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The Saddest Moment – James Mickens (2013) [pdf]
- ddulaney 4y agoRelated work: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf
- LaughingGoat 4y agoWho could know, in November 2014, that this phrase uttered ironically, would in 2022 (and 2023) become true, after Microsoft bought Github: “You can’t just place a LISP book on top of an x86 chip and hope that the hardware learns about lambda calculus by osmosis.” Saddest day indeed, maybe for more than just system programmers.
- bitwize 4y ago"There will be rich debates about the socioeconomic implications of Helvetica Light, and at some point, you will have to decide whether serifs are daring statements of modernity, or tools of hegemonic oppression that implicitly support feudalism and illiteracy." The State Department has banned the use of Times New Roman and mandated Calibri in its stead, because serifed fonts are oppressive to people with reading or vision problems. Mickens is a Goddamned prophet.
- KRAKRISMOTT 4y agoA large language model running on x86 absolutely can. Well, maybe not by osmosis, but OCR is very much a thing.
- chrisbolt 4y agoMore James Mickens: https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k https://youtu.be/D5xh0ZIEUOE https://youtu.be/D5xh0ZIEUOE
- ggm 4y agoThis is fantastic writing, and James should stop working for Microsoft and move to Hollywood like Barton Fink. Ok, maybe not the best example in the world..
- jaybeavers 4y agoYou may be surprised to learn that James’ brilliant humor and willingness to speak truth to power didn’t work out so well for him at Microsoft. He’s at Harvard now, which I think is a step up from Hollywood.
- ggm 4y agoI wasn't entirely surprised when I read your response, although I didn't know that. I sort-of suspected somebody that entertainingly frank would have to confront some PR positioning issues. Harvard has other fish to fry. They'll get to James when they're on top of the other stuff I guess. They let him publish https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/wisdom-james-mickens https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/wisdom-james-mickens which is a good sign!
- jaybeavers 4y agoYou think his writing is a good time, you should have seen him when a VP would say, “Are there any questions from the audience?” He’d saunter up to the microphone, and you could see the VP’s face droop… Good times, my man. Good times.
- cafard 4y agoTime for the VP to earn his pay, eh?
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoJames left MSR for Harvard a few years ago (maybe almost a decade now?).
- ipython 4y agoAh fantastic. This is a great read to distract me from the Bitcoin fanatics I work with who insist “but they’ve solved the Byzantine generals problem! This is amazing technology and just wait until we find a practical application!”
- tomxor 4y agoSuperb :D I wish more of the insanity of this world could have the spotlight of James Mickens intense, humorous clarity shone upon it.
- selimthegrim 4y ago“Listen, regardless of which Byzantine fault tolerance protocol you pick, Twitter will still have fewer than two nines of availability.“
- pharmakom 4y agoAnyone have a better version for mobile?
- NavinF 4y agoSecond page has two columns and each one fits perfectly on a phone screen without the text being too small/large
- bjackman 4y agoThis is how I feel as I research CPU vulnerability mitigations. The earth beneath us is a thin hollow shell and to keep from falling through it into the abyss we must perform abominable rites. Every year the security researchers find new evidence that literally all computers are fundamentally and irreparably broken, every year the software engineers add mitigations to the kernel, we hope that the vulns are mitigated but we sleep a little worse at night.