SoylentNews

It seems a lot of people that had not contact with previous incarnations of computers with a GUI capability completely misses how much resources that needs. So here it is:

CPU: 8-bit @ 1 MHz
RAM: 64 kB
Video: 320 x 200 bitmapped @ 1 bpp (alternative: 160 x 200 @ 2 bpp)
Storage: 170 kB
(MOS6502, VIC-II, C1541)

This setup managed to run a window system called GEOS. It is noticeable slow, but it pulled it of!

CPU: 16-bit @ 7 MHz
RAM: 512 kB @ 150 ns
Video: 640 × 256 bitmapped @ 6 bpp
Storage: 880 kB
(MC68000, Agnus, 3,5")

With this hardware a workable window system was no problem. And it actually needed no more than 256 kB system ROM to pull it off.

CPU: 32-bit @ 20-40 MHz
RAM: 8192 kB
Video: 640 × 480 bitmapped @ 8 bpp (or better..)
Storage: 1934 MB
(AMD386, "VGA", IDE)

Running a graphics FreeBSD+XFree86 environment is is no problem. Even with the NCSA mosaic web browser on top of that.

From this it can be concluded that computers that need CPU in the GHz range, RAM in the GBs, storage in the GBs etc. Simply wastes most of the resources available and that a graphics environment can be had with a lot less resources. This means that a embedded MCU with few resources *can* do graphics environment. Which is very useful for visualizing data or having interactive environments. And that your main desktop can do a lot more than it does with the present bloat.

And this also means that operating systems like KolibriOS are possible on 133 MHz x86 with 24 MB and VGA with fast boot times. Another example with a Asus computer that likely have a CPU Atom 900 MHz, RAM 1 GB, SVGA and 20 GB flash, here.

John McAfee Just Announced The Most Private Smart Phone Ever: Here’s How It Works 2017-04-28

McAfee, a pioneer in the realm of antivirus software, has a new product coming to market later this year that takes on the subject of personal privacy with an item that’s become a significant part of most people’s daily lives — smartphones.

“Do you think that when you power down your phone, that it’s actually powered down?” McAfee asked the Anti-Media audience Thursday. “I would say that 25 percent of you, everybody who’s listening, have malware that intercepts the software function that calls the power down.

He says it's a never ending security battle between security companies and hackers because it's software fighting software, which in most cases has flaws. That’s why encryption services like Signal are largely useless because they can be thwarted by a simple keylogger.

He's computer phone (smartphone) will have conditional access to location services and the ability to randomize your location. “Anonymizer” function that prevents search engines from snooping. Detector for Stingrays.

The price is 1100 US$ which McAfee thinks is high but hardware costs. It is however still a waiting list.

John McAfee announces the Chuck Norris of privacy phones
McAfee announced the phone on Twitter in 2017-04-25. With "The John McAfee Privacy Phone, by MGT - first prototype. World's first truly private smartphone. You gonna love it.". It got 951 likes.

John McAfee on the Privacy Phone: Why and How 2017-04-27

Eventually, every hackable function of smartphones was controlled by software switches, giving full access to hackers to control the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, geolocation, camera, microphone, the factory reset function, automatic system updates, etc. We have given the keys to the kingdom, blindly and willingly, to the world’s hackers.

Pleas from the cybersecurity community to smartphone manufacturers to fix this this horrific problem by returning to the less “cool” air gapped physical switches have fallen on deaf ears. In desperation, I decided to do it myself.

The John McAfee privacy phone contains a bank of switches on the back cover that allow the user to physically disconnect the battery, the antennas for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and geolocation, the camera and microphone, etc. It also will not allow the phone to connect to a Stingray or any other IMSI catcher device. In addition, it contains a web search anonymizer to prevent web searches from triggering an avalanche of ads

It is version 1. It is not hack proof. But it does give the user enormous power over his or her privacy and it is light years ahead of the Blackphone or any other phone claiming to be secure. It will be available in August of this year. Version 2 will be available early 2018. It will be as hack proof as humanly possible.

