TheCondor (u/TheCondor)

TheCondor commented on Japanese four-cylinder engine is so reliable still in production after 25 years topspeed.com/reliable-jap... · Posted by u/teleforce

pmontra · 12 days ago

That's a series of engines, not a single model. The FIAT FIRE [1] series has been in production for 36 years from 1985 to 2021 and, maybe you wouldn't expect it from FIAT, those engines were reliable.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_Integrated_Robotised_Eng...

TheCondor · 12 days ago

The Jag XK platform had 45+ year run. I'd bet that as long as the 911 is made, it'll have an inline 6 and to someone's thinking it will be the same platform as the air-cooled version from 1964.

Engine architectures tend to last unless they are bad. They can do a lot on one also, the Toyota GR platform started out as a fairly vanilla V-6 but it has variations with GDI and variations with turbochargers and has been used a lot of different vehicles. A lot of different variations with different levels of compressions and such. It's basically the block and cylinders configuration.

I'll shout out the K-series though, it's a shockingly good platform. Lots of little details have been thought through, it's relatively simple, inexpensive and reliable and maybe one of the easiest engines to work on. If you were new to cars and wanted to start wrenching, the K-series is a pretty good place to start. It can take boost and make power and has lots of aftermarket support. I know civics aren't everyones cup of tea and it's not a big V-8, but I've yet to meet an engineer that isn't at least slightly impressed by the k-series.

TheCondor commented on IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data centers will pay off businessinsider.com/ibm-c... · Posted by u/nabla9

mattlondon · 13 days ago

Take this "sober" analysis with a big pinch of salt.

IBM have totally missed the AI boat, and a large chunk of their revenue comes from selling expensive consultants to clients who do not have the expertise to do IT work themselves - this business model is at a high risk of being disrupted by those clients just using AI agents instead of paying $2-5000/day for a team of 20 barely-qualified new-grads in some far-off country.

IBM have an incentive to try and pour water on the AI fire to try and sustain their business.

TheCondor · 13 days ago

How do you see the math working out?

The numbers are staggering.

TheCondor commented on Monotype font licencing shake-down insanityworks.org/randomt... · Posted by u/evolve2k

thayne · a month ago

Oracle is still in business despite using these type of tactics for decades.

TheCondor · a month ago

Oracle is, Rambus is still around, Qualcomm appears to be quite strong.

I feel for font foundries, it's hard work to make great fonts. People want great fonts. Actually paying for them is kind of an afterthought. It sort of seems like some of the big ones should put together an MPEG like group, get all the major foundaries to join and then have a couple licensing options. Some annual fee based upon your use and application and you get to use all the fonts. If it was like $120 or less for personal use, I think I'd buy the license for the family. I suspect they'll want 10x what I think is reasonable.

TheCondor commented on Uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade emily.space/posts/251023-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

caconym_ · 2 months ago

There is nothing I dread more within the general context of software development, broadly, than trying to run other people's Python projects. Nothing. It's shocking that it has been so bad for so long.

TheCondor · 2 months ago

How about shipping one? Like even just shipping some tools to internal users is a pain

TheCondor commented on AWS to bare metal two years later: Answering your questions about leaving AWS oneuptime.com/blog/post/2... · Posted by u/ndhandala

esskay · 2 months ago

> I'm so surprised there is so much pushback against this

I'm not. It seems to be happening a lot. Any time a topic about not using AWS comes up here, or on Reddit there a sudden surge of people appearing out of nowhere shouting down anyone who suggests other options. It's honestly starting to feel like paid shilling.

TheCondor · 2 months ago

It’s the current version of CCIE or some of the other certs. People pay money to learn how to operate AWS, other thing erode the value of their investment.

TheCondor commented on Regarding the Compact president.mit.edu/writing... · Posted by u/ChrisArchitect

runako · 2 months ago

This is a motley list. I am guessing the criteria for inclusion was an administration staffer (or their offspring) was not able to secure admission.

TheCondor · 2 months ago

That's a very favorable interpretation.

It looks an awful lot like a sampling designed to identify who the "enemies" are.

TheCondor commented on Python 3.14 is here. How fast is it? blog.miguelgrinberg.com/p... · Posted by u/pjmlp

modeless · 2 months ago

What are the reasons why nobody uses pypy?

TheCondor · 2 months ago

I use it where I can, unfortunately those places are usually scripts that don’t benefit from the compiler.

The project is moving into maintenance mode, if some folks want to get python-famous, go support pypy.

