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Alt-Wrong Anti-Greta

Posted by turgid on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:36PM (#5070)
60 Comments
Topics

The Alt-Wrong have got themselves an Anti-Greta by the name of Naomi Seibt.

The 19-year-old German is a Climate Change Denier and Islamophobe. She is also apparently a member of and speaks to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, an organisation associated with Brexit's very own Nigel Farage.

Apparently Seibt will be addressing the conservative CPAC this week in the USA along side Trump and Pence.

Hardware assisted GC

Posted by DannyB on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:31PM (#5069)
68 Comments
Code

A journal entry that simply restates a comment I just wrote.

Memory closely integrated with processors at the chip level makes sense. You would upgrade memory and processing power together.

Another thing I think will eventually happen, but that will be controversial.

Hardware assisted GC

Note that all modern languages in the last 2 freaking decades have garbage collection. Remember "lisp machines" from the 1980's? Like Symbollics? Their systems didn't execute Lisp especially fast, but what they did was provide hardware level assistance for GC which made GC amazingly fast.

I look at the amazing things JVM (Java Virtual Machine) has done with GC. If only the JVM's GC could benefit all other languages (Python, JavaScript, Go, Lisps, etc). Of course, those languages could use JVM as a runtime. And GraalVM _might_ make something like that happen where lots of different languages run in the same runtime and can transparently call each others functions and classes and have a common set of underlying data types. Red Hat's Shenandoah and Oracle's open source ZGC are amazing garbage collector technology. Terabytes of memory with 1 ms GC pause times. Now imagine if you had hardware assistance for GC. (btw, why is Red Hat investing so much into Java development? I thought they were a Linux company? Could Red Hat, which is a publicly tiraded company, have some economic reason Java is making them lots of money?)

Rationale: GC is an economic reality. Ignore the whining of he C programmers in the peanut gallery for a moment. They'll jump up and down and accuse other professionals of not knowing how to manage memory. Ignore it. Why do we use high level languages (like C) instead of assembly language? Answer: human productivity! Our code would be so much more efficient if we wrote EVERYTHING including this SN board directly in assembly language!!! So why don't we??? Because, as C programmers are simply unwilling to admit, the economic reality is that programmers are vastly more productive in higher and ever higher level languages. Sure there is an efficiency cost to this. But we're optimizing for dollars not for bytes and cpu cycles. Hardware is cheap, developer time is expensive.

Slight aside: ARM processors already have some hardware provision for executing JVM bytecodes (gasp! omg!).

I'm surprised that modern Intel or AMD designs haven't introduced some hardware assistance for GC.

Symbollics hardware, IIRC, had extra bits in each memory word (36 bit words I think) to "tag" the type of information in every word. Then a way to efficiently find all words that happened to be a "pointer". A way to tag all words that were "reachable" or "marked" from the root set, etc.

Maybe this can happen if memory and processing elements become highly integrated and interconnected. Hardware design will follow the money just as programming languages and technology stacks do.

Others will believe that system design will stand still to conform to a romantic idealism that was the major economic reality once upon a time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Nobody's crystal ball is perfect. But I did expect in the early 90's that most new languages would start having GC, and that did begin to happen about 2000.

Senile Senior software developers look at the business case beyond how personally amusing all this fun technology is.

Coronavirus Cuisine

Posted by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:31PM (#5068)
12 Comments
Career & Education

The other soup recipe. Electricity required.

1. Get an Instant Pot.
2. Add 2 cups of dried beans (such as black, pinto, etc.) and 8 cups of water. Manually pressure cook (High) for 5 minutes and leave it for 10 minutes before releasing the pressure. This eliminates the need to soak the beans for hours.
3. Drain, return beans into the pot, add a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, and whatever spices you want (get bulk granulated garlic). Add 2 cups of water or broth (or water with bouillon).
4. Manually pressure cook (High) for 10 minutes. Release the pressure after ~20 minutes.
5. Mash the beans a bit with a potato masher. Add iodized salt or spices to taste.

