Frankly, they got tired of being blamed for botnets caused by users not updating Windows, so now everyone gets updates whether they like it or not, and they get 'em within a reasonable time frame of their release.
I'm not sayin' it's right, but I understand their reasoning... and botnets on windows have gone down (they've mostly shifted to routers and other IoT devices).
Windows still has tools to set when updates should be installed -- it's just that no one bothers to do it. Just like no one bothered to keep their machines updated before and kept clicking to install/reboot later or turn the updates off completely.
You have to remember MS Windows market share is huge. That means a lot of people are using Windows that have below-average technical skills that need a lot of hand-holding. In this case, the good of the many outweighs the good of the few... or the one. So, when you ask why we can't have nice things like a method to better schedule updates -- think of all the people out there that mismanaged their windows boxes for decades that forced MS's hand.
And this makes one wonder what the result will be. Say you have Corporation X that wants to release its content through Netflix, but only to countries A,B,C,D, and E -- because F,G,H, and I have lucrative movie theater, TV distribution, DVD/BluRay sales, or other marketing channels that they want to play their course before streaming to. Now, instead of just telling Netflix where it can and can't stream within the EU, it must decide when it wants the entire EU to be able to view its content through Netflix.
Point being, you may get the lowest common denominator here and have all your releases pushed back so that viewings don't interfere with other distribution channels and cannibalize sales. This would get worse as the EU added members. Ah, Turkey is in the EU now... so... we have a different language release date especially for Turkey for DVD sales... and we want to make sure people that want to see the movie will buy those first, so ALL of the EU will have to wait 'til that's done before we release our movie to EU Netflix.
Take heart. Life expectancy for men is closer to 76. Even then, with years of diet, exercise, and cutting out smoking and heavy alcohol, men can live well into their 80s and 90s with great quality of life. I know guys that are in their 60s whose fathers died in their early 70s and they take it as a given it'll happen to them as well, so it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy as they get depressed, get overweight, and just plain give up on healthy living.
Barring cancer or predisposition to Alzheimer's or dementia, there's no reason you can't live to be 95 or older. Even then, medicines are advancing at a rapid pace and exercise can boost your immunity and ability to repair damage to stave off those conditions. Exercise and generally taking care of your immune system and seeing a doc every so often to take care of any pre-cancerous issues, you could live a long, long time with good quality of life.
Think about how amazing modern medicine is now compared to 30 years ago... and how much better it might be in another 30 years. Here's to decades of good years go come!
I met Richard Hatch at DragonCon 2016. I'd seen him before at other events, but I actually had time to sit and talk with him among friends this past year, along with Gigi Edgley who had been working with him on a small film project, Diminuendo (catch the trailer on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/181168232 ). It was really refreshing to speak to an actor that was very kind and personable and genuinely interested in opening a dialogue with sci-fi fans about the sort of projects we were all mutually interested in.
Without Hatch, the Battlestar Galactica remake would never have made it to the concept phase, much less to TV. He fought for its revival for decades, and it was his persistence that eventually made the moneymen cave and give the franchise another shot. Beyond that, he's actively campaigned for many sci-fi productions and fought for the genre from film festivals to big blockbuster movies. Time and again, the people who hold the purse at the studios don't understand the value of fantasy or sci-fi -- and it takes many years for everything for a project to come together. The right script has to have the right producer, director, funding, actors, writers, musical talent, special effects artists... hundreds of key people all coming together at the right time to make a project happen. Things are shelved for years for simple timing issues. Hatch is one of the few that made sure that certain properties like BSG were kept in the minds of decision-makers so that when things were right, the projects could go forward with speed.
When he spoke with me, he talked about some of his most recent work that was circulating at film festivals and how he really appreciated the fan base that shows up to events as they support him and give evidence that these projects can really have legs. We're talking about a guy in his 70s who could easily just up and retire, but was so passionate about his craft and world-building, he toured with various artists to drum up excitement for their work. He still held workshops for budding actors, and he authored many BSG books. He could have taken offers for lots of movies, but he preferred to work on projects he was passionate about.
I'd had the privilege of sitting not 10 ft from nearly the entire BSG cast at a prior DragonCon -- Hatch included. While all of the actors were very interesting and shared a lot of great info while being funny and entertaining, he and Edward James Olmos especially carried the room when they spoke and were very humble about being able to deliver rich performances about meaningful topics that resonate in today's socio-political landscapes.
Whatever else you may think of Richard Hatch, know that he was a sci-fi fan at heart and he loved being a part of worlds and stories that he as an actor and writer and you all as fans helped build together.
It's a curious line to draw -- b/c I have personal experience with using fax machines at a very well known international bank, and almost everywhere I've worked has had fax lines digitally tied to e-mail. I can send and receive faxes from my work e-mail in Outlook. I can also ask a customer to scan their document and attach it to any of dozens of free web-based fax services and e-mail to fax services. The line between fax and e-mail is already blurred to where they're nearly indistinguishable. Both fax lines and e-mail are considered insecure methods of transferring important documents with SSNs, account numbers, and private, confidential information. Even secure fax lines are iffy.
E-mail can include digitally signed signatures in PDF files that are legally binding, but a fax machine's copy can't. A fax isn't even considered a certified true copy as that requires a loan officer, notary, or other official to endorse it (often in the presence of the signer and/or the original copy.) Legally, a fax is about the same as photocopying something and mailing it. The signatures aren't valid if not certified true, and they can be altered or copy/pasted before sending.
The PDF digital/online signature is legally binding. There are other ways to authorize things, though... verbally, through account verification, etc. But, no way is a fax any better than an e-mail. Incoming/outgoing fax numbers can be spoofed just like e-mail addresses - you just might have phone records to back things up which are easier to obtain than e-mail records, but... what good is it if there's no legally binding signature?
Perhaps for Overwatch that'd be a bad plan, but there are games designed for controllers that don't map well to mouse and keyboard.
Try playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy made for the Wii controller on a PC through an emulator w/ just a keyboard and mouse. Heck, even with a pretty standard controller it's clunky... you really need the Wiimote and IR Bar to play it properly.
