I think you're somewhat close, but there are some inaccuracies...
Block devices (typically HD's) have two operations (read and write). These operations are what most modern operating system use. Flash SSD's emulate a block device, but the underlying flash memory uses three operations (read, write, and erase). The main difference, therefore, between the block device (what the OS references) and the underlying flash itself is the extra erase operation.
To write to a flash drive, assuming a cell has already been erased, all a user must do is a write operation. This operation is typically fast and does not affect the lifespan of the flash. A write can change any or all of the bits in a block from 1 to 0. Once this is complete, the requested data is written. However, if a user wants to overwrite or change existing data, they must first perform a block erase. This sets every bit in the block back to 1, and is typically very slow (compared to a write). In addition, this is what wears out the flash block, so we really want to avoid these operations.
Since flash blocks each have their own lifespan, we want to spread the erase operations around the disk. This is called wear leveling. To do this, the flash device appears like a block device to the operating system, but it remaps where the data is actually located at the physical flash layer with a remap table. For instance, let's say you overwrite a block in Linux. If there is an available free flash block, it may not even overwrite that block--it may allocate a new block for the file and write it there (updating the remap table). This avoids an erase command. Furthermore, there are a few files on a filesystem which change frequently, and if we did not move their location around the physical flash, we would wear out one cell in flash extremely quickly, even though the remainder of the cells had plenty of life left.
The garbage collection comes in due to this remapping. Typical block sizes for most OS filesystems are around 4k, but flash blocks are typically 512KB in flash devices. This means that if you send data to a SSD, it may or may not take up an entire page, as you may only be using 4k of actual data. Eventually, as writes are leveled around the drive and often fragmented (as we may not be occupying the entire 512KB block), future writes begin taking one (or more erase cycles). For instance, if you request that 512KB of data be written to the drive, but all the cells in the flash are physically occupied by a small amount of data, then data from multiple cells must be combined into one cell (multiple reads+erase+write), and then the destination cell that you are writing to must also be erased and written. This is what causes flash SSD's performance to significantly degrade over time.
By performing this recombining in the background (as a garbage collection), this should allow flash SSD's to maintain like-new performance even when containing a lot of data. In essence, they are performing background defragmentation on the SSD. As a sidenote, NEVER defragment an SSD from the Operating System, as this defragments the filesystem, but performs a ton of erase+write operations to the flash. At best, on new SSDs (Intel, Indilinx), this will wear out the drive sooner. On old SSD's, this will also increase fragmentation at the flash remap layer, causing further performance loss.
So to address your initial comment, rewrites would also see a performance increase by this garbage collection, as "rewriting" data in flash is virtually equivalent to a new write, since the remap table essentially moves the data anyway.
Charter does this in my area (Michigan). I've been instructed by their tech support department to reference Level3's DNS servers. 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2, I think it is...
If you're like me and have full Adobe Acrobat installed (Sumatra doesn't fill your needs and you don't own Foxit), there's a very easy way to workaround this security hole until it is fixed. Go to the edit->preferences menu, go to "Javascript" in the menu and uncheck the box that says "Disable Javascript in Adobe"
This should workaround the problem sufficiently until Adobe releases a patch.
And after a while, that ship appears ALL THE TIME.
I bought the game, but my friend didn't.:) I think it's the only game he DIDN'T crack, because it was so ingenious, he actually kept trying to run from the ship, instead of cracking the game.
They do have access to the keys. That's the point.
They need to do unattended automated reboots of thousands of computers. These are enterprise customers.
They have the encryption key, and they want to apply security updates and reboot the computers. When the employees come to work in the morning, they expect the computers to be on and operational, as they left it.
If you don't use the feature, then it poses no risk. If you need to apply unattended updates to computers on a large scale, going to each computer and typing in the passphrase is not practical.
This is a non-issue, and a FUD article. You need to have UNLOCKED access to the encrypted volume to enable this feature.
Normal users using PGPDisk and not using this feature are at no greater risk for it existing.
As a sidenote, I just toured the Stardock facility, and those guys/girls are really nice. They're very reasonable and kind people--and I think they're small enough that they haven't jumped on the DRM bandwagon because some higher-ups thought it would get them more sales.
As an interesting aside, at least one of them was all but completely cured in weeks using injected stem cells before the fundies got ahold of the concept and strangled it.
