Slashdot Mirror


User: Chirs

Chirs's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,303
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,303

  1. if that's the question on California Legalizes Self Driving Cars · · Score: 1

    then you should only engage the autopilot when you're sleep deprived, upset at my wife and in a hurry to get home.

    I agree with the grandparent...any self-driving car I buy should be better than me on a typical drive for it to make sense. I want it to drive on the highway for 9 hrs and let me sleep or read a book or watch a movie or play with my kids.

  2. result on gcc 4.5.1 on iPhone 5 A6 SoC Teardown: ARM Cores Appear To Be Laid Out By Hand · · Score: 2

    Looks like gcc isn't a good compiler.
    Compiling this at -O3

    int mult(int a, int b)
    {
            return (int)(((long long)a * b) >> 32);
    }

    In x86-64 mode gives

    movslq %esi, %rax
    movslq %edi, %rdi
    imulq %rdi, %rax
    sarq $32, %rax
    ret

    and 32-bit mode gives

    pushl %ebp
    movl %esp, %ebp
    movl 12(%ebp), %eax
    imull 8(%ebp)
    popl %ebp
    movl %edx, %eax
    ret

    On powerpc the 64-bit version is very clean and obvious:

    mulld 4,4,3
    sradi 3,4,32
    blr

    the 32-bit version is a little bit more complicated

    mulhw 9,4,3
    mullw 10,4,3
    srawi 11,9,31
    srawi 12,9,0
    mr 3,12
      blr

  3. need usable dev test platforms on Ask Slashdot: Should Developers Install Their Software Themselves? · · Score: 1

    I run into this regularly. A full-scale system install costs $$$. However, we have a (very) limited number of them for the dev team to use when debugging issues that only show up on full-scale installations.

    When your bug only shows up at 90% of rated operational load, you _need_ a system that can reproduce that scenario.

  4. the $65 one is the real news here on Cheap, Portable Ultrasound Could a Be Lifesaver . · · Score: 1

    The really big deal is the one from the Newcastle team that they estimate will cost $65. That's orders of magnitude less than the other "low-cost" devices around.

    Even with degraded accuracy, having _some_ imaging capability is almost certainly better than having none.

  5. good research to support smaller wage disparity on Apple Wants Another $707 Million From Samsung · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a fair bit of research showing that well-being is related inversely to the difference in income between the richest and poorest people in a society. The smaller the difference, the better off people are.

  6. switch distributors on Raspberry Pi Hits 1GHz With Official 'Turbo Mode' · · Score: 1

    Seriously, cancel and order from the other guy. In Canada Newark has them in stock and Allied is saying many weeks delay.

  7. it's from the manufacturer on Raspberry Pi Hits 1GHz With Official 'Turbo Mode' · · Score: 1

    presumably they know what the chip can handle

  8. can still do GPS without a dataplan on Hardware Is Dead — At Least Most Expensive Hardware Is · · Score: 1

    You can get apps that use maps stored on the phone. If your phone doesn't have a GPS chip you can sync with a bluetooth GPS receiver as well.

  9. how? on Hardware Is Dead — At Least Most Expensive Hardware Is · · Score: 1

    If you never configure your wifi access, how exactly is the tablet going to phone home?

  10. in SI units there is no disagreement on Astronomers Fix the Astronomical Unit · · Score: 1

    As log as you're using SI units giga will always be 10^9.

  11. usb key? on Patent Troll Sues X-Plane · · Score: 1

    It seems a USB key plugged into a smartphone would qualify.

    And under the tortured logic of lawyers and patents I wonder if a cryptographically signed electronic file could qualify as "a portable licensing medium". Heck, a piece of paper with a barcode or QR code might actually qualify.

  12. not his scheme on Patent Troll Sues X-Plane · · Score: 1

    He's using the google API

  13. photoshop's 16-bit colour depth wasn't really on Mesa Finally An OpenGL Implementation (On Intel Hardware) · · Score: 1

    I actually did some tests of Photoshop's 16-bit colour depth support. Can't remember if it was PS4 of PS6 though.

    Anyways, it turns out that when writing 16-bit TIFF files, it only actually included 15 bits of colour depth. I have no idea if this was an internal limitation for some reason or a flaw in their TIFF routines, but I did confirm that it was true.

  14. memory is not really "I/O" on University Team Builds Lego and Raspberry Pi Cluster · · Score: 1

    While technically RAM is not part of the CPU itself, I think you'll find most people don't consider memory access when calling something "I/O limited". That's more along the lines of network ports, hard drive, USB, firewire, thunderbolt, etc.

  15. not even close on University Team Builds Lego and Raspberry Pi Cluster · · Score: 1

    Even on modern PCs things like transcoding, compiling, etc. are still cpu-limited.

  16. hackability, A/V out on Cutting the Power Cable: How Advantageous Is Wireless Charging? · · Score: 1

    "Why do I need a USB port anymore?"

    So you can re-flash your phone with a new OS, do low-level debugging, do A/V out over MHL, etc.

  17. they may have a bunch of patents on Samsung Expected To Sue Apple Over iPhone 5 LTE Networking · · Score: 1

    covering many different aspects of the system. In that case they may be fairly sure that at least one of them is being infringed.

  18. apple wants special treatment on Samsung Expected To Sue Apple Over iPhone 5 LTE Networking · · Score: 4, Informative

    Samsung and HTC both have standard FRAND licensing rates. However, generally everyone just cross-licenses patents instead of paying cash royalties.

    Apple doesn't want to cross-license, but also complains that the (standard, charged the same to everyone) cash royalty rates are too high.

  19. it's british slang on 100GbE To Slash the Cost of Producing Live Television · · Score: 1

    read it as "market to the consumers"

  20. easy on Election Tech: In Canada, They Actually Count the Votes · · Score: 1

    1) punch in choices electronically
    2) machine prints out paper ballot, voter checks whether it is correct and hits either "correct" or "incorrect". If "incorrect", paper ballot is visibly shredded and you go back to step 1.
    3) paper ballot goes into locked container, electronic results are tallied instantly

    If there is a call for a recount, the paper ballots are counted with representation from all parties present.

  21. change suppliers on Rhombus Tech A10 EOMA-68 CPU Card Schematics Completed · · Score: 2

    Some of the suppliers are shipping right now....others are playing games with ship dates.

  22. code can't tell you *why* on Comments On Code Comments? · · Score: 1

    The most useful purpose of comments is to explain why something is being done, or being done in a certain way. In some cases (assembly coding, for instance) it can also be useful to have a comment explaining the overall algorithm.

    Comments should also highlight any particular gotchas, possible areas of improvement, known shortcomings, etc.

  23. false economy on Comments On Code Comments? · · Score: 1

    If you don't have comments you need to spend time reverse-engineering the code.

    I suggest that it takes less time to update the comments than to try to understand code with no comments.

  24. mac mini? really? mini costs 17x as much on Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 Board Announced · · Score: 1

    So the first thing you can do is buy 17x as many of them. You also get GPIO pins for hardware projects.

  25. change suppliers on Raspberry Pi Revision 2.0 Board Announced · · Score: 1

    Some suppliers are shipping immediately, others are on back order for some unknown reason.