Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 31st Oct 2011 23:17 UTC
While it's just a rumour, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock the past five years, and in all honesty, I'm pretty sure it's actually true. AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is contemplating axing its iconic Mac Pro.
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RE[3]: the much, much cheaper option
by zlynx on Wed 2nd Nov 2011 16:57
in reply to "RE[2]: the much, much cheaper option"
Member since:2005-07-20
You don't need ECC? You're crazy.
Bit errors happen a lot more often than people think. Those strange application errors or a Windows blue-screen that happen once every couple of months? It might possibly be a bug in the software. But it is equally possible the RAM got corrupted in just that spot.
Even WITH ECC on their servers, Sun (now Oracle) had to invent ZFS with extra checksumming because bit errors would creep into the data in their customer's petabyte sized drive arrays.
If that can happen on server level hardware, with ECC, what do you think is happening in your 8 GB of consumer-grade crap RAM?
RE[4]: the much, much cheaper option
by zima on Mon 7th Nov 2011 23:03
in reply to "RE[3]: the much, much cheaper option"
Member since:2005-07-06
Bit errors happen a lot more often than people think. Those strange application errors or a Windows blue-screen that happen once every couple of months? It might possibly be a bug in the software. But it is equally possible the RAM got corrupted in just that spot.
Equally possible? Well, since you quantified it so clearly...
Some research, actual evidence, suggests that the probability of those events decreased dramatically with voltage and process shrinkage (say, http://www.ece.rochester.edu/~xinli/usenix07/ ) - if anything, SRAM seems much more vulnerable and responsible... but that would be outside of the scope of main memory modules.
Meanwhile, this mantra is repeated for 10 to 15 years - "if you'd only need 2x & up more RAM than is typical, like I do, then you would KNOW (promise!) why you have to buy ECC; and when my amounts will become normal, EVERYBODY will need to use ECC in their ~workstation to keep basic data integrity!"
It started at the latest in the times of 64-128 MiB, at least; never really came through.
That is crazy. You're not in LEO.
(and it's not about implementing storage verification and integrity; anyway, ZFS has its share of things which sound impressive, but... come on, 128 bits? ...were they hoping their fs will still live on when the Solar System gets turned into grey goo? ;p )
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.More News »
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Member since:
2007-01-13
You don't need EEC RAM (or an expensive Quadra/FirePro graphics card) for a workstation. A white box with a decent CPU and gaming video card will work just as well.