3D motion can be handled much faster with controllers or cameras to map to your own 3D motion.
I propose Overwatch make their own damned controller for PC and console and make a ton of money selling it by billing it as "the best way to play"
AMD released the first intel-compatible 64 bit processors in 2000. That's almost 17 years ago. Sure, people kept buying 32-bit crap for a long while after that, but even Intel saw the writing on the wall, licensed the tech, and eventually mostly moved everything over to it.
It's more difficult to find electricity and an internet connection than it is to find a 64 bit machine in poverty-stricken and/or war-torn countries. I threw away my first 64-bit AMD machine well over a decade ago. I'm sure there's mountains of them at recycling centers in Asia.
I don't think your average refugee is dumpster diving for computer parts -- anything that's gotten wet or crushed is most likely useless, and one would instead go to a garage sale or some other second-hand store to get parts anyway.
North Korea's Red Star OS 3.0 had both x86 and 64-bit versions three years ago. Even they have probably moved to 64-bit only by now. I'm hard pressed to think of a country with higher sanctions and barriers to technology and freedom than NK, but if there is one, I bet their computers are 64 bit by now also.
Great. Here's some sand. Bake me an intel-compatible x86 chip. The specs are all out there, and it's unencumbered by patents.
What's that? You need a wafer oven and a lithography machine? pffft. no kiddin'.
You sometimes have to make a tool to make a tool to make a tool that will make the tool you need to do the job. Human hands don't have the dexterity to cut a silicon wafer, nor do human eyes have the ability to see to do it... nor do human minds have the capacity to construct and memorize a proper layout -- we use computers to do that for us. An amazing amount of chip design is automated with most of the details worked out by complicated algorithms.
Same is true of software. We build frameworks and modules and libraries and use compilers for various languages because no one on the planet can create the binary for a massive modern program using only their head and a pen and pad and hand-feed it into the machine with punch cards.
If you don't understand this concept, you are truly lost.
And you bought that BS? They want you to use their online storage services. Period. All of Google's hardware is designed to coax you into using their online services by limiting the local storage space. This saves them pennies on the hardware, but gives them exposure on the cloud software. Why else would they be the ONLY android and chrome-book manufacturer who omits a widely used storage expansion port?
Thankfully, with an OTG cable, most of their phones and tablets can use flash drives. I'm a Nexus 7 tablet owner... love the device, though a bit sad it's reached end of service life. Hope other ROM makers will support it now that Google has relegated it to the dustbin.
Most of us in the USA are glad Hillary isn't president (including the ones who voted for her.) We also aren't very happy about Trump being president either. We're stuck with a 2 party system and pick the lesser of 2 evils mostly.
Clinton's voting history has been gung-ho for wars, so I cannot argue with you there. Trump is very likely the better president for foreign relations in that arena. He's also very crass and likely to insult our enemies and allies alike, and do a bit of bullying as well, but I don't think he's the sort of president that wants to start WWIII... or even spend as much as we currently do on wars in the middle east.
Trump is mostly dangerous to our domestic side -- he has no concept for how macro-economics work or how international trade and tariffs work on economies. His policies would likely lead us to a recession and/or a trade war... but, I think he's finaly beginning to wise up to that as he backs off from his campaign promises.
One doesn't compete in education for money. It's to introduce the next generation to your walled garden so they will go home and buy compatible products and eventually use them at home, work, and play -- because you learned it early on and everything works together... and switching is a pain.
Often, Apple would give very steep educational discounts. They'd be smart to just donate computers to schools and universities and take the tax deduction.... especially for currently unsold inventory before the next models come out.
Not really. For 20/20 vision ("good" eyesight), the limit is closer to 5K, so most everyone will notice the difference from 4K to 8K because it will surpass the 5K barrier. But, that's not the limit of human eyesight. There are those of us with 20/10 vision and better that can discern up to 11K or better. Lots of pilots have "eagle eye" vision in the 20/10 or better range. One can also get better than 20/10 with laser eye surgery.
Binocular human vision is only useful for 3D up to about 6 meters away (roughly 20 ft). Objects farther than 6 meters appear too similar in position to both eyes to discern distance accurately, so the brain uses other clues for reference. The average distance between human eyes is only 6 cm, and the parallax is so small of an angular difference at over 20 ft, the brain really can't tell the difference. That's partly why piers in the distance always seem so close, you could walk to them... and then 30 minutes walking on the beach later, you could still be very far away.
One could, but why? The parts for the entire supply chain are also in Asia. Why ship all the parts to the USA just to assemble a finished product instead of just shipping the final, tested product? It's easier to work with local supply chains on just in time orders and returns for defects than to deal with international shipping. It takes up to 6 months to send cargo by ship to the USA from China. If there's a problem with a shipment (rusted parts in transit, banged up casings, etc), do you really want to shut down your factory for 6 months to wait for the next one? Or maybe pay through the nose for air shipments that will still take 3-4 weeks? One could build a warehouse and stock it with 6 months worth of parts inventory... but, that'd be a pain when the higher-ups decide to change models and make your inventory worthless. Or you have some other inventory issue... like a hurricane, earthquake, flooding, etc that damages it.
Unless your plan includes moving the entire supply chain to the USA... screws, aluminum sheeting, camera lenses, RAM, CPUs, chipsets, and all; it's a bad plan. That'd be a mighty feat considering their foundries are all in Asia, they cost a fortune to build, and Asia has fewer regulations, cheaper land, and still has cheaper human labor. I'm sure you could source some of the parts from companies already in the USA, but not for the prices and volumes you could get them in Asia. The most important parts couldn't be built in the USA without creating new chip foundries.
//used to work in international supply chain management -- trust me, you don't want to even bother with this idea.
This is true, but the CPU isn't the bottleneck for your examples. For user input (especially games), the user is the bottleneck. Games largely benefit from parallelization for rendering graphics. The logic isn't the bottleneck, and the latency for the response of user input is imperceptible to the human. For most instances, the RAM and CPU are waiting on the human and already have everything loaded to respond to the human. If a human's choice requires the loading of a different zone, the game could even predict which zone would load and pre-load a zone without human input, but dump it if the input wasn't what was predicted. Still, it's the I/O for the disk that's the bottleneck, not the CPU.
