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Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#91

Post by CyberDildonics »

eimrine wrote: post #88
CyberDildonics wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also used to have 4 cores in 2009 but that was very unstable. This is nonsense Than Amdahl's law neglects the difference. Then you don't understand "Amdahl's law". It is very basic and only about parts of software that aren't multithreaded becoming a bottleneck. This sounds like desperate pessimism. Single-core performance is totally the same, This is not true either and you could look at benchmarks to see it. the…

> This is nonsense Core 2 duo Quad from 2007+ used to have 2 L2 cashes (not 4) and no L3 and task manager of Windows refused to see more than 2 cores, but for some rare tasks Quad was perfect such as playing GTA4. That is just my memories, feel free to correct me if you see me mistaken. > Then you don't understand "Amdahl's law". It is very basic and only about parts of software that aren't multithreaded becoming a b…

Core 2 duo Quad from 2007+ used to have 2 L2 cashes (not 4) and no L3 and task manager of Windows refused to see more than 2 cores

This is software has nothing to do with your claims of hardware not advancing or four cores being 'unstable'. I don't know what it has to do with anything.

Everything except of browser is not multithreaded in 2023

This is a bizarre claim because it's so easy to disprove. Games, content creation video encoding and decoding and of course, your whole OS which is running multiple programs.

This also has nothing to do with amdahl's law, which is about how non-multithreaded parts of multithreaded software scales.

for example a garbage collecting of interpreted languages.

Who cares, an interpreted language is not meant to be fast in the first place. Even so you can still run multiple threads and multiple processes.

This is also software and has nothing to do with your claim that CPUs haven't changed since 2012.

I mean starting from 2 cores the number of cores does not add anything visible.

They do to everyone buying CPUs with more than 2 cores, which is basically everyone, since even phones and $35 rasberry pi boards have four or more cores.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#92

Post by CyberDildonics »

bullen wrote: post #77
Havoc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The physical world has peaked, in every metric. How do you figure that? Seems to me that things are still rapidly changing. Starlink, fusion, JWST, computer hardware, 3D printing etc...loads still happening.

All statistics show 2016 being peak in population growth in the western world. Acceleration stopped 1968. CPU improvements stalled around 2012. GPU around 1030 so in 2017. Energy is the master resource.

You should get together with https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=eimrine since you both say the same thing at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#93

Post by bullen »

Havoc wrote: post #79
bullen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All statistics show 2016 being peak in population growth in the western world. Acceleration stopped 1968. CPU improvements stalled around 2012. GPU around 1030 so in 2017. Energy is the master resource.

You genuinely believe a CPU from 2023 to be no better than one from 2012?

Not by much, if you count in the energy used to make new CPUs, and the waste you crate by not using an old one; you are better off using an Ivy Bridge than a newest AMD/Intel.

I also believe the older stuff is better built in terms of longevity if you cool them properly.

I also know the new ones have more crap in them that will allow Intel/Microsoft to block things when they need money.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#94

Post by eimrine »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #91
eimrine wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is nonsense Core 2 duo Quad from 2007+ used to have 2 L2 cashes (not 4) and no L3 and task manager of Windows refused to see more than 2 cores, but for some rare tasks Quad was perfect such as playing GTA4. That is just my memories, feel free to correct me if you see me mistaken. > Then you don't understand "Amdahl's law". It is very basic and only about parts of software that aren't multithreaded becoming a b…

Core 2 duo Quad from 2007+ used to have 2 L2 cashes (not 4) and no L3 and task manager of Windows refused to see more than 2 cores This is software has nothing to do with your claims of hardware not advancing or four cores being 'unstable'. I don't know what it has to do with anything. Everything except of browser is not multithreaded in 2023 This is a bizarre claim because it's so easy to disprove. Games, content cr…

You have written a lot of responses about why am I a little wrong on every my sentence but I don't see any powerful point. What is the most important feature of post-2012 CPU and except of energy consuming?