Very interested in this. Do you have a reference, link, etc where this can be found, or is this too in the book "Frozen Addicts"?
I just tried OpenOffice 2.2. Run Windows XP with an Athlon XP 3000+ and 2GB of ram. Fairly underpowered for today, and it's startup is pretty snappy (~3 seconds). It's significantly faster than OpenOffice 2.1.
I'm not saying OpenOffice hasn't been bloated and slow to start--but this is a huge improvement. I'm happy.
I'll bite: Computer make and model -- needed for drivers for specific manufacturers and models. Do you really want to apply a HP patch on a Dell system?
Version information for all installed Microsoft software -- Needed to calculate whether or not updates are needed for Windows Media player, etc. Remember, Windows update does more than just Windows--it also updates all included bundled software with Windows.
Note: Sending information about non-bundled software is needed for Microsoft Update, but not Windows Update. Perhaps lazy coding there--wouldn't YOU want to share the hardware/software detection code for both update utilities?
Plug&Play ID numbers of hardware devices -- Well, it does update hardware drivers...
# Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) -- This seems completely unnecessary.
BIOS name, revision number, and revision date -- I'm not sure, but I believe they may also provide manufacturer-supplied BIOS updates for some manufacturers.
I'm no huge fan of Microsoft, and I'm not saying Microsoft isn't misusing the information, but in 4 out of 5 cases this seems necessary for the service they are providing. Remember, Windows Update updates drivers, hardware, and bundled software too. Microsoft Update services Microsoft software as well.
Once again, as stated in a previous post, the problem was US export restrictions.
It's not because they're "backwards", it's because the US export policy on encryption was SO onerous they refused to use the "standard" at that time (40 bit SSL)
Actually, their system is WORSE than lithium Ion batteries at low temps. These would NOT work for you and your Alaskan friends, at least until Global Warming really kicks off.
FTA:
Finally, EEStor claims that its system works to specification in temperatures as low as -20 C, revised from a previous claim of -40 C.
"Temperature of -20 degrees C is not good enough for automotive," says Miller. "You need -40 degrees." By comparison, Altair and A123Systems claim that their lithium-ion cells can operate at -30 C.
If you live in the US, send this message to the president. Let's make it clear what the people of the United States want.
The president's email address is: comments@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Release Neteller Execs
Two former NETELLER executives were detained while traveling separately through the United States yesterday (Jan. 15) in "connection with the creation and operation of an Internet payment services company that facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars of illegal gambling proceeds from United States citizens to the owners of various Internet gambling companies located overseas," according to the U.S. Attorney General's office of Southern New York.
The two executives are: Stephen Eric Lawrence and John David Lefebvre.
I don't know all the facts yet about these men--the full story will come out in time, but arrests like these men, Maher Arar, and Sklyarov make the United States look VERY bad. This is hurting our economy, our public image, and our relations with the rest of the world. This is encouraging (although not the cause of) people to oppose the United States on many levels, and I believe it is making the current terrorist situation worse.
These two men are Canadian citizens, and they have been arrested for performing an activity against a law which was not passed at that time, for a company which perfomed a legitimate service which was and still is legal under Canadian law. It is not the US's prerogative to enforce our view of the law against people in other nations.
Canada is one of our closest allies. By alienating them we are hurting ourselves.
We have to stop arresting businessmen who are traveling through the United States and performing legal legitimate services in other countries -- as long as they are not threatening our national security. It is an offense to those other countries' law and it will damage our Economy and public image. I only want what is best for the United States and Justice. I want to see the freedom for all that you so often preach.
I call for a quick release of all facts, and if necessary a presidential pardon of the two people involved. Show the world that the United States truly is the home of the free.
This is because our legal system is based on "counts" of the offense. He sent millions of spam emails. Most murderers don't kill millions of people. He wouldn't have gotten 101 years if he had sent one spam email or even 100.
I'm not saying it's fair or anything, just that's the way it is. Perhaps there should be a mandatory maximum sentence--though that raises a whole other set of problems.
Are you older than 10? You look like the average gamer on Starcraft or Wow based on your ability to spell, construct sentences, use punctuation, and generally convey yourself through writing.
Assuming you actually are a contract worker, I can see why they might not appreciate you. Take an English class--it'd be well worth your while.
How exactly did they "betray" Linux? Is there an article you can point me to on how this deal harms Linux? This issue has come up a number of times and I don't understand how this hurts Linux in any way.
