Supercomputers, and computers in general, are becoming a more significant percentage of our total power usage. By demanding more efficient power for their supercomputer, DARPA are insisting in more power efficiency in general because their technology does "filter down" to the rest of us. So, if they get their efficient supercomputer, we'll get PCs that operate at under 3 Watts and give us the same utility your 1KW gaming monster does today.
And that's going to impact the building of windfarms, hydro dams, salmon habitat, nuclear energy, coal fired plants, and a good number of other things. Good on 'em.
I can think of at least three ways off the top of my head. They're not likely to knock on my door. It's really not hard if you think about it.
You start with the smallest core that achieves your goal, and the largest, thinnest wafer you can get. And then you stack them with through-silicon vias. Include holes for liquid nitrogen coolant or even high-rate gaseous cold helium. Get a cool interconnect like 12xQDR infiniband or something custom, but it can be done. Connecting the silicon to external interfaces requires gold wire, an electron microscope, and infinite patience but it can be done.
Only then should they be permitted to count votes. Until then, if the issue is worth all of us voting on it, it's worth a few of us spending part of our day counting the votes.
/~30 years computer scientist here. I know more ways to cheat an electronic election than you do most likely. I don't know any way to secure an electronic election.
Yes, you can screw around hacking GPS units. The question is, why do that instead of buying an ultramobile PC with GPS and navigation software?
Talk about missing the point...
You know, I think your attitude is the problem with consumer electronics today. They give you GPS with maps and you think "hey! That's cool! Now I can get navigation!" Some time later they come out with turn by turn spoken directions, and you're thrilled with that too. And then you come here on slashdot and argue against the open products, because they might be hard for you to use, or people might put them to uses the manufacturer had not intended.
Look: people are clever. Give them neat gear with open interfaces and they'll put it to creative uses the manufacturers had never considered - and publish the source code for anyone to use. If the features are interesting, useful and most importantly, popular, they'll wind up in the next generation of the manufacturer's products and you will benefit. It's like having a half billion geeks working for free.
Fortunately for you and for the rest of us, most manufacturers have figured out that they don't have the corner on creativity and so they make open, or "hackable" interfaces that allow us to bend these devices to unintended uses that they can then adopt in your next generation product.
Since state-run TV is now reporting that votes counted exceeded registered voters in "only 50" Iranian Cities, and that indicates sufficient credibility to not change the outcome, I'm going to agree with you here.
This is the law. If you don't like it then abolish copyright. Do that, and all these problems go away.
Until then if your teen downloads a song from pirate internet radio and the RIAA takes your house because of it, I don't care. If someone jacks your Internet and downloads a song, they'll bankrupt you and I don't care. If they make a mistake and try to pin this rap on you when you're completely innocent, I care a little but it won't save you. You didn't speak up when it was your turn. Some people are going to live under a bridge. Is it you? Are you sure?
Activism and breaking news isn't exactly slashdot's thing any more.
It wouldn't surprise me if there only a few real posters here these days, and most everybody else is trolling for the lulz or 'turfing.
It's a shame really. I'm pretty sure there used to be a WAP wizard here who could have helped a lot to keep the info flowing despite the government crackdown.
This is the story with the Atom, Larabee, and the eight-core Nehalem server processors with memory expansion controller chips, nearly all of which seem, to me, to be really stupid ideas.
If you were a subscriber here you could see that I predicted all of these things years before they happened. I disagree that they're stupid ideas because to me they're my ideas. Itanium? Let's agree about that. That was a stupid idea that has ripened into a vile stench. Another $10B from Intel and HP isn't going to make this dog profitable.
Like any big company, Intel has various factions that don't necessarily agree with one another. It has to: that's the price of progress. As a whole I think they're motivated to provide some things I dearly want: progress in computer sciences and convenient devices that enable me to do cool stuff. It also has some folks I would rather not hear from, who use terms like "market cannibalization" to prevent progress. It has a few so focused on the Art of the Deal that somebody should more frequently jerk their leash. So it is in big companies.
But in all... great company, great products, great philosophies, and above all, "open". The future is open.
The rest of us don't have to worry about this nonsense. If it bothers you, get a mac. They don't have this problem. Instead, we just click merrily away at any old thing that catches our interest for a moment. You would like it. It's called browsing.
