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The Charade in DC will run until November 2022, at least
Joe Manchin stands as firm as Jabel-al-Tariq
How perfect!
Is the "RINO" going extinct?
Trumpies are still winning. Democrats are handing it all to them with the endless floundering over elections, the post office, you name it. They're setting up for another loss like 2010. Maybe if liberals got a little crazy like the nutters and took over the party we could have a real horse race
Oh, and mind the gap
Zen 3 Threadripper Hinted + More
Next-Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper Might Be Coming Soon
Realix, the developer behind HWiNFO, said earlier today that the upcoming version of the software will improve its work with AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro as well as "next-generation Ryzen Threadripper" platforms. This is essentially one of the first public signs of AMD's 4th Generation Threadripper, which is allegedly based on the Epyc 'Milan' design.
"Improved detection of AMD ThreadRipper Pro and next-generation ThreadRipper," a line in the HWiNFO changelog reads.
Intel Inadvertently Confirms Raptor Lake-S: Compatible with Alder Lake-S Platforms
Less is known about Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs. Some early leaks indicate that Raptor Lake processors will essentially be revamped Alder Lake CPUs with some incremental improvements. The Raptor Lake CPUs are expected to retain eight performance and eight energy-efficient cores, but this time with some tweaks like an improved cache architecture on desktop parts and LPDDR5X support on mobile parts.
Didn't the Soviets do shit like this?
Facebook removes video interview with Trump, citing his ban from the platform
In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts
People still try to erase history
Yeah yeah yeah... private company bla bla bla. So what? We're not supposed to encourage it no matter who does it.
I notice we still have a filibuster blocking movement in the senate. What's up, democrats? Gonna sleep another night with the "enemy"? Then in the morning, tell us it was a bad lay? Then do it again?
FAA Ineptitude?
A fresh Starship scrub, apparently due to an FAA inspector not showing up on time.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1376558233624666120
FAA inspector unable to reach Starbase in time for launch today. Postponed to no earlier than tomorrow.
SpaceX Starship launch delayed to Tuesday by poor FAA planning
(Before the update in the story was added, the headline was changed to "SpaceX’s fourth high-altitude Starship launch pushed to Tuesday by FAA ineptitude". Now it has been softened a little.)
Update: CEO Elon Musk says that SpaceX’s fourth high-altitude Starship launch has been delayed from Monday to Tuesday after an FAA inspector – recently required to be onsite for launches – was inexplicably more than six hours late.
https://twitter.com/wapodavenport/status/1376564374870102026
Given the crazy high cadence of SpaceX Starship launches, you'd think the FAA would have an inspector down there permanently at this point.
While the smallest grain of salt is warranted given Musk’s recently vitriolic relationship with the FAA, the CEO has every reason not to lie about a federal regulatory agency that SpaceX almost fundamentally depends on. As such, the implication is that a lone FAA inspector – only recently required by the FAA itself to be onsite for SpaceX Starship launches – was somehow more than four or five hours away from Boca Chica, Texas by 11am CDT, March 29th.
The only possible explanation for such a delay is that a single inspector – lacking virtually any of the resources afforded to large government agency – missed a flight on a public airline, had a flight canceled at the last second, or was somehow stranded in the middle of nowhere by car issues. As any sane human familiar with air or car travel would know, those issues happen and should always be anticipated. Knowing full well that it had just changed SpaceX’s Starship launch license just two weeks prior to prevent flights without an inspector present, the FAA does not appear to have prepared for those issues in even the most basic sense, failing to ensure alternate methods of transport or two redundant inspectors.
Starship SN11 launch moved to Tuesday – Super Heavy BN1 rollout to follow
Starship SN11 is now tracking a Tuesday launch attempt. Following a second static fire on Friday morning, with the firing of the repaired SN46 Raptor, launch was set to take place later on Friday’s before scrubbed to allow for additional checkouts to take place, setting up a realigned Monday target, only for the launch to be moved to Tuesday after the FAA inspector failed to arrive on time.
[...] The new target was noted as Monday afternoon. However, Elon tweeted the required attendance of an FAA inspector – who had not arrived at Boca Chica in time – pushed the launch to Tuesday.
https://twitter.com/spacex360/status/1376559237124489217
Sue, sue, sue!
Funny Twitter Spat between Senator Warren and Amazon
But you bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets.
That's tellin' him!
Myanmar Massacre(s)
At Least 114 People Killed In Myanmar As Violence Continues To Escalate
Local media in Myanmar say security forces killed at least 114 civilians in 40 cities and towns on Saturday, in what appears to be the deadliest day of protests since the coup last month.
