Re: Stupid thing to do...
It is dicey, but could be a dark genius. The irony is exquisite.
It could also be a trap, as others have said.
Posts by Beachrider
590 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2010
Anonymous declares war after French firm trademarks its logo
NASA's nuclear Mars tank prepares for high pucker-factor landing
Wednesday 1st August 2012 14:24 GMT
There will be some real-time recording of the landing...
At one NASA briefing, they were asked WHY getting near-real-time feedback to the USA was so important. They advised that Curiousity will be streaming some kind of monitoring during its descent. He indicated that some video recording was going on, as well.
On the prospects of a 25-year operation, if any key element (consider the batteries) fails, then SOME or ALL parts of the lander will stop working. The batteries are needed for some of the high-power instruments (Laser, others). NASA will need to get congressional approval at the end of each 'tour'. Cassini is on is fourth (I think) 'tour' around Saturn. Even Voyagers have to be 'renewed' every 3-5 years.
Unisys swings to profit on ClearPath mainframe spike
ITC was wrong: Apple, RIM owe us $1bn for that patent – Kodak
Monday 23rd July 2012 21:43 GMT
I worked for Polaroid in the 1980s...
And it is TOTALLY IRONIC that Kodak attempts to reach FROM THE DEAD to recoup IP violations.
Kodak totally pillaged Polaroid IP on instant cameras in the 1970s. In 1985, Polaroid won the suit, but the damage had already been done. Polaroid was ruined as an imaging-research company by Kodak greed.
Bye bye Kodak!
Ocean-seeding experiment re-ignites geo-engineering debate
Friday 20th July 2012 19:56 GMT
It is about the Methane MUCH more than the CO2
This stuff is trying to bail out the Titanic. Methane is 75 times a greenhouse-reactive as CO2 (fact). Methane in the atmosphere is up 2.6% in 15 YEARS (fact). If you don't fix the Methane, no noticeable good will come from lowering CO2.
In general, I am in favor of lowering mankinds carbon loading. I just feel that everyone is on the CO2 bandwagon. CO2 is just not NEARLY as important as Methane.
IBM's new Power7+ hotness - we peek through the veil
Tuesday 17th July 2012 21:11 GMT
Re: Intel HAS been sprinting to process reduction faster than IBM...
Have a nice day.
You just keep moving from topic to topic, perhaps to 'paint a full picture'. You engaged me when I advised on a Kebabbert reference to SAP benchmarks. So I didn't make anything up, you just didn't read what was written.
I never said that Spec was irrelevant, just superfluous. SAP is agnostic to CISC or RISC. It just cares about results. I like that.
The other discussion is interesting, it gets into several cool things:
1) Instruction architecture (you are making a case that CISC is slower than RISC, even with GHz favoring RISC)
2) Benchmarking architecture (SPEC is like a lie detector, sometimes it gives 'surprising' results)
3) Timing of measurements (measuring entries from machines that are introduced at different times of a product's cycle often give very different results).
4) Hardware architecture (Chip layouts can be like city-layouts, IBM has been able to shift stuff around on the core more than Intel has, although both make changes at each new product-level)
All of this is cool stuff. It would require a more collegial tone that we have had, so far...
Tuesday 17th July 2012 14:13 GMT
Re: Intel HAS been sprinting to process reduction faster than IBM...
You just keep broadening the discussion. Both vendors come out with internal improvements that help progress their product.
The benchmark references keep moving the focus, as well. We were on the SAP benchmark, now you want to switch to spec. We would just need to reload the argument to take into account the differences between the two benchmarks. Let us stay on SAP, for now.
My goodness, all I would have to do is broaden the discussion back to you and run cost-power-analyses of ARM or core-by-core watts for SPARC. Power is faster, Power fanbois have a story to fight Intel, too.
I get it that you think that Intel is 'brilliant'. I repeat myself in advising that 'it is all good' and that I want faster cheaper computers, just like anyone else. Power just isn't totally beaten
FWIW your current comment is simply wrong. Increased current doesn't improve transistor performance, voltage does. No one overclocks a board by increasing current, they increase voltage.
