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http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/15/hp-buys--two-new-gulfstream-vs
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/20/hp-covers-up-gulfstream-buys

But sadly I can't claim this piece of genius.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/10/28/hps-carly-fiorina-hates-fags

              -Charlie

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/15/hp-buys--two-new-gulfstream-vs
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/20/hp-covers-up-gulfstream-buys

But sadly I can't claim this piece of genius.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/10/28/hps-carly-fiorina-hates-fags

              -Charlie

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/15/hp-buys--two-new-gulfstream-vs
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/09/20/hp-covers-up-gulfstream-buys

But sadly I can't claim this piece of genius.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2003/10/28/hps-carly-fiorina-hates-fags

              -Charlie

At this point it really feels like there's just rattling empty threats and Mr. Ballmer lost of few more of his marbles.

BTW: Software patents are not enforcable in the EU.

Hitachi are saying that they have solved the overwrite problem (at least mitigated it by a factor of 100)

They appear to want to use normal DRAM memory for the running of the drive but then write it permanently to the NAND flash at shutdown/memory full time.
I would assume this involves charging of a small battery and dumping the data later on.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/09/26/hitachi-reckons-solid-state

Fiction eh?

WE DECIDED to ask Paul Otellini whether Intel would ever contemplate creating three cores on one die.
So he said: "We see a distinctive advantage in having all the cores on one die work."

Both spec and price seem to be changing. The base flash drive size has dropped from 4GB to 2, base memory from 512MB to 256, the onboard VGA camera has disappeared from the base model, and yet the anticipated price has risen by $250.

perhaps, but they would be invaluable for those dell notebooks ...

What can I say? I'm disappointed that they stuck with a 3-issue architecture - while it is true that Intel's 4-issue setup is often data-starved, even with exceptional I/O performance AMD can only hope to match the Core platform in most situations. The lack of progress in their cache technology means AMD gets as much burden as benefit out of the L3 cache over 20ns access time!).

In the I/O arena, AMD potentially has the edge, and for HPC there's no question Barcelona will do well: this architecture is built for scaling beyond 8 cores (potentially as high as 8 sockets, 32 cores). The question is: how big is that market, and will it really pay-off for them?

In the meantime, small-scale servers and workstations are the majority of the market, and Intel still has a commanding lead in that space. Intel's introduction of the San Clemente Xeon chipset with DDR2 instead of FBDIMMs will not help things for AMD, because these systems can most certainly compete with AMD's low power consumption.

I don't understand why everyone always talks about AMD's problems. So what if they are not the forunners on every front. They still lead in other areas. Example from July's Inquirer http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41 138&rfp=dta/

To be more specific, the Xeon processor in this review is the same processor core as the Merom/Conroe Core 2 Duo core. If you benchmark Conroe on a platform using the same memory technology (DDR2) as AMD, you'll find that Intel's power consumption is significantly less than AMD's. But Intel decided to use a different technology (FBDIMM) for its server platforms, in order to increase maximum memory capacity, whereas the Opteron used a simpler technology which is severely limited in memory capacity per channel, since the outdated parallel multidrop DDR2 bus can't go at speed when heavily loaded.

FBDIMM is like PCI-Express or Hypertransport for a memory interface, meaning that it's serial and point to point, instead of parallel and multidrop. This allows Intel to add many more loads to the memory channel without slowing the channel down, because it is Fully Buffered (the FB part of FBDIMM), which increases memory capacity per channel. However, FBDIMM also turns out to be very power hungry, and Intel is now being forced (by benchmarks such as this one) to release server platforms without FBDIMM in order to lower power consumption for people who don't need large memory capacities. (for some confirmation of this, look here: http://theinquirer.net/?article=42183)

In any case, the results of this benchmark aren't about "chips", they're about platforms. Intel's current chips are pretty good, but their server platforms need some work. That's why Intel's coming out with a whole new platform next year (here's some reading material for you: http://realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT082 807020032 ).

So a quick answer to your question: Intel's chips ARE better than AMD's, but their platforms aren't. Here's the question you should have asked: Why are Intel's platforms always behind AMDs? The answer to that is basically that Intel has lots more internal politics, and therefore it is slow to change things that have impact across the company, like platforms. Intel has a lot of internal competition: lots of separate groups working on various competing processors, so the processors themselves are usually pretty good (Darwin at work). But the teams making the processors don't have the freedom to change the platform, since that's outside their scope and requires lots of corporate maneuvering. So Intel's platforms are much slower to change than AMDs.

