5 ms·

I didn't think I'd find this post this useful. All my dev machines are underpowered, which is pretty much a lifestyle choice by now. Meaning they are ram-constr

by dmos62 7y ago

I didn't think I'd find this post this useful. All my dev machines are underpowered, which is pretty much a lifestyle choice by now. Meaning they are ram-constrained, cpu-constrained and have slow disk IO. I'm not writing this to discuss why I do this, but I feel like that's weird enough to warrant a few words, so one of the upsides is that I am intimately aware of resource efficiency around me. This post introduced me to zram (in-ram compressed swap), which sacrifices CPU cycles for evading in-disk swap usage longer. I've also not considered playing with cpu governors, which I was able to do while reading the post. And, the post provided some swap settings for use with zram, which is great. Again, very helpful post.

peterisza 7y ago
I bought PBP for the same reason. However, I am not satisfied with the quality of the touch pad and the screen, so I don't use it.
kick 7y ago
zram and zswap are some of my favorite tools on smaller systems. Happy other people are learning about them!
ocdtrekkie 7y ago
I appreciate you developing on underpowered machines, as it likely means the end product will not suck on the average user's computer!
eb0la 7y ago
> All my dev machines are underpowered I believe this is a great choice. Most of our code will live in the cloud, and will be billed by the second. If you can feel if something goes slow, you can fix it before you're billed for it ;-) Fast hardware can mask performance problems. I still remember a bug I had in a Turbo Pascal code when I switched from my 286 to a Pentium: my loop counter had an extra '0' and it run unnoticed on the pentium for hours because it was too fast...
- emidln 7y ago
  I'd rather systematically measure and monitor my code and systems (which should be done anyway) than waste my time with slower CPUs, memory, disks, NICs, etc. I've spent some time doing embedded, and I'd never dream of using an 8mhz, 16bit machine just because that's what my target runs. If a fast cpu masks a "problem", I'd submit that it might not be a problem. Hardware is cheap, I try to save my brain cycles for stuff that matters, like HN, .emacs.d, and codegolf!
  - falcolas 7y ago
    EDIT: This turned into a bit of a rant about one sentence from the parent's post. Sorry about that, this is just aimed at the "hardware is cheap" mentality. The "hardware is cheap" phrase was rampant in our company until about a year ago. A year ago an executive took a closer look at our cloud bill and, well, exploded. Now there's a huge push to reclaim those extra cycles and RAM as our "cheap hardware" bill is outrunning our overall salary costs. Being at a point where this is a problem could be considered to be a good thing; we have enough traffic to cause it to be an issue. The problem is, the MVP was cost efficient (even at scale), it's the re-write that's costing us money. At some point, you have to grow up and realize that throwing hardware at poor code is not a sustainable solution. At scale, the equation flips. Hardware becomes expensive, and any given developer's time is cheap.
    - maxmcd 7y ago
      Hardware is cheap, cloud services are expensive :)
      - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
        The cloud is cheap, it's when you need so many clouds you can't see sunlight anymore it becomes expensive.
ozy23378 7y ago
it's these tech ads or the ads about face cream and celebs. I mean its so hard to monetize these days. You can't please everyone. Maybe if the site had ads like these https://i.imgur.com/hg31VTB.png https://i.imgur.com/hg31VTB.png then you would be happy??
munificent 7y ago
I don't underpower machines that I do creative work on, but switched to a crappy smart phone specifically to discourage me from spending time consuming media. It's really helped.

by dmos62 7y ago

peterisza 7y ago

I bought PBP for the same reason. However, I am not satisfied with the quality of the touch pad and the screen, so I don't use it.

kick 7y ago

zram and zswap are some of my favorite tools on smaller systems. Happy other people are learning about them!

ocdtrekkie 7y ago

I appreciate you developing on underpowered machines, as it likely means the end product will not suck on the average user's computer!

eb0la 7y ago

> All my dev machines are underpowered I believe this is a great choice. Most of our code will live in the cloud, and will be billed by the second. If you can feel if something goes slow, you can fix it before you're billed for it ;-) Fast hardware can mask performance problems. I still remember a bug I had in a Turbo Pascal code when I switched from my 286 to a Pentium: my loop counter had an extra '0' and it run unnoticed on the pentium for hours because it was too fast...

emidln 7y ago
I'd rather systematically measure and monitor my code and systems (which should be done anyway) than waste my time with slower CPUs, memory, disks, NICs, etc. I've spent some time doing embedded, and I'd never dream of using an 8mhz, 16bit machine just because that's what my target runs. If a fast cpu masks a "problem", I'd submit that it might not be a problem. Hardware is cheap, I try to save my brain cycles for stuff that matters, like HN, .emacs.d, and codegolf!
- falcolas 7y ago
  EDIT: This turned into a bit of a rant about one sentence from the parent's post. Sorry about that, this is just aimed at the "hardware is cheap" mentality. The "hardware is cheap" phrase was rampant in our company until about a year ago. A year ago an executive took a closer look at our cloud bill and, well, exploded. Now there's a huge push to reclaim those extra cycles and RAM as our "cheap hardware" bill is outrunning our overall salary costs. Being at a point where this is a problem could be considered to be a good thing; we have enough traffic to cause it to be an issue. The problem is, the MVP was cost efficient (even at scale), it's the re-write that's costing us money. At some point, you have to grow up and realize that throwing hardware at poor code is not a sustainable solution. At scale, the equation flips. Hardware becomes expensive, and any given developer's time is cheap.
  - maxmcd 7y ago
    Hardware is cheap, cloud services are expensive :)
    - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
      The cloud is cheap, it's when you need so many clouds you can't see sunlight anymore it becomes expensive.

ozy23378 7y ago

it's these tech ads or the ads about face cream and celebs. I mean its so hard to monetize these days. You can't please everyone. Maybe if the site had ads like these https://i.imgur.com/hg31VTB.png https://i.imgur.com/hg31VTB.png then you would be happy??

munificent 7y ago

I don't underpower machines that I do creative work on, but switched to a crappy smart phone specifically to discourage me from spending time consuming media. It's really helped.