The Microsoft definition is driven by Intel. It's dumb of both of them, as it defines "premium netbook" as one that doesn't have either of their products in it but which has a bigger screen, more memory, more storage or a faster processor. It's a "loser mentality" that tries to protect the notebook market that's already in "race to the bottom" mode.
Since neither of them can prevent other manufacturers from innovating outside of this specification, that just make it easier for an up-an-coming manufacturer to create a new market without them, and enjoy the benefit of not having to compete with them in that market.
So of course after that happens the restrictions will go away and it will be a free-for-all again.
"It's a loser mentality to not develop one segment because you're worried about the other," he said. "I think we have several years ahead of us where we can innovate the heck out of any of these categories without getting defensive about the other one. You just need to unleash innovation in all of the segments and see what happens." - Sean Maloney
It's interesting to see Intel expanding out of their traditional markets and unleashing innovation in every direction. Since they're also staying pretty open about interfaces, people are going to do some pretty amazing stuff with their new products.
Yeah, unfortunately one of the things Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on is poor software security. Although to be fair this issue with Firefox came to light because Microsoft exploited it.
By the way, that hideous.net helper plugin can't install in Linux versions of Firefox.
A different choice would have mattered little. An irate populace, incensed enough by the subversion of their election to revolt and sweep the oligarchy from power - that might matter a lot. Unfortunately when this happens a charismatic or forceful new tyrant rises up to replace the old one. We shall see.
Ultimately, the story of what happened here cannot be hidden from view any more and that's the news for nerds angle. Every single picture I've seen of the crowds has people leading the way - not with rocks and guns, but with digital cameras. This information cannot be totally blocked, even if the government shuts down the Internet and severs international communications. If nothing else, the footage will be smuggled out on SD cards across a porous border. This revolution will be blogged.
Of all the nations in the world probably only North Korea still has a strong enough hold on its people and technology to prevent the documentation of internal events, and their control is not perfect either.
Microsoft makes some products that include a great deal of utility. If their products contained less vulnerability, they would be interesting. As it sits though, unless you have some need they serve that's worth hooking into the abusive relationship they insist on with their customers, it's best to go with something else.
And yes, what we've seen of W7 doesn't look as bad as Vista. Until we see the product they release though, we know nothing. Often they've screwed the pooch at the last moment.
Y'know they're filing shotgun patents all over the place. They remind me of a marketing geek who accidentally got reassigned to engineering once. Previously I had helped him design an air duct that put cool air where we needed it. When a subsequent design eliminated the need for the duct, he said "That's an important piece. We have intellectual property on that."
Without blinking I told him "The Romans had prior art. It's redundant, and out it goes."
Y'know, I've earned a lot of Slashdot Karma up to now, and I'm ready to spend it all for this. I can always earn more. Maybe that's what slashdot Karma is really for.
Fark isn't where I get my news any more than slashdot is - they are two of many aggregators I use to ensure I get the widest exposure, and then I filter using neurons.
As usual, life rarely has one single element at play
No, I'm sure that all these Windows Botnets have a single thing in common besides that they're computers.
Item 1: Lack of firewall. A workign hardware or software firewall prevents all network infections.
That's funny. You have no idea. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the German army has a firewall in place for their Windows computers. That's not it.
Item 2: Lack up updates. Machines that did not recieve security updates did not get the patch that fixed this issue prior to the apperance of Conficker.
No, I'm pretty sure it got onto some of these Windows networks through AutoRun even if all the PCs were fully patched.
What we're looking for is a common thread - something all these Windows computers have in common. It can't be that they're computers -- if we give up our computers Windows won't run at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Supercomputers, and computers in general, are becoming a more significant percentage of our total power usage. By demanding more efficient power for their supercomputer, DARPA are insisting in more power efficiency in general because their technology does "filter down" to the rest of us. So, if they get their efficient supercomputer, we'll get PCs that operate at under 3 Watts and give us the same utility your 1KW gaming monster does today.
And that's going to impact the building of windfarms, hydro dams, salmon habitat, nuclear energy, coal fired plants, and a good number of other things. Good on 'em.
I can think of at least three ways off the top of my head. They're not likely to knock on my door. It's really not hard if you think about it.