As for databases, the biggest bottleneck is the storage medium. Depending on the database and how it's divided, one can even run many tasks on the same database simultaneously so long as the tables don't interact. Ramping up the CPU speed does little to nothing if the I/O to the storage medium of the database is slow b/c the db won't unlock the region of the database for the next transaction until the last transaction is written at least to a buffer if not the final storage medium.
For that example, the best way to improve DB processing is to add RAM, add cache, and increase the clock speed of both.... if possible, even let entire tables if not the full database to exist in RAM and only write to disk periodically as a save-state. Even DDR4 2400 RAM only operates around 1.2 Ghz, though with access on rising and falling edge, it's effectively 2.4 ghz. What is your 20 Ghz CPU going to do with 10 cycles between every read and write to RAM ? Current Intel CPUs have a 4 stage pipeline. Even with a sizable cache at a higher speed, it's going to choke on the RAM latency... especially for large sequential database transactions. RAM is already hot enough to fry eggs on, so it'll be until the next RAM replacement tech comes out before we see some real boosts there. Maybe in a year or two.
I'm curious what exactly you'd like to run at 20 Ghz through the general purpose CPU registers that can't be done better/faster with extensions using specialized hardware. For instance, x265 HEVC video playback can really heat up a CPU to nearly 100% usage, but if it has x265 decoding hardware, the CPU barely breaks 1% playing the same video on a similar CPU architecture and speed. Seems if you have a single thread that you need to have repetitively run at very high speeds, you'd rather have a FPGA or some other hardware to accommodate whatever you're trying to do rather than a general purpose cpu.
Intel gave up on increasing clock speeds way back when they hit 4Ghz. They hit a wall, and they're done, so I wouldn't expect them to revisit it. That's when they went to multi-core. Every computer does better with dual core over single core. Most do better with quad core than dual core. (because even if a single program isn't compiled for multi-core, different programs can be assigned different cores). With VR tech and GPUs added to the cores, multi-core is likely going to continue to be the area of development for some time. As always, expect new physics and graphics extensions as well as codecs.
Multi-core means managing the power and speed of each core individually and allowing some to power down while ramping up one or two to keep the thermal and power envelopes within tolerances. The biggest metric for Intel is performance per Watt -- as data centers are concerned about power usage for the machines and the air conditioning systems.
I don't think there is enough of a market for enthusiasts that want 20 Ghz clock speeds for Intel to bother even doing the research for new materials to pull that off... assuming it's even possible without extreme cooling.
Trust me when I tell you the FAA is way, way worse. I had family running a small business doing aerial photography with drones over a decade ago -- when the FAA had no rules at all about drones. The person piloting the drones was an actual plane pilot and put in a flight plan for every flight.
We're talking cutting edge helicopter drones with high-end cameras and zero regulation. The business was booming -- real estate agencies contracted with them, police agencies used it for tracking fugitives. YET, the local competition -- full sized aircraft photographers complained to the FAA constantly (and lied about location, times, and flight plans in their complaints). The FAA drug their feet for YEARS creating regulations that my family wanted so they could show they were within the regulations (since there weren't any -- and no rules at all to go by). Instead of creating regs, they basically had a moratorium on flying drones for those without military clearance until they could create them. So, my family members lost their business over threats from the FAA, allegations, and eventually the moratorium.
Now, those family members fly drones for a military contractor.... again, cutting edge stuff, only this time top secret. Things end up working out just fine, but if not for the FAA's incompetence and poor regulation of an emerging industry, my family could have been franchising aerial video and photography services long before it became so common that anyone could fly a drone without any aviation experience.
AMD began as a supplier for Intel. Every time they improve the x86 architecture, they end up cross-licensing the improvements with Intel for their improvements as well. AMD has pulled ahead twice in its history -- both times, Intel crushed them so bad, they almost didn't recover. Once due to illegal market pressure and the second time by revamping the cpu to blow AMD out of the water in specs. Intel has AMD's 64 bit tech now.
AMD was looking for a market they could actually compete and even maybe succeed in by buying ATI. NVIDIA is solid competition, but nowhere near Intel on the CPU side. AMD's APUs are the synthesis of ATI and AMD's 64 bit tech. Intel's got a few moves to make with this. Intel can improve their own integrated graphics or buy NVIDIA to use inside their cpus. Both are unlikely. The most likely outcome is Intel will license the tech from AMD at their next cross-licensing deal.
AMD makes money on the low end and gaming console market. They have no hope of ever taking on Intel, so they'll settle for a percentage of every chip Intel makes in a licensing deal instead. Wash, rinse, repeat. Intel won't let them die as AMD is their only evidence that they aren't a monopoly. (ARM is great, but it's got a long way to go before it's really a competitor -- especially in the laptop/desktop market). AMD will likely do quite well in the gpu market moving forward -- especially with VR being the next big thing.
I can play H.265 1080p content on my 3 year old laptop without any issue. VLC barely budges a single core on the cpu. My Nexus 7 2013 can handle H.265 720p files just fine with VLC, but it does hit the CPU really hard. (1080p on it plays audio, but the video is jerky) Almost all ARM chips that were produced in the last year or two support H.265 .
The only thing I have that probably couldn't handle H.265 is a 6 year old smart TV... but, I could easily get a Roku or something for that.
I'd say it won't be long before they switch to H.265. Sure, licenses aren't cheap, but when you factor in the bandwidth savings from the file size reduction, I can't imagine it not being worth it for Netflix to switch. It's just a matter of time, testing, re-encoding, and ensuring customers are ready for the switch. It wasn't that long ago that Netflix re-encoded everything from masters to H.264. They drug their feet on that for quite a while, and they paid for a license for H.264. VP9 isn't that impressive. Maybe the next iteration will be better, but for now H.265 is the best out there.
