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nicholasbraker

75 karma · joined December 6, 2020

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nicholasbraker··on French musician Kavinsky found dead
Yes, especially his work own the movie 'Drive' was hugely influential on the popularisation of this genre. I think he was featured in the documentary "The Rise of the Synths" also (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Synths)

RIP

nicholasbraker··on Flat Datacenter Networks at Scale at Amazon
There's some important nuances stated by Ivan Pepelnjak who is considered an authority in networking: https://blog.ipspace.net/2026/06/goodbye-leaf-spine-networks...

Although very interesting from a scientific point of view I always consider these use cases to be very unique to AWS / hyperscaler DC's and in no way a new 'blueprint' for how to build DC-networks/fabrics.

nicholasbraker··on Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment
I thought crypto would have solved this ;-)
nicholasbraker··on Dutch police have their own car stolen during car theft chase
Dutch police are not as trigger happy as other countries. They take their monopoly on violence quite serious ;-)
nicholasbraker··on Thirteen Months That Changed IBM (2020)
I don't have firsthand experience but I do know that IBM mainframes (Z-series) are still actively developed and lifecycled. Whether this is purely financial (as in: we keep the customer locked in to our ecosystem regardless if there are alternatives available which offer the same level of robustness etc.) or the platform really is better suited to the specific requirements set by banks, government agencies etc. remains to be seen..
nicholasbraker··on European Nations Decide Against Acquiring Boeing E-7 Awacs Aircraft
Let's hope a decision on an alternative platform is made quickly (although I am sceptical due to the bureaucratic maze of NATO procurement). The current AWACS-platform (E-3A) still uses old engines which are loud, smokey and not as efficient. Neighbouring communities deserve a quieter platform as well as NATO needs a potent airborne early warning platform. European technology is not an issue (Thales, Leonardo etc. make great modern AESA based radars). Also interoperability of data between NATO members used in the C2 chain is not an issue.
nicholasbraker··on Windows 3.1 in a Windows 95 Virtual Machine (2022)
Ow wow, worked ISP support in 1997 - 1999 and indeed recalled having to reinstall TCP/IP stack and tweaking setting to make stuff work. Next to that, gruesome installation of ISDN drivers (which technically were out of support for us) for a specific brand of ISDN modems the incumbent telco provided to customers.
nicholasbraker··on Move over Dijkstra: New algorithm just rewrote 70 years of computer science
The challenge of implementing this for internet routing is that you'll probably need a whole new protocol implementation as part of either BGP (currently the protocol responsible for Internet routing between networks) or something entirely new. Let alone that BGP is a path vector protocol and not a link-state protocol that uses Dijkstra (like OSPF and IS-IS).

It might optimize internal routing but getting this standardised across vendors etc. is not impossible, but probably takes a long time to standardise/govern etc.

nicholasbraker··on David Lynch LA House
Damn, only 25%? Luxury!
nicholasbraker··on Should we drain the Everglades?
The reason why we had something like the Delta works was due to a 12 Bft storm hitting our shores in 1953. This infrastructure is built to withstand these kind of storms and protect the land from flooding. The protections in place (movable doors in storm surge barriers etc.) are used a few times the last decades when storms did hit our shores. I don't know if this is useable in the Florida context. It's easy to say whenever a big hurricane hits the Florida shore: "Yeah, just ask the Dutch to fix this.." And I am sure some smart guys from our tech universities can pull it off, but you need money and political will. And it literally takes decades to built it.
nicholasbraker··on AP Live: View from Gaza as Israel Begins Expanded Operation in Gaza City
It's bandwidth versus latency. Two different aspects. A live feed going one way works fine over a high('ish) bandwidth link as long as there's no need for interactive (back-and-forth) traffic. See it as a highway. The highway can be very wide with lots of lanes (=bandwidth) but to get from point A to B can cover a large distance (latency)
nicholasbraker··on Novel hollow-core optical fiber transmits data faster with record low loss
You probbaly need a specialised crew to do this and as such such fiber won't be installed in your own neighbourhood for your Fiber-to-the-Home connection anytime soon I guess. But, maybe in a few decades it will.

When such technology becomes practical for the large telco's it will be implemented soon as this saves on attenuation equipment.

nicholasbraker··on SAP splashes €20B on Euro sovereign cloud push
If you want to compete you must also invest in associated PaaS and SaaS-services supported by a development framework to code and integrate it all. As mentioned, getting an IaaS product is not a problem now, it's about getting the developers onboard.
nicholasbraker··on Has Brazil Invented the Future of Money?
Holding a small amount of cash is even promoted as part of a "survival package" here in The Netherlands. (Next to water, canned food etc.)
nicholasbraker··on Has Brazil Invented the Future of Money?
The first line is straight out of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in the same vein as "In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people angry and has widely been considered as a bad move." Love it!
nicholasbraker··on Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience
I have been driving VW for decades. Never had any issue apart from some Apple CarPlay snags. Drove Golf, Touran and Tuiguan Allspace. Always a pleasure.
nicholasbraker··on Unsafe and Unpredictable: My Volvo EX90 Experience
Off course it's safe, something which doesn't drive with a "Critical System Communication Fault" and unable to enter in the first place due to a "Digital Key Failure" is sure as hell not going to cause a fatality ;-)
nicholasbraker··on AWS forms EU-based cloud unit as customers fret
But are they really a sensible alternative to AWS/azure when it comes to developer support etc.? Based on the offerings of European alternatives it seems that everything upto IAAS and limited PAAS offerings can be sourced European, but the real value-add is in development tooling, pipeline support etc. (e.g. AWS CDK) The lock-in on those tools are huge and Europe really need to step up to provide an alternative to that. Love to be proven wrong though.
nicholasbraker··on KDE for Windows 10 Exiles – Upgrade your software, not your computer
My 85 years old dad uses Win10 right now, but using KDE (or similar environment) seems to be a good alternative. He only uses Firefox and mail anyway.
nicholasbraker··on The David Lynch Collection
Almost tempted to do a bid on the Black Lodge Style Red Curtain and Zig-Zag Rug. Almost.. ;-)
nicholasbraker··on Poll: How often do you bathe?
Same here. Taking a bath is rare (I do have a bathtub though), but I shower every day, sometimes twice a day after sport.
nicholasbraker··on A Tour Inside the IBM Z17
Core transactions and ledgers run on these. Bank I work for now (contracting job) uses them as their core system.
nicholasbraker··on NASA to launch space observatory that will map 450M galaxies
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
nicholasbraker··on Cryptocurrency doesn't address the hard parts of financial inclusion (2022)
Apart from that you don't want to have the volatility of most crypto to be a means of payment. "wait, my hard earned products are now worth 50 % less than an hour ago because some influencer in his basements mom did a rugpull?"
nicholasbraker··on Buying a TV in 2025? Expect lower prices, more ads, and an OS war
I can highly recommend getting a remote from https://function101.com/pages/button-remote-for-apple-tv-hom... It's a "normal" remote which works with the Apple TV
nicholasbraker··on Bitcoin is over $100k
The whole "BTC is the future of money" ship has sailed a long time.
nicholasbraker··on ASML Twinscan EXE:5000 Lego Set
With that surname working for ASML must be a dream job ;-)
nicholasbraker··on A Beginner's Guide to Switches
Yeah, my initial reaction was: "Oh, _that_ kind of switches!" I was looking for the part where MAC-addresses and VLAN's were explained ;-)
nicholasbraker··on Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO
Hi Norway, The Netherlands here. I feel you ;-)
nicholasbraker··on One of Florida's most lethal python hunters
"Oh, that Python!"
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