Summing up: don't confuse a system benchmark for a processor benchmark! TFA isn't about processors at all, it's about systems.

>DEC was bought by Compaq way back when (1997?). Compaq was bought by HP more recently. AMD was not involved with either of those takeovers.
>So how did AMD get the DEC Alpha engineers? As far as I know, the DEC Alpha guys are still within HP. Did I miss something?

Alpha team was spun off to Intel.
http://news.com.com/Intel+gets+more+key+Alpha+alum s/2100-1006_3-1023146.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20024

How many people were working on Alpha EV7 are still working at Intel would be a valid question -one you couldn't easily answer.
Probably there are even some engineers that worked on EV7 that changed jobs to work for Intel outside of Intel acquiring the teams.

Also - IIRC, Intel acquired some engineers from DEC (mostly process folks I think) back around when Compaq acquired them.

I'm sure there are people who work for AMD now that had worked on an Alpha project.
Just like I am sure there are people who work for Intel that worked on an Opteron project.
People switch jobs, and there's only so many companies that do microprocessor design. (or even more broadly, only so many semiconductor design companies)

It seems ATI/AMD's new professional graphics cards are going to perform a lot better than Nvidia's current offerings.
They would need good Linux drivers for these cards to eat into NV's pro/workstation market share.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=42127
http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?38812

Fortunately they are not into consumer electronics. Otherwise there'd be a DRM on these rovers, one they would have retired 3 years ago in a cruel, wanton act of planned obsolescence.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14417

I wrote that before batteries going boom was the latest fashion trend. The problem is simple, you have a lot of energy in a small area and people crying out for higher densities. If _ANYTHING_ goes wrong, you have a high likelihood for a lot of energy released in a short amount of time.

Couple this with reactive/flamable substance that make up batteries, and you have a lightshow. There is no magic to it all, simple physics. Lots of energy released around reactive things, you need both for a modern battery.

Some designs minimize the risk, none remove it. As always, nothing new under the sun.

                -Charlie

And that's a shame, because people probably really ought to keep their hats on.

And you got all this unsubstantiated speculation from where, exactly?

Well, since you asked, Microsoft's ME II, better known as Vista, is causing unhappy faces everywhere I go. It isn't just that people don't want to use it, or that it's insecure and buggy or that the very word vista has "failure" attached to it. It isn't that Vista isn't even compatible with Microsoft's own SQL Server.

Most of the people that I know only care that it's not possible to deploy Vista with industry standard tools. A rollback is likely, and there are substantial unresolved issues preventing deployment.

Although I'm aware you don't appreciate twitter's attention to these matters, I do. I do appreciate twitter's attention to these things quite a lot.

Thanks, twitter.

Not quite.
They offer up to 100Mbit/s which is a trifle better than the 10Mbit/s that I have in Oslo
for the last 7 years :-)
http://www.lundsenergi.se/oppetstadsnat
An open system with optical fibre that cover the city. Not bad :-)
Like a faucet with drinking water in every kitchen and bathroom :-)

"Nätet är konkurrensneutralt, det vill säga det är inte knutet till en enskild tjänsteleverantör. I stället kan du som slutkund välja mellan många tjänsteleverantörer på marknaden av Internetanslutning, IP-telefoni och TV-kanaler."
The network is competition neutral - that is - it is not connected to a sole service provider - Instead you as a end customer can choose between many service providers in the market for Internet connection, IP-telephony and TV-channels (programs)

Seems the City of Lund made a choice that in hindsight is the obvious one.
Saving costs and still retaining the freedom of choice.
Where I live there is optical fibre running underneath the pavement on both sides of the street :-)
Freedom all right, but a bit more expensive.

And yes - their website states that technicians are looking into the problem.
Just don't expect them to be working overtime in the weekend just because Microsoft
chose to release Vista with a new DHCP stack.

