2 ms·

And yet the world still turned

solarengineer 8d ago
The world turned millenia ago and will turn millenia later. The problem statement is of applications using up expensive RAM. Incidentally, expensive RAM is just one of the problems we face in the computing space. Forced obsolescence is another, when running hardware needs to be replaced because software is built for only newer CPUs.
- anonzzzies 7d ago
  > because software is built for only newer CPUs. You are right, but it reads (to me, could be just me) you mean newer specs which used to be true when I shipped software in the 70-90s; you mean faster machines / more memory right? Like installing a new version of software or OS and suddenly all memory is used, system is swapping and you did not ask for that but some obscure feature you didn't need needed to be shipped fast.
- locknitpicker 7d ago
  > The problem statement is of applications using up expensive RAM. Incidentally, expensive RAM is just one of the problems we face in the computing space. You need to stop and think about the problem. Nowadays RAM is expensive because many people now want to max out their computers with RAM to run LLMs and AI coding assistants. Today's software is still the same software that ran perfectly well half a dozen years ago. Cloudflare happens to operate a large global computer infrastructure, and it's scale is such that 1% gains are lauded as fantastic cost savers. But that's the bean counter's perspective, pointing out that they saved a bean.
  - jpc0 7d ago
    > Today's software is still the same software that ran perfectly well half a dozen years ago. This statement is quite honestly not true at all. Just take the two largest OS from 6 years ago and compare resource usage between them and you will find you are incorrect, never mind the software running on it.
  - Capricorn2481 7d ago
    > Nowadays RAM is expensive because many people now want to max out their computers with RAM to run LLMs and AI coding assistants. Source? I imagine the amount of people trying to run local LLMs is miniscule. RAM is expensive because a handful of companies have spent billions buying all of the compute.
    - kam 7d ago
      Sam and Dario really maxed out their rigs.
altmanaltman 8d ago
Thankfully the world's turning is not decided by big tech
- dns_snek 7d ago
  Probably not for the lack of trying.
latexr 7d ago
That statement can be used to justify anything, to the point it is utterly useless. — Humanity has been on the decline. People are hateful towards each other, striking their fellow man and poisoning the environment. Despots eventually launched nukes which killed everyone but the cockroaches. — And yet the world still turned.
rvba 7d ago
For the rich, those in developing countries often were behind
- PorciiVorbesc 7d ago
  On the contrary. Industrial developing countries saw bigger % increases in their economic growth in the last couple of decades than the fully developed "old" western ones. Mostly due to "the rich" shipping western jobs there to cut costs and increase their margins. For example the likes of Poland, China, India and Vietnam were and still are growing like crazy when you compare to the likes of UK or Germany.

The world turned millenia ago and will turn millenia later. The problem statement is of applications using up expensive RAM. Incidentally, expensive RAM is just one of the problems we face in the computing space. Forced obsolescence is another, when running hardware needs to be replaced because software is built for only newer CPUs.

anonzzzies 7d ago
> because software is built for only newer CPUs. You are right, but it reads (to me, could be just me) you mean newer specs which used to be true when I shipped software in the 70-90s; you mean faster machines / more memory right? Like installing a new version of software or OS and suddenly all memory is used, system is swapping and you did not ask for that but some obscure feature you didn't need needed to be shipped fast.
locknitpicker 7d ago
> The problem statement is of applications using up expensive RAM. Incidentally, expensive RAM is just one of the problems we face in the computing space. You need to stop and think about the problem. Nowadays RAM is expensive because many people now want to max out their computers with RAM to run LLMs and AI coding assistants. Today's software is still the same software that ran perfectly well half a dozen years ago. Cloudflare happens to operate a large global computer infrastructure, and it's scale is such that 1% gains are lauded as fantastic cost savers. But that's the bean counter's perspective, pointing out that they saved a bean.
- jpc0 7d ago
  > Today's software is still the same software that ran perfectly well half a dozen years ago. This statement is quite honestly not true at all. Just take the two largest OS from 6 years ago and compare resource usage between them and you will find you are incorrect, never mind the software running on it.
- Capricorn2481 7d ago
  > Nowadays RAM is expensive because many people now want to max out their computers with RAM to run LLMs and AI coding assistants. Source? I imagine the amount of people trying to run local LLMs is miniscule. RAM is expensive because a handful of companies have spent billions buying all of the compute.
  - kam 7d ago
    Sam and Dario really maxed out their rigs.

altmanaltman 8d ago

Thankfully the world's turning is not decided by big tech

dns_snek 7d ago
Probably not for the lack of trying.

latexr 7d ago

That statement can be used to justify anything, to the point it is utterly useless. — Humanity has been on the decline. People are hateful towards each other, striking their fellow man and poisoning the environment. Despots eventually launched nukes which killed everyone but the cockroaches. — And yet the world still turned.

rvba 7d ago

For the rich, those in developing countries often were behind

PorciiVorbesc 7d ago
On the contrary. Industrial developing countries saw bigger % increases in their economic growth in the last couple of decades than the fully developed "old" western ones. Mostly due to "the rich" shipping western jobs there to cut costs and increase their margins. For example the likes of Poland, China, India and Vietnam were and still are growing like crazy when you compare to the likes of UK or Germany.