CrowdStrike must have had all sorts of controls in place to ensure that only a detection update which had passed through numerous quality gating procedures was released. Such processes are usually highly automated because they run 7x24x365, so you have all sorts of signalling and telemetry coming back at you to make sure all the tests are passed and everything's okay before you release.

What I'm thinking is that maybe this was going on, but there was failure in the alerting mechanism(s) and the update was pushed to production; think of it as being like an alarm light that didn't flash because its lamp bulb was burnt-out.

I will point out that this is all very speculative by me. I do not know personally know Mr. Kurtz, I was at McAfee from 1989-1995, and have worked at a competitor for the last 18 years. But during the past 35 years, every antivirus/antimalware/internet security/EPP/EDR/{insert marketing term du jour} company has put out a bad update at some time or another. None of us are immune to doing that, and they will happen again in the future.

Everyone in the industry is talking amongst themselves about what happened, and wondering if their own systems are vulnerable to such a problem, but it is difficult to check your systems if you don't know what you are checking them for. There has been all sorts of guessing about what happened, but until CrowdStrike releases their post mortem incident report with an analysis showing the root cause, that's exactly what it all is: guesswork, especially my comments.

Until then, the only thing I can really do is hope that CrowdStrike and their customers get their systems up and running as quickly as possible.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Comment Actually, they should fit in most desktop PCs (Score 5, Informative) 63

Hello,
I was a bit surprised by the "As a result, these 6TB 2.5-inch drives will unlikely fit into any desktop PC" comment. While that may be true for laptops, many desktops still have 3.5" and even 5.25" bays, and 2.5" adapters to the larger form factors have been readily available for years. While the >15mm Z-height may be problematic for adapters using removable drive trays, there shouldn't be any problems for internal use, as 3.5" drives are typically 20-26mm high and 5.25" drives are around 42mm high.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Comment Re:Storing it wrong (Score 1) 50

You've got to wonder - since they've got a cord running down to a separate battery pack already, why didn't they just put all the heat and weight of the computer in the "battery pack" instead of the headset?

The only reason I can think of is that if it was in the "battery pack", then it wouldn't be terribly difficult to someday upgrade the computer without buying an entirely new expensive headset too.

I mean heck, it worked great with all the suckers that bought premium-screen iMacs over the years...

Comment Re:Well Shite (Score 2) 107

It I'm pretty sure she was fired for NOT doing the right thing - A.k.a. making sure her husband could either be trusted to overhear the privileged conversations, or couldn't hear them.

The fact that the felony was committed is pretty clear evidence that, one way or another, she has poor judgement.

Comment Re:Targeting and finger-pointing. (Score 3, Insightful) 107

Her husband is either a complete idiot, or knowingly implicated her in a felony without even mentioning it to her first.

Honestly, either way this is likely only the most recent and dramatic of a long chain of problems.

And while a spouse may be kind of difficult to replace, their value is only as high as the respect they bring to the relationship. Love alone may be great for dating, but marriage has always been a business relationship.

Comment Re:WINNING! (Score 5, Insightful) 557

The extra scary part is that make it obvious that they don't actually believe their own religion.

If the act invokes the wrath of God, then why do we have to worry about it? Do they not trust God to be able to exact his own vengeance?

Or are they like chihuahuas running in a dog pack - utterly useless, but with an inferiority complex ten times their size that makes them try to start shit with anyone and everyone, while the real dogs are just chilling?

Comment Re:Semantics matter (Score 1) 110

If the Right actually cared about kiddy-diddling, then the default punishment for rapist priests wouldn't be just reassigning them to another parish where nobody knows they're a kiddy-diddler. They'd be up in arms about that shit.

They only "care" about the children when it gives them an excuse to persecute a group they already don't like.

Comment Re: But it's cold (Score 5, Informative) 110

No they refused to prosecute because they had no evidence that he willfully retained classified documents. The willful part is what makes it a crime, accidentally taking some paperwork you shouldn't have happens.

Biden: I discovered I had these classified documents, handed them over, immediately searched for more, and invited the FBI to do the same. Exactly what you're supposed to do when you discover yourself in unauthorized possession of classified documents.

Trump: No I don't have any classified documents, and had my lawyer testify to that fact under oath. Oh, that unsecured room full of them? No, those are mine. You can't have them. And anyway I declassified them in my imagination without doing any of the paperwork required, so they're fine. You're confiscating them? That's theft! And yes you got them all. Oh, these? These are mine, and you can't have them.

One of those acts is not like the other.

Comment Re:Subsidies? (Score 1) 123

What possible mechanism do subsidies have to drive costs?

You start overcharging because of the subsidy - all one of your competitors has to do is keep charging a fair price and they'll drive you out of business. Widespread collusion between small businesses is actually fairly uncommon - that's more megacorp territory, where the precautions and lawyers to avoid getting caught are a tiny marginal cost of doing business, and it's incredibly rare that anyone "who matters" ever goes to jail.

What they may do is largely eliminate the bottom of the market - if a $3000 system is the minimum that qualifies for a subsidy, then there will be dramatically less demand for $2000 systems. Who is going to want to pay for a $2000 system completely out of pocket, when a $3000 system is far more capable and only costs $1500 after the subsidy?

There may still be some niche demand for sub-$1000 systems, but generally speaking subsidy minimums are set with an eye towards the minimum widely useful system. E.g. few people will actually be satisfied by a smaller system for general use, and the subsidies aren't intended for upgrading for your hunting cabin that doesn't need more capacity..

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