Seems to be ill informed journalists:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=42043

Link to solve the problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/92823 3
or if you don't feel like editing the registry buy a router that can deal with it :-)
For most it would be a better option as you might want to attach more computers
later, and SP1 will probably fix it later anyway.
And as a bonus, the router could maybe with some luck deal with future releases from Microsoft :-)

BorkBork urdiburdido :-)

>it requires significant changes to the driver model and that they couldn't back-port the changes to XP
Most of that information came from Microsoft (directly, or indirectly).
Some independant sources disagree: http://uk.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=409 13

"In January of 2003, SCADA system computers infected with the Slammer worm caused a blackout at the Davis-Besse power plant in Ohio", Forbes

'The Slammer worm penetrated a private computer network at Ohio's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in January and disabled a safety monitoring system for nearly five hours '

"Seven months later, another computer virus was widely suspected of preventing the detection of power loss at a plant providing electricity to parts of New York State", Forbes

'TRANSCRIPTS of telephone conversations between utility operators prior to last month's power blackout in the US and Canada '

"Seven months later, another computer virus was widely suspected by security researchers of leading to a power loss at a plant providing electricity to parts of New York State, despite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's argument that no evidence of virus-involvement was found"

'The task force responsible for investigating the cause of the Aug. 14 blackout that crippled most of the Northeast corridor of the U.S. and parts of Canada concluded that a software failure at FirstEnergy Corp. may have contributed significantly to the outage'

'On the day of the blackout, Blaster degraded the performance of several communications lines linking key data centers used by utility companies to manage the power grid, the sources confirmed'

Uh, power consumption is significant for media PC's, more heat means the fans have to spin faster = more noise. Also there are plenty of people who might be potential consumers of HD content that don't want to buy a new PC, as this article points out an Athlon 3000+ can barely handle 480p content, let alone 720p or 1080p using H.264 but has no problem with VC1@1080p.

so if an OS had a 4.33 percent market share, and someone didn't write software for it?
that would be insane?

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34 491 pay attention

there are MANY software apps not available for the mac-- and those companies are doing just fine...

Don't you mean DirectX 10.1? http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41577

we're looking at the many-pages bills (a non-issue that I'm sure at&t will fix very soon, given the waste of paper etc.), while others are looking at whether they want to send in their iPhone for a long repair, or just wing it with a slowly dying touchscreen; http://news.google.com/news?q=iphone+screen

(
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008165081
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41629
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf50 0/200708100542DOWJONESDJONLINE000374_FORTUNE5.htm
http://news.com.com/8301-13579_3-9757844-37.html
)

Summary: Apple purchased the touchscreen tech from a Finnish company that had plans for a similar type of device but was in serious financial trouble. At the time of purchase, the Finnish company made it clear that one of the issues was that the heat-activated chemical yadda used would deteriorate, rendering any area where it has done so completely unusable. The problems described / etc. so far appear to be this particular issue, meaning that Apple possibly hasn't completely solved this issue since the purchase. If this is the case, then many more cases are likely to follow. As the iPhone has no buttons, it effectively becomes a brick, meaning that 'winging it' has to be done with broken wings. At least Apple 'fixes' them as fast as they get them.. but if the replacement simply gives you the same problems, well...

"They will likely change the way they do business, like IBM did. Perhaps they will produce their own "open source" products, and then the Linux/FOSS community had better be ready for it, because they certainly won't be free software."

you mean like this?

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41395

Sell your iPhone and buy the Nokia N800.

-It has official linux support, developed by Maemo (Which is part of Ubuntu's OE Development Team)
-xterm is just a apt-get away
-Has the potential to run every single linux software available
-Higher screen resolution than the iPhone
-Buy a Thinkoutside bluetooth keyboard and you'll have a uber cool laptop everywhere you go

Of course, there are ways in which iPhone is way better. I definitely can't say the N800 has better UI, or it has a faster processor and nicer design. But I think for the tech-savvy out there, iPhone is honestly too restrictive and not hacker-friendly enough.

Do yourself a favour, ead up more on the N800 at http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38 632 and http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/

It is all about enforcing a monopolistic distribution channel, a walled garden. They are trying to get all of the pie, not just a chunk. I went into more detail here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29161

              -Charlie

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41365

Hopefully we might soon be able to let copper cabling die.

Cheap high speed optical chips: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/ 25/2046208

Flexible, robust optical cables: http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41171

Yeah, because Vista is selling so well...

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/16/165420 2
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/pc-makers-to-m icrosoft-vista-is-not-a-seller-you-suck-248336.php
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista _license_sales_in_context.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39 636

the [xbox 360] console has turned out to be the most poorly designed console in history. Nothing even comes close to the 30 to 40 percent failure rate of the 360.

