Comment Hungary? (Score 1) 50
I would hate to see two or more tiered NATO, but how soon after receiving space intel are Hungarians likely to share it with Putin?
Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund Now Supporting FFmpeg (phoronix.com) 16
Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Following Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund providing significant funding for GNOME, Rust Coreutils, PHP, a systemd bug bounty, and numerous other free software projects, the FFmpeg multimedia library is the latest beneficiary to this funding from the Germany government. The Sovereign Tech Fund notes that the FFmpeg project is receiving 157,580 euros for 2024 and 2025.
An announcement on the FFmpeg.org project site notes: "The FFmpeg community is excited to announce that Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund has become its first governmental sponsor. Their support will help sustain the [maintenance] of the FFmpeg project, a critical open-source software multimedia component essential to bringing audio and video to billions around the world everyday."
An announcement on the FFmpeg.org project site notes: "The FFmpeg community is excited to announce that Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund has become its first governmental sponsor. Their support will help sustain the [maintenance] of the FFmpeg project, a critical open-source software multimedia component essential to bringing audio and video to billions around the world everyday."
Submission + - Terraform by Hashicorp forked to OpenTF (theregister.com)
ochinko writes: Terraform, arguably the most popular Infrastructure as Code product, has been forked after the parent company Hashicorp changed its license from the Mozilla Public License to the Business Source License v1.1.
"Our view is that we're actually not the fork because we're just changing the name but it's the same project under the same license," Sebastian Stadil, co-founder and CEO of DevOps automation biz Scalr told The Register. "Our position is that the fork is actually HashiCorp that has forked its own projects under a different license."
HashiCorp's decision to issue new licensing terms for its software follows a path trodden by numerous other organizations formed around open source projects to limit what competitors can do with project code. As the biz acknowledged in its statement about the transition, firms like Cockroach Labs, Confluent Sentry, Couchbase, Elastic, MariaDB, MongoDB, and Redis Labs have similarly adopted less-permissive software licenses to create a barrier for competitors.
You can see the OpenTF manifesto here: https://github.com/opentffound...
Comment Re:If Google can read your words... (Score 1) 104
Does that include gmail? If so, that ain't cool.
I was asking myself the same question. I use gmail for everything. The irony is that Google doesn't even allow Bard in my country, and I live in the EU.
Comment Nestle: "We are not that incompetent" (Score 4, Funny) 51
"Actually, we are much more incompetent than that."
Comment Are we going to see fanless laptops? (Score 2) 28
The article doesn't mention passively cooled solutions, but with 9W TDP they should certainly be possible. Even if you don't care about the noise, imagine how much more eco-friendly would be not to waste power for unwanted heat, and then even more power to dissipate that heat.
And no, I have never owned an Apple product, but for the first time I want to have something like the M1, and I would, if only I knew it would be possible to run Linux on it.
Comment Python's lack of of typing (Score 2) 31
From the article: "The only drawbacks of Python are performance and lack of typing."
I think that the lack of typing is Python's biggest strength, because of all the flexibility the language is able to provide.
Back then when C++ was new, and OOP was all the rage, inheritance was supposed to take care of all programmer's needs, and never again would we need to duplicate code.
Python is much more pragmatic. You still can inherit all the classes you want, but the preferred way is to just emulate the proper protocol, and let the libraries do their magic. They call it duck typing. You make your data structures behave like the duck you want, and suddenly you don't need them to be laid by a real duck.
Submission + - How reliable are modern CPUs? (theregister.com) 2
ochinko writes: Big IT companies report that they see a growing number of irreproducible CPU errors that are due not to architectural design flows, but to the limits to which semiconductor manufacturing was pushed.
Computer chips have advanced to the point that they're no longer reliable: they've become "mercurial," as Google puts it, and may not perform their calculations in a predictable manner.
...
Lately, however, two of the world's larger CPU stressors, Google and Facebook, have been detecting CPU misbehavior more frequently, enough that they're now urging technology companies to work together to better understand how to spot these errors and remediate them.
Comment Re:Not really a scam... (Score 1) 54
Did you read the article?
First the user is tricked into believing that the Safari ad pop-up came from Apple themselves, then they are led into a store full of fake five star ratings of an app that fails to deliver.