Tuesday 17th July 2012 10:36 GMT
Re: Intel HAS been sprinting to process reduction faster than IBM...
Current consumption doesn't boost performance AT ALL. It is an unfortunate fallout of larger traces and higher GHz. RISC just CAN enable better/more single-cycle performance. IBM is clearly getting benefit from that.
Maybe I was too subtle. When Intel COULD turn the GHz crank, they convinced lots a people that GHz was ALL that mattered. Now that Intel can't get much GHz action, they make it ALL about process-size. New day, same shit.
It is all good with me. I just need fast, cheap computers.
Monday 16th July 2012 19:43 GMT
Intel HAS been sprinting to process reduction faster than IBM...
No doubt that IBM lingers longer on a given process-size than Intel. They don't sell as many chips (don't count cell chips against Power sales, they are VERY different), either. IBM does have the advantage of RISC, which they play against x64 chips. It gives them faster performance on an older process-size. Whenever it stops working, IBM's strategy will have to change (they DO sell Intel servers). In the meantime, they get more margin on the sales where Power beats Intel-servers.
Back when Intel COULD do GHz-cranking, the Intel-fanbois made EVERYTHING about GHz. In the last decade, where the GHz crank has done very little for Intel's progress, it is getting more about overall application throughput. That seems more fair to my needs.
Some Intel-fanbois abstract results from $80K servers onto home-motherboards and do price comparisons with large-machines. That is a vast oversimplification.
Monday 16th July 2012 19:31 GMT
Power cloud is here...
There are two tracks to using IBM Power in a cloud-approach:
1) Capacity on demand with p770 or p780 (depending on scale of upper-end), they are both 2 year old boxes, though.
2) IBM Flex p260 and p460 are more current and start much cheaper.
... There are several willing IBM superstars that watch that Register. They can expand for you.
Monday 16th July 2012 19:25 GMT
At least you don't have the 1999 IBM article here anymore...
1) Anand doesn't say that Power7 is 14% faster than anything 'old'. Anand cites an SAP benchmark that compared a 14 month old result from IBM against a just-fresh Intel system benchmark-run. If you did the same thing today, using SAP run 2012015, the gap is up to 25.8% and the p460 is 65% the price of the 2010 benchmark-box. (p460 is an IBM-attempt at internal-cloud for SMB).
They are in the same ballpark. Power is still faster. Anand's characterizations about price are, at best, under-documented (some would say more). I don't suppose that you would care to quote Anand on SPARC (he REALLY doesn't see the point of SPARC).
2) Oracle has clearly misquoted the tpc.org page that they attempt to cite. The span of the benchmark is completely different than the results posted on tpc.org. Oracle needs to fix this before it makes sense.
3) IBM has roadmaps. Anand has them, Register has them. Erase your rant. Use a spell-checker next time.
4) For Java-written applications, the SPARC does do better than hardware-architects would expect.
5) As long as you talk in the future subjunctive tense, you can say anything you want about T5. Anything COULD be true, until they bring it out...
Monday 16th July 2012 15:02 GMT
I never like defending Larry, but..
On Itanium, why aren't more people going after Microsoft and RedHat. They abandoned Itanium EARLIER than Oracle. Oracle certainly has its own issues competing with Intel with Sparc, but they are trying the same thing that IBM does (i.e. sell Intel-stuff, but also market your own-stuff).
I knew that Kebbab would be on this chain...
IBM lets fly single-socket Power7 Penguin server
Friday 13th July 2012 19:00 GMT
IO on Power vs Quickpath..
We are just talking about IO here, right?
Quickpath IO is a LOT like Power 6 inter-node-links, albeit without the firmware structure that facilitates VIO & other firmware that facilitates very high IO rates. Power 7 doubled the GHz of all internal busses over Power 6.
IBM publishes 40 Gbit QDR connectivity to its IO drawers, which dumb-it-down for PCI, etc.