Coronavirus and politics

Posted by Coward, Anonymous on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:56AM (#5066)
101 Comments
News

Coronavirus is coming, and this is a presidential election year in the US. I remember how much criticism Bush got for Hurricane Katrina, even though he wasn't even standing for reelection. Katrina resulted in over 1200 deaths ("Heckuva job, Brownie"). The virus could easily kill 10 or 100 times as many and "disruptions to daily life could be `severe.' ".

Democrats are going to do everything they can to make Trump the owner of the response to this disaster. And why shouldn't they? He takes credit for any positive development, no matter what the cause. He also has a lot of power over borders and quarantine policy.

Hasn't Trump been saying that the US healthcare system is the best in the world? Then why are we 32nd in hospital beds per capita? That could become a big political issue if hospitals are overflowing with coronavirus patients.

How much protective gear has been stockpiled for an epidemic emergency? Doctors and nurses running out of bunny suits and masks will look bad.

Who here expects a well-coordinated and effective federal response?

That's probably just scratching the surface of Trump's political vulnerability.

[Good luck to everyone in dealing with the epidemic.]

[Update: Changed owning "this disaster" to "the response to this disaster". But I expect that in the end, people will consider the government response to be part of the disaster. Thanks, Knowledge Troll.]

The Astros, Sign Stealing, and (Inevitable?) Consequences

Posted by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 25 2020, @08:58PM (#5063)
27 Comments
News

As many of you are likely aware, the Houston Astros (an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team) have been embroiled in a cheating scandal first publicized in November, 2019.

The allegations include the use of cameras to steal signs in real time.

Sign stealing has a long tradition in baseball. For those of you who aren't familiar with baseball, the "signs" referred to are the communications between pitcher (akin to a bowler for you cricketeers) and catcher preceding the delivery of the ball.

This is generally accomplished through signals from the catcher, which the pitcher must negate or acknowledge.

Historically, sign stealing is accomplished by a base-runner (generally on second base, where he can *see* the signs being displayed), and relaying information about what type of pitch is about to be thrown to the batter. As a general rule, this is *not* an easy thing to do. in this simple form (the runner's field of vision and some sort of physical signal), sign stealing is an accepted form of gamesmanship in baseball.

However, using *any* form of technology to steal and/or relay signs is, and has always been, strictly forbidden. However, that hasn't stopped people from doing so in the past.

The Houston Astros took this to another level during the 2017 season, which was almost certainly a contributing factor in winning the championship that year. According to published reports and an investigation by MLB, cameras used for instant replay were re-purposed by players to steal signs and several methods were used to relay those signs to batters.

As a result of this scandal, the manager (A.J. Hinch) and the general manager (Jeff Luhnow) of the team were both suspended by the league from working in baseball for a year, and subsequently fired by the Astros.

In addition, the Astros bench coach in 2017, Alex Cora who, from 2018 until details of the scandal were revealed, was the manager of the Boston Red Sox. He was fired by the Red Sox when this came to light, and is still under investigation by Major League Baseball (MLB) for additional electronic sign stealing activities with the Red Sox in 2018.

While coaches and management staff have been disciplined for condoning the cheating by Astros players, only one player was mentioned in the MLB report [PDF] about the cheating

The player mentioned in MLB's report was Carlos Beltran, who subsequent to his retirement after the 2017 season, was hired to be the manager of the New York Mets after the end of the 2019 season. Once the details of the scandal were revealed, Beltran and the Mets "mutually agreed to part ways." Beltran, whose long and storied career (one of the top five outfielders of his generation, in my estimation) included his unusual knack for stealing signs while on base, was noted as one of the architects of the cheating scheme.

To this point, no Astros player (aside from Beltran) has seen any repercussions, penalties or consequences for their scheme to cheat. MLB declined to sanction any players and promised immunity in exchange for cooperation in investigating this stain on the game, despite the fact that MLB's report makes it clear that this scheme and its execution were driven by the players and for their benefit.