I found that this problem was fixed in Beta4. When I installed Gaim 2.0.0, I would never go idle. I had everything configured to set me Idle, but I wouldn't go idle.
The difference between "Windows Usage" and "Gaim Usage" is that Gaim usage is only the time that you spend in gaim, sending and recieving messages. Windows usage means that if you're typing in Microsoft Word, then Gaim will not set you idle while you're actively using the computer.
Like many of my fellow theme developers, I'm very busy. Perhaps instead of complaining that the extensions are out of date, you could open up the source (it's just a jar file of css), convert the format to 2.0, and if you find any bugs, fix them? I'd be happy to include your fixes/updates in my theme and give you credit.
That's the great thing about open source. It's all out there, and if you want, you can update it. The whole reason I support Orbit Grey is that the previous version went unsupported by the author. But I'm a volunteer like everyone else, and I made no promises to be on time with Mozilla's release schedule. If you don't like it, you're more than welcome to fix it!
However, I expect that you too may be too busy to convert the theme to version 2.0. If this is true, no worries, I'll be updating my theme in the coming days. I could still use your expertise in the following areas described on my site:
1) Medium sized buttons (artists, PLEASE send me an email) -- I have the buttons, working on integrating them now.
2) Theme the help menu (0.8.0)
I know this sounded like a shameless plug, and it kinda is, but it's annoying to hear people complaining about how the extensions where out of date when I've recieved 0 emails in the past 2 years for my theme with code fixes. People like to complain, but VERY FEW are willing to actually help. We're just volunteers (with lives) and our time is limited.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you're somewhat close, but there are some inaccuracies...
Block devices (typically HD's) have two operations (read and write). These operations are what most modern operating system use. Flash SSD's emulate a block device, but the underlying flash memory uses three operations (read, write, and erase). The main difference, therefore, between the block device (what the OS references) and the underlying flash itself is the extra erase operation.
To write to a flash drive, assuming a cell has already been erased, all a user must do is a write operation. This operation is typically fast and does not affect the lifespan of the flash. A write can change any or all of the bits in a block from 1 to 0. Once this is complete, the requested data is written. However, if a user wants to overwrite or change existing data, they must first perform a block erase. This sets every bit in the block back to 1, and is typically very slow (compared to a write). In addition, this is what wears out the flash block, so we really want to avoid these operations.
Since flash blocks each have their own lifespan, we want to spread the erase operations around the disk. This is called wear leveling. To do this, the flash device appears like a block device to the operating system, but it remaps where the data is actually located at the physical flash layer with a remap table. For instance, let's say you overwrite a block in Linux. If there is an available free flash block, it may not even overwrite that block--it may allocate a new block for the file and write it there (updating the remap table). This avoids an erase command. Furthermore, there are a few files on a filesystem which change frequently, and if we did not move their location around the physical flash, we would wear out one cell in flash extremely quickly, even though the remainder of the cells had plenty of life left.
The garbage collection comes in due to this remapping. Typical block sizes for most OS filesystems are around 4k, but flash blocks are typically 512KB in flash devices. This means that if you send data to a SSD, it may or may not take up an entire page, as you may only be using 4k of actual data. Eventually, as writes are leveled around the drive and often fragmented (as we may not be occupying the entire 512KB block), future writes begin taking one (or more erase cycles). For instance, if you request that 512KB of data be written to the drive, but all the cells in the flash are physically occupied by a small amount of data, then data from multiple cells must be combined into one cell (multiple reads+erase+write), and then the destination cell that you are writing to must also be erased and written. This is what causes flash SSD's performance to significantly degrade over time.
By performing this recombining in the background (as a garbage collection), this should allow flash SSD's to maintain like-new performance even when containing a lot of data. In essence, they are performing background defragmentation on the SSD. As a sidenote, NEVER defragment an SSD from the Operating System, as this defragments the filesystem, but performs a ton of erase+write operations to the flash. At best, on new SSDs (Intel, Indilinx), this will wear out the drive sooner. On old SSD's, this will also increase fragmentation at the flash remap layer, causing further performance loss.
So to address your initial comment, rewrites would also see a performance increase by this garbage collection, as "rewriting" data in flash is virtually equivalent to a new write, since the remap table essentially moves the data anyway.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Block_erasure
Charter does this in my area (Michigan). I've been instructed by their tech support department to reference Level3's DNS servers. 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2, I think it is...