Front page at mgtci.com:

* Bank of switches allowing physical disconnection the battery, WiFi, Bluetooth and geolocation, the camera and the microphone, and more
  * Resistant to Stingray or any other IMSI catcher device
  * Web search anonymizer to prevent searches from triggering an avalanche of ads
  * Developed in the United States, designed in Denmark, and assembled in Europe
  * Version 2 coming in 2018

One can buy a voucher now for 200 US$ to be first in the queue.

The McAfee/MGT open positions 2017-06-23 are:
  * Talented C++ Programmer (C++ 11 application, Visual Studio, Qt 5.7, or other C++ GUI frameworks, familiarity with cybersecurity principles and practices including cryptography, exploitation, and application security, ability to work in a Linux or Windows development environment, experienced in Android, iOS, and OS X application development)
  * C++ Programmer with Bitcoin and Blockchain Knowledge Required (Knowledgeable with the basics of the Bitcoin / Blockchain protocol, Bitcoin industry dynamics and trends, including mining procedures, mining pools, as well as Cryptocurrency wallets, and exchanges, Interested in constructing a Bitcoin mining pool and wallet, Prior peer technology work for the Bitcoin network)

Intel concerned about name of John McAfee’s privacy phone 2017-05-10

Intel has told a court that MGT Capital Investments has gone ahead with the announcement of the “John McAfee Privacy Phone,” even though the company that proposes to change its name to “John McAfee Global Technologies” has previously said that it did not plan to launch products and services under the McAfee mark.

The chipmaker claims it acquired the mark when it bought McAfee Inc. in 2011,

  * So what do you think about this phone project?
  * Does it improve anything significantly?
  * Is it likely to be compatible such that it can run Android "apps" ?
  * Will the bootloader be locked down?

Video (warning: contains deplorable content) and text description:

On June 7th, 2017, Eichenwald claimed he had been sent an anti-semitic flyer as a result of Tucker Carlson mentioning him on his show. In an effort to prove the veracity of his claim, Eichenwald tweeted an image of him holding the flyer he was sent (shown below).

It was soon noticed that in the image, Eichenwald had a tab on his computer opened to B-Chiku, or Hentai. This led many to joke about the idea that Eichenwald masturbates to hentai pornography. These jokes were covered in Mediaite[9] (examples shown below).

The following day, Eichenwald defended himself by saying the tab was open because he was “trying to convince his wife that tentacle porn existed.”[10] Eichenwald went so far as to include a screenshot of a conversation with his wife where she verified his story.

Rather than tentacles, the tabbed hentai contained "traditional gender roles and values, with a submissive stay-at-home wife and a working husband".

Wikipedia profile.

US coalition in first downing of Syrian army plane

U.S. warplane downs Syrian army jet in Raqqa province

I'm a little shocked it took this long.

Seems that when applying for a FCC permit all applicant parties must never been convicted for possession or distribution of drugs:

The applicant must certify that neither the applicant nor any party to the application is subject to a denial of Federal benefits, that include FCC benefits, pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. § 862 because of a conviction for possession or distribution of a controlled substance. See 47 CFR 1.2002(b) for the definition of a "party" for these purposes.

So drugs equals no FCC service for you and thus can't sell any electronic equipment in the US market. But maybe there's a time limit? It does however really mix unrelated matters.

Venezuelans flock to BTC, the digital currency as inflation has spiraled to the triple digits, debasing the the venezuelan currency, the bolivar (VEF) and depleting savings. Citizens struggle to find everything from food to medicine on store shelves. Ryan Taylor, chief executive officer of crypto currency Dash Core says "If you're going to be in something volatile, you might as well be in something that's volatile and rising than volatile and falling,". Crypto currency Dash Core is the third-largest digital coin by number of transactions. Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in Venezuela jumped to 1.3 million US$ this week, about double the amount that changed hands two months ago, according to LocalBitcoins.com.