Do you think Apple is neither capable, nor competent enough to catch those two steps?
Submission + - SPAM: Cryptominers Have Already Cracked Nvidia's RTX 3060 Hash Rate Limiter
An anonymous reader writes: When the GeForce RTX 3060 was launched on February 25, Nvidia announced that the mining efficiency of the graphics card was deliberately being reduced by around 50% in a bid to get more of the GPUs directly to gamers. However, this limitation appears to have been quickly bypassed by Chinese cryptocurrency miners using customized mods. There was already concern brewing about how well the limiter would stand against savvy miners, but Nvidia has been vocally confident in the hash rate limit. A statement was given to PC Gamer regarding how difficult it would be to get around the protections placed on the GPUs, claiming "End users cannot remove the hash limiter from the driver. There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter."
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 can deliver around 40-45 MH/s for standard performance but this dropped down to 20-25 MH/s if the GPU detected mining-related activity, providing the limiter is in place. A picture spotted by I_Leak_VN reveals a Chinese mod developed to help miners unlock the full hash potential of the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, with the image showing the Geforce RTX 3060 delivering 45 MH/s in Ethereum. The hash-rate limiter mod has also been separately confirmed to work by a Vietnamese Facebook group, apparently even capable of outputting 50 MH/s. So far, according to Wccftech, it appears that the cryptomining algorithm in question is for Octopus, which is different than cryptocurrency than Ethereum, which the hashrate limiter was designed to thwart. That means its possible that an updated driver could introduce a limiter for that cryptocurrency as well, but as we explored earlier this month, Nvidia's efforts to thwart cryptomining is likely fraught with legal issues that might prevent such an update.
Link to Original Source
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 can deliver around 40-45 MH/s for standard performance but this dropped down to 20-25 MH/s if the GPU detected mining-related activity, providing the limiter is in place. A picture spotted by I_Leak_VN reveals a Chinese mod developed to help miners unlock the full hash potential of the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, with the image showing the Geforce RTX 3060 delivering 45 MH/s in Ethereum. The hash-rate limiter mod has also been separately confirmed to work by a Vietnamese Facebook group, apparently even capable of outputting 50 MH/s. So far, according to Wccftech, it appears that the cryptomining algorithm in question is for Octopus, which is different than cryptocurrency than Ethereum, which the hashrate limiter was designed to thwart. That means its possible that an updated driver could introduce a limiter for that cryptocurrency as well, but as we explored earlier this month, Nvidia's efforts to thwart cryptomining is likely fraught with legal issues that might prevent such an update.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Giant gravitational wave detectors could hear murmurs from across universe (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Just 5 years ago, physicists opened a new window on the universe when they first detected gravitational waves, ripples in space itself set off when massive black holes or neutron stars spiral together. Even as discoveries pour in, researchers are already planning bigger, more sensitive detectors. And a Ford versus Ferrari kind of rivalry has emerged, with scientists in the United States simply proposing detectors 10 times bigger than the ones they have now, and researchers in Europe pursuing a more radical design that would combine six detectors in a single underground observatory. Researchers say detectors 10 times more sensitive than the ones they have now could detect all black hole mergers within the observable universe and spot hundreds of mergers of neutron stars, laying bare the nature of the ultradense matter in neutron stars. But, it’s early days for the U.S. project, which is called the Cosmic Explorer, and the European project, which is known as the Einstein Telescope.
Submission + - Permanent Daylight Savings Proposed again...
McTohmas writes: Some senators are again struggling to bad a bad idea worse:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10...
Ed Markey of Massachusetts misleadingly stated that he is "proud to sponsor the Sunshine Protection Act to add an extra hour of sunshine for the full 365 days a year."
Daylight Savings Time was extended to eight months of the year in 2005 by masquerading in the Energy Policy Act as an energy-savings measure, despite lack of evidence of any savings.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10...
Ed Markey of Massachusetts misleadingly stated that he is "proud to sponsor the Sunshine Protection Act to add an extra hour of sunshine for the full 365 days a year."
Daylight Savings Time was extended to eight months of the year in 2005 by masquerading in the Energy Policy Act as an energy-savings measure, despite lack of evidence of any savings.