The brutal crackdown came as the military marked the annual Armed Forces Day holiday. In a televised speech in the capital, Naypyitaw, coup leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing continued to justify the coup by accusing the government of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi of failing to investigate the military's accusations of voter fraud in the November general election — which saw Suu Kyi's party win in a landslide.
The holiest of holidays.
Myanmar: Top UN officials condemn military’s ‘shameful, cowardly’ attacks on peaceful protesters
Although the State has the primary responsibility to safeguard its population, in cases where it is manifestly failing, the international community “should take timely and collective action in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations to protect civilian populations that are at risk of atrocity crimes”, they reminded.
R2P time? Who has the guts to invade?
Myanmar: Airstrikes force villagers into jungle as 3,000 flee to Thailand
Airstrikes that sent villagers fleeing into the jungle show the situation in Myanmar is "much worse", a humanitarian worker has told Sky News, as military leaders reportedly partied on the deadliest day of violence since last month's coup.
[...] Local media is reporting that around 3,000 people from Myanmar's southeastern Karen state have left the country and crossed the border into Thailand to escape the violence.
More Confirmation of Intel's DG2 Discrete GPUs
Intel accidentally confirms a bunch of different GPU specs for its new gaming Xe HPG cards
The most interesting is the official confirmation that there will indeed be a full-fat 512 execution unit (EU) version of the DG2 GPU. That's the 4,096 core-analogue which could potentially deliver the same sort of overall performance as the recently launched Radeon RX 6700 XT.
Intel's own documentation also details 128 EU and 384 EU versions of the DG2 GPUs, which would equate to 1,024 and 3,072 core-analogue chips. There are no other actual core details dished out in the doc titles, but they do note a total of five different GPU SKUs specifically for the notebook side.
That could mean there are only three different core counts, but differing levels of memory support. Or, that the rumours of 96, 128, 196, 256, 384, and 512 EU versions of the DG2 are true, and they'll all find a place in the PCs and laptops of tomorrow. Well, later on this year anyways.
Up to 16 cores (Alder Lake-S mobile) and 16 GB of VRAM in a laptop.
Also at Videocardz.
Here come the tax hikes
Instead of rolling back the Reaganomics, they want to pile on more
A vehicle mileage tax could be on the table in talks about how to finance the White House's expected multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Bi-partisan, take the worst from both factions.
And why are Georgia's voting restrictions such a big thing? The democrats in the senate are supposed to kill the filibuster and steamroll the bastards with new voting rights legislation. Unfortunately, just like in the 60s, it won't happen without republican help.
Oh! And speaking of quid pro quo... Does this buy something useful?
NCommander takes a SHIT on Bathroom Stallman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2SKenHRhMg (26 minutes, 8 seconds)
Something you can watch to get ready for this story later (20:02 UTC), if you wish.
My summary of the first 2 minutes:
He hopes he never has to make "drama videos" like this. He has (some) history with Stallman. This move is a slap in the face. RMS has been a net negative to the FOSS movement, and a major enabler of toxicity and unpleasantness in general. There's a long history of RMS mistreating women or making really derogatory comments. Why is this someone we are celebrating? He might have done some good things, but doing one good thing does not excuse you from social responsibility for the rest of your life. NCommander "experienced RMS" when he used to volunteer at FSF Savannah and GNU Hurd. A lot of us in free software have had to work around him and the views of the FSF because it's like dealing with a cult.
Other points:
* "There's this ongoing notion that if you're not a white engineer, who is likely an asshole, then you have no place in belonging. This is what a lot people refer to as the techbro community. Basically, it's this small subset of elitist garbage that writes off what everyone else has to contribute. I'm sick of it. A lot of people are sick of it. I fully support the Diana Initiative, and we need more things like that to get women in tech and break down these barriers to get rid of the toxicity, and when RMS got canned, it was a good thing. Because we got rid of someone who actively was supporting harassment and abuse, going back 30+ years."
* The announcement was timed so that LibrePlanet attendees couldn't back out.
* 2005-2006, NCommander was starting to become a programmer. He got involved with Savannah, a SourceForge alternative. He helped modernize it to run on PHP4 and some other stuff. He was accepted as an administrator. While they were forming a roadmap, RMS unsolicitedly barged his way into the conversation and told them to throw everything out and switch to GForge. They tried to explain to him multiple times that "we've got this all sorted, there's no major issues here", and RMS took a giant dump on all their efforts. That was NC's first "why am I doing this?" moment.
