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JB0

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Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    Yeah, Oracle kept updating Solaris and Sparc for quite a while, even if they were late to a few parties. Though they seem to have given up, after basically killing the line through ineptitude(appartently they decided to focus exclusively on the top-end and let everyone else take over the rest of the market... which predictably ended with the x86 servers making a rapid charge towards the niche they intended to service). I gather they fired their entire Sparc development team and almost all of the Solaris team late last year. Fujitsu hasn't given up on Sparc yet, but... the architecture's days are clearly numbered and we can easily score it as yet another x86 fatality. Unless someone notices OpenSparc and decides to make "fully open" laptops. There's a niche for that, especially after the Intel Management Engine fiasco last year. For what it i worth, I did a lot of looking around at the stuff after picking up a discarded Sun Ultra10 to play with, and that's most of why I have fresh knowledge of it.
  2. JB0
    Actually, older Sparcs are immune because Sun/Oracle was late to adopt out-of-order execution. A Sparc box sold after 2011(seriously, Oracle?) is probably vulnerable to Spectre(Fujitsu Sparcs adopted OOE in the 90s, but are less common to my knowledge). IBM's Power series is already confirmed vulnerable, and that extends to PowerPC. Any processor using out-of-order execution should be assumed vulnerable until proven otherwise. Don't confuse "researchers only tested Intel, AMD, and ARM" to mean that only those processors are affected. Meltdown does require some architectual features, but as it works on both x86 and ARM processors, it is clear that it isn't an Intel-exclusive attack(though Intel's design makes it easier). And to be clear, the attacks are a way AROUND how modern processors handle memory, not enabled by it.
  3. JB0
    I was thinking of the ones that did the beamgun salute, actually. I seem to recall them having a REALLY weird head. But surely a wedding is a fancy dress party!
  4. JB0
    I thought the Virgin Road valks were animatien errors!
  5. JB0
    Tangentally, Threadripper is the best name for a processor since Sledgehammer.
  6. JB0
    ONE OF US! Seriously, though... this guy is awesome, and your photos really bring out the toy's dynamic nature.
  7. JB0
    Zen's trading blows in that field. And in terrs of performance per dollar, Intel's still losing after aggressive price cuts and spec upgrades across the board. We're probably gonna see more of that this year, as the gap's been hurting them. This isn't sledgehammer vs P4, but it is still an exciting time.
  8. JB0
    This is Drift's original cybertronic body, if I recall.
  9. JB0
    AMD parts are not immune to Meltdown, it is just harder to pull off. Basically, rumor and hearsay took hold before any public knowledge was available, and now both companies are using it to take potshots. That said, I'm still mad at Intel over the management engine omnihack, and generally abusive business practices. Edit: relevant part of the whitepaper:
  10. JB0
    I did notice the cockpit view shows a dual-throttle setup that "converts" your boring robotron-style inputs. It gives me all sorts of ideas. Big problem seems to be the game isn't set up for head-track aiming. If it was, dual-throttle would work AMAZING.
  11. JB0
    It is fantastic, isn't it? Did a bunch of that with my Rift.
  12. JB0
    I've INSTALLED Shenzen IO, but not played it. It looks neat.
  13. JB0
    Aside from knowing who Shawn is, I have no idea what this thread is even about.
  14. JB0
    Still love this name. Just sayin'.
  15. JB0
    The Slag and Skyfire are definitely unofficial toys. Pretty sure that's true on all the dinobots and most of the mini-cars.
  16. JB0
    Honestly, how I feel about single-mode robots depends a lot on the design and the character. Like Drift here. I think he works REALLY well as an action figure. His humanoid form isn't exactly evocative of his vehicle form, and his character begs for stylish and dynamic poses that can be more readily achieved without having to make concessions to transformation. In something like Optimus, where he basically wears half a truck like a shirt and the other half like a pair of jeans, I am a lot less forgiving of non-transformation. His design begs for it on a fundamental level. I'm not saying a Prime HAS to change into a truck, just that it is harder to convince me a single-mode Prime is a good idea. ... Never mind that the general attitude these days seems to be that Prime needs to wear a FAKE truck-front on his chest because the actual front of a truck doesn't look Prime enough, which results in a lot of complex engineering to basically remove the essence of the transformation from the toy, making them somehow less authentic than one that doesn't transform. *sigh*
  17. JB0
    Happy eighth day of Christmas! Also new year.
  18. JB0
    No one's trying to subjugate anyone. It is merely a long-running joke, and any community that doesn't have a few in-jokes is probably fairly unhealthy. There's no scorn for calling the character Drift. And we'll give IDW a lot of credit for making Drift into a genuinely interesting character, regardless of how rocky his start was. But some of us old folks are gonna reminisce about our favorite fanfic-writing, pocky-powered Transformer. Not out of judgement or exclusion, but because he brings us joy. I'm sorry you took it as an attempt to put you down. It was merely an attempt to share the joy of Peg.
  19. JB0
    I know Peg is the only reason I bought the toy, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one. Every forum is one of those forums.
  20. JB0
    It didn't hurt that we made up an entire parody character, at a time when actual Drift's portrayal was "bad fanfic character".
  21. JB0
    George Lucas?
  22. JB0
    And even then, by Macross 7 they are largely relegated to supporting roles. They have stepped aside to let the new kids have their time to shine. It is nice to have a story that comes to a conclusion, and that's what the original Macross offers us. Things aren't continued forever as Hikaru attracts an ever-larger collection of females pining over him and the war drags on for decades with no end in sight. Even just name-dropping the Ichijo couple comes with risks. Eventually, every event in the galaxy involves the Ichijo clan for some reason, and it just gets ridiculous. Besides, the Jeniuses won't tolerate competition.
  23. JB0
    Hawt.
  24. JB0
    Very nice!
  25. JB0
    My understanding is that Mattel's biggest problem is they DO sell Barbie and Hot Wheels by the metric buttload. More specifically, that they set unrealistic expectations for everything else. Every new product they introduce winds up being compared to those two lines by upper management, and thus has very little time to find a place in the market and has to do VERY well once it does get a toehold. Effectively, if it isn't an immediate superhit Mattel doesn't want to sell it.
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