Venezuela's currency has become nearly worthless in the black market, where it takes more than 6000 bolivars (VEF) to buy 1 US$, while bitcoin surged 53% in May-2017 alone. But it's not just about shielding against the falling bolivar, as some Venezuelans are using crypto currencies to buy and sell everyday goods and services, according to Jorge Farias, the CEO of Cryptobuyer.

For those desiring a faster transaction time the crypto currency Ethereum exists with an average block settling time of 14 seconds since April 2016 according to themerkle.com.

Venezuela has 47e9 m³ in proven oil reserves, more than any other nation in the world. So now the only thing missing is to start the sale of oil using crypto currencies so that a military intervention can be justified..
All this happens while since at least 2014, hundreds of thousands of citizens have protested high levels of criminal violence, corruption, hyperinflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods, arrest of opposition leaders, laws to force citizens to work in agricultural fields and farms for 60 days or longer, 40 inmates dismembered and consumed three fellow inmates, 200 prison riots in Venezuela in 2016 and so on. Tourist hotels probably have an all time low now for that super bargain..

http://www.snopes.com/breatharians/

http://www.babwnews.com/2017/06/crazy-couple-says-they-no-longer-need-to-eat/

Some videos on Xerox Alto from 1972:
Seminal Xerox Alto arrives for restoration (video)

Alto restoration in text.

Quick specification:
CPU: TTL-based, 4x 74181 ALU chips. User programmable microcode (1-3 kB), big-endian. @ 5.88 MHz.
RAM: 96-512 kB
Graphics: 606×808 pixels
Storage: 2.5 MB one-platter cartridge

Some predictions from "the father of deep learning", Jürgen Schmidhuber:

He predicts trillions of AI in the 2050s will mine and develop [asteroids].

He has a long list of “truths” that many disagree with.

1. Many think that intelligence is this awesome, infinitely complex thing. Juergen think it is just the product of a few principles that will be considered very simple in hindsight, so simple that even kids will be able to understand and build intelligent, continually learning, more and more general problem solvers.
Partial justification of this belief:
(a) there already exist blueprints of universal problem solvers developed in my lab, in the new millennium, which are theoretically optimal in some abstract sense although they consist of just a few formulas (http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/unilearn.html, http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/goedelmachine.html).

(b) The principles of our less universal, but still rather general, very practical, program-learning recurrent neural networks can also be described by just a few lines of pseudo-code, e.g., http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/rnn.html, http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/compressednetworksearch.html

2. General purpose quantum computation won’t work (Juergen’s prediction of 15 years ago is still standing). Related: The universe is deterministic, and the most efficient program that computes its entire history is short and fast, which means there is little room for true randomness, which is very expensive to compute. What looks random must be pseudorandom, like the decimal expansion of Pi, which is computable by a short program. Many physicists disagree, but Einstein was right: no dice. There is no physical evidence to the contrary http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/randomness.html. For example, Bell’s theorem does not contradict this. And any efficient search in program space for the solution to a sufficiently complex problem will create many deterministic universes like ours as a by-product. Think about this. More here http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/computeruniverse.html and here http://www.kurzweilai.net/in-the-beginning-was-the-code

[...] Juergen won’t be surprised if Moore’s Law holds for another century. If so, computers will approach the Bremermann limit of 10^51 ops/s per kg of matter in the mid 2100s

Femtocomputing, please.

Interesting Wikipedia talk page.

This is from last month but there's no newer article about AV1:

Google’s Royalty-Free Answer to HEVC: A Look at AV1 and the Future of Video Codecs

AOMedia Video 1:

AV1 can be used together with the audio format Opus in a future version of the WebM format for HTML5 web video and WebRTC.

What kind of features are you looking for in AV1 (other than the obvious: better compression efficiency than H.265/HEVC)?

Apple is adding HEVC support to its products.