(http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/pod03032usen/POD03032USEN.PDF)
Thursday 12th July 2012 19:56 GMT
Re: IBM preparing for AIX retirement ?
I don't know if AIX is going to be retired or not. 'Boffins' here have predicted its demise for over 10 years, though.
IBM has announced a commitment to Linux on all of its platforms. They did not accompany that with an announcement concerning retirement of zOS, zVM, zVSE, AIX or i5/OS. They appear to be sanguine about keeping all of them alongside their Linux strategy, for now...
Thursday 12th July 2012 19:49 GMT
IBM's Power IO vs Dell's IO...
You can certainly make Dell's IO perform similarly to IBM's Power IO. It is just that the cost-advantage to the Dell machine disappear. UNISYS had sold million-dollar Intel machines for years.
Natively, IBM's CPUs have faster busses and more of them (especially as Intel goes to high-core sockets). These busses facilitate less-expensive adaptation for high IO throughput.
US county named 'area of outstanding natural stupidity'
Friday 13th July 2012 17:18 GMT
Firearms, personal liberty and the USA...
To be sure, EU denizens have a vastly different perception on personal firearm ownership. I live in the USA and have never owned a firearm. The intensity of the NRA makes me wonder if it contributes to the intolerance that is becoming more and more prevalent in the USA (similar intolerance can be seen in the EU, but without the NRA, so it isn't caused exclusively by the NRA).
Not to mention the big-news-story that happens whenever adolescents escalate their personal struggles into shame for a wide community, sometimes with firearms.
All of that being said, I am more concerned about hunger, disease, abandonment and other issues that are more important, but less flashy in the press. A bunch of old-folks screwing up and abusing firearms that cause embarrassing displays or results just doesn't drive me very much.
Hubble finds fifth moon orbiting Pluto
US ponders fibre link to Guantanamo
Monday 9th July 2012 16:03 GMT
Laws vary by country...
I don't like that we are holding these guys at Gitmo, just for starters
I also don't like that the guerrilla tactics used in their cause are not covered under Geneva convention principles.
Gitmo is clear evidence that the USA has no intention of applying international justice principles when people behave as al-Qaeda proscribes. It would be nice if the situation were more civil, but only time will bring that.
Gitmo is a 'convenient' area where military rules obstruct normal civilian legal processes (such as habeus corpus, as cited many times here). I am not proud of it, but there aren't any better alternatives. It may be the ONLY thing that worries potential terrorists, though. I don't think that they are at-all afraid of any civilian courts.
Texas Higgs hunters mourn the particle that got away
HP asks court to force Oracle to obey Itanium contract
Wednesday 27th June 2012 14:26 GMT
Oracle continues to make software for Itanium...
The article has a significant fact-error. Oracle continues to update existing releases and fix problems on Itanium. Oracle WON'T provide its new releases on Itanium, though.
If it didn't do the former, it would have to relinquish maintenance monies for its Itanium base, immediately. Oracle has accountants that advised against THAT.
NASA counts down to nuclear tank invasion of Mars
Wednesday 27th June 2012 11:17 GMT
All THREE American rovers used sky cranes w/ teathers...
Fact check. sojourner and the long-lived rovers ALL used these cranes with teathers. The difference here is that there is no air-bag encapsulating the rover-module. It is not without risk, but it is an incremental improvement from the MELs...
Assange: Australian neglect made me flee to Ecuador embassy
Friday 22nd June 2012 14:16 GMT
Assange the journalist...
Assange is finished as a journalist. He published in a ways that left his source out-to-dry. The guy is serving hard time in a military confinement, while Assange jaunts around thinking of no one but himself.
A top flight journalist protects sources. That person also protects friends.
Assange is not likely to have many sources or friends in the near future.
Ex-Soviet space gunboats to be FOUND ON MOON
Wednesday 20th June 2012 21:29 GMT
Russian LEO space stations?
The Salyuts were only shielded for LEO orbits (beneath the protection of the Van Allen belts). The changes needed for lunar trajectories (particularly ones of several weeks) brings a LOT of new-work to these early80s technology rafts.
