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Comment Re:Now it really IS different (Score 4, Interesting) 70

by kvvbassboy (#61229642) Attached to: San Francisco Fed President Dismisses Silicon Valley 'Exodus'

Nope - it's no different. The whole thing about everyone working remotely is highly overstated. I don't think most people _actually_ want to work remotely - especially those who are younger. It's just the loud online minority, and companies are wising up to this.

People want to go back to offices, get beers with colleagues, find a mentor they can learn from, form networks, and even date others.

I am a parent and am someone senior enough that I don't care if my career growth slows down a bit. I would love to have more flexibility. But I am in the minority.

Comment Re:It's China's law, right? (Score 1) 51

by kvvbassboy (#60812902) Attached to: Apple Turned Blind Eye To Supplier Breaches of Chinese Labor Laws

Yeah, this is definitely puzzling. If they were Apple factories then it makes sense to call out Apple on it. But that's not the case here.

Of course Apple should strictly ban suppliers if it was about slavery, worker abuse, child labor or other human right violation, but don't think they need to be the enforcers in this situation, or have any responsibility here.

Submission + - SPAM: New RISC-V CPU claims recordbreaking performance per watt

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: Micro Magic adviser Andy Huang claimed the CPU could produce 13,000 CoreMarks (more on that later) at 5GHz and 1.1V while also putting out 11,000 CoreMarks at 4.25GHz—the latter all while consuming only 200mW. Huang demonstrated the CPU—running on an Odroid board—to EE Times at 4.327GHz/0.8V and 5.19GHz/1.1V.

Later the same week, Micro Magic announced the same CPU could produce over 8,000 CoreMarks at 3GHz while consuming only 69mW of power.

Part of the difficulty in evaluating Micro Magic's claim for its new CPU lies in figuring out just what a CoreMark is and how many of them are needed to make a fast CPU. It's a deliberately simplified CPU benchmarking tool released by the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, intended to be as platform-neutral and simple to build and use as possible. CoreMark focuses solely on the core pipeline functions of a CPU, including basic read/write, integer, and control operations. This specifically avoids most effects of system differences in memory, I/O, and so forth.

With that said, it's worth pointing out that—if we take Micro Magic's numbers for granted—they're already beating the performance of some solid mobile phone CPUs. Even at its efficiency-first 3GHz clockrate, the Micro Magic CPU outperformed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. The Snapdragon 820 isn't world-class anymore, but it's no slouch, either—it was the processor in the US version of Samsung's Galaxy S7.
Link to Original Source

Comment Re:Speed of light in noodles per heartbeat (Score 1) 177

by kvvbassboy (#60789980) Attached to: Physicists Nail Down the 'Magic Number' That Shapes the Universe

I think what they are trying to convey or emphasize is that constants that don't have units are more special than constants that have them. Feels like an apples-to-oranges comparison and indeed somewhat idiotic.

But that in itself raises an interesting question, _why_ are unit-less constants more special than constants that do have units?

Submission + - Earth is 2,000 light-years closer to Milky Way's supermassive black hole (phys.org)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: At the center of the our galaxy there's a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. It has a mass roughly 4 million times that of our sun.

It turns out scientists have discovered that we're 2,000 light-years closer to Sagittarius A* than we thought.

This doesn't mean we're currently on a collision course with a black hole. No, it's simply the result of a more accurate model of the Milky Way based on new data.

Over the last 15 years, a Japanese radio astronomy project, VERA, has been gathering data. Using a technique called interferometry, VERA gathered data from telescopes across Japan and combined them with data from other existing projects to create what is essentially the most accurate map of the Milky Way yet.

By pinpointing the location and velocity of around 99 specific points in our galaxy, VERA has concluded that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A, at the center of our galaxy, is actually 25,800 light-years from Earth — almost 2,000 light-years closer than what we previously believed.

In addition, the new model calculates Earth is moving faster than we believed. Older models clocked Earth's speed at 220 kilometers (136 miles) per second, orbiting around the galaxy's centre. VERA's new model has us moving at 227 kilometers (141 miles) per second.

Submission + - Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Permafrost covers 24 percent of the Earth’s land surface, and the soil constituents vary with local geology. Arctic lands offer unexplored microbial biodiversity and microbial feedbacks, including the release of carbon to the atmosphere. In some locations, hundreds of millions of years’ worth of carbon is buried. The layers may still contain ancient frozen microbes, Pleistocene megafauna and even buried smallpox victims. As the permafrost thaws with increasing rapidity, scientists’ emerging challenge is to discover and identify the microbes, bacteria and viruses that may be stirring. Some of these microbes are known to scientists. Methanogenic Archaea, for example metabolize soil carbon to release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Other permafrost microbes (methanotrophs) consume methane. The balance between these microbes plays a critical role in determining future climate warming. Others are known but have unpredictable behavior after release...

It is clear that the warmer we make the Arctic, the weirder it will get, as temperatures at the surface become more extreme and thawing deepens. With the coalescence of microbes reawakening from the deep and surface conditions unprecedented in human history, it is challenging to assess risks accurately without improved Arctic microbial datasets. We should pay attention to both known unknowns, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and unknown unknowns, including the potential risks from the resurrection of ancient and poorly described viral genomes from Arctic ice by synthetic biologists. For all of these reasons, we must come up with guidelines for future Arctic research. As travel through the region increases, the likelihood of pathogen export and import rises as well. The planetary protection guidelines that space agencies follow to prevent interplanetary contamination can provide a framework for how microbial investigation can safely continue. Biosurveillance measures must be put into place to protect communities in the Arctic and beyond. As the Arctic continues to transform, one thing is clear: as climate change warms this microbial repository during the 21st century, the full range of consequences is yet to be told.
Mars

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover 101

Posted by samzenpus from the take-a-look dept.
A reader points out that there is a great new panorama made from shots from the Curiosity Rover. "Sweep your gaze around Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover is currently exploring, with this 4-billion-pixel panorama stitched together from 295 images. ...The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover's two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual destination."

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