If you're like me and have full Adobe Acrobat installed (Sumatra doesn't fill your needs and you don't own Foxit), there's a very easy way to workaround this security hole until it is fixed. Go to the edit->preferences menu, go to "Javascript" in the menu and uncheck the box that says "Disable Javascript in Adobe"
This should workaround the problem sufficiently until Adobe releases a patch.
More information here:
http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Calendar.20090219
So you mean, "Where the hell am I?" and "How the hell did I get here?"
Actually, quite fitting for Vista...
And after a while, that ship appears ALL THE TIME.
:) I think it's the only game he DIDN'T crack, because it was so ingenious, he actually kept trying to run from the ship, instead of cracking the game.
I bought the game, but my friend didn't.
It's a problem, and it's happened before:
http://www.nationwidespeakers.com/speakers/jerri_nielsen.htm
and another story of the same person:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE0DF1E3CF930A25754C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
They do have access to the keys. That's the point.
They need to do unattended automated reboots of thousands of computers. These are enterprise customers.
They have the encryption key, and they want to apply security updates and reboot the computers. When the employees come to work in the morning, they expect the computers to be on and operational, as they left it.
If you don't use the feature, then it poses no risk. If you need to apply unattended updates to computers on a large scale, going to each computer and typing in the passphrase is not practical.
This is a non-issue, and a FUD article. You need to have UNLOCKED access to the encrypted volume to enable this feature.
Normal users using PGPDisk and not using this feature are at no greater risk for it existing.
As a sidenote, I just toured the Stardock facility, and those guys/girls are really nice. They're very reasonable and kind people--and I think they're small enough that they haven't jumped on the DRM bandwagon because some higher-ups thought it would get them more sales.
Gal Civ II rocks--it's an awesome game.
As an interesting aside, at least one of them was all but completely cured in weeks using injected stem cells before the fundies got ahold of the concept and strangled it.
Very interested in this. Do you have a reference, link, etc where this can be found, or is this too in the book "Frozen Addicts"?
Did you even check out the site? Both desktops offer an NVidia 7300 w/TurboCache. In fact, it's the default configuration for the XPS model.
Not exactly a screaming fast card, but it's got 3D capability.
I just tried OpenOffice 2.2. Run Windows XP with an Athlon XP 3000+ and 2GB of ram. Fairly underpowered for today, and it's startup is pretty snappy (~3 seconds). It's significantly faster than OpenOffice 2.1.
I'm not saying OpenOffice hasn't been bloated and slow to start--but this is a huge improvement. I'm happy.
Plus, it IS free (beer/source)...
I'll bite:
Computer make and model -- needed for drivers for specific manufacturers and models. Do you really want to apply a HP patch on a Dell system?
Version information for all installed Microsoft software -- Needed to calculate whether or not updates are needed for Windows Media player, etc. Remember, Windows update does more than just Windows--it also updates all included bundled software with Windows.
Note: Sending information about non-bundled software is needed for Microsoft Update, but not Windows Update. Perhaps lazy coding there--wouldn't YOU want to share the hardware/software detection code for both update utilities?
Plug&Play ID numbers of hardware devices -- Well, it does update hardware drivers...
# Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) -- This seems completely unnecessary.
BIOS name, revision number, and revision date -- I'm not sure, but I believe they may also provide manufacturer-supplied BIOS updates for some manufacturers.
I'm no huge fan of Microsoft, and I'm not saying Microsoft isn't misusing the information, but in 4 out of 5 cases this seems necessary for the service they are providing. Remember, Windows Update updates drivers, hardware, and bundled software too. Microsoft Update services Microsoft software as well.
Once again, as stated in a previous post, the problem was US export restrictions.
7 45162
It's not because they're "backwards", it's because the US export policy on encryption was SO onerous they refused to use the "standard" at that time (40 bit SSL)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=218612&cid=17
Those are fantastic claims. Do you have sources?
Actually, their system is WORSE than lithium Ion batteries at low temps. These would NOT work for you and your Alaskan friends, at least until Global Warming really kicks off.
FTA:
Finally, EEStor claims that its system works to specification in temperatures as low as -20 C, revised from a previous claim of -40 C.
"Temperature of -20 degrees C is not good enough for automotive," says Miller. "You need -40 degrees." By comparison, Altair and A123Systems claim that their lithium-ion cells can operate at -30 C.
