throwasehasdwi (u/throwasehasdwi)

throwasehasdwi commented on Async/Await will make code simpler blog.patricktriest.com/wh... · Posted by u/thmslee

jcelerier · 8 years ago

> that programmer has to manually specify where he wants to make asynchronous vs. synchronous functions to get the optimal performance.

programs aren't just pure computations. There are plenty of times when you want a specific event to happen at a specific time (as in, wall-clock), and plenty of times when you don't care when something computes as long as you end up getting a result at some point.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

You don't get reliable wall clock time unless you're working in RTOS. In a threaded OS everything in userland is async to an extent. In this school of thought, having to specify that something should be async manually could be seen as a failure of the language.

throwasehasdwi commented on Async/Await will make code simpler blog.patricktriest.com/wh... · Posted by u/thmslee

mpweiher · 8 years ago

I go back and forth on async/await. On the one hand, it is utterly brilliant. On the other hand, it seems like the final epicycle, trying to fit a theory of circular geocentric orbits (call/return) onto a real world of elliptical heliocentric ones (asynchronous programming).

So yes, it will make code easier, but I fear that will only serve to prolong the dominance of what is arguably the wrong programming model/architectural style. Or more precisely: an insufficient programming model/architectural style (it is great for a lot of things, just not for all).

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

await/promises/etc mostly exist to solve the problem that JavaScript doesn't have threads so it can't wait for callbacks.

About JavaScript, many other languages have had async/await for a long time. I have no idea why JS made such a huge deal of promises, I guess they're better than the callback hell before. Of course, in most languages using async isn't nearly as important for performance because they have thread pools.

Some interfaces aren't and won't be asynchronous (like Linux file IO) so eventually JS will support proper threads and we can stop talking about how great asynchronous programming is (it isn't).

throwasehasdwi commented on Intel Launches 8th Generation CPUs, Starting with Kaby Lake Refresh anandtech.com/show/11738/... · Posted by u/satai

tammer · 8 years ago

Curious what your use case is that entails ECC? Are you currently being held back without it?

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

It's insane that we're still using systems without ECC RAM. As memory shrinks bit errors get progressively more common. The more memory you have the better chance of corruption as well of course.

Literally everything else that holds "data" has been using some form of error correction forever. Hard drives, SSD's, USB flash drives, file systems, databases, even network packets. Even HDMI uses error correction, and how important is momentary pixel corruption on a screen???

It's totally insane that we're not using ECC with such large amounts of RAM built on tiny processes. Its definitely just a cartel artificially maintaining a situation that's bad for everyone not selling server chips.

throwasehasdwi commented on Making Visible Watermarks More Effective research.googleblog.com/2... · Posted by u/runesoerensen

nxsynonym · 8 years ago

Thinking out loud here - but would this be a good use case for blockchain technology?

The problem with visible watermarks is it detracts from the image visibility. Nobody wants to look at photos or digital art pieces with huge ugly watermarks on them. Could blockchain tech help establish ownership in a way that would make watermarking obsolete?

edit: cool - downvotes for asking a question. Real nice guys.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

Probably not but I was thinking either ML or VR could help

throwasehasdwi commented on Ask HN: What mistakes in your experience does management keep making? · Posted by u/oggyfredcake

fbonetti · 8 years ago

Misguided cost savings is the worst when it comes from engineers. Software developers love to optimize, so if they can save $500 - $1,000 a month buy rolling their own service instead of paying for an existing one, they'll do it, completely ignoring the fact that their time costs money.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

Eh, most developers I know are lazy and won't even measure the performance of the thing they're building if it's "good enough". I can't remember the last time any of us fired up a profiler. Optimization is generally hard and un-fun.

On the other hand, developers love to build shiny new stuff more than they like using things that are already there. The "Optimize" part you're talking about is more "reinvent the wheel" in my experience.

