We (Cloudflare) have largely stopped talking about the 'edge' for some of the reasons cited in the article. 1. No one actually knows where it is or what it means. 2. It conjures images of classical ‘edge compute’ use cases like the self driving cars in the article. Those use cases tend to be exceptionally specialized (or just silly). 3. Edge implies a core or origin exists, and maybe it doesn’t need to. We would rath…
A fully mesh P2P computer cloud would be magical. Everybody is the edge that way :)
What the f*** is the edge?
111–120 of 188 posts
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#112The anecdote at the start of the article seems to me to suggest the investor talked about "being at the edge of science" or technology - i.e. doing something disruptive and new. But the rest of the article talks about the location of data and servers and it's relationship with the word "edge". Am I missing something? Why is the anecdote unrelated to the article?
I thought the same thing. I believe the author intentionally wanted us to believe it was "the edge" based on your definition, but then wanted to make a point that "the edge" is now "the physical edge". Another explanation would also be that a couple years ago the stereotypical technically-limited VC would ask if this app would be in "the cloud". The author used the same stereotype and adapted it to "the edge".
> I believe the author intentionally wanted us to believe it was "the edge" based on your definition, but then wanted to make a point that "the edge" is now "the physical edge".
Personally, I immediately knew it's about cloud!edge, even when I saw the title. If you pay attention to current trending buzzwords (as I unfortunately do, skimming the things some people I work with post on company Slack), you'll learn that "edge computing" is the most recent buzzword in the cloud space.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#113> This front-layer of computing power is also referred to as "fog computing" or "dew computing". The bit about self-driving cars talking to a server to make split-second decisions is laughable but this right here just makes you want to flip the table. If you're requirements are so extreme that you need to be on "the edge" you can do that today, it's called client-side development.
What separates fog from client-side is the concept of hierarchical fog nodes. You could imagine the car's sensors as the edge devices and the car itself as a fog node. The whole fog hierarchy would be something like: edge devices - cars - intersections - ... - cloud. At the intersection level collisions could be avoided by processing data from local sensors and warning incoming cars.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#114We (Cloudflare) have largely stopped talking about the 'edge' for some of the reasons cited in the article. 1. No one actually knows where it is or what it means. 2. It conjures images of classical ‘edge compute’ use cases like the self driving cars in the article. Those use cases tend to be exceptionally specialized (or just silly). 3. Edge implies a core or origin exists, and maybe it doesn’t need to. We would rath…
Conveniently all of your users have 90s era supercomputers in their pants. Shame we're wasting that compute on nonsense.
Mobile devices' compute power is there to serve a massive amount of input/output components and sensors. If we start to usurp this computing margin for our applications, the devices will overheat and break, irritating quite some people probably.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#115> Cynics might of course argue that we have come full circle, from thick client to butt back to thick client, but that would miss the point of what "the edge" is all about: In a world of increasingly ubiquitous computing power we are well advised to reflect on where our computation happens and how we can make the most efficient use of the resources at our disposal. Which is exactly why we the cynics say we've come fu…
There are many circles in this industry. flash/sliverlight then html5 then wasm. soap then rest then json api.
The cycles you mention are each very interesting.
Flash/Silverlight/HTML5/WASM - this, to me, is a story of a technology being useful, then growing to give too much power to web publishers - who tend to abuse any given power - then reverting to a weaker technology in order to unscrew the web. Rinse, repeat - HTML5 is already rapidly approaching peak Flash, and introduction of WASM isn't going to help here.
Soap/REST/JSON API - you could call it a story of simplification, but I don't get how it even came to be. That is, how XML gained so much popularity, given that simpler and better tools for almost all of its uses were already available and known.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are many circles in this industry. flash/sliverlight then html5 then wasm. soap then rest then json api.
The cycles you mention are each very interesting. Flash/Silverlight/HTML5/WASM - this, to me, is a story of a technology being useful, then growing to give too much power to web publishers - who tend to abuse any given power - then reverting to a weaker technology in order to unscrew the web. Rinse, repeat - HTML5 is already rapidly approaching peak Flash, and introduction of WASM isn't going to help here. Soap/REST/…
I still don’t understand what problems people have with xml. The json vs xml debate very much feels like the tab vs white space debate to me.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cycles you mention are each very interesting. Flash/Silverlight/HTML5/WASM - this, to me, is a story of a technology being useful, then growing to give too much power to web publishers - who tend to abuse any given power - then reverting to a weaker technology in order to unscrew the web. Rinse, repeat - HTML5 is already rapidly approaching peak Flash, and introduction of WASM isn't going to help here. Soap/REST/…
I still don’t understand what problems people have with xml. The json vs xml debate very much feels like the tab vs white space debate to me.
JSON is easier to use from Javascript
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> from thick client to butt back to thick client - did you build something that replaces "cloud" with "butt"?
Ooops, forgot about that extension running on the machine I wrote that comment on.
See? You do have meaningful control over your machine!
You are free to choose from a great number of useful and fun pre-approved apps that you love. The possibilities are limitless!
(Of course, you must choose the same apps as everyone else. You are a loyal citizen, aren't you?)
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cycles you mention are each very interesting. Flash/Silverlight/HTML5/WASM - this, to me, is a story of a technology being useful, then growing to give too much power to web publishers - who tend to abuse any given power - then reverting to a weaker technology in order to unscrew the web. Rinse, repeat - HTML5 is already rapidly approaching peak Flash, and introduction of WASM isn't going to help here. Soap/REST/…
I still don’t understand what problems people have with xml. The json vs xml debate very much feels like the tab vs white space debate to me.
For me it's about simplicity. Xml is more featureful, more difficult to write a processor for, and more difficult to write out and read by hand.
Re: What the f*** is the edge?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cycles you mention are each very interesting. Flash/Silverlight/HTML5/WASM - this, to me, is a story of a technology being useful, then growing to give too much power to web publishers - who tend to abuse any given power - then reverting to a weaker technology in order to unscrew the web. Rinse, repeat - HTML5 is already rapidly approaching peak Flash, and introduction of WASM isn't going to help here. Soap/REST/…
I still don’t understand what problems people have with xml. The json vs xml debate very much feels like the tab vs white space debate to me.
Json is less verbose than XML, easier to read.