Podcast #437 – EVGA iCX, Zen Architecture, Optane, and more!

9 Comments

1. 

   Anonymous on February 16, 2017 at 9:19 pm

   Well Patch Tuesday for
   Well Patch Tuesday for February 2017 has come and gone with the news that Feb 2017 will see no patching at all for windows.

   I have read at ZDnet that starting this February that the IE security only updates/patches where going to be issued as a separate patch from the windows 7/other OS versions for those that use the windows downloads catalog to download the security only “Quality” updates.

   So one more reason to not like the new update system where every security patch is thrown in with every other security patch, with one bad apple ruining the whole bunch. It’s funny that starting this February that M$ was separating out the IE security only updates from the windows 7/other OS security only updates as I was getting used to going to the M$ download catalog and getting the security only updates for windows 7 relatively quickly and just updating that way. It’s been much faster than using windows update with all that Searching and Waiting and more Searching nonsense.

   Now M$ has put off patch Tuesday for February 2017’s Patch Tuesday until March 2017’s Patch Tuesday and if it where not for a notable Zero Day I would be fine with waiting one more month to avoid any potential patches borking my system.

   I wonder if this February’s separate security only updates for IE are still going to be released for those using the catalog for updates. Every day is a BETA day under M$’s new update system and a wait until hell freezes over under the old update system. The work required under windows 7 to keep any of that backported spyware form windows 10 out of ones windows 7 install just keeps getting harder.

   Reply
   • 

     Jeremy Hellstrom on February 16, 2017 at 11:17 pm

     It was an SMB thing, I just

     It was an SMB thing, I just wanted to talk about Vulkan more that morning.

      

     http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3004661/patch-tuesday-put-on-hold-smb-zero-day-exploit-likely-to-blame

     Reply
     • 

       Anonymous on February 17, 2017 at 12:23 am

       M$ update options are
       M$ update options are becoming very complicated for even windows 7/8.1 users. I stopped using windows update in OCT of 2016 and disabled windows update. I only get my updates directly from the windows update catalog and I only do the security only updates for the intended month. Users who update for themselves needed to know about M$ plans to offer Internet Explorer security updates separately from the windows OS security only updates starting in Feb 2017, for windows 7 and 8.1.

       It’s getting to the point where websites will need a monthly article byline by the same reporter right before any new Patch Tuesday that explains all the changes to the windows update process for 7 and 8.1, more so than the windows 10 information. I usually go to Zdnet and try to read Mary Jo Foley(good source), or sometimes Ed Bott(Less often), or even go over to Ars Technica and read Peter Bright(sometimes) for M$ coverage. But this constant reworking of the windows update system for 7/8.1 is becoming tiresome.

       I’m not doing the windows 7 cumulative updates because I only want security patches with no extra telemetry for things that are none of M$’s business and it’s very difficult to keep on top of things because of M$’s intentional obfuscation and confusing messages concerning any earlier windows OSs still under active support. Windows 7 works for me right now and will be my OS until 2020 when it goes EOL. But there are people that are completely turning off windows update and are not bothering with any updates because of Redmond’s continued experimentation with the update process on windows 7, 8.1 and windows 10 is on a whole other level of madness for those that use windows 10.

       Vulkan is nice only if it can be had with windows 7 or 8.1 and not used to force windows 10 adoption. I pinning my hopes after 2020 on some Linux OS options that will allow me to continue to run windows 7 in a locked down Linux based Hypervisor managed VM/OS instance after 2020 for any software that requires the windows 7 OS/API after 2020.
       Those 8 core Zen SKUs are going to be great for any extra CPU cores to run VM OS instances and more than one OS at the same time for users that want plenty of cores for that sort of usage.

       Reply
2. 

   Angelica on February 17, 2017 at 12:24 am

   FYI: Apple supports OpenGL on
   FYI: Apple supports OpenGL on Mac and OpenGL ES on iOS but only OpenGL 4.1 (released on July 26, 2010) at best on MacOSX and OpenGL ES 3.0 (released on August 2012) on iOS. Considering that compute shaders were introduced in OpenGL 4.3 and OpenGL ES 3.1, it’s a big missing features on Apple platforms. Obviously, the issue is not that the hardware doesn’t support OpenGL 4.5 or OpenGL ES 3.1, it’s that Apple didn’t implement the new version of the APIs. Surprise surprise, Metal supports compute shaders.

   This is making things pretty difficult for developers to do cross platform development.

   Reply
   • 

     Anonymous on February 17, 2017 at 3:15 am

     Metal like DX12 supports
     Metal like DX12 supports vendor lock-in so it looks like Vulkan/Linux is the way for those that do not want to become the product. Apple like M$ is only interested in supporting dependency to a closed API ecosystem and Vulkan will be the way to go for the most freedom for games developers.

     The PC market is still shrinking with the only bright spot the Gaming PC/System Builder market(NON OEM) so hopefully Valve will continue to prosper and Steam OS/Linux gaming will also.

     Reply
3. 

   Paul A. Mitchell on February 17, 2017 at 3:41 pm

   repeating my question from a
   repeating my question from a similar thread
   about Optane:

   Allyn,

   Can you do a quick check of my calculation here,
   please?

   Specs = Random 4kB IOPS up to 550K (READ)

   550,000 IOPS @ 4,096 bytes = 2,252,800,000 bytes

   Is that the correct way to compute random throughput?

   Reply
4. 

   Paul A. Mitchell on February 17, 2017 at 8:51 pm

   p.s. Can’t wait for Allyn to
   p.s. Can’t wait for Allyn to take one for a spin!
   This podcast segment on Optane is excellent, as usual.

   Reply
5. 

   Anonymous on February 17, 2017 at 10:16 pm

   Allyn
   https://www.monoprice.c
   Allyn

   https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13005

   Reply
6. 

   hoxlund on February 18, 2017 at 4:42 am

   Allyn here is another usb
   Allyn here is another usb type c to usb 3 adapter. this one is braided, $8 prime shipped

   https://www.amazon.com/Rancco-Convert-Adapter-Macbook-Chromebook/dp/B01MZ0VG7A

   Reply

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