I'm not sure I follow. Ubuntu will let you install the proprietary drivers and will let you file bug reports for issues, but if the close-sourced driver is found to be the culprit, they'll refer you to AMD... because AMD is the only one with the source code, and thus the only ones able to help you fix the bug. That's about as much support as one could ask for.
The open source drivers are the default install, but you certainly can replace them with the proprietary closed source drivers.
As for the open vs closed source quality, recent benchmarks show that the MESA 13 drivers are pretty close to the closed source ones for most chipsets, but it's still a tiny bit high on the latency. I doubt you'll ever get parity until/unless AMD phased out the closed source drivers by fully opening the source code. There's probably some things in there they license and/or don't care to share with competitors, though.
Economics has never had to deal with this level of AI before, and Milton Friedman died 10 years ago, so I doubt he had much to say on the topic.
In a world where robots with AI can do just about every blue collar and almost all white collar work better, faster, and cheaper -- what do you propose? AI is even replacing most clerical work and has begun replacing tattoo artists and surgeons.
Seriously, who would hire a human being to do any job if they can have a one-time-purchase AI to do the same job that is literally superior in every way?
Ask the rust-belt about all their manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico after NAFTA and to China as well... but, which now are moving from China to Ethiopia or are being replaced by robots. That's right -- China has been cutting thousands of jobs and replacing them with robots... b/c it's cheaper than even the pittance they paid the Chinese labor.
Have a look at the 2 million 18-wheeler driver jobs and the additional 5 million delivery/taxi jobs in the USA. When vehicles become fully self-driving, that's 7 million jobs gone over the course of just a few years to replace the drivers. It'd be one thing if people had time to prepare, to learn new skills, and to find a new job that a robot with AI wouldn't threaten. Thing is, the AI is taking over jobs in all fields. There's even a robot pharmacist dispenser at my local hospital -- sure, it's stocked by a real pharmacist, but it basically does their job and multiple pharmacy tech jobs in one.
The Industrial Revolution made it so that people could do more work. The Information Age made it so that people could do more work and do so globally instead of just locally. The AI Revolution will make it so that few people can find work... b/c the AI is made to REPLACE people, not to help them do more work. Sure, those displaced workers could try to find work in an area that an AI just can't do. But what would that be? Software coding?
No matter the subject, as AI grows, its capabilities will become exponential. There's no job that's truly safe from its encroachment.
This is an interesting argument. On the one hand, getting something for free can lead to laziness and complacency. Yet, somehow we let children go for nearly 18 years sometimes without earning a paycheck. Oh, sure -- some get an allowance for chores or get a paper route -- some even flip burgers in their teens, but really it's not enough to live on. It's as if we let their wealthier parents take care of all their basic needs, but they can go out and earn discretionary income if they're motivated enough! Why, it's pure Leninist Communism on the family-scale!
Or, you know. Maybe in a world where human physical labor is obsolete and even many white collar jobs are now obsolete, maybe we should prepare for a world where just about every job is obsolete, and the rich, wealthy owners of the land and corporations can afford to use the immense wealth built on robot labor and Artificial Intelligence to let everyone have their basic needs tended to with a tiny bit of discretionary money to buy their products so that the whole system doesn't collapse under its own weight. Because if you have an AI/robot workforce and so does every other company on the planet, no one has a real paycheck to buy products, so the economy collapses and your AI/robot infrastructure crumbles b/c it's useless to make things for people that can't afford your products.
Hyperbole? Nope. China is replacing their human workforce with robots. Read that again and let it sink in a bit. China, where workers are paid less per year than many Americans make in a week has decided to replace thousands upon thousands of human beings with robots... b/c it's cheaper. Self-driving cars are going to be a thing in the next 5 to 10 years -- so much for those 2 Million American trucking jobs plus another few million taxi drivers... and Uber/Lyft. I've seen whole departments shelled out to the core to be replaced with automated systems. The other day, I saw a robot tattoo artist! Seriously, it scans your body, preps the needle, and will do a complete sitting for a tattoo given the design. There is no job that's safe. Legal Clerks are being replaced with automation. Nurses, pharmacists. Even surgeons. The more creative and nuanced the job, the longer the hold-out... but it's coming. The information age made globalization possible, but the AI age will make global massive joblessness a reality -- Who would hire a human being if an AI and/or robot could do the job cheaper, faster, for longer, and more reliably?!?!? Most kiosks cost around $30K -- and McDonald's is rolling those out nation-wide to replace people that used to take your order (or at least prevent them from having to hire more than a couple people capable of taking your order per site) Many auto-manufacturing robots are cheaper than union labor. In the USA, we have union workers sitting in seats on robot arms and the arm moves the worker to the place for them to screw the bolt in. In foreign plants... that human is replaced by a robot hand that does the job better. How long before the unions break down and let the USA plants do the same?
This. So much this. I don't know about the EU, but when NASA builds spacecraft, it tends to put in multiple redundancies where it can and add a little logic to determine if and when a sensor fails given other data. If you're going to send up a multi-million dollar craft for a project that will last months, have a backup plan for each and every thing that could possibly go wrong so long as it doesn't significantly add to the expense.
We know that rocket scientists can fire an object into orbit and hit a spot only a few meters wide on Mars -- while the Earth and Mars are both in motion -- rotation and revolution! I bet there's even a checklist as to when each system should come online and be deployed. If a sensor says "hey, we're on the ground or very near it!" when you're still 2 or 3 miles up... and you KNOW there hasn't been enough time for descent, maybe ignore that sensor and fire the descent engines based upon other data. Maybe even include a second sensor that works on different principles -- or fire a laser at the ground and have an optical sensor figure out the altitude from the reflected light. Maybe even throw down a reverse GPS system for Mars... some planetary markers so that orbital and landing craft can triangulate their location and proximity to the ground in real time.
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Frankly, they got tired of being blamed for botnets caused by users not updating Windows, so now everyone gets updates whether they like it or not, and they get 'em within a reasonable time frame of their release.