Figuring out how to use X new library isn't fun. Building this cool thing that does the same thing but better is a lot of fun! That's why things get overengineered and built for "scale", which is probably mostly what you'r referring to. Instead of taking something off the shelf that would work fine some developers are compelled to build something that can handle the entire traffic of the internet. They don't achieve this by optimizing what's there, they do it by building an enormously complex system for no reason :)

throwasehasdwi commented on Letter from Benchmark to Uber Employees [pdf] drive.google.com/file/d/0... · Posted by u/ted0

ChuckMcM · 8 years ago

Another interesting move on Benchmark's part. I wonder if this is the key sentence: "Travis’s failure to make good on this promise, as well as his continued involvement in the day-to-day running of the company, has created uncertainty for everyone, undermining the success of the CEO search."

One of the key things about organizations which isn't always apparent is that leadership isn't "given" it is earned. This is often used as a tool in story telling where the hero's actions inspire people to follow them and so even though someone else is the "boss" the people are following the "hero."

That they are complaining about Travis, who, AFAICT, does not even have an employee role at all in the company, continues to be "involved" in day to day operations, suggests that his lack of co-operation is the issue and Travis is, or continues to be depending on your point of view, the 'bad actor' in this situation.

Sometimes you have classes where they throw out a hypothetical question like "What if you fired the boss and he didn't leave?" If Travis is able to exert that level of control over the company then clearly he continues to have people loyal to him doing as he asks against the wishes of the board. I can imagine that this would make it extremely hard to manage a company in that situation.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

> undermining the success of the CEO search

Travis legally has control of the company just like an owner would. Nobody can "force" him to leave on run his company as certain way. Benchmark is just whining because they can't get their way.

Benchmark agreed to let him have permanent control when they invested, if they didn't want that they shouldn't have signed the contract.

throwasehasdwi commented on North Korea now making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say washingtonpost.com/world/... · Posted by u/rbanffy

bitL · 8 years ago

It's different if you have baby nukes you can't launch, and if you have MIRV ICBMs with mastered launch from submarines; i.e. one submarine capable of wiping out the whole west coast. There was recent noise that NK is testing (so far unsuccessfully) submarine launch for their new ICBMs; once they are successful, it stops being kindergarten stuff but a global issue.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

They have nukes and working ICBM's... It's not that hard to put the two together.

Submarine launch is harder and the warheads must be smaller, but ICMB's are already considered unstoppable so it doesn't matter.

throwasehasdwi commented on North Korea now making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say washingtonpost.com/world/... · Posted by u/rbanffy

etaty · 8 years ago

Well, with so much effort to isolate North Korea and bring them on the path of war with repeated threat, I would not expect less from them. And knowing the past history of the USA in deescalating conflict, I would expect war at some point.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

Well, North korea has been working on nukes for like 40 years and there hasn't been a war yet so I don't think the US is as eager as you think.

You don't see anything wrong with a madman in a country always on the edge of collapse that's constantly threatening to turn the USA into a crater having nuclear weapons?

Kimmy is over there threatening to bomb out the US and Japan and put everyone's heads on pikes pretty much weekly. I don't recall even our crazy fucker president Trump saying anything remotely close to that.

throwasehasdwi commented on A Systematic Analysis of the Juniper Dual EC Incident [pdf] cs.uic.edu/~s/papers/juni... · Posted by u/andreasley

wu-ikkyu · 8 years ago

>It's insane that the government allowed them to do this.

What do you mean by this? The statement seems to imply they had to ask for permission from someone other than themselves?

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

Whoever authorized the operation decided it was worth the many millions of damage it could do to Juniper.

throwasehasdwi commented on MS Paint is here to stay blogs.windows.com/windows... · Posted by u/richardboegli

seanp2k2 · 8 years ago

I agree that the Windows App Store is a bad experience. I don't agree that they should extend add/remove programs to encompass this functionality. It's from literally 1995 and should be removed from Windows. It's actually really funny to me how some dialogue boxes and options modals have been unchanged for 20 years.

throwasehasdwi · 8 years ago

add/remove is a better UX than the Windows Store even though it's barely been touched for 20 years :)