* In 2007, NC got involved with Hurd. He never expected it to go anywhere but he was interested in operating system design at the time. Being involved with Hurd development got him involved/interacting with other FSF guys.
* Proprietary is bad mindset, suck it up and deal with missing functionality. FSF distanced itself from Debian for "making non-free software too easy to install".
* Ideology tops all, and it all comes from RMS. No exceptions or justifiable cause. If you can't deal with it, that's your fault and you are to blame. People excuse it because they think the FSF should take a hard line on these stances. But there's no need to shame people who need to use proprietary software. The attitude irked NCommander. The toxicity goes all the way down (from Stallman). gcc and glibc have a long history of difficult maintainers who were impossible to work with. FSF only consented to making changes to avoid losing control to forks.
* Most projects have a Code of Conduct. The FSF does not. It looks like an antiquated dinosaur compared to many other projects. "Follow the party line or nothing" mindset made NC jump ship to Ubuntu and later ended up becoming employed at Canonical.
* There's a cult-like mindset. RMS had a set of requirement for how his computer would be set up. There is an entire team called "RMS Assist". Stallman's computer usage list. RMS stopped using and denounced One Laptop Per Child for possibly being able to run Windows, even though that was impractical/not happening.
* You're telling anyone who cannot submit to this that they're in sin or less than human. NC warned people about RMS for many years. The few times that NC had to be involved with the FSF, he generally did so through an intermediary, to not waste his time or sanity.
* Linux ecosystem is built on GNU projects. You're dealing with a toxic environment. You have to submit to RMS's view of the world or GTFO. Not good for inclusion or anything beyond a small echo chamber. NC and others don't want to be involved with the FSF.
* A lot of us were happy when RMS got canned, hoping that this would lead to change. For RMS to be brought back is basically "HA HA, FUCK YOU". Denouncing the FSF and RMS in general is the bare minimum of what NC can do.
* RMS implied that people with Down syndrome, and possibly anybody with a handicap or mental disability are subhuman. Why is this someone we want in a leadership position? Does creating one good thing really make you immune from criticism? Does it mean you should be at the forefront?
* What's the point of having a platform (NCommander's YouTube channel) if you can't make things better?
* Do your own research, don't just take his word for it. Check out the links in the description.
---
To be fair to NC, the full quote from 9:33 to 13:08:
So, back when I was in high school, so this was probably 2005 to 2006, I was a really big believer in free and open source software. And I was just starting to come into my own as a programmer, learning how to code. And I started getting involved in what was known as Savannah. Savannah was the Free Software Foundation's version of SourceForge. It was kind of an alternative to SourceForge, with more stringent guidelines but greater services. And it seemed like a good place to get started because I could meet people, build my skills, and make a positive contribution.
Now, Savannah had had some internal issues before I had gone there, primarily relating to software development and building the platform. It was built on the same source code as SourceForge.net was at the time, but it was a fork of that codebase, and development had stalled out for multiple reasons. So one of the first things I did was help modernize that code to make it run on the then current PHP4, implement some stuff relating to trackers, and helping go through project reviews and submissions. So it was mostly administrative stuff, but it was my first real introduction to this world, on more than just reading a Slashdot article. So I was accepted as the(?) Savannah administrator. I actually had root access to both it and administrative powers on the Savannah portal. So while we're discussing this, we began getting a roadmap together of what Savannah would get and its underlying software, which was Savane. And, basically unsolicited, Stallman kind of barged his way into this conversation. Stallman had basically been under the impression that Savannah was unmaintained, and everything we were doing we should just throw out and switch to GForge, which was another open source fork of the SourceForge.net software. And we basically tried to explain to him multiple times that, "no we've got this all sorted, we've got this plan, there's no major issues here". And RMS basically took a giant dump on all our efforts. I mean, I remember this conversation pretty distinctly.
Unfortunately, it was on a combination of both the private Savannah mailing list and the fence post mailing lists, so I can't produce the article(?). But it was basically, you know, you took RMS's opinion or you took a hike. And that was my first real, you know, "why am I doing this?" moment. It wasn't enough to completely discourage me from being involved with the Free Software Foundation or open source projects in general. But it left a really bad impression and I did end up leaving the Savannah administrators not too long after that partially due to that incident.
So later down the line, in about 2007, I started getting involved with the Hurd project...
---
Previously: Richard M. Stallman Resigns
Richard Stallman Deserved to be Fired, Says Fired GNU Hurd Maintainer
Richard Stallman Rejoins Free Software Foundation Board of Directors