You start with the smallest core that achieves your goal, and the largest, thinnest wafer you can get. And then you stack them with through-silicon vias. Include holes for liquid nitrogen coolant or even high-rate gaseous cold helium. Get a cool interconnect like 12xQDR infiniband or something custom, but it can be done. Connecting the silicon to external interfaces requires gold wire, an electron microscope, and infinite patience but it can be done.
How hard was that? Do we need to draw them a map?
Only then should they be permitted to count votes. Until then, if the issue is worth all of us voting on it, it's worth a few of us spending part of our day counting the votes.
/~30 years computer scientist here. I know more ways to cheat an electronic election than you do most likely. I don't know any way to secure an electronic election.
Yes, you can screw around hacking GPS units. The question is, why do that instead of buying an ultramobile PC with GPS and navigation software?
Talk about missing the point...
You know, I think your attitude is the problem with consumer electronics today. They give you GPS with maps and you think "hey! That's cool! Now I can get navigation!" Some time later they come out with turn by turn spoken directions, and you're thrilled with that too. And then you come here on slashdot and argue against the open products, because they might be hard for you to use, or people might put them to uses the manufacturer had not intended.
Look: people are clever. Give them neat gear with open interfaces and they'll put it to creative uses the manufacturers had never considered - and publish the source code for anyone to use. If the features are interesting, useful and most importantly, popular, they'll wind up in the next generation of the manufacturer's products and you will benefit. It's like having a half billion geeks working for free.
Fortunately for you and for the rest of us, most manufacturers have figured out that they don't have the corner on creativity and so they make open, or "hackable" interfaces that allow us to bend these devices to unintended uses that they can then adopt in your next generation product.
Since state-run TV is now reporting that votes counted exceeded registered voters in "only 50" Iranian Cities, and that indicates sufficient credibility to not change the outcome, I'm going to agree with you here.
This is the law. If you don't like it then abolish copyright. Do that, and all these problems go away.
Until then if your teen downloads a song from pirate internet radio and the RIAA takes your house because of it, I don't care. If someone jacks your Internet and downloads a song, they'll bankrupt you and I don't care. If they make a mistake and try to pin this rap on you when you're completely innocent, I care a little but it won't save you. You didn't speak up when it was your turn. Some people are going to live under a bridge. Is it you? Are you sure?
Activism and breaking news isn't exactly slashdot's thing any more.
It wouldn't surprise me if there only a few real posters here these days, and most everybody else is trolling for the lulz or 'turfing.
It's a shame really. I'm pretty sure there used to be a WAP wizard here who could have helped a lot to keep the info flowing despite the government crackdown.
This is the story with the Atom, Larabee, and the eight-core Nehalem server processors with memory expansion controller chips, nearly all of which seem, to me, to be really stupid ideas.
If you were a subscriber here you could see that I predicted all of these things years before they happened. I disagree that they're stupid ideas because to me they're my ideas. Itanium? Let's agree about that. That was a stupid idea that has ripened into a vile stench. Another $10B from Intel and HP isn't going to make this dog profitable.
Like any big company, Intel has various factions that don't necessarily agree with one another. It has to: that's the price of progress. As a whole I think they're motivated to provide some things I dearly want: progress in computer sciences and convenient devices that enable me to do cool stuff. It also has some folks I would rather not hear from, who use terms like "market cannibalization" to prevent progress. It has a few so focused on the Art of the Deal that somebody should more frequently jerk their leash. So it is in big companies.
But in all... great company, great products, great philosophies, and above all, "open". The future is open.
The rest of us don't have to worry about this nonsense. If it bothers you, get a mac. They don't have this problem. Instead, we just click merrily away at any old thing that catches our interest for a moment. You would like it. It's called browsing.
If they disappear the snapdragon, there'll be hell to pay. Both of them had best be checking the logs to see who had contact during CeBit.
I'm guessing you didn't click the link to see who was calling that a loser mentality.
The Microsoft definition is driven by Intel. It's dumb of both of them, as it defines "premium netbook" as one that doesn't have either of their products in it but which has a bigger screen, more memory, more storage or a faster processor. It's a "loser mentality" that tries to protect the notebook market that's already in "race to the bottom" mode.
