Patch

Patch , 5 months ago to Technology in Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find

DDG is largely Bing search at the backend, unless I'm much mistaken. They do value-add work around privacy, but in the basic sense of "does a DDG search return good results", it's largely the same as Bing.

Patch , 5 months ago to Technology in Robot baristas and AI chefs caused a stir at CES 2024 as casino union workers fear for their jobs

I can imagine an engineer looking at a push-button bean to cup machine and thinking "how can I make this slightly less efficient and a lot more complicated".

Patch , 5 months ago to Technology in App Store to Be 'Split in Two' Ahead of EU iPhone Sideloading Deadline

It doesn’t say anything about specific software. They have to allow you to use third party stores, they don’t have to allow you to download torrent apps so that you can pirate.

Literally in the quote I posted...

The gatekeeper shall allow and technically enable the installation and effective use of third-party software applications or software application stores

Patch , 5 months ago to Technology in App Store to Be 'Split in Two' Ahead of EU iPhone Sideloading Deadline

but there’s nothing in the law that states they have to let you sideload whatever you choose

That's pretty much exactly what the law does say.

The gatekeeper shall allow and technically enable the installation and effective use of third-party software applications or software application stores using, or interoperating with, its operating system and allow those software applications or software application stores to be accessed by means other than the relevant core platform services of that gatekeeper.

There's a provision for not letting the user actively break the device, but that's it. And it's couched in terms like "if strictly necessary and proportionate" and "provided they are justified", so it's not something Apple can apply on a whim.

Patch , 5 months ago to Technology in Your washing machine could be sending 3.7 GB of data a day — LG washing machine owner disconnected his device from Wi-Fi after noticing excessive outgoing daily data traffic

Why not?

My washing machine has wi-fi. I didn't buy it for that reason, but it just happens to. Using the app, I have some programme options that aren't possible to select using the hardware dials. I can do things like change the detergent dosage and the number of additional rinse cycles. It has some "special" programmes for various specific fabrics. And it has things like maintenance diagnostics and the ability to run a specific self-cleaning cycle.

That's all pretty useful.

And what's the actual danger of connecting it to wi-fi? Will Big Data know how often I wash my towels? Do I need to worry about the government spying on my fabric softener usage? Will hackers seize control of my machine and ransom my ability to get clean underwear?

I just can't see the big downside here (other than the fact that the machine is more complicated than it needs to be, but that ship has already sailed seeing as I already own it).

Patch , 6 months ago to Technology in How much power do older mainframes need (if they're actually even run)?

Not all mainframes are ancient; new models are still designed and sold to this day. And the brand spanking new mainframes may still be running COBOL code and other such antiquities, as many new mainframes are installed as upgrades for older mainframes and inherit a lot of legacy software that way.

And to answer your question: a mainframe is just a server. A specific design-type of server with a particular specialism for a particular set of usecases, but the basics of the underlying technology are no different from any other server. Old machines (mainframes or otherwise) will always consume far more power per instruction than a newer machine, so any old mainframes still chugging along out there are likely to be consuming a lot of power comparable to the work they're doing.

The value of mainframes is that they tend to have enormous redundancy and very high performance characteristics, particularly in terms of data access and storage. They're the machine of choice for things like financial transactions, where every transaction must be processed almost instantly, data loss is unacceptable, downtime nonexistent, and spikes in load are extremely unpredictable. For a usecase like that, the over-engineering of a mainframe is exactly what you need, and well worth the money over the alternative of a bodged together cluster of standard rack servers.

See also machines like the HP Nonstop line of fault-tolerant servers, which aren't usually called mainframes but which share a kinship with them in terms of being enormously over-engineered and very expensive servers which serve a particular niche.