The GeForce 9 series/G92 chip should also come out near the end of the year. If Intel is not just blowing smoke about a new CPU design, then, not now, might be the time to upgrade.

> Vista is actually selling quite well
No, Vista is being pre-installed on new computers.
Vista is not selling well, people do not want it, and
companies are being told to stay away from it*

> and many people I know are using it without any complaints.
Many people I know are switching to Ubuntu. See how that statement works?

> Why are the good points about Vista never mentioned on Slashdot?
Um because most of the people that come here just see history repeating
itself.

[*]
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/software/operating -systems/features/why-nobody-wants-windows-vista
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov 2006/tc20061129_739121.htm
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37 721

What good points? It has a resource intensive "shiny" interface. It has levels of DRM heretofore unseen in an operating system. It is claimed that it is secure, yet still has gaping security holes. It is claimed that it is safe, yet has to be made un-safe for users to be able to do anything with it. It is expensive, clunky, space consuming, privacy invading, insecure, unsafe, and is more interested in protecting the interests of major Hollywood distributors than its users.

Care to highlight why I'd want to use Vista?

Found a link to an article on AMD's Nested Page Tables.

Rich.

Those that actually know about the rootkits will know that Sony is at fault.

The sad thing is they are still committed to copy protection. Even after all the stuff on CD's, they continued into DVD's. They went so far as to keep their head down.

Go to a local DVD store/rental store. Pickup a box of Open Season. Look for SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT on the box. At first glance it looks like a Columbia Pictures product. It has extra copy protection.
Sony says that it does not not intend to change the copy protection.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38 938
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004150 .html

To their credit, they will replace the defective by design DVD's if you are having problems with them.
I got mine replaced free of charge.
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx? NewsId=20244

If you have one of these DVD's call them right away.
Consumers who have purchased one of the 20 faulty Sony DVD movie titles can call Sony Pictures Home Entertainment at 1-800-860-2878 and request a replacement DVD. Sony says it has corrected the problem with ARccOS copy protection.

I wonder what they mean by corrected the probelem with ARccOS copy protection?

Public realizes cure worse than the disease = -5,000 pts.
Sony recalls discs = +10,000 pts.
Sony releases BluRay and PS3 = 0 pts.
Sony sues DRM Manufacturer = + 1pts.

Being stupid enough to not drop DRM and add it to thier DVD's = Priceless
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38 938
Replacing some copy protected DVD's +1,000 pts.
http://digg.com/movies/Sony_Replaces_Some_Copy_Pro tected_DVDs
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004150 .html
Stating they are committed to DRM = Unbelievable!
EMI and Sony BMG each have committed to sharply increasing the number of CDs that are protected with technology that limits the number and type of copies that can be made.
http://news.com.com/iPods+to+support+copy-protecte d+CDs/2100-1027_3-5959341.html

So, in total, Sony is an unbelievable amount in the hole. I think its safe to say they're still pariahs here.

To top it off they are braging the Blu Ray format is secure for 10+ years. That's easy to say if nobody bothers to buy it and support it.

What's wrong with the GPU in the PS3? I thought Nvidia claimed it would be better than 6800 in SLI configuration or something back in the days before it was released? And Nvidia should know, shouldn't they?

(Thought know I saw another comment which mentioned http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=25 838 which says that it's slower than 6800 in SLI and that Microsoft and ATI claims that the 360s GPU are faster than that.)

The original xbox had a better GPU than the PS2, look where that got them.

From what I see, the PS3 GPU looks fine for most purposes. Check out yonder Inquirer article: Playstation 3 GPU "slightly less powerful than GeForce 7800". As far as running Linux is concerned, that should be plenty sufficient, with a little backup from the Mesa lib, to run almost any OpenGL or GLX app with great performance.

My 64-bit dual core AMD Athlon-X2 3800+ system only has a GeForce 7600GT, and it is extremely fast at 3D rendering applications. I have run (on the Windows side) TurboCAD Pro 14 Mechanical and ALGOR 20.2 using the 7600GT and it is easily the equivalent of any 3D CAD workstation that I've ever seen or used.

If the PS3 has something about like a GeForce 7800, it's *plenty good enough*. If your game or application can't run fast on that hardware, then maybe you should do a bit of profiling on your executable and consider what linking libraries you are employing.

