This reminds me of the observation that adding people to a project doesn't necessarily increase productivity that much...
Readit NewsBirAdam commented on Open Source is one person opensourcesecurity.io/202... · Posted by u/LawnGnome
Maybe we need a Linux distro based on "inactive" software and look how reliably it performs.
s/inactive/stable/
Well, when you talk about a distribution there's a different issue.
The entire Linux ecosystem is constantly shifting with each package releasing new versions, and therefore everything else must be updated to accommodate the changes in the dependency tree.
You could get away with some stuff being only stable versions, but things like mesa, x11, chrome, etc... would still be constantly changing as would their dependency trees.
BirAdam commented on Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? · Posted by u/stephenheron
This seems mostly misinformed.
1) Apple Silicon outperforms all laptop CPUs in the same power envelope on 1T on industry-standard tests: it's not predominantly due to "optimizing their software stack". SPECint, SPECfp, Geekbench, Cinebench, etc. all show major improvements.
2) x86 also heavily relies on micro-ops to greatly improve performance. This is not a "penalty" in any sense.
3) x86 is now six-wide, eight-wide, or nine-wide (with asterisks) for decode width on all major Intel & AMD cores. The myth of x86 being stuck on four-wide has been long disproven.
4) Large buffers, L1, L2, L3, caches, etc. are not exclusive to any CPU microarchitecture. Anyone can increase them—the question is, how much does your core benefit from larger cache features?
5) Ryzen AI Max 300 (Strix Halo) gets nowhere near Apple on 1T perf / W and still loses on 1T perf. Strix Halo uses slower CPUs versus the beastly 9950X below:
Fanless iPad M4 P-core SPEC2017 int, fp, geomean: 10.61, 15.58, 12.85 AMD 9950X (Zen5) SPEC2017 int, fp, geomean: 10.14, 15.18, 12.41 Intel 285K (Lion Cove) SPEC2017 int, fp, geomean: 9.81, 12.44, 11.05
Source: https://youtu.be/2jEdpCMD5E8?t=185, https://youtu.be/ymoiWv9BF7Q?t=670
The 9950X & 285K eat 20W+ per core for that 1T perf; the M4 uses ~7W. Apple has a node advantage, but no node on Earth gives you 50% less power.
There is no contest.
1. Apple’s optimizations are one point in their favor. XNU is good, and Apple’s memory management is excellent.
2. X86 micro-ops vs ARM decode are not equivalent. X86’s variable length instructions make the whole process far more complicated than it is on something like ARM. This is a penalty due to legacy design.
3. The OP was talking about M1. AFAIK, M4 is now 10-wide, and most x86 is 6-wide (Ryzen 5 does some weird stuff). X86 was 4-wide at the time of M1’s introduction.
4. M1 has over 600 reorder buffer registers… it’s significantly larger than competitors.
5. Close relative to x86 competitors.
BirAdam commented on Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? · Posted by u/stephenheron
First, Apple did an excellent job optimizing their software stack for their hardware. This is something that few companies have the ability to do as they target a wide array of hardware. This is even more impressive given the scale of Apple's hardware. The same kernel runs on a Watch and a Mac Studio.
Second, the x86 platform has a lot of legacy, and each operation on x86 is translated from an x86 instruction into RISC-like micro-ops. This is an inherent penalty that Apple doesn't have pay, and it is also why Rosetta 2 can achieve "near native" x86 performance; both platform translate the x86 instructions.
Third, there are some architectural differences even if the instruction decoding steps are removed from the discussion. Apple Silicon has a huge out-of-order buffer, and it's 8-wide vs x86 4-wide. From there, the actual logic is different, the design is different, and the packaging is different. AMD's Ryzen AI Max 300 series does get close to Apple by using many of the same techniques like unified memory and tossing everything onto the package, where it does lose is due to all of the other differences.
In the end, if people want crazy efficiency Apple is a great answer and delivers solid performance. If people want the absolute highest performance, then something like Ryzen Threadripper, EPYC, or even the higher-end consumer AMD chips are great choices.
I've grown increasingly hateful towards both my Android and iOS devices over the last decade. The platforms themselves are increasingly user-hostile, and their appstores are crammed full of shitty, privacy-invading, telemetry-hoovering, dopamine-triggering, ad-filled, lipstick-covered apps that are often garbage compared to the pioneering days of mobile. I miss the days of my old Palm Pilot.
Is anyone working on fixing this? We can do so much better.
I too miss Palm. I had a Pilot, then a Treo, and finally a Pixie. When HP bought Palm, I switched to iPhone. It was a sad day.
BirAdam commented on Website is served from nine Neovim buffers on my old ThinkPad vim.gabornyeki.com/... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti
Horrific
It may be horrific, but it's wonderful too.
This is excellent work, and I love seeing projects in Ada.
BirAdam commented on Open office is giving you secondhand ADHD floustate.com/blog/open-o... · Posted by u/skrid
“I'm 3x more creative at home than in the office”
I think you mean “productive” (and even that would be arguable).
Creativity is often the result of experience having been applied to time with a problem. If you have no time with a problem due to constant interruptions and distractions, your creative output is likely to diminish.
BirAdam commented on Open office is giving you secondhand ADHD floustate.com/blog/open-o... · Posted by u/skrid
Noise cancelling headphones, focused stare, code editors open on all screens.
No one comes near me unless absolutely necessary
So much this. Humans are inherently social animals, and if you look like you’re focused and working, most people will respect that. The headphones are also an immediate signal that you’d prefer to be left alone. In my experience, only people facing a rather serious and pressing problem will interrupt you in that situation, “hey sorry to bother you, but X just went offline without an alert”
BirAdam commented on Vaultwarden commit introduces SSO using OpenID Connect github.com/dani-garcia/va... · Posted by u/speckx
Most of the comments seem to confirm (all but one at time of writing) that this feature is more intended for corporate/business environments. Does anyone know if Vaultwarden has commercial users? By no means am I arguing against the inclusion of this feature, I'm just curious. Everywhere I've worked that was big enough to use SSO was also wary of selfhosting FOSS tools. I should clarify I don't consider myself working in tech, fwiw.
Vaultwarden has been in use at two companies I’ve worked for, yeah. Modest, mid-size companies, one with a delusion of grandeur. While both didn’t care for self-hosting, the executives were wary, in both cases, of SaaS password management after LastPass.