I'm not sayin' it's right, but I understand their reasoning... and botnets on windows have gone down (they've mostly shifted to routers and other IoT devices).
Windows still has tools to set when updates should be installed -- it's just that no one bothers to do it. Just like no one bothered to keep their machines updated before and kept clicking to install/reboot later or turn the updates off completely.
You have to remember MS Windows market share is huge. That means a lot of people are using Windows that have below-average technical skills that need a lot of hand-holding. In this case, the good of the many outweighs the good of the few... or the one. So, when you ask why we can't have nice things like a method to better schedule updates -- think of all the people out there that mismanaged their windows boxes for decades that forced MS's hand.
And this makes one wonder what the result will be. Say you have Corporation X that wants to release its content through Netflix, but only to countries A,B,C,D, and E -- because F,G,H, and I have lucrative movie theater, TV distribution, DVD/BluRay sales, or other marketing channels that they want to play their course before streaming to. Now, instead of just telling Netflix where it can and can't stream within the EU, it must decide when it wants the entire EU to be able to view its content through Netflix.
Point being, you may get the lowest common denominator here and have all your releases pushed back so that viewings don't interfere with other distribution channels and cannibalize sales. This would get worse as the EU added members. Ah, Turkey is in the EU now... so... we have a different language release date especially for Turkey for DVD sales... and we want to make sure people that want to see the movie will buy those first, so ALL of the EU will have to wait 'til that's done before we release our movie to EU Netflix.
With the right money and visual effects, his vision would have been a hit. It was a great concept for a pilot. Why AC? I'd bump if I had mod points.
Take heart. Life expectancy for men is closer to 76. Even then, with years of diet, exercise, and cutting out smoking and heavy alcohol, men can live well into their 80s and 90s with great quality of life. I know guys that are in their 60s whose fathers died in their early 70s and they take it as a given it'll happen to them as well, so it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy as they get depressed, get overweight, and just plain give up on healthy living.
Barring cancer or predisposition to Alzheimer's or dementia, there's no reason you can't live to be 95 or older. Even then, medicines are advancing at a rapid pace and exercise can boost your immunity and ability to repair damage to stave off those conditions. Exercise and generally taking care of your immune system and seeing a doc every so often to take care of any pre-cancerous issues, you could live a long, long time with good quality of life.
Think about how amazing modern medicine is now compared to 30 years ago... and how much better it might be in another 30 years. Here's to decades of good years go come!
I met Richard Hatch at DragonCon 2016. I'd seen him before at other events, but I actually had time to sit and talk with him among friends this past year, along with Gigi Edgley who had been working with him on a small film project, Diminuendo (catch the trailer on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/181168232 ). It was really refreshing to speak to an actor that was very kind and personable and genuinely interested in opening a dialogue with sci-fi fans about the sort of projects we were all mutually interested in.
Without Hatch, the Battlestar Galactica remake would never have made it to the concept phase, much less to TV. He fought for its revival for decades, and it was his persistence that eventually made the moneymen cave and give the franchise another shot. Beyond that, he's actively campaigned for many sci-fi productions and fought for the genre from film festivals to big blockbuster movies. Time and again, the people who hold the purse at the studios don't understand the value of fantasy or sci-fi -- and it takes many years for everything for a project to come together. The right script has to have the right producer, director, funding, actors, writers, musical talent, special effects artists... hundreds of key people all coming together at the right time to make a project happen. Things are shelved for years for simple timing issues. Hatch is one of the few that made sure that certain properties like BSG were kept in the minds of decision-makers so that when things were right, the projects could go forward with speed.
When he spoke with me, he talked about some of his most recent work that was circulating at film festivals and how he really appreciated the fan base that shows up to events as they support him and give evidence that these projects can really have legs. We're talking about a guy in his 70s who could easily just up and retire, but was so passionate about his craft and world-building, he toured with various artists to drum up excitement for their work. He still held workshops for budding actors, and he authored many BSG books. He could have taken offers for lots of movies, but he preferred to work on projects he was passionate about.
I'd had the privilege of sitting not 10 ft from nearly the entire BSG cast at a prior DragonCon -- Hatch included. While all of the actors were very interesting and shared a lot of great info while being funny and entertaining, he and Edward James Olmos especially carried the room when they spoke and were very humble about being able to deliver rich performances about meaningful topics that resonate in today's socio-political landscapes.
Whatever else you may think of Richard Hatch, know that he was a sci-fi fan at heart and he loved being a part of worlds and stories that he as an actor and writer and you all as fans helped build together.
It's a curious line to draw -- b/c I have personal experience with using fax machines at a very well known international bank, and almost everywhere I've worked has had fax lines digitally tied to e-mail. I can send and receive faxes from my work e-mail in Outlook. I can also ask a customer to scan their document and attach it to any of dozens of free web-based fax services and e-mail to fax services. The line between fax and e-mail is already blurred to where they're nearly indistinguishable. Both fax lines and e-mail are considered insecure methods of transferring important documents with SSNs, account numbers, and private, confidential information. Even secure fax lines are iffy.
E-mail can include digitally signed signatures in PDF files that are legally binding, but a fax machine's copy can't. A fax isn't even considered a certified true copy as that requires a loan officer, notary, or other official to endorse it (often in the presence of the signer and/or the original copy.) Legally, a fax is about the same as photocopying something and mailing it. The signatures aren't valid if not certified true, and they can be altered or copy/pasted before sending.
The PDF digital/online signature is legally binding. There are other ways to authorize things, though... verbally, through account verification, etc. But, no way is a fax any better than an e-mail. Incoming/outgoing fax numbers can be spoofed just like e-mail addresses - you just might have phone records to back things up which are easier to obtain than e-mail records, but... what good is it if there's no legally binding signature?
Perhaps for Overwatch that'd be a bad plan, but there are games designed for controllers that don't map well to mouse and keyboard.
Try playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy made for the Wii controller on a PC through an emulator w/ just a keyboard and mouse. Heck, even with a pretty standard controller it's clunky... you really need the Wiimote and IR Bar to play it properly.
