3 ms·

I would prefer a computer that was slower, but worked the way it was supposed to (i.e. without rowhammer & spec-ex bugs, AMT/secret minix kernel, encrypted micr

I would prefer a computer that was slower, but worked the way it was supposed to (i.e. without rowhammer & spec-ex bugs, AMT/secret minix kernel, encrypted microcode mystery-meat, etc). The typical user doesn't need to bean-count every microsecond. He desperately needs a computer that is his own tool rather than an infosec quagmire & the business-end of tech sector money-proboscis. It is, sadly, the path of least resistance. "Big number good" is much easier for a consumer to grasp than the (qualitative) corners that were cut to achieve those big numbers. Lies, damn lies, & benchmarks! The combinatorics of making distributed the new default are astronomical. That he dashes this all off so lightly, and in so little detail, makes me wonder if he's ever really done the work. Whether he has, or he hasn't, this is still 100% the wrong direction for anyone outside of a data center.

pas 4y ago
> The typical user [...] He desperately needs a [...] citation needed. typical users want communication, entertainment, in general they want to achieve ends, and for them the important thing about the means is that it should look good/cool. hence Apple things.
- georgia_peach 4y ago
  My computers from 15 years ago, PC or Mac, did all of these things--even high-res FPS games--beautifully. If all you do is surf/email/music/video/games--and I don't think it requires a citation to believe that this is the lion's share of users--current speeds are beyond sufficient. The quality issues in modern machines are the byproduct of a quantity-cult pissing contest rather than necessity. If anything, the excesses are only wasted by sloppier software (which was enabled by the excess to begin with), piggier websites, covert crypto miners, etc. Wirth's law is a vicious cycle. And it's a false economy: cut corners on the clean-up of discarded speculative branches, get some great numbers on the latest benchmark; the chipmakers who stoop to this get an edge in the market, but by the time it hits the consumer (who has no understanding of such things), the mitigation costs exceed the original "improvement". Because it is such a multi-variate & workload-dependent situation, it may not be cut-and-dry fraud, even though it smells a lot like it.

pas 4y ago

> The typical user [...] He desperately needs a [...] citation needed. typical users want communication, entertainment, in general they want to achieve ends, and for them the important thing about the means is that it should look good/cool. hence Apple things.

georgia_peach 4y ago
My computers from 15 years ago, PC or Mac, did all of these things--even high-res FPS games--beautifully. If all you do is surf/email/music/video/games--and I don't think it requires a citation to believe that this is the lion's share of users--current speeds are beyond sufficient. The quality issues in modern machines are the byproduct of a quantity-cult pissing contest rather than necessity. If anything, the excesses are only wasted by sloppier software (which was enabled by the excess to begin with), piggier websites, covert crypto miners, etc. Wirth's law is a vicious cycle. And it's a false economy: cut corners on the clean-up of discarded speculative branches, get some great numbers on the latest benchmark; the chipmakers who stoop to this get an edge in the market, but by the time it hits the consumer (who has no understanding of such things), the mitigation costs exceed the original "improvement". Because it is such a multi-variate & workload-dependent situation, it may not be cut-and-dry fraud, even though it smells a lot like it.