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burntoutgray

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Perhaps we should remember that Linux is a re-implementation of Unix of the times. Back then licensing and other issues stalled access to A&T Unix and Berkeley BSD. Linux provided the Unix/BSD standards for free.

At the time IBM, Sun, HP and many others were charging huge license fees for their versions of Unix which was becoming increasingly fragmented due to the variations between proprietary implementations. Linux cut through all that chaff and delivered Unix, actually POSIX, standards on affordable Intel 386 based systems.

To use an analogy, back in the days of film cameras and before 1 hour labs, the "craftsman" photographer would carefully frame the shot, carefully setting the exposure, aperture and focus. The most meticulous would take notes in a notebook. There were only 36 frames to a roll of film and all going well, the photographer had to wait a couple of days to get back the proof sheet. Those were the days when expert photographers were commissioned to take photos for special events, etc.

These days, everybody is an expert photographer, taking thousands of irrelevant photos with their smartphones. The volume of photos has exploded, the quality of the best has minimally changed (i.e. before being photoshopped, etc.)

The current crop of AI-aided tools are comparable to the early digital cameras in phones.

The void isn't about AI. It is the ever present machinations by managements to extract maximum profit and reduce expenses. AI is simply the latest fad by which to lay off personnel. Technical debt can be deferred by focusing on making this quarter's profit forecasts.

In my experience, every job is a compromise between earnings (or even just having a job) and personal values.

RISC-V Is Sloooow 4 months ago

ISAs fail to gain traction when the sufficiently smart compilers don't eventuate.

The x86-64 is a dog's breakfast of features. But due to its widespread use, compiler writers make the effort to create compilers that optimize for its quirks.

Itanium hardware designers were expecting the compiler writers to cater for its unique design. Intel is a semi company. As good as some of their compilers are, internally they invested more in their biggest seller and the Itanium never got the level of support that was anticipated at the outset.

RISC-V Is Sloooow 4 months ago

+1 -- misinformation is best corrected quickly. If not, AI will propagate it and many will believe the erroneous information. I guess that would be viral hallucinations.

For a guy who craves a Nobel Peace Prize, why is he starting wars? The campaign promise was to stop needless wars.

Like the story "The Emperors New Clothes" the media needs to call him out and very forcibly. Until then the sycophants are just going to admire his naked butt.

YES! The session becomes the source code.

Back in the dark ages, you'd "cc -s hello.c" to check the assembler source. With time we stopped doing that and hello.c became the originating artefact. On the same basis the session becomes the originating artefact.

I never chose MS, ever. Most systems have been based on Debian servers. Some special needs I've used Alpine Linux and NetBSD (yes it does run on older, limited hardware).

Of course, some potential clients demand MS based solutions. I simply decline those contracts and ring them up 12-18 months later to see if the CTO/CIO has been replaced.

Timely warning. But might end up inconsequential once the AI bubble bursts.

Psst -- wanna a data centre ... cheap?

Enshitification follows becoming a monopoly or a cartel.

For example, how is any scrappy, quality focused startup going to unseat Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc? Even Apple seems to be heading down that path.

Hard to make suggestions when so much context is missing. For example, did you 2 start and then bring on the 2 C-Suite guys?

From my way too extensive experiences in interacting with C-suite folks, the only thing they are very good at is maximizing outcomes for themselves. Being in their rarified suite, they look down upon ICs as being the plebs, to be exploited.

Based on the above assumption, I would predict that things won't get better once you raise. With dilution and other investor tricks the C-suite guys will bleed you dry and then replace you with AI.

tl;dr LEAVE!

I use Bun or Deno for my projects. Always disliked Node.js and especially npm.

Ryan Dahl created Deno to address his regrets regarding Node.js shortcomings, limitations.

Everybody is different. I'm a very long-term C programmer.

Learnt Smalltalk because I wanted to better understand OOP and I could never get comfortable with C++.

Learnt Python because it provided me with a more interactive environment. Over time as more modules were added it became increasingly my choice for exploring interfaces, e.g. poorly documented USB devices.

Learnt JavaScript because I saw it as becoming increasingly pervasive. The growth of Web APIs together with the browser's graphical environment is edging out Python for many projects.

From the caller's perspective the dispatcher is the authority figure. But that person is just at the bottom of a pyramid. The supervisor, the section manager all the way to the CEO and shareholders.

Without reference to your own level of knowledge it is impossible to suggest prompts.

What works for me is to pick an area that looks interesting (to me), paste some code and ask questions. Then you drill down until you sufficiently grok that area, then pick another, etc.