3D motion can be handled much faster with controllers or cameras to map to your own 3D motion.
I propose Overwatch make their own damned controller for PC and console and make a ton of money selling it by billing it as "the best way to play"
AMD released the first intel-compatible 64 bit processors in 2000. That's almost 17 years ago. Sure, people kept buying 32-bit crap for a long while after that, but even Intel saw the writing on the wall, licensed the tech, and eventually mostly moved everything over to it.
It's more difficult to find electricity and an internet connection than it is to find a 64 bit machine in poverty-stricken and/or war-torn countries. I threw away my first 64-bit AMD machine well over a decade ago. I'm sure there's mountains of them at recycling centers in Asia.
I don't think your average refugee is dumpster diving for computer parts -- anything that's gotten wet or crushed is most likely useless, and one would instead go to a garage sale or some other second-hand store to get parts anyway.
North Korea's Red Star OS 3.0 had both x86 and 64-bit versions three years ago. Even they have probably moved to 64-bit only by now. I'm hard pressed to think of a country with higher sanctions and barriers to technology and freedom than NK, but if there is one, I bet their computers are 64 bit by now also.
Great. Here's some sand. Bake me an intel-compatible x86 chip. The specs are all out there, and it's unencumbered by patents.
What's that? You need a wafer oven and a lithography machine? pffft. no kiddin'.
You sometimes have to make a tool to make a tool to make a tool that will make the tool you need to do the job. Human hands don't have the dexterity to cut a silicon wafer, nor do human eyes have the ability to see to do it... nor do human minds have the capacity to construct and memorize a proper layout -- we use computers to do that for us. An amazing amount of chip design is automated with most of the details worked out by complicated algorithms.
Same is true of software. We build frameworks and modules and libraries and use compilers for various languages because no one on the planet can create the binary for a massive modern program using only their head and a pen and pad and hand-feed it into the machine with punch cards.
If you don't understand this concept, you are truly lost.
And you bought that BS? They want you to use their online storage services. Period. All of Google's hardware is designed to coax you into using their online services by limiting the local storage space. This saves them pennies on the hardware, but gives them exposure on the cloud software. Why else would they be the ONLY android and chrome-book manufacturer who omits a widely used storage expansion port?
Thankfully, with an OTG cable, most of their phones and tablets can use flash drives. I'm a Nexus 7 tablet owner... love the device, though a bit sad it's reached end of service life. Hope other ROM makers will support it now that Google has relegated it to the dustbin.
Most of us in the USA are glad Hillary isn't president (including the ones who voted for her.) We also aren't very happy about Trump being president either. We're stuck with a 2 party system and pick the lesser of 2 evils mostly.
Clinton's voting history has been gung-ho for wars, so I cannot argue with you there. Trump is very likely the better president for foreign relations in that arena. He's also very crass and likely to insult our enemies and allies alike, and do a bit of bullying as well, but I don't think he's the sort of president that wants to start WWIII... or even spend as much as we currently do on wars in the middle east.
Trump is mostly dangerous to our domestic side -- he has no concept for how macro-economics work or how international trade and tariffs work on economies. His policies would likely lead us to a recession and/or a trade war... but, I think he's finaly beginning to wise up to that as he backs off from his campaign promises.
One doesn't compete in education for money. It's to introduce the next generation to your walled garden so they will go home and buy compatible products and eventually use them at home, work, and play -- because you learned it early on and everything works together... and switching is a pain.
Often, Apple would give very steep educational discounts. They'd be smart to just donate computers to schools and universities and take the tax deduction.... especially for currently unsold inventory before the next models come out.
Not really. For 20/20 vision ("good" eyesight), the limit is closer to 5K, so most everyone will notice the difference from 4K to 8K because it will surpass the 5K barrier. But, that's not the limit of human eyesight. There are those of us with 20/10 vision and better that can discern up to 11K or better. Lots of pilots have "eagle eye" vision in the 20/10 or better range. One can also get better than 20/10 with laser eye surgery.
You can read up on a decent article about it here:
http://www.red.com/learn/red-1...
My bet is it'll hit a barrier at 16K where no one will be able to appreciate anything higher, but we aren't there yet.
Binocular human vision is only useful for 3D up to about 6 meters away (roughly 20 ft). Objects farther than 6 meters appear too similar in position to both eyes to discern distance accurately, so the brain uses other clues for reference. The average distance between human eyes is only 6 cm, and the parallax is so small of an angular difference at over 20 ft, the brain really can't tell the difference. That's partly why piers in the distance always seem so close, you could walk to them... and then 30 minutes walking on the beach later, you could still be very far away.
One could, but why? The parts for the entire supply chain are also in Asia. Why ship all the parts to the USA just to assemble a finished product instead of just shipping the final, tested product? It's easier to work with local supply chains on just in time orders and returns for defects than to deal with international shipping. It takes up to 6 months to send cargo by ship to the USA from China. If there's a problem with a shipment (rusted parts in transit, banged up casings, etc), do you really want to shut down your factory for 6 months to wait for the next one? Or maybe pay through the nose for air shipments that will still take 3-4 weeks? One could build a warehouse and stock it with 6 months worth of parts inventory... but, that'd be a pain when the higher-ups decide to change models and make your inventory worthless. Or you have some other inventory issue... like a hurricane, earthquake, flooding, etc that damages it.
Unless your plan includes moving the entire supply chain to the USA... screws, aluminum sheeting, camera lenses, RAM, CPUs, chipsets, and all; it's a bad plan. That'd be a mighty feat considering their foundries are all in Asia, they cost a fortune to build, and Asia has fewer regulations, cheaper land, and still has cheaper human labor. I'm sure you could source some of the parts from companies already in the USA, but not for the prices and volumes you could get them in Asia. The most important parts couldn't be built in the USA without creating new chip foundries.