Pirate Bay launches image hosting service

Spectacular...I just looked this up...I knew about the Falling Leaf/Alky Libs stuff (which reeked of vaporware)...but this is available now...gonna crack Shadowrun tonight and enjoy the FPS boost. Link: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40 538

Affected processors include Core 2 Duo E4000/E6000, Core 2 Quad Q6600, Core 2 Xtreme X6800, XC6700, and XC6800.

Blockbuster chose Blu-Ray. Porn chose HDDVD.

That was the story for a week or two after CES.

Google for 'porn bluray'.

I'll take the bait. . .

Most cameras are mass storage devices. If you can't get them to work with Linux, I do not think the problem is Linux or the computer or the camera.

Or did you mean a webcam? That isn't a problem either. See http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39 291

Just because it isn't generally noticed that an impending destruction of certain civil liberties by an anti-democratic, overpowered lobbying corporate interest is at hand, does not mean that we should sit on our thumbs. Grass-roots movements don't start with the masses; they go to them. Have we forgotten how "power to the people" works already?

For mobile, AMD has gone a different route for now, they have reworked the K8 for extremely low power: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39 894. The two cores and memory controller get independent voltage planes. And the cores can clock up and down independently. It makes good sense: for mobile, low power is crucial.

Many of the high-end features (double FPU units, hypertransport interconnects, and so on) of the Barcelona design are not required for a laptop, and add power draw caused by static leakage, even when not in use. In due time, though, AMD will no doubt rework the K10/Barcelona core into a mobile design. Probably they will release a moderately power mobile Barcelona version before that, for high-end workstation type laptops.

If you really think that peace exists within the FOSS development community, maybe you should spend some time reading about the recent internal conflicts that have been plaguing both the Debian and Gentoo projects.

Passion can be scary -- anyone who's stood at an altar to be married can tell you that. Passion is a powerful motivator for a lot of things, including innovative problem solving. Yes, passionate people who care about their work can engage in strident discussion. Should it rise to the necessary level, alliances will form and there will be yet another fork. Customers, especially business customers, need not be afraid of this process - X.org teaches us that often a fork brings clarity and cohesion to a passionate team and outstanding results are almost immediately forthcoming.

Disagreements in the secret back room deals process, however, are something businessmen need to fear. They can lead to warring law firms, legal liabilities, and injunctions against almost any non-open technology that a company has leveraged to compete effectively. This can bring multinational firms to a halt, prevent essential communications for emergency personnel, or completely break a supply chain overnight. These are not minor risk at all. These are bet-the-company risks. Every business school teaches the same mantra: "risk is essential to good business. Embrace risk. But do not bet the company."

To bring this back on topic, there is a course of action Novell can pursue that will eventually bring them absolution. Microsoft demonstrated this technique in their deal with Sendo. Basically their deal involved providing the OS for the Sendo phone. If the product failed to launch by a set date for any reason, including Microsoft's inability to deliver the OS, the terms of the deal resulted in Microsoft ownership of all of Sendo's phone related IP. Unsurprisingly, Sendo is no more. Also unsurprisingly, other phone vendors are reluctant to reap the benefits of partnering with the PC software market leader.

Novell can deliver the goods - developing C# and Mono, Visual Basic for Open Office for the Linux platform. They can leverage the economics of overseas labor markets to hire an army of paralegals to document in the source code specifically by number (or more subtly with easily searchable keywords) which patents are violated. They can identify leaky workers and assign them to positions of responsibility, identifying them anonymously to L'inq. They can make the project their organizational strategy lab and send a new manager (or better yet, a failed engineer) to reorganize it every 90 days. They can hire Scott Adams as a motivational speaker. Site security can be overseen by the cousin of the accountant that does the inventory, who is the Aunt of the payroll accountant who is the cousin of the head of HR who seems not to notice that the majority of employees exist only in the payroll. This is the customary practice in Banaglore anyway - everybody is related to everybody else and if you can't indulge in a little nepotism how important could you be? Since failure is not only the expected, but the desired outcome, the place can be a plush corporate retreat where junkets by excecutives can be organized for minimal oversight and maximum recreation where it is understood that inspection tours will only be a strictly scheduled and carefully guided interlude between morning golf and discussion with open bar. They can dogfood the heck out of the thing, insisting that pre-alpha tools be used for management, production and accounting. When their committed investment is gone, they can appeal for more cash (bleed the beast!) or just shrug and say it's not their fault - offshoring wasn't guaranteed and it just didn't work - but see what strides