Root Access

12:14 AM

@allquixotic: clearly. At least 7 hours a day. at least 13 if you're a westie, and whenever you feel like it if you're a cat... oh wait, different kind of sleep ;p

Bob

@allquixotic Oh god. I'm having flashbacks.

I had to write something in NodeJS (+ node-webkit) for taking screenshots of the current page.

But that also involved cycling through all tabs on the page (single-page webapp) and taking a screenshot every tab.

And of course the tab cycling was async.

The screenshots were async.

Every bloody thing was async.

Horribly nested function callbacks and .defers and setTimeouts

Bob

1:58 AM

blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2015/02/03/10590642.aspx

> Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

4

Journeyman Geek

2:12 AM

0_0

Bob

2:52 AM

@JourneymanGeek Groucho Marx quote, garden path sentence example :P

More common example:

> Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

And there's a pun in there too.

Multiple puns.

Far more than I expected O_O

Journeyman Geek

XD

Bob

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" is a humorous saying that is used in linguistics as an example of a garden path sentence or syntactic ambiguity, and in word play as an example of punning, double entendre, and antanaclasis. == Analysis of the basic ambiguities == "Time flies like an arrow," is an English phrase often used to illustrate syntactic ambiguity. In this connection the sentence is often seen as part of the elaboration: "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana". Contemporary English speakers unambiguously understand the sentence to mean "As a generalisation...

>
(as an imperative) Measure the speed of flies like you would measure that of an arrow - i.e. (You should) time flies as you would time an arrow.
(imperative) Measure the speed of flies like an arrow would - i.e. (You should) time flies in the same manner that an arrow would time them.
(imperative) Measure the speed of flies that are like arrows - i.e. (You should) time those flies that are like an arrow.
(declarative) Time moves in a way an arrow would.
(declarative, i.e. neutrally stating a proposition) Certain flying insects, "time flies," enjoy an arrow.

Psycogeek

3:27 AM

What is, things that dont need to be in a wiki, for $500 bob

Journeyman Geek

3:38 AM

0_0

On the contrary, that's the sort of thing that needs to be in the wiki ;p

radio's playing summer rain. I guess someone needs to go to the loo.

Bob

3:54 AM

@JourneymanGeek ? o.O

Journeyman Geek

XD

Guns and Roses has a track called summer rain. Apparently its played on radio when the dj needs to go to the toilet cause its a longer track ;p

Bob

4:06 AM

@JourneymanGeek ...oh, I was thinking the Belinda Carlisle one

Journeyman Geek

Never heard any of her stuff ;p

Bob

@JourneymanGeek s/their/her/

> The second US single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song, which Carlisle noted was the most difficult song she had ever sung up to that point, peaked successfully at No. 6 in Australia, where it has maintained popularity.

Well. That explains why I hear it so often o.O

Journeyman Geek

;p

Also, the song is called november rain

Bob

huhwhat

Journeyman Geek

November Rain

"November Rain" is a power ballad by American rock band Guns N' Roses, written by lead singer Axl Rose and released as a single in June 1992. It appears on the album Use Your Illusion I. It features a sweeping orchestral backing and is one of Guns N' Roses' longest songs. "November Rain" peaked at number 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the longest song in history to enter the top ten of that chart. == Song == At 8:57, it is the second-longest song on the album, the longest being the 10:16 "Coma." It is the third-longest song by Guns N' Roses, behind the 9:24 "Estranged" from Use...

oops

Bob

4:14 AM

@JourneymanGeek I might know that one, but can't remember and can't listen right now :P

Journeyman Geek

o0. This is a SERIOUSLY oldschool radio channel. We will rock you? That was old when I was a pup

@Bob: Its 8 minutes long. Plenty of time to go park yourself ;p

Journeyman Geek

4:52 AM

I'm vaguely sad I don't have a gif screenshot tool at work. Dell Techdirect has a scrolling marquee site title on their dispatch details

XKCD

God was like, "Let there be light," and there was light.

allquixotic

5:53 AM

@Bob @JourneymanGeek had to do serious internal surgery to my computer to install my Samsung 850 Pro :P

Psycogeek

superuser.com/questions/874364/… <--- spam with about 2 seconds to live

allquixotic

I have it plugged into a slot in a recess built into the top of my case, but originally the slot's SATA cable was plugged into a 3 Gb/s port

I had to remove my second video card so I could controllably insert the SATA cable into the 6 Gb/s port, then reinstall the video card

so I had to: remove the Mini-DP cable from the GPU; turn off the power at the PSU; find something (one of those metal modular bracket covers that covers the back panel for unused slots) to use to loosen the thumb screws because they were too tight; unhook the CrossFireX cable; push the lever to open the PCIe slot; slide out my ~~aircraft carrier~~ R9-280X just enough to expose the 6 Gb/s SATA port; manipulate the SATA cable into place without unplugging anything else; reseat the R9-280X;

reinstall the CrossFireX cable; put in the thumb screws; hook up the mini-DP; turn on the PSU switch; then boot to the BIOS, change the boot order so the RAID card boots first; then reboot.