This is true, but the CPU isn't the bottleneck for your examples. For user input (especially games), the user is the bottleneck. Games largely benefit from parallelization for rendering graphics. The logic isn't the bottleneck, and the latency for the response of user input is imperceptible to the human. For most instances, the RAM and CPU are waiting on the human and already have everything loaded to respond to the human. If a human's choice requires the loading of a different zone, the game could even predict which zone would load and pre-load a zone without human input, but dump it if the input wasn't what was predicted. Still, it's the I/O for the disk that's the bottleneck, not the CPU.
As for databases, the biggest bottleneck is the storage medium. Depending on the database and how it's divided, one can even run many tasks on the same database simultaneously so long as the tables don't interact. Ramping up the CPU speed does little to nothing if the I/O to the storage medium of the database is slow b/c the db won't unlock the region of the database for the next transaction until the last transaction is written at least to a buffer if not the final storage medium.
For that example, the best way to improve DB processing is to add RAM, add cache, and increase the clock speed of both.... if possible, even let entire tables if not the full database to exist in RAM and only write to disk periodically as a save-state. Even DDR4 2400 RAM only operates around 1.2 Ghz, though with access on rising and falling edge, it's effectively 2.4 ghz. What is your 20 Ghz CPU going to do with 10 cycles between every read and write to RAM ? Current Intel CPUs have a 4 stage pipeline. Even with a sizable cache at a higher speed, it's going to choke on the RAM latency... especially for large sequential database transactions. RAM is already hot enough to fry eggs on, so it'll be until the next RAM replacement tech comes out before we see some real boosts there. Maybe in a year or two.
I'm curious what exactly you'd like to run at 20 Ghz through the general purpose CPU registers that can't be done better/faster with extensions using specialized hardware. For instance, x265 HEVC video playback can really heat up a CPU to nearly 100% usage, but if it has x265 decoding hardware, the CPU barely breaks 1% playing the same video on a similar CPU architecture and speed. Seems if you have a single thread that you need to have repetitively run at very high speeds, you'd rather have a FPGA or some other hardware to accommodate whatever you're trying to do rather than a general purpose cpu.
Intel gave up on increasing clock speeds way back when they hit 4Ghz. They hit a wall, and they're done, so I wouldn't expect them to revisit it. That's when they went to multi-core. Every computer does better with dual core over single core. Most do better with quad core than dual core. (because even if a single program isn't compiled for multi-core, different programs can be assigned different cores). With VR tech and GPUs added to the cores, multi-core is likely going to continue to be the area of development for some time. As always, expect new physics and graphics extensions as well as codecs.
Multi-core means managing the power and speed of each core individually and allowing some to power down while ramping up one or two to keep the thermal and power envelopes within tolerances. The biggest metric for Intel is performance per Watt -- as data centers are concerned about power usage for the machines and the air conditioning systems.
I don't think there is enough of a market for enthusiasts that want 20 Ghz clock speeds for Intel to bother even doing the research for new materials to pull that off... assuming it's even possible without extreme cooling.
Trust me when I tell you the FAA is way, way worse. I had family running a small business doing aerial photography with drones over a decade ago -- when the FAA had no rules at all about drones. The person piloting the drones was an actual plane pilot and put in a flight plan for every flight.
We're talking cutting edge helicopter drones with high-end cameras and zero regulation. The business was booming -- real estate agencies contracted with them, police agencies used it for tracking fugitives. YET, the local competition -- full sized aircraft photographers complained to the FAA constantly (and lied about location, times, and flight plans in their complaints). The FAA drug their feet for YEARS creating regulations that my family wanted so they could show they were within the regulations (since there weren't any -- and no rules at all to go by). Instead of creating regs, they basically had a moratorium on flying drones for those without military clearance until they could create them. So, my family members lost their business over threats from the FAA, allegations, and eventually the moratorium.
Now, those family members fly drones for a military contractor.... again, cutting edge stuff, only this time top secret. Things end up working out just fine, but if not for the FAA's incompetence and poor regulation of an emerging industry, my family could have been franchising aerial video and photography services long before it became so common that anyone could fly a drone without any aviation experience.
AMD began as a supplier for Intel. Every time they improve the x86 architecture, they end up cross-licensing the improvements with Intel for their improvements as well. AMD has pulled ahead twice in its history -- both times, Intel crushed them so bad, they almost didn't recover. Once due to illegal market pressure and the second time by revamping the cpu to blow AMD out of the water in specs. Intel has AMD's 64 bit tech now.
AMD was looking for a market they could actually compete and even maybe succeed in by buying ATI. NVIDIA is solid competition, but nowhere near Intel on the CPU side. AMD's APUs are the synthesis of ATI and AMD's 64 bit tech. Intel's got a few moves to make with this. Intel can improve their own integrated graphics or buy NVIDIA to use inside their cpus. Both are unlikely. The most likely outcome is Intel will license the tech from AMD at their next cross-licensing deal.
AMD makes money on the low end and gaming console market. They have no hope of ever taking on Intel, so they'll settle for a percentage of every chip Intel makes in a licensing deal instead. Wash, rinse, repeat. Intel won't let them die as AMD is their only evidence that they aren't a monopoly. (ARM is great, but it's got a long way to go before it's really a competitor -- especially in the laptop/desktop market). AMD will likely do quite well in the gpu market moving forward -- especially with VR being the next big thing.
I can play H.265 1080p content on my 3 year old laptop without any issue. VLC barely budges a single core on the cpu. My Nexus 7 2013 can handle H.265 720p files just fine with VLC, but it does hit the CPU really hard. (1080p on it plays audio, but the video is jerky) Almost all ARM chips that were produced in the last year or two support H.265 .
The only thing I have that probably couldn't handle H.265 is a 6 year old smart TV... but, I could easily get a Roku or something for that.
I'd say it won't be long before they switch to H.265. Sure, licenses aren't cheap, but when you factor in the bandwidth savings from the file size reduction, I can't imagine it not being worth it for Netflix to switch. It's just a matter of time, testing, re-encoding, and ensuring customers are ready for the switch. It wasn't that long ago that Netflix re-encoded everything from masters to H.264. They drug their feet on that for quite a while, and they paid for a license for H.264. VP9 isn't that impressive. Maybe the next iteration will be better, but for now H.265 is the best out there.