Submission + - SPAM: Microscopic Wormholes Possible In Theory
An anonymous reader writes: Wormholes play a key role in many science fiction films—often as a shortcut between two distant points in space. In physics, however, these tunnels in spacetime have remained purely hypothetical. An international team led by Dr. Jose Luis Blazquez-Salcedo of the University of Oldenburg has now presented a new theoretical model in the science journal Physical Review Letters that makes microscopic wormholes seem less far-fetched than in previous theories. [...] The researchers chose a comparatively simple "semiclassical" approach. They combined elements of relativity theory with elements of quantum theory and classic electrodynamics theory. In their model they consider certain elementary particles such as electrons and their electric charge as the matter that is to pass through the wormhole. As a mathematical description, they chose the Dirac equation, a formula that describes the probability density function of a particle according to quantum theory and relativity as a so-called Dirac field.
As the physicists report in their study, it is the inclusion of the Dirac field into their model that permits the existence of a wormhole traversable by matter, provided that the ratio between the electric charge and the mass of the wormhole exceeds a certain limit. In addition to matter, signals — for example electromagnetic waves — could also traverse the tiny tunnels in spacetime. The microscopic wormholes postulated by the team would probably not be suitable for interstellar travel. Moreover, the model would have to be further refined to find out whether such unusual structures could actually exist. "We think that wormholes can also exist in a complete model," says Blazquez-Salcedo.
Link to Original Source
As the physicists report in their study, it is the inclusion of the Dirac field into their model that permits the existence of a wormhole traversable by matter, provided that the ratio between the electric charge and the mass of the wormhole exceeds a certain limit. In addition to matter, signals — for example electromagnetic waves — could also traverse the tiny tunnels in spacetime. The microscopic wormholes postulated by the team would probably not be suitable for interstellar travel. Moreover, the model would have to be further refined to find out whether such unusual structures could actually exist. "We think that wormholes can also exist in a complete model," says Blazquez-Salcedo.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - OVH datacentre taken offline by fire (techradar.com)
Kelerei writes: A major fire has destroyed a data centre of European cloud provider OVH in Strasbourg, France. The SBG2 data centre is completely destroyed, while the blaze caused some damage to SBG1 before being contained. SBG3 and SBG4 were also taken offline, but a plan is underway to restart them once the firefighters give the all-clear.
All OVH staff at the site are accounted for and unhurt, but it is unlikely that the data in SBG2 is recoverable. On OVH's status page, an ominous note states "if your production is in Strasbourg, we recommend to activate your Disaster Recovery Plan". Among the sites affected is the WordPress image optimization site Imagify and the encryption utility VeraCrypt.
(Submitter's note: this is why any disaster recovery plan should include offsite backups...)
All OVH staff at the site are accounted for and unhurt, but it is unlikely that the data in SBG2 is recoverable. On OVH's status page, an ominous note states "if your production is in Strasbourg, we recommend to activate your Disaster Recovery Plan". Among the sites affected is the WordPress image optimization site Imagify and the encryption utility VeraCrypt.
(Submitter's note: this is why any disaster recovery plan should include offsite backups...)
Submission + - Human Error Blamed for European Vega Rocket Failure (spacenews.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: A quick analysis of Monday night's Arianespace Vega Rocket Failure has been root caused to "a series of human errors."
In a call with reporters, Roland Lagier, chief technical officer of Arianespace, said the first three stages of the Vega rocket performed normally after liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, at 8:52 p.m. Eastern Nov. 16. The Avum upper stage then separated and ignited its engine.
However, “straightaway after ignition” of the upper stage, he said, the vehicle started to tumble out of control. “This loss of control was permanent, inducing significant tumbling behavior, and then the trajectory started to deviate rapidly from the nominal one, leading to the loss of the mission.”
Analysis of the telemetry from the mission, along with data from the production of the vehicle, led them to conclude that cables to two thrust vector control actuators were inverted. Commands intended to go to one actuator went instead to the other, triggering the loss of control.
“This was clearly a production and quality issue, a series of human errors, and not a design one,” Lagier said.
An unfortunate and expensive case of getting the wires crossed.
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