Seems like the rich would have better things to do with their money/time. They certainly could have quite a bit of both available, though...
Chinese 'nauts reach Heaven after 8-minute coupling
Monday 18th June 2012 21:39 GMT
Re: Three taikonauts visited the lab module?
The Chinese documents of Tiangong show only two sleep stations. I don't know whether there was any safety concern. It could have simply been true that Tiangong didn't have to room to sleep 3.
To be sure, the Chinese have used space-docks that are the same as the Shuttle-Mir devices. This could mean that CNSA is attempting to show an interest in using international standards. They are VERY new to this stuff, though. Tiangong looks to be a technology demonstration versus and exploitable long-term-usable space technology.
They are using pure Hydrazine/UDMH in their lifting rockets. Technologically, it makes it easier on the rocket designer. It is nasty toxic stuff to handle. NASA did use it for Shuttle for in-space orbiter attitude control. Titan II also used this fuel.
RP-1 is widely considered a cheaper, easier-to-handle rocket fuel. It does have fancier rocket requirements, though.
IBM storage kit keeping admins awake at night
Tuesday 19th June 2012 14:46 GMT
By 'x' and '6x' or '9x', I mean...
In my previous post, 'x' was the amount of time to do the 15GB data transfer (disk-to-disk). That same data transfer went up by a factor of '6' and '9' when the Enterprise backup system schlepped the data from local-dump files off to the Enterprise Backup system...
Tuesday 19th June 2012 14:43 GMT
It isn't ONLY that IBM gets this...
At our site, we have a renowned SAN vendor that denied this syndrome. We ran a benchmark that showed DRAMATIC dataflow reductions at the two start-times of our enterprise backup system. We saw I/O go from x to 6x in the early evening AND from x to 9x at 2AM (when the big systems did enterprise backup).
That vendor denied it, even after we showed the benchmark output. The benchmark was absolutely reproducible, too. That is what caused us to bring in OTHER vendors for SAN equipment. At least, those vendors were up-front about this kind of problem.
Dell spills its hot cache Fluid, hopes to beat off rivals
NASA's Curiosity rover will try risky landing near Mount Sharp
Tuesday 12th June 2012 15:28 GMT
Re: And if they do crash into the mountain...
The sky-crane mechanism was used on MERs and Sorjourner. The major difference this time is that the sky-crane will drop-off at ground level, instead of dropping it 50 feet above the ground.
There is always risk in these actions. This kind of landing is KEY to capsule-type landings that are being dreamed up by Mars settlement thinkers...
Jobs gloom in the US: But a few bright spots in IT
Monday 4th June 2012 17:43 GMT
Health Care in the USA..
Health care is one of the KEY polemics in the USA. The president got a package passed in 2008 that is just-starting to take full effect. The hospitals needed YEARS of preparations if they were going to comply, so they invested in new clinical/information mechanisms.
The polemic derives from the issue of governmental role in individual health care.
Some believe in the laws-passed, some believe that the Supreme court should nullify it.
This issue is VERY different than even Canada, let alone Europe.
Study: The more science you know, the less worried you are about climate
Wednesday 30th May 2012 16:47 GMT
Re: The Reg's interpretation is getting intermixed with the original intent....
As I said:
- One dimensional analysis is insufficient, we appear to agree but I am not sure
- People that don't believe in ANY climate change cannot be convinced of it in this discussion
- The USGS doesn't know if the methane is venting or not, you made that up
- I don't know what satellites your Solar-cooldown info, comes from. The heatup comes from Geological evidence AFAIK
- Phoenix shows that Mars is warming up. MAVEN is supposed to explore WHY. I don't know where you got the info that all of this is false, already.
- Methane is UP 2.6% since 1998. That is NOT in dispute. Methane is >50x as potent as CO2 in generating the greenhouse effect.
- The multidimensional discussion is a point of agreement. My focus was that anthropomorphism through CO2 emissions ONLY was waaaay toooo narrow.
I hope that helps...
