Forgot your password?

Comment: I'll buy one when... (Score 2) 236

by ameline (#46348869) Attached to: Tesla Used A Third of All Electric-Car Batteries Last Year
I'll buy one when I can get a consistently reliable 500 mile range (at -20 degrees C exterior temperature, +20 interior, with headlights on too) out of it. Recharge at 40 to 60A (230V) at home is acceptable. That likely means a 200 kwh battery pack. So about 2.5x increase in energy density over what we have now. This will probably be available in the next 10 years. The advantages of electric given this sort of range will all but kill other powertrains for most cars. Those advantages will easily pay for a battery swapout every 5 years or so.

Comment: Re:That's unfortunate (Score 2) 430

by ameline (#45869941) Attached to: Cairo 2D Graphics May Become Part of ISO C++

Why are all the insightful posts in this thread being modded "funny"?

C++ is *way* too big a language already. It's got the PL/1 problem (yeah, get off my lawn) -- when everyone only understands 0.8 of your language (or some amount under 1.0) it winds up being a different 0.8 for everyone. And this means that virtually any programmer will write code that is unreadable to another. (and if there is one thing that over 25 years of programming has taught me is that code readability trumps almost everything else).

Interestingly enough, IBM created PL.8 (an 80% subset of PL/1) for internal use. The original XL compiler back-end for RS6000/PPC was written in PL.8

/ Really -- my lawn -- get off of it!

Comment: They should be much more paranoid. (Score 5, Interesting) 153

by ameline (#45445271) Attached to: How Big Companies Can Hamper the Surveillance Infrastructure

They aren't getting *nearly* paranoid enough. They should be encrypting the data on disk, on network connections between machines in the *same* data center, not just between centers. In fact the data should remain encrypted at all times unless absolutely necessary to have in clear-text to process it -- and that should never leave the CPU. It should remain clear-text only for the absolutely minimum time required.

They should assume that hostile agencies (foreign *and* domestic) have tapped every last network link they own. As well as most routers and processing machines. They should also assume that some small percentage of their workforce are working on behalf of one of these adversaries. Given these assumptions they should design a system that can remain as secure as possible given these circumstances.

Merely encrypting the network links between their data centers is not nearly enough to thwart the likes of the NSA, CSEC, GCHQ or other nameless agencies.

Comment: Is this where I get to feel smug? (Score 1) 228

by ameline (#45120581) Attached to: D-Link Router Backdoor Vulnerability Allows Full Access To Settings
Apple's AirPort line of routers is one of the few consumer grade families of network gear that are not abandonware -- updates are provided fairly regularly. I believe that under the covers they're running VxWorks with a custom IP stack from Apple. As far as I know, there are no back-doors or security problems with them. (I would not be at all surprised to find out that the NSA has infiltrated one -- they are designed and the firware is written in the USA.) I've been using them for years -- they're very reliable -- never need to be rebooted, and they perform well. Yes, they cost a little more, but then it looks like you get what you pay for. -- Ian.

Comment: Re:Kudos to AMD for this, but... (Score 0) 117

by ameline (#42801523) Attached to: AMD Publishes Open-Source Radeon HD 8000 Series Driver

Pedant. :-)

How about comparing on the most recently available hardware...

My point is that, while open source drivers are a good thing, they are of limited usefulness unless they are competitive with closed source ones for performance, stability and completeness of functionality.

The amount of beauty required launch 1 ship = 1 Millihelen