I'm not sure I follow. Ubuntu will let you install the proprietary drivers and will let you file bug reports for issues, but if the close-sourced driver is found to be the culprit, they'll refer you to AMD... because AMD is the only one with the source code, and thus the only ones able to help you fix the bug. That's about as much support as one could ask for.
The open source drivers are the default install, but you certainly can replace them with the proprietary closed source drivers.
Here's the How To from Ubuntu for the most recent 16.04 LTS:
https://help.ubuntu.com/commun...
As for the open vs closed source quality, recent benchmarks show that the MESA 13 drivers are pretty close to the closed source ones for most chipsets, but it's still a tiny bit high on the latency. I doubt you'll ever get parity until/unless AMD phased out the closed source drivers by fully opening the source code. There's probably some things in there they license and/or don't care to share with competitors, though.
Economics has never had to deal with this level of AI before, and Milton Friedman died 10 years ago, so I doubt he had much to say on the topic.
In a world where robots with AI can do just about every blue collar and almost all white collar work better, faster, and cheaper -- what do you propose? AI is even replacing most clerical work and has begun replacing tattoo artists and surgeons.
Seriously, who would hire a human being to do any job if they can have a one-time-purchase AI to do the same job that is literally superior in every way?
Ask the rust-belt about all their manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico after NAFTA and to China as well... but, which now are moving from China to Ethiopia or are being replaced by robots. That's right -- China has been cutting thousands of jobs and replacing them with robots... b/c it's cheaper than even the pittance they paid the Chinese labor.
Have a look at the 2 million 18-wheeler driver jobs and the additional 5 million delivery/taxi jobs in the USA. When vehicles become fully self-driving, that's 7 million jobs gone over the course of just a few years to replace the drivers. It'd be one thing if people had time to prepare, to learn new skills, and to find a new job that a robot with AI wouldn't threaten. Thing is, the AI is taking over jobs in all fields. There's even a robot pharmacist dispenser at my local hospital -- sure, it's stocked by a real pharmacist, but it basically does their job and multiple pharmacy tech jobs in one.
The Industrial Revolution made it so that people could do more work. The Information Age made it so that people could do more work and do so globally instead of just locally. The AI Revolution will make it so that few people can find work... b/c the AI is made to REPLACE people, not to help them do more work. Sure, those displaced workers could try to find work in an area that an AI just can't do. But what would that be? Software coding?
No matter the subject, as AI grows, its capabilities will become exponential. There's no job that's truly safe from its encroachment.
With the upcoming AI/robotic revolution, the relevant question would be - what won't be fully automated?
This is an interesting argument. On the one hand, getting something for free can lead to laziness and complacency. Yet, somehow we let children go for nearly 18 years sometimes without earning a paycheck. Oh, sure -- some get an allowance for chores or get a paper route -- some even flip burgers in their teens, but really it's not enough to live on. It's as if we let their wealthier parents take care of all their basic needs, but they can go out and earn discretionary income if they're motivated enough! Why, it's pure Leninist Communism on the family-scale!
Or, you know. Maybe in a world where human physical labor is obsolete and even many white collar jobs are now obsolete, maybe we should prepare for a world where just about every job is obsolete, and the rich, wealthy owners of the land and corporations can afford to use the immense wealth built on robot labor and Artificial Intelligence to let everyone have their basic needs tended to with a tiny bit of discretionary money to buy their products so that the whole system doesn't collapse under its own weight. Because if you have an AI/robot workforce and so does every other company on the planet, no one has a real paycheck to buy products, so the economy collapses and your AI/robot infrastructure crumbles b/c it's useless to make things for people that can't afford your products.
Hyperbole? Nope. China is replacing their human workforce with robots. Read that again and let it sink in a bit. China, where workers are paid less per year than many Americans make in a week has decided to replace thousands upon thousands of human beings with robots... b/c it's cheaper. Self-driving cars are going to be a thing in the next 5 to 10 years -- so much for those 2 Million American trucking jobs plus another few million taxi drivers... and Uber/Lyft. I've seen whole departments shelled out to the core to be replaced with automated systems. The other day, I saw a robot tattoo artist! Seriously, it scans your body, preps the needle, and will do a complete sitting for a tattoo given the design. There is no job that's safe. Legal Clerks are being replaced with automation. Nurses, pharmacists. Even surgeons. The more creative and nuanced the job, the longer the hold-out... but it's coming. The information age made globalization possible, but the AI age will make global massive joblessness a reality -- Who would hire a human being if an AI and/or robot could do the job cheaper, faster, for longer, and more reliably?!?!? Most kiosks cost around $30K -- and McDonald's is rolling those out nation-wide to replace people that used to take your order (or at least prevent them from having to hire more than a couple people capable of taking your order per site) Many auto-manufacturing robots are cheaper than union labor. In the USA, we have union workers sitting in seats on robot arms and the arm moves the worker to the place for them to screw the bolt in. In foreign plants... that human is replaced by a robot hand that does the job better. How long before the unions break down and let the USA plants do the same?
This. So much this. I don't know about the EU, but when NASA builds spacecraft, it tends to put in multiple redundancies where it can and add a little logic to determine if and when a sensor fails given other data. If you're going to send up a multi-million dollar craft for a project that will last months, have a backup plan for each and every thing that could possibly go wrong so long as it doesn't significantly add to the expense.
We know that rocket scientists can fire an object into orbit and hit a spot only a few meters wide on Mars -- while the Earth and Mars are both in motion -- rotation and revolution! I bet there's even a checklist as to when each system should come online and be deployed. If a sensor says "hey, we're on the ground or very near it!" when you're still 2 or 3 miles up... and you KNOW there hasn't been enough time for descent, maybe ignore that sensor and fire the descent engines based upon other data. Maybe even include a second sensor that works on different principles -- or fire a laser at the ground and have an optical sensor figure out the altitude from the reflected light. Maybe even throw down a reverse GPS system for Mars... some planetary markers so that orbital and landing craft can triangulate their location and proximity to the ground in real time.