Tuesday 29th May 2012 20:21 GMT
The Reg's interpretation is getting intermixed with the original intent....
This is an important discussion. There is some climate change going on. We are mainly interested in the impact of the change and what we can do to survive.
- If you are sure that there is NO climate change, then we probably cannot convince you here
- Mankind's ability to turn-back the climate change by decreasing CO2 can be discussed, unless you don't believe in climate change at all.
- The impact of non-human causes is very substantial e.g. (USGS studies on Methane increases from the Ocean floor)
- The whole model isn't simple. Carbon-loading of the atmosphere and oceans has many possible causes and affects.
- From a Geological perspective, history tells us that we are still coming out of an Ice Age.
- Space/Mars probes indicate that the Sun is entering a warming phase, too.
We really don't know how-much Mankind's CO2 generation feeds the whole process. It isn't zero, but there are some VERY LARGE components that are not associated with anthropological causes.
It clearly helps us to manage our Carbon footprint. It might not be justifiable to levy taxes based on minor-changes, though.
This IS about science, but the one-dimensional (liberal-conservative) analysis method is sufficient to render high impact judgements.
Space Station crew enter the Dragon
Monday 28th May 2012 21:51 GMT
@Bristol...
Why would the USA presume to launch all of the EU's payloads? That is the ESA's job. The EU is a larger economy than the USA, but the ESA budgets are MUCH smaller than NASA's.
Perhaps some EU-based commercial company will now get into the business. THAT would be very interesting.
Almost half of NASA's budget is scientific/robotic exploration of the Moon and planetary system. SpaceX is almost completely focused on manned transport. More than half of NASA's rockets are deepspace capable. All of SpaceX's rockets would freeze solid in minutes in deepspace. NASA has correctly positioned itself to work with entities like SpaceX. SpaceX isn't going to Mars anytime soon without more NASA connected research technology.
The same stuff that EADS claimed was unfair donation of technology to Boeing has happened with SpaceX and NASA. The important difference is that NASA has much less control over the development and sale of the work.
SpaceX joy as Space Station robo-arm grabs Dragon's tail
SpaceX Dragon, first private ship to the ISS, launched successfully
NASA found filming August's Mars landing in California desert
Wednesday 16th May 2012 19:53 GMT
Re: Skycrane?
Parachutes weren't enough. This rover has wheels (not pads) and it didn't want to burn them with retro rocket fire (see Pioneer's Mars landing simulation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5pNFROlYU ). Spirit and Opportunity ultimately used airbags just like Sojourner, but their airbags were lowered-by-cable and slowed by retro-rockets just like Curiousity ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUGBVzWnIk ). Curiosity is just too big for the airbags/bouncing method.
... they worked OK! Here's hoping for another one.
Behind the lens of NASA's self-adapting ISS space telescope
SpaceX test-fires Falcon 9 rocket as Dragon sleeps
Monday 30th April 2012 20:17 GMT
Ya gotta love these SpaceX guys...
SpaceX is trying to make a difference here. They certainly have stuck their necks out to even get a chance to succeed. Constraining the manned-mission work to the Shuttle for 30 years really stunted the progress of American technology. The USA was left with a single capability to do LEO manned-work and that capability was poorly scaled and poorly adapted to current cost structures.
SpaceX had taken what-works-for-cheap (RP1 petrol-rockets) and adapted it to what-works-for-cheap manned-transports (Dragon capsules like Soyuz/Apollo). They will take a run at getting it into LEO and do-no-damage in getting it to the ISS docking-arm.
There is less high-cost automation for the docking mechanism than Soviet-Progress. There is lower-cost associated with survivable return (vs. Soyuz). It just needs to work.
Orbital is also in this business and have had a few launch failures with their Antares lifter. They may be able to replicate this expectation within 6-8 months. We will see.
There has been a lot of talk about very-advanced next steps (exhausted rockets flying/landing for reuse) and even $500K Mars trips within a decade. God bless all of that stuff...
This is what is fun about manned space flight. Now, they just have to pull it off!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
