4 ms·

Where I always go with this is to ask why our software is so damn horrible that it requires this much babysitting. Self hosting could be trivial if our software

by api 3y ago

Where I always go with this is to ask why our software is so damn horrible that it requires this much babysitting. Self hosting could be trivial if our software wasn’t slop. I wonder how much we spend babysitting slop (either directly or indirectly through SaaS) vs how much it would cost to invest in engineering around automated and reliable deployment and resilient software? Highly polished distributed file systems, databases, and orchestration tools that incorporated automatic replication and fail over would be a great start. Don’t just say “it’s hard.” Of course it is. But is it cheaper to do this or to babysit rickety piles of junk? Another possible way out is AI sysadmins. I wonder how far we are from AIs that can admin a cluster including upgrades and disaster recovery?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
hattmall 3y ago
I can't imagine having to unfuck the complicated systems set up by an AI sysadmin when the system running the AI goes down.
- arcanemachiner 3y ago
  Understanding how a system works is so 2022. Just let the AI dig you in deeper.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
numpad0 3y ago
I think AI should be used to cut down crufts. It just makes no sense to me that Linux Kernel boot images are, how much? A gigabyte?
- tredre3 3y ago
  > It just makes no sense to me that Linux Kernel boot images are, how much? A gigabyte? I guess the reason it doesn't make sense is that you're living in your own imagination where nothing is obligated to be sensical! The current boot image (vmlinuz) on my debian system is 6MB and the initrd is 40MB.
- genewitch 3y ago
  no. > 11M Apr 6 12:14 vmlinuz-6.1.19-gentoo > 4.6M Apr 6 12:14 System.map-6.1.19-gentoo And that's a full desktop QEMU "server" - and i don't use initrd, because i don't need every driver in the tree, just the ones that work for my system. No AI needed. You boot a "kitchen sink" kernel, lspci -k, note down what it says, then just enable those things in the kernel and build it. Even ubuntu being "quite supportive" is 30-45MB. The kernel source tree is over a gigabyte, but that has to support everything it supports - arm, risc-v, x86_64, etc. > 2.2G linux-6.1.19-gentoo/
wly_cdgr 3y ago
Our software isn't horrible. Our software is pretty good, but reality is horribly unpredictable, complicated, and replete with edge cases.
- michaelt 3y ago
  Our software is kinda horrible. I mean, no other industry insists that users accept weekly automated updates because their products have so many critical security bugs.
  - cdogl 3y ago
    No other industry is capable of automating weekly security updates, basically by definition.
- omniglottal 3y ago
  If "handling edge cases" is not something our software is specifically designed to do, then it's horrible.

by api 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

hattmall 3y ago

I can't imagine having to unfuck the complicated systems set up by an AI sysadmin when the system running the AI goes down.

arcanemachiner 3y ago
Understanding how a system works is so 2022. Just let the AI dig you in deeper.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

numpad0 3y ago

I think AI should be used to cut down crufts. It just makes no sense to me that Linux Kernel boot images are, how much? A gigabyte?

tredre3 3y ago
> It just makes no sense to me that Linux Kernel boot images are, how much? A gigabyte? I guess the reason it doesn't make sense is that you're living in your own imagination where nothing is obligated to be sensical! The current boot image (vmlinuz) on my debian system is 6MB and the initrd is 40MB.
genewitch 3y ago
no. > 11M Apr 6 12:14 vmlinuz-6.1.19-gentoo > 4.6M Apr 6 12:14 System.map-6.1.19-gentoo And that's a full desktop QEMU "server" - and i don't use initrd, because i don't need every driver in the tree, just the ones that work for my system. No AI needed. You boot a "kitchen sink" kernel, lspci -k, note down what it says, then just enable those things in the kernel and build it. Even ubuntu being "quite supportive" is 30-45MB. The kernel source tree is over a gigabyte, but that has to support everything it supports - arm, risc-v, x86_64, etc. > 2.2G linux-6.1.19-gentoo/

wly_cdgr 3y ago

Our software isn't horrible. Our software is pretty good, but reality is horribly unpredictable, complicated, and replete with edge cases.

michaelt 3y ago
Our software is kinda horrible. I mean, no other industry insists that users accept weekly automated updates because their products have so many critical security bugs.
- cdogl 3y ago
  No other industry is capable of automating weekly security updates, basically by definition.
omniglottal 3y ago
If "handling edge cases" is not something our software is specifically designed to do, then it's horrible.