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dom0

4,157 karma · joined August 26, 2016

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dom0··on Strategies for offline PGP key storage
> I've looked for open source/open hardware printers some time ago

You want a pen plotter. Or its cheaper, more expensive cousin, the Axidraw.

> As you mentioned fire-resistance, do you also use some sort of fire resistant paper? Because I don't think anything in made of paper would survive an actual fire.

Actually there are document safes with built-in insulation which will keep regular paper documents safe for time X under fire conditions Y (it's some EU standard classification). Certain ways of mounting safes makes them intrinsically fire-safe(r) as well.

dom0··on Strategies for offline PGP key storage
Movable safe? Doesn't sound very safe to me...
dom0··on The Insecure Developer
CS is not about programming.
dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
$999 for a workstation CPU is quite alright.
dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
The Linux EDAC (for ECC memory controllers) module allows injecting address-based errors (simulating the MC reporting a fault).

You can also use ptrace to corrupt the memory of a process more subtly.

dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
Well ECC memory uses eight extra bits on the data bus, backed by a extra chip(s) (depending on the module's organisation); ECC memory modules effectively store one extra eighth of redundant data.

However, in many applications we find that using (forward) error correction almost always increases data density (for storage) or bandwidth (for transmission), simply because a FEC stream does not require a nearly-perfect channel any more. This is the way hard disks, SSDs, WiFi, LTE, DSL, ..., satellite communications, ...[, ...][, ...] are able to cram incredible amounts of data into very noisy channels. Thus, ECC significantly lowers cost in many dimensions (be it frequency spectra, storage prices, not having to re-cable entire countries...).

(And if you don't use the extra noise margin to increase density/bandwidth, then you can use it to increase reliability, like we usually do with ECC memory)

Thinking about it for a few minutes, the memory bus will most likely be the only bus in your computer that has no error correction/detection. USB, SATA, PCIe, all of them require it. The main memory will also most likely be the only storage that doesn't use it (apart from firmware flash chips and the like, but these often use a checksum at least).

dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
In most previous generations all Core iX dice have had support for ECC, selectively disabled through fusing. Obviously, all internal busses and caches use error correction/detection independent of what the memory controller does.
dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
Gaming GPUs have different qualification targets anyway. They will error fairly frequently compared to e.g. your CPU; something that doesn't matter when most errors become invisible after about 16 ms, but not really something you want to see e.g. in a simulation.
dom0··on Best CPUs for Workstations: 2017
ECC is often used without being advertised. For example, hard drives aren't advertised as using these kinds of codes, yet all of them do. Similarly, switches will often use ECC memory without making it an explicit point in the advertising. Industrial computers tend to have ECC, yet you will have to look closely at the data sheet to see this. And of course all internal busses and caches in pretty much any desktop/server/workstation CPU use error correction/detection.

The moral of this story is that ECC is only ever advertised explicitly, when it is special to have, i.e. because there are segments in the market where it is not used.

(A somewhat curious case are small microcontrollers. Often these control relatively important aspects of machinery, for example, drives [say a bit-flip in the drive controller turns STOP into RUN, which can get rather ugly on e.g. a lathe]; these usually don't have ECC. However, they are manufactured in very coarse processes and generally don't use DRAM.)

dom0··on Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meningeal_lymphatic_vessels

> While it was initially believed that both the brain and meninges were devoid of lymphatic vasculature, a recent study by Antoine Louveau and Jonathan Kipnis at the University of Virginia, submitted in October 2014, and another confirming the discovery, by Aleksanteri Aspelund and Kari Alitalo at the University of Helsinki submitted in December 2014, identified and described the basic biology of the meningeal lymphatics using a combination of histological, live-imaging, and genetic tools.

I'm not sure whether these are the same entities?

dom0··on The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Mapped the World
As I said above, these signs do not show a literal maximum weight. They show a load class.
dom0··on Does Even Mark Zuckerberg Know What Facebook Is?
Shouldn't the title be "Does Mark Zuckerberg Even Know What Facebook Is?"
dom0··on RawTherapee 5.3 – Photo software
The last LR version I used was LR3 and performance was really not a problem. That was 2010, mind you. On an even then outdated dual-core AMD system with the images and the catalogue on some old hard disk.

So, am I correct to understand that Adobe managed to botch LR so badly that PCs with vastly superior processing and IO to what I used back then struggle on basic tasks?

Woah.

dom0··on Science saved me from pretending to love wine
While the Dutch water to tomato conversion process surely made them cheap, it also means that many people never tasted a real tomato.
dom0··on Alice in Python projectland
Please don't be so dishonest to claim that "because pip" fixed Python packaging.
dom0··on The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Mapped the World
The class numbers only roughly correspond to weight, so you could just as well consider them metric tons (1000 kg).
dom0··on The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Mapped the World
Those are MLC (Military Load Classification) signs.
dom0··on Von Neumann-Landauer limit
Possibly qntm.
dom0··on The $8M Replacement for a $20 Dollar Fan (2013)
Ever noticed how tooth paste ads always show the entire brush covered in paste, even though a lil' dib is already enough?
dom0··on It’s time to give Firefox another chance
Legally they might have done the minimal amount necessary to not violate the license, but morally they've been a huge dick. "We have to open source our modifications to the code base, so here you get exactly one tarball of uncommented stuff."
dom0··on VLC maintainer has refused “several tens of millions of Euro”
> Often I get downvoted on Reddit about VLC, like I don't know what I'm talking about :)

Hilarious, but somewhat typical for Reddit (and other places with voting systems).

dom0··on Photos of Soviet control rooms
Most power plants have control rooms that look pretty much like these; they fulfil the same function.
dom0··on It’s time to give Firefox another chance
Apple's JavaScript implementation is based on KJS as well. Arguably, Microsoft was hostile towards open source in general at the time, while Apple simply stole open source software.
dom0··on A “right to repair” movement tools up
Current policy overemphasizes recycling. Recycling is the last resort. First reduce or reuse, which are far superior. Throwing away would normally not even be a serious option, but this world's people are kinda brain damaged.
dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
No. Hand-held a heavier camera gives you less shake, unless it is too heavy to hold continuously without quivering.
dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
The low-end ones are wound around some folded sheet steel core; but higher end DSLRs have cast cases. Gripping surfaces are rubberized.
dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
Well, a great many connectors (even, or rather, especially industrial ones) are made from PA6 or 66 with some glass fiber fill; including the actual contact carriers (if they are a separate part). FR4 is somewhat hygroscopic as well; moisture expansion causes real problems for some applications. Never heard of issues with PA connectors.
dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
PC is a very impact resistant material, but you can also form it cold, a bit like mild steel, actually.
dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
> Also I think a lot of the shake these days is added in post

That's easy to check; if there is no parallax then it was definitely added in post.

dom0··on Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
DSLR camera bodies aren't cast aluminium; they're cast magnesium (which contain 10 % aluminium or so).
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