Since neither of them can prevent other manufacturers from innovating outside of this specification, that just make it easier for an up-an-coming manufacturer to create a new market without them, and enjoy the benefit of not having to compete with them in that market.
So of course after that happens the restrictions will go away and it will be a free-for-all again.
"It's a loser mentality to not develop one segment because you're worried about the other," he said. "I think we have several years ahead of us where we can innovate the heck out of any of these categories without getting defensive about the other one. You just need to unleash innovation in all of the segments and see what happens." - Sean Maloney
It's interesting to see Intel expanding out of their traditional markets and unleashing innovation in every direction. Since they're also staying pretty open about interfaces, people are going to do some pretty amazing stuff with their new products.
Yeah, unfortunately one of the things Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on is poor software security. Although to be fair this issue with Firefox came to light because Microsoft exploited it.
By the way, that hideous .net helper plugin can't install in Linux versions of Firefox.
A different choice would have mattered little. An irate populace, incensed enough by the subversion of their election to revolt and sweep the oligarchy from power - that might matter a lot. Unfortunately when this happens a charismatic or forceful new tyrant rises up to replace the old one. We shall see.
Ultimately, the story of what happened here cannot be hidden from view any more and that's the news for nerds angle. Every single picture I've seen of the crowds has people leading the way - not with rocks and guns, but with digital cameras. This information cannot be totally blocked, even if the government shuts down the Internet and severs international communications. If nothing else, the footage will be smuggled out on SD cards across a porous border. This revolution will be blogged.
Of all the nations in the world probably only North Korea still has a strong enough hold on its people and technology to prevent the documentation of internal events, and their control is not perfect either.
Plunging necklines and short skirts are about the things they've always been about: the stock market trends.
Microsoft makes some products that include a great deal of utility. If their products contained less vulnerability, they would be interesting. As it sits though, unless you have some need they serve that's worth hooking into the abusive relationship they insist on with their customers, it's best to go with something else.
And yes, what we've seen of W7 doesn't look as bad as Vista. Until we see the product they release though, we know nothing. Often they've screwed the pooch at the last moment.
Y'know they're filing shotgun patents all over the place. They remind me of a marketing geek who accidentally got reassigned to engineering once. Previously I had helped him design an air duct that put cool air where we needed it. When a subsequent design eliminated the need for the duct, he said "That's an important piece. We have intellectual property on that."
Without blinking I told him "The Romans had prior art. It's redundant, and out it goes."
Y'know, I've earned a lot of Slashdot Karma up to now, and I'm ready to spend it all for this. I can always earn more. Maybe that's what slashdot Karma is really for.
Fark isn't where I get my news any more than slashdot is - they are two of many aggregators I use to ensure I get the widest exposure, and then I filter using neurons.
Here's Informed Comment's spin. Here is a nice pic. YouTube has a lot of videos.
Another cool pic
I think this is called a threadjack. Been here a long time, don't do this much.
Here's the LA Times view. Here's the Flik'r slideshow.
As of now, the top story on CNN is FCC gets 300,000 calls as analog TV disappears.
In other news... there's a revolution going on in Iran and it's turned violent.
But that's not Stuff That Matters, so yeah, let's talk about Microsoft's stupid patent applications because that's News For Nerds.
Um, no. Unless you made it mandatory for everyone in the world this is not going to solve this problem. Probably not even then.
Credible network admins are having trouble getting rid of this thing, and they have Group Policy and Remote Admin access.
As usual, life rarely has one single element at play
No, I'm sure that all these Windows Botnets have a single thing in common besides that they're computers.
Item 1: Lack of firewall. A workign hardware or software firewall prevents all network infections.
That's funny. You have no idea. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the German army has a firewall in place for their Windows computers. That's not it.
Item 2: Lack up updates. Machines that did not recieve security updates did not get the patch that fixed this issue prior to the apperance of Conficker.
No, I'm pretty sure it got onto some of these Windows networks through AutoRun even if all the PCs were fully patched.
What we're looking for is a common thread - something all these Windows computers have in common. It can't be that they're computers -- if we give up our computers Windows won't run at all.
I wasn't trying to refute your post. I was calling you a whiny little brat who isn't getting his way. Cry some more - I'm loving it.
If only we consider more thoroughly what single thing they all have in common, we might be able to find a cure.