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The August 17 outage

github.blog

121–130 of 804 posts

Re: The August 17 outage

#121
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget jitter!

I always add some jitter but never actually had a problem where it would have been relevant. Recently I added it to a project where others also see it (not just a hobby thingy but something at work) and I was wondering if it would look silly, like premature optimisation. I looked on Wikipedia for how established the practice is and it barely gets a sentence... with no reference. Do you know of a documented instance w…

I've had to simulate jitter recently to reproduce a memory spike in a go app using traffic control (tc). have you observed how your app works under jittery network?

Re: The August 17 outage

#122
post #107
post #78

Everyone suggesting that they simply charge users for commits to drive off AI-heavy users forgets that Github is owned by Microsoft, who has a big incentive to keep having developers use AI. I suspect that Microsoft would even prefer to have Github operate at a loss, if that loss were because all its users were using their models and paying for OpenAI subscriptions to generate the code.

> I suspect that Microsoft would even prefer to have Github operate at a loss, I assumed it does , do you know that it doesn't?

I presume there’s a lot of companies out there paying GitHub very large sums to host all their private repos.

Re: The August 17 outage

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow. they should really institute a maximum amount of individual pushes per-month per-user.

That would just drive users into the arms of the alternatives, which would love to own the world's code... like Cursor/Musk. Microsoft and GitHub's only option is to suck it up, absorb this growth, and lower failure rates. They have the money, so that's not the issue. As someone on the sidelines, this is really interesting to watch unfold.

Well either they can handle this load that Microsoft can't, or they can't. If Microsoft are going to continue to be unreliable in the absence of the rate limit then:

If alternatives can handle the load, those who would consider those alternatives if Microsoft opposed a rate limit are likely to move to them anyway.

If alternatives aren't able to manage, then user's aren't going to jump since those services won't actually provide more usage.

Re: The August 17 outage

#126

"Since April, monthly commits have grown from 1.4 billion to 2.9 billion. " Wow, that is some incredible growth in a really short time.

Not really. It's AI commits. Not quality commits.

it doesn't matter though, commits create load in their system

Re: The August 17 outage

#127
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect that Microsoft would even prefer to have Github operate at a loss, I assumed it does , do you know that it doesn't?

I presume there’s a lot of companies out there paying GitHub very large sums to host all their private repos.

No doubt. ...You can have non-zero revenue and still be loss-making though.

Re: The August 17 outage

#128
post #95
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most people use GitHub and features for free" Do you have a source for that factoid? (I suspect the vast majority of Github resource usage is paid. And we are upset.)

That sounds unusual for a free platform (not a limited trial but an actual free tier). Isn't it usually the case that only some small percentage can be convinced to pay?

They're arguing that most usage of resources would be by companies, who are presumably paying.
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