Historically, players have taken matters into their own hands when other players have been caught or suspected of attempting to steal signs or gain other unfair advantage.

This usually involves hitting those players (in the back or in the ass) with a pitch to point up the displeasure of other players.

Given that the Astros' cheating negatively impacts every other MLB player (in that enhanced performance from cheating can lead to championships as well as higher remuneration based on that performance), and many players have been quite vocal about their displeasure with Astros players, it seems likely that retaliation against them is inevitable.

So. What say you, Soylentils? Do the Astros players who cheated during the 2017 season deserve to be plunked in the ass with pitches on a regular basis this season? Should they be officially sanctioned by MLB?

Personally, I'm hoping that each and every one of those cheaters ends up bruised from 90+ mph fastballs in the ass every single day.

ARM Apple; Biggest Navi

Posted by takyon on Tuesday February 25 2020, @12:07AM (#5057)
3 Comments
Hardware

First Mac to Use Apple’s Custom ARM-Based Processor Said to Arrive in H2 2021

Apple has made some very powerful ARM processors, and they will be among the first to get "5nm" from TSMC. 8 cores? I guess iPad Pro is the sneak preview of what the experience would be like.

Alleged AMD Next-Gen Flagship Navi ‘Radeon RX’ GPU Specifications Leaked – 5120 Cores, 24 GB HBM2e Memory, 2 TB/s Bandwidth

24 GB of VRAM would match what has been rumored to be the shared GDDR6 RAM pool of next-gen Xbox or PS5.

Some games already use over 10 GB at 4K, and machine learning workloads could use all of it.

As for the rest, they can dethrone the RTX 2080 Ti, but Nvidia will strike back with Ampere at some point. All product launches mentioned could be delayed by the coronavirus.

Net Neutrality comments

Posted by Runaway1956 on Monday February 24 2020, @04:01PM (#5054)
6 Comments
News

Submission in the queue at the time of writing: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=39288%ACe=&title=FCC+Forced+by+Court+to+Ask+the+Public+(again)+If+They+Think+Tearing+Up+Net+Neutrality+Was+a+Really+G

I have just left a comment for the FCC to consider, and I hope that you will too. As noted in the submission, the court ordered comments are obfuscated by the FCC, apparently in the hopes that no one does comment in favor of Net Neutrality. Ajit Pai is a sweetheart, isn't he?

Web address for commenting: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express

The first block at the top of the page is "Proceeding(s)", where you will enter 17-108 Once that number is entered, you find a dropdown menu, from which you select "17-108 | restoring internet freedom".

From that point, it's a normal page, where you fill in your name, address, email, and who you represent. Miss any of those required boxes, and your comment won't be counted I suppose.

At the bottom, there is a box that you can tick, if you want email confirmation that your comments were recieved.

Also at the bottom is a warning,

Note: You are filing a document into an official FCC proceeding. All information submitted, including names and addresses, will be publicly available via the web.

Don't type anything into the form that you don't want law enforcement to follow up on. ;^)

I think I still burned them, without saying all the things I would like to have said. Be imaginative, and/or be factual, but get your views recorded. Let's not allow Ajit to smother Net Neutrality again!!

Edit: Your email confirmation will contain your full comment, along with all the information you entered into the various boxes. More, that email has the exact formating of your comment as you typed it. When you submit the form, it appears that the formatting (paragraphs, etc) is lost. What you see on the final page is a single paragraph, all mashed together.

*we share with nobody*

Posted by fustakrakich on Monday February 24 2020, @01:57AM (#5052)
14 Comments

We have to face facts, put all the bullshit aside

Posted by fustakrakich on Saturday February 22 2020, @07:53PM (#5050)
67 Comments
Rehash

You know who is the only person on the list that has a chance, right? This has nothing to do with opinion, mine or yours.

