sifar (u/sifar) - Readit News

sifar commented on Coding agents have replaced every framework I used blog.alaindichiappari.dev... · Posted by u/alainrk

skybrian · 2 days ago

Sure, if all you ask it to do is fix bugs. You can also ask it to work on code health things like better organization, better testing, finding interesting invariants and enforcing them, and so on.

It's up to you what you want to prioritize.

sifar · 2 days ago

And what happens when these different objectives conflict or diverge ? Will it be able to figure out the appropriate trade-offs, live with the results and go meta to rethink the approach or simply delude itself ? We would definitely lose these skills if it continues like this.

sifar commented on Review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov (1980) newworker.org/ncptrory/19... · Posted by u/doruk101

sifar · 4 days ago

Gell-Mann Amnesia strikes again. It feels strange - almost as if Asimov hated Orwell. So many personal attacks.

And I say this as fan of Foundation/Robot series.

Despite quoting below from Fromm's afterword, how does Asimov miss it ? "Books like Orwell's are powerful warnings, and it would be most unfortunate if the reader smugly interpreted 1984 as another description of Stalinist barbarism, and if he does not see that it means us, too."

" Orwell was unable to conceive of computers or robots, or he would have placed everyone under non-human surveillance. Our own computers to some extent do this in the IRS, in credit files, and so on, but that does not take us towards 1984, except in fevered imaginations. "

Now apply this to many of today's experts/billionaires/technical celebrities whose words matter but are in reality quite myopic.

sifar commented on Attention at Constant Cost per Token via Symmetry-Aware Taylor Approximation arxiv.org/abs/2602.00294... · Posted by u/fheinsen

hellohello2 · 5 days ago

I'm not saying if the paper is correct or not (since I can't tell), but I don't think your argument really holds. Consider applying it to multiplication:

Fundamentally, multiplication need to look at every pair of integer from the two input numbers. It must be O(n^2); N digits looking at N other digits is quadratic. Any sub-quadratic multiplication must hence necessarily lose some information.

sifar · 5 days ago

Multiplication can be sub-quadratic using Karatsuba's algorithm.

sifar commented on Defining Safe Hardware Design [pdf] people.csail.mit.edu/rach... · Posted by u/rachitnigam

fooblaster · 6 days ago

I was really happy to see that blue spec was fully open sourced in recent years. Does anyone have experience with a non trivial project with it? Does it have any traction anymore in real silicon development.

sifar · 6 days ago

Same here, looking for an excuse to use it. It takes some time to get oriented. The BSV fronted makes it easier though. Have been dabbling in it as a hobby on the side.

While there have been tape-outs by universities, I think the learning curve would discourage traditional hardware companies focused on TTM. While bluespec has higher level abstractions, it also provides access to low level HW optimization features like multiple/gated clocks, integrate verilog etc. so I don't see any hindrances.

One needs to be familiar with both using SW abstractions and HW design, which iss a small subset that limits it's usage.

sifar commented on Building Your Own Efficient uint128 in C++ solidean.com/blog/2026/bu... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

throwaway81523 · 8 days ago

GCC alread has this for x64, I thought. https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/_005f_005fint128.html

RISC-V has no carry bit and this whole thing becomes awkward.

I am under the impression that boost::multiprecision has specialized templates for 128 and 256 bit math, but maybe I'm wrong. In practice when I've wanted extended precision, I've just used GMP or a language with bignums.

I would expect the best x86 machine code for many 128 bit operations would use XMM instructions, no? But I haven't investigated.

sifar · 7 days ago

RVV defines add/sub with carry.

sifar commented on Amazon cuts 16k jobs reuters.com/legal/litigat... · Posted by u/DGAP

browningstreet · 12 days ago

The AI of ten years ago is not the AI of now...

sifar · 12 days ago

But the scam is still the same.

sifar commented on A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks twitter.com/karpathy/stat... · Posted by u/bigwheels

aswegs8 · 12 days ago

"For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem [275b] to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise." - Socrates on Writing and Reading, Phaedrus 370 BC

sifar · 12 days ago

Well, the wisdom part is true.

sifar commented on TSMC Risk stratechery.com/2026/tsmc... · Posted by u/swolpers

tgtweak · 14 days ago

Seems most major players are not only fabless but also fab-agnostic - as I noted they switch from one supplier to another even for the same product line. I'm sure it is work but it doesn't seem to be an existential crisis for a huge provider to send some volume to a new fab - certainly if it's derisking supply capacity, tariffs or other geopolitical risks.

sifar · 13 days ago

That work is an opportunity cost that you could have used in taping out new designs.

sifar commented on Yes, It's Fascism theatlantic.com/ideas/202... · Posted by u/mickle00

tptacek · 14 days ago

I flag overheated AI stuff all the time.

sifar · 14 days ago

I was referring to the general zeitgeist on the site rather than you specifically. Apologies if it seemed personal.

sifar commented on Yes, It's Fascism theatlantic.com/ideas/202... · Posted by u/mickle00

tptacek · 14 days ago

Huge problem on those stories, too! A lot of those threads are dreadful. My point exactly.

sifar · 14 days ago

My point is that the discrimination to flag one and not the other seems arbitrary. It has nothing to do with promoting/preserving intellectual curiosity etc. We are deluding ourselves by repeating that.

In that we are practicing the very doublethink we criticize in the society.

u/sifar

KarmaCake day445August 28, 2012View Original