4 ms·

So in the 70s you could pay per request billed to millisecond precision? Wow times haven’t changed at all. He has some good points on poor configuration langu

by tybit 6y ago

So in the 70s you could pay per request billed to millisecond precision? Wow times haven’t changed at all. He has some good points on poor configuration languages and bad architecture, but it’s lost in the rant.

GrumpyYoungMan 6y ago
> "So in the 70s you could pay per request billed to millisecond precision?" It's been a while since I encountered it but yes, mainframe time was so blisteringly expensive that usage was accounted for on a per-job basis and billed to individual user accounts. I don't recall the resolution or pricing anymore but students would be issued an hour or so (?) of processing time to complete their coursework per semester. Perhaps somebody with better recall than I can fill in the details.
- opless 6y ago
  Indeed. Unix even has it. https://www.rigacci.org/docs/biblio/online/sysadmin/ch21.htm https://www.rigacci.org/docs/biblio/online/sysadmin/ch21.htm
- mark-r 6y ago
  I know on the Control Data Cybers the time was measured by the second with 3 digits after the decimal. Might have been measured with even finer granularity, but that's what they displayed.
- markus_zhang 6y ago
  I remember seeing somewhere a Linux or Unix program or system that shows how much money it costs for running the program. I think it was from an online course but really couldn't remember where, but the cost is very expensive...
GartzenDeHaes 6y ago
Mainframes were (and still are) billed by fractional second of CPU usage, total storage, bandwidth between storage and compute, bandwidth off box, total number of jobs scheduled, and per-use fees for third party tools such as sort, RPC servers, and such. So times literally have not changed in this regard.
- chubot 6y ago
  I just tried NearlyFreeSpeech, which uses FreeBSD and jails, and it has resource billing, although a little more coarse grained: https://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/q/ResourceAccountUnit https://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/q/ResourceAccountUnit So basically if your website doesn't get any hits, you don't get charged.

by tybit 6y ago

GrumpyYoungMan 6y ago

> "So in the 70s you could pay per request billed to millisecond precision?" It's been a while since I encountered it but yes, mainframe time was so blisteringly expensive that usage was accounted for on a per-job basis and billed to individual user accounts. I don't recall the resolution or pricing anymore but students would be issued an hour or so (?) of processing time to complete their coursework per semester. Perhaps somebody with better recall than I can fill in the details.

opless 6y ago
Indeed. Unix even has it. https://www.rigacci.org/docs/biblio/online/sysadmin/ch21.htm https://www.rigacci.org/docs/biblio/online/sysadmin/ch21.htm
mark-r 6y ago
I know on the Control Data Cybers the time was measured by the second with 3 digits after the decimal. Might have been measured with even finer granularity, but that's what they displayed.
markus_zhang 6y ago
I remember seeing somewhere a Linux or Unix program or system that shows how much money it costs for running the program. I think it was from an online course but really couldn't remember where, but the cost is very expensive...

GartzenDeHaes 6y ago

Mainframes were (and still are) billed by fractional second of CPU usage, total storage, bandwidth between storage and compute, bandwidth off box, total number of jobs scheduled, and per-use fees for third party tools such as sort, RPC servers, and such. So times literally have not changed in this regard.

chubot 6y ago
I just tried NearlyFreeSpeech, which uses FreeBSD and jails, and it has resource billing, although a little more coarse grained: https://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/q/ResourceAccountUnit https://faq.nearlyfreespeech.net/q/ResourceAccountUnit So basically if your website doesn't get any hits, you don't get charged.