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#95

Post by CyberDildonics »

eimrine wrote: post #94
CyberDildonics wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Core 2 duo Quad from 2007+ used to have 2 L2 cashes (not 4) and no L3 and task manager of Windows refused to see more than 2 cores This is software has nothing to do with your claims of hardware not advancing or four cores being 'unstable'. I don't know what it has to do with anything. Everything except of browser is not multithreaded in 2023 This is a bizarre claim because it's so easy to disprove. Games, content cr…

You have written a lot of responses about why am I a little wrong on every my sentence but I don't see any powerful point. What is the most important feature of post-2012 CPU and except of energy consuming?

a little wrong

Pretty much everything you said was not only wrong, it didn't even have anything to do with your point.

What is the most important feature of post-2012 CPU and except of energy consuming?

They are faster per clock cycle, run at higher frequencies, have more cores, more memory bandwidth, more pcie bandwidth, wider SIMD lanes, deeper out of order buffers, much more cache and more execution units.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#96

Post by red-iron-pine »

Gnarl wrote: post #67
imgabe wrote: post #22

Solitaire on Windows 3.1 started almost instantly and did exactly what you wanted. Solitaire on Windows 10 is a laggy behemoth that won't even work if you aren't connected to the Internet. Nobody asked for solitaire to be connected to the Internet. It's absurd that a program should be so much slower on machines that are literally about 1000x faster.

Investors: Dude! How about "IoS"? Internet of Solitaire's! ( sound of cash machines )

> (sound of cash machines)

That's basically the end of this thread.

As in, why isn't it better? (sound of cash machines)

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#97

Post by ASalazarMX »

codingdave wrote: post #2

Honestly, I think the answer is no. But the sheer amount of software in our world is increasing. So if software quality lands on a bell curve, you'll see the lower end of that curve more often. Which actually argues that software quality is increasing - when so much of it "just works", the ones that don't stand out.

I lean to yes, because even things that formerly worked, fail without good reason. If feels like quality is not a top priority anymore, and I think that trend started with network patches, suddenly you could sell unfinished software while you still work at it.

For example, the most recent update to iBooks from Apple glitches if you rotate the screen, and stays that way even if you rotate it back. iBooks is an app that recently got a tiny facelift, yet no one tested what happens if you flip the phone.

I agree that we use more software now, so we should experience more buggy software, but if that was the case, we should have experienced the same proportion of buggy software all our life. I still think easy patching facilitated bad quality practices, although those bad practices probably make commercial sense.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#98

Post by Gordonjcp »

d23 wrote: post #78
Gordonjcp wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What bugs are you running into with Resolve? There are certainly a few things you need to be a little careful of.

One is my fusion page always going back to a clip I’ve never opened in fusion. The bigger one is an insane rendering time that grows endlessly on a small clip (36+ hour estimated time before I finally cancelled it) that otherwise only takes a few minutes to render and display inside the program itself.

You need to make sure the play head is over the clip you've selected. I don't know why.

The insane rendering time one is weird, but it only seems to show up in the Windows version. Apparently it's something to do with having one dodgy frame in the clip. I suspect it's something to do with sources encoded in h.264, but I'd expect that to affect the Mac port as well. Linux doesn't seem to be affected.

You can try doing "render in place" for the affected clip, which seems to help.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#99

Post by WirelessGigabit »

Yes, I believe so. There is an endless push to get your data. Prompts to subscribe.

For example, I have a BlackVue camera. App used to work great.

Now I get a prompt to subscribe to their paid system. Why? I Paid for a webcam, and knew that the online service was paid, but then it was my choice.

Now they are coercing me.

Re: Ask HN: Is Software Getting Worse?

#100

Post by d23 »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #98
d23 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One is my fusion page always going back to a clip I’ve never opened in fusion. The bigger one is an insane rendering time that grows endlessly on a small clip (36+ hour estimated time before I finally cancelled it) that otherwise only takes a few minutes to render and display inside the program itself.

You need to make sure the play head is over the clip you've selected. I don't know why. The insane rendering time one is weird, but it only seems to show up in the Windows version. Apparently it's something to do with having one dodgy frame in the clip. I suspect it's something to do with sources encoded in h.264, but I'd expect that to affect the Mac port as well. Linux doesn't seem to be affected. You can try doing…

Yeah, my playhead is over the clip. It still keeps going back to a clip I never opened in fusion.

Re: render in place, I'll try your approach next time I run into it. Thanks.

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