TheCondor commented on Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement lwn.net/Articles/1037577/... · Posted by u/pykello

throwaway_7274 · 3 months ago

It's night and day.

I'm a PhD student currently writing my thesis in Typst. On paper this is an absurdly risky decision: it's a new technology without a huge user-base, it's not totally stable yet, etc. But I tried Typst and I had no choice. It was obviously the right thing to do, even though I'm going to have to make a pixel-perfect clone of my university's LaTeX template.

I've been using LaTeX for over ten years and I still wouldn't say that I "know" TeX in any meaningful way. I was not only productive but proficient in Typst in a day or two. If there isn't a package for something that I need (and, surprisingly often, there are packages for what I need, and excellent ones!), I find that I can just do it myself. Quickly. Things that never would have been possible for me with LaTeX are within easy reach. In ways I'd be happy to talk about if anyone's curious, it's been a huge enabler of my productivity as a researcher. I owe this tool so much.

Interestingly, I spend far, far less time yak-shaving in Typst than in TeX, since I can just Do The Thing That I Want. I'm actually focusing on writing instead of figuring out why package A conflicts with package B, and then how to install a different version of just a single package to override one of them, and then... [this sort of thing doesn't/can't happen in Typst; it's a real programming language with real modules] I could go on and on about the (relative) quality of the ergonomics and devex: fast compilation times, as others have said, but so much more than that. Try it out. Just try it out.

I should also say that it's not perfect. There are some funky design decisions for sure. There are some missing features, like including pdfs as images in your document (that one's on its way, I believe). Critically, the quality of the typesetting is maybe... 95% as good as TeX, which is perfect every time. Sometimes things don't kern quite right, and you have to adjust them by hand. It's a work in progress. I'm optimistic that it will achieve parity on that front.

TheCondor · 3 months ago

I suspect it is getting better but I've experienced some breaking changes with Typst. Nothing that was terribly difficult to fix, debugging it wasn't obvious though.

There seems to be a huge amount of folks that want typst to work. I respect TeX and LaTeX, immensely, but it's so vast and byzantine. Maybe I don't know where or what, but some kind of clean LaTeX "distribution" is needed. It seems like you could build it in to containers or something. Just have some way that sort of makes it more of an atomic unit or something. I don't know how many times I've pulled down a template started to build it and something was missing.

It's good to see innovation in this space and people using it.

TheCondor commented on Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US theguardian.com/technolog... · Posted by u/andsoitis

FridayoLeary · 3 months ago

OT but i think the 747 story deserves a bit more nuance. First of all to be clear i'm dismayed by the idea. It's not great optics that Trump wants to keep the plane (library force one?) . Even accepting it in the first place is also odd. Add to that, using it as Air Force One seems to be impractical.

BUT, there is precedent for this move. They gifted an even more expensive plane to Erdogan. From what i understand they have been trying to sell the plane for a while. It seems even they have trouble affording it's upkeep. Turns out there isn't a huge market for luxury private jumbo jets. From their perspective it's a white elephant. Trump is aware of that.

I heard another explanation that this is a way of putting lateral pressure on boeing. Trump is frustrated with the progress of the new air force one. His current one is aging. It makes sense as it's a typical tactic of his.

I'm not coming to defend it, just to explain some of the rationale behind the decision.

(edit to reply to several comments. First of all air force one is well maintained but it's old already. Parts and repairs become more difficult and the amount of miles left on the airframe can't be too high. Replacement is necessary. As to building a new plane out of spares being faster... Just ask boeing how that's going for them. They even had the fuselages ready and waiting for quite some time. Boeing executives know they will face some actual consequences for murdering the POTUS, which is probably why it's taking so long. It's difficult to build a plane properly when you've gotten rid of everyone who knows how and you've sold half of your factories, some to even more bad faith actors then yourself.)

TheCondor · 3 months ago

“Not great optics” is a very generous way to describe it. Maybe they should detail the faults of the current Air Force 1 and explain how it’s failing to enable the president to serve the nation. “Aging” is awfully vague and they service the hell out of those jets, completely rebuilding mechanical parts on an extremely aggressive schedule compared to airlines

TheCondor commented on Snapdragon X2 Elite ARM Laptop CPU qualcomm.com/products/mob... · Posted by u/wmf

TheCondor · 3 months ago

It looks like Lenovo and others are starting to get NUCs/MiniPCs out with these. I'd love to have one of these for Proxmox.