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Altogether far too much computing happens in far off mainframes. Aka the cloud. Far too little computing can genuinely be engaged with. The potential has been c

Altogether far too much computing happens in far off mainframes. Aka the cloud. Far too little computing can genuinely be engaged with. The potential has been coopted & occluded & we're left chainrd to the cave again, starting at megacompany's shadowpuppets. It's worth admitting the formative years are often a lot of fun. Some come-down is expected. But I also believe collective discontent slowly grows in this deeply consumerized computing climate & eventually we'll push for new terrain, grow tired of this technostratifocation.

smackeyacky 5y ago
I don't see this in my work. I've been hanging microcontrollers off sheep for the last 5 years. Sure, some of it is cloud based but a lot of it is visceral, tough, hard to write code that is very satisfying.
- rektide 5y ago
  Your work isnt cloud but it sounds equally industrial, equally as much as a rebuff of personal computing. Your eork os reserved for & explorable only by a very very very few. many many people on this site have great & wonderful experineces with computing, are.greatly empowered & do good things. but rarely will our efforts have a tangible output on computing itself, affect the way anyone else computes. the general iniative of computing has somewhat rather stalled, become overexploited for narrow & controlled ends.
bushbaba 5y ago
maybe, maybe not. I can get VC funding and in 2 months time have a compute cluster with thousands of nodes processing terabits per second of data. Then when my funding runs out I can just shut it all down and not worry about what to do with all that stuff. Compare that to prior to cloud where you'd need to secure DC space, sign multiple contracts with many vendors. Wait many quarters for all that equipment to land. Hire a small army of consultants and experts to configure all this stuff. Then when the PM team says you know what, what about that new feature...we'll say no as we just made this huge capex purchase. The Cloud has democratized super computing to the masses. Truly amazing
- MereInterest 5y ago
  If you want to make a 3d rendering beyond 1990s Pixar's wildest dreams, the Cloud is fantastic for it. If you want to run protein folding simulations, or atmospheric modeling, it's fantastic. It's also effective if you want an always-on server for video analysis of home security cameras. Even if that could be done locally instead. As a developer, the Cloud is great, because you can rent a server farm instead of buying it. As a user, the Cloud is horrendous, because you are forced to rent software instead of buying it. The Cloud has hasn't democratized super computing. It just expanded to a slightly larger oligarchy.
  - pabs3 5y ago
    VMs as a service are a good tradeoff, since you control most of the software you run (except the hypervisor) and can move it to your local devices easily, which usually also have good hypervisors. Of course, with VMs you still have the problem of having to be a sysadmin and setup, configure and secure software. I guess that is why SaaSS is so popular.
  - dagw 5y ago
    The Cloud has hasn't democratized super computing. I, as a hobbyist anywhere in the world and with no company affiliation, can set up a 100 CPU compute cluster, run my own software on it and then shut it down again, all for less than the price of a movie ticket. How is that not democratisation.
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
That's only an issue if you structure your computing activities around network services. The computer remains as a powerful tool to do whatever you want. Just because the bulk of the public wants to do things mediated by a network doesn't mean that you are limited to the same.

smackeyacky 5y ago

I don't see this in my work. I've been hanging microcontrollers off sheep for the last 5 years. Sure, some of it is cloud based but a lot of it is visceral, tough, hard to write code that is very satisfying.

rektide 5y ago
Your work isnt cloud but it sounds equally industrial, equally as much as a rebuff of personal computing. Your eork os reserved for & explorable only by a very very very few. many many people on this site have great & wonderful experineces with computing, are.greatly empowered & do good things. but rarely will our efforts have a tangible output on computing itself, affect the way anyone else computes. the general iniative of computing has somewhat rather stalled, become overexploited for narrow & controlled ends.

bushbaba 5y ago

maybe, maybe not. I can get VC funding and in 2 months time have a compute cluster with thousands of nodes processing terabits per second of data. Then when my funding runs out I can just shut it all down and not worry about what to do with all that stuff. Compare that to prior to cloud where you'd need to secure DC space, sign multiple contracts with many vendors. Wait many quarters for all that equipment to land. Hire a small army of consultants and experts to configure all this stuff. Then when the PM team says you know what, what about that new feature...we'll say no as we just made this huge capex purchase. The Cloud has democratized super computing to the masses. Truly amazing

MereInterest 5y ago
If you want to make a 3d rendering beyond 1990s Pixar's wildest dreams, the Cloud is fantastic for it. If you want to run protein folding simulations, or atmospheric modeling, it's fantastic. It's also effective if you want an always-on server for video analysis of home security cameras. Even if that could be done locally instead. As a developer, the Cloud is great, because you can rent a server farm instead of buying it. As a user, the Cloud is horrendous, because you are forced to rent software instead of buying it. The Cloud has hasn't democratized super computing. It just expanded to a slightly larger oligarchy.
- pabs3 5y ago
  VMs as a service are a good tradeoff, since you control most of the software you run (except the hypervisor) and can move it to your local devices easily, which usually also have good hypervisors. Of course, with VMs you still have the problem of having to be a sysadmin and setup, configure and secure software. I guess that is why SaaSS is so popular.
- dagw 5y ago
  The Cloud has hasn't democratized super computing. I, as a hobbyist anywhere in the world and with no company affiliation, can set up a 100 CPU compute cluster, run my own software on it and then shut it down again, all for less than the price of a movie ticket. How is that not democratisation.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

That's only an issue if you structure your computing activities around network services. The computer remains as a powerful tool to do whatever you want. Just because the bulk of the public wants to do things mediated by a network doesn't mean that you are limited to the same.