If you live in the US, send this message to the president. Let's make it clear what the people of the United States want.
The president's email address is: comments@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Release Neteller Execs
Two former NETELLER executives were detained while traveling separately through the United States yesterday (Jan. 15) in "connection with the creation and operation of an Internet payment services company that facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars of illegal gambling proceeds from United States citizens to the owners of various Internet gambling companies located overseas," according to the U.S. Attorney General's office of Southern New York.
The two executives are: Stephen Eric Lawrence and John David Lefebvre.
I don't know all the facts yet about these men--the full story will come out in time, but arrests like these men, Maher Arar, and Sklyarov make the United States look VERY bad. This is hurting our economy, our public image, and our relations with the rest of the world. This is encouraging (although not the cause of) people to oppose the United States on many levels, and I believe it is making the current terrorist situation worse.
These two men are Canadian citizens, and they have been arrested for performing an activity against a law which was not passed at that time, for a company which perfomed a legitimate service which was and still is legal under Canadian law. It is not the US's prerogative to enforce our view of the law against people in other nations.
Canada is one of our closest allies. By alienating them we are hurting ourselves.
We have to stop arresting businessmen who are traveling through the United States and performing legal legitimate services in other countries -- as long as they are not threatening our national security. It is an offense to those other countries' law and it will damage our Economy and public image. I only want what is best for the United States and Justice. I want to see the freedom for all that you so often preach.
I call for a quick release of all facts, and if necessary a presidential pardon of the two people involved. Show the world that the United States truly is the home of the free.
This is because our legal system is based on "counts" of the offense. He sent millions of spam emails. Most murderers don't kill millions of people. He wouldn't have gotten 101 years if he had sent one spam email or even 100.
I'm not saying it's fair or anything, just that's the way it is. Perhaps there should be a mandatory maximum sentence--though that raises a whole other set of problems.
Are you older than 10? You look like the average gamer on Starcraft or Wow based on your ability to spell, construct sentences, use punctuation, and generally convey yourself through writing.
Assuming you actually are a contract worker, I can see why they might not appreciate you. Take an English class--it'd be well worth your while.
-1 Troll in my book.
The Neuros OSD does this as well, runs linux, and is open source. What more could a Slashdot geek want?
The only limitation I see with the OSD is the fact that it only does composite out.
How exactly did they "betray" Linux? Is there an article you can point me to on how this deal harms Linux? This issue has come up a number of times and I don't understand how this hurts Linux in any way.
You may have run into the bug: Never Idle
I found that this problem was fixed in Beta4. When I installed Gaim 2.0.0, I would never go idle. I had everything configured to set me Idle, but I wouldn't go idle.
The difference between "Windows Usage" and "Gaim Usage" is that Gaim usage is only the time that you spend in gaim, sending and recieving messages. Windows usage means that if you're typing in Microsoft Word, then Gaim will not set you idle while you're actively using the computer.
I maintain a firefox Theme, Orbit Grey.
Like many of my fellow theme developers, I'm very busy. Perhaps instead of complaining that the extensions are out of date, you could open up the source (it's just a jar file of css), convert the format to 2.0, and if you find any bugs, fix them? I'd be happy to include your fixes/updates in my theme and give you credit.
That's the great thing about open source. It's all out there, and if you want, you can update it. The whole reason I support Orbit Grey is that the previous version went unsupported by the author. But I'm a volunteer like everyone else, and I made no promises to be on time with Mozilla's release schedule. If you don't like it, you're more than welcome to fix it!
However, I expect that you too may be too busy to convert the theme to version 2.0. If this is true, no worries, I'll be updating my theme in the coming days. I could still use your expertise in the following areas described on my site:
1) Medium sized buttons (artists, PLEASE send me an email) -- I have the buttons, working on integrating them now.
2) Theme the help menu (0.8.0)
I know this sounded like a shameless plug, and it kinda is, but it's annoying to hear people complaining about how the extensions where out of date when I've recieved 0 emails in the past 2 years for my theme with code fixes. People like to complain, but VERY FEW are willing to actually help. We're just volunteers (with lives) and our time is limited.
The OSD is already out, which you can see at their homepage.
So I suppose even if you're not a hacker, you can still buy one...
It does claim lossless JPEG2000. The slashdot post is incorrect.
Maybe you should apply to be an editor of Slashdot...