But we do know now that Hillary doesn't need to run, so no need to bring her up anymore. Even a bunch (over 20%) of Bernie supporters will go for it

It's probably the only peaceable way out of this

The Aristarchus Submission Gourmet

Posted by aristarchus on Saturday February 22 2020, @02:58AM (#5041)
83 Comments
Digital Liberty

The aristarchus submission gourmet!

Behold! A Metric Kakaton of aristarchus submissions rejected by petty and vindictive SoylentNews editores and one dirty bird.

Political extremists have found a home on this GOP-backed Facebook group
New Jersey Raises Terror Threat Level for White Supremacist Extremists to High
Hanau: Germany boosts security amid far-right threat
Antisocial by Andrew Marantz review – America's online extremists
'This would be a top news story if the shooter was Muslim'
White extremists are on the rise around the world — emboldened by ‘heroes’ and hate music
Documentary that examines recent rise of anti-Semitism in U.S. and globally will open in NYC
Psychiatrist struck off for alt-right blog
An Alleged Alt-Right Attacker Killed 9 People In Germany
FBI Says White Supremacists As Dangerous As ISIS, So The Alt-Right Is Tweeting About 'Antifa Terror'
GESELLSCHAFTYouTube löscht Kanal des rechten Bloggers Nick Fuentes
Michelle Malkin receives media credentials for CPAC, despite being listed for alt-right conference
„Alt-Right” und neue Medien: Zur Norma­li­sie­rung rechts­po­pu­lis­ti­scher Propa­ganda
Alt-Right Group Handed Out Fliers In East Windsor In 2019: Report
What is the 'boogaloo'? How online calls for a violent uprising are hitting the mainstream
This Researcher Juggled Five Different Identities to Go Undercover With Far-Right and Islamists
In the Trump era, campus conservative groups are fighting one another
This Obscure Foundation Helped Fund The Alt-Right
This college was accredited by a DeVos-sanctioned group. We couldn’t find students or faculty.
Right-Wing Activists Discussed Wiretapping Seth Rich’s Family, Three People in the Room Say
Salvini loses immunity, and could face trial over alleged treatment of migrants
German president warns of racist 'poison' at Dresden WW2 bombing ceremony
Big Swinging Brains and fashy trolls: how the world fell into a clickbait death spiral
Alleged Manitoba neo-Nazi facing more charges
Neo-Nazi behind racist robocalls faces $12.9M fine from FCC
Neo-Nazi Rinaldo Nazzaro running US militant group The Base from Russia
Facial recognition company CEO says he doesn’t need permission to use your face
Is Internet Company Cloudflare Servicing Alt-Right & Pedophilic Sites?
The Long History of the Anti-Abortion Movement’s Links to White Supremacists
Alt-right’s Democrat ‘Mommy’ sues Hillary over Russia claim
Labour leadership campaign: will it be the alt-left media ‘wot won it’?
German authorities investigating neo-Nazi-labeled beer called ‘Reich brew’
Targets of the Groyper Army

Well, that's just mostly February, one of the shorter months. Should be something of interest to everyone, with the possble exception of exaeta. Feel free to discuss! (I particularly like the Seth expose, the anti-abortion retropective, and the "fashy trolls" one.)

*****
Good discussion, Soylentils, especially about the white genocide of black babies. Better than having the police summarily execute them because of their skin color, I guess. But a few more rejections.

Zeno's Paradoxes
No idea why this would have been rejected, pure philosophy, and, you know, like, logic? Must have teared up takyon, again.
Jeremy Christian Has Been Found Guilty on All 12 Charges for 2017 MAX Stabbings.
This was the Christian man, stabbing other Christians, or at least patriotic American, who objected to him harrassing women, on a train, in Portland. I would have hoped they cut off his endocrine systems. Another report is in the queue, soon to be quashed as well, by the merciless bias of SoylentNews Editores. Poor bastards.