NOW ATTO benchmark is showing roughly the results I expected based on the anandtech review -- in the ~518 MB/s write, ~560 MB/s read range, instead of ~268 MB/s ... it was actually bottlenecked at the SATA layer before O___O

Bob

o.O

My desktop's SSD doesn't have a slot :P

It's just sitting on a shelf above the HDDs.

Psycogeek

6:09 AM

duct tape :-)

Bob

@Psycogeek Nah, the glue is icky in heat.

Psycogeek

i just shelfed mine too, luckily there is no exposed electronics, or wiring stuff that would mix it up with anything if it start running around the case.

(unlike the HD with the exposed PCB)

Journeyman Geek

7:12 AM

@allquixotic: 0_0

@allquixotic: I just tend to have cables connected into my 6gbs ports and tucked into the right side side of my drive bays. ;p

and yeah, good modern SSDs would do that. Heck, they're close to saturating SATA, which is why we have PCIe and NVM interfaces for SSDs as well

Journeyman Geek

7:39 AM

(Actually, I think I have all the 'motherboard' sata connectors connected. I also have 2 that use a seperate chip that share pci-e channels with something or another

Journeyman Geek

8:07 AM

that was fun. learnt a new command today ^^
lsscsi

Oliver Salzburg

9:05 AM

The Windows 8 start screen is so incredibly useless, I've almost entirely replaced using it with Everything

I would really love to know what kind of pattern matching they're using for their search

Probably the one they use in Bing!!! :D

Journeyman Geek

lol

whootwhoot. I have an excuse to crash a system this weekend ;p

Oliver Salzburg

This is neat

Bob

> JSONx is an IBM® standard format to represent JSON as XML. The appliance converts JSON messages that are specified as JSON message type to JSONx. The appliance provides a style sheet that you can use to convert JSONx to JSON.

Oliver Salzburg

Meaning that it seems to work correctly

Bob

...what the fuck

Journeyman Geek

9:11 AM

upgrading to or in windows 10?

Bob

Represent... JSON... as... XML...

My brain hurts.

Oliver Salzburg

@JourneymanGeek windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/…

Journeyman Geek

ahh ok.

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob <object><property>foo</property><value>bar</value></object>

Journeyman Geek

I suppose you need to extract your install key too?

Oliver Salzburg

9:14 AM

@JourneymanGeek Don't know yet

I want to set up the NUC now

Journeyman Geek

ahh

Oliver Salzburg

Fuck you Clippy! O__O

Psycogeek

"Windows 8.1 isn't designed for PCs running Windows Vista or Windows XP." windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/… Then should we be a little less insistant that people with old crsuty computers do so?

Journeyman Geek

If it came with vista or XP, it should either be in a bin, or running linux ;)

Psycogeek

Or are they just suggesting that you wont be updating it that way without a full re-install

@JourneymanGeek sure then we just replace it $$$ with a nuc :-) seems like the perfect thing for a TV computer , as in one that doesnt connect to the web.

Journeyman Geek

9:24 AM

@Psycogeek: or a raspi 2 or...

Psycogeek

Lots of good full computers with some powerfull processing capablity and everything else all hardware installed ready to go. no memory purchace needed, could use a new drive, , , and some capacitors :-)

Journeyman Geek

heh. I've been considering 'replacing' my raspi B with a odroid C ;p

but my raspi B dosen't do anything anyway.

Psycogeek

to think this way is to also know that everything you buy today will also be on the garbage heap tomorrow.

Journeyman Geek

lol. The raspi probably will have a use. It was just unsuitable for what I wanted to use it for

Psycogeek

10,000 angstroms away from the last possible shrinkage.

meaning as tiny as they have made this stuff, it is amazing how much tinyer moving single atoms around would be.

then it is on to the Quark computing.

Journeyman Geek

9:33 AM

(wanted to move my torrent client there, but ugh, compiling)

Psycogeek

I thought you already did that, and it was not so great?

Journeyman Geek

yeah. Then I used it as a nas

It was... alright.

Psycogeek

Here i always have an extra computer or 2 i could "farm" work out to, and have before, between the hassle of getting the data to process to them, getting the final data back from them, and having to Set-Up and maintain each one, the total gain was . . . was a Pain In the Ass.

I figure it would only work out total to my benefit if it was some endless similarity/repetitions. like folding , Seti , bit coin, and that kind of thing.

Journeyman Geek

My boss got a hamper of CNY goodies. His reaction is hillarious

Oliver Salzburg

wtf

This thing only has Mini-HDMI or whatever it is

And no adapter included

Psycogeek

9:39 AM

CNY = Chinese yen?

Journeyman Geek

chinese new year

Psycogeek

you mean like inclusive of things that go pop boom and bang and fly in the air?

Journeyman Geek

naw, those are actually fun, and illegal here

Psycogeek

eveything is banned here (california dry grass etc) even safe and sane :-( man cant even blow shit up anymore , what "independance and freedom" is that.

So what did he get? paper lanterns and Dragon costumes to dress up the employees ?

Boris_yo

@Psycogeek You think this bonds shoe sole? amazon.com/J-B-Weld-8265S-Original-Reinforced/dp/B0006O1ICE

Psycogeek

9:47 AM

JMGs side job during Chinese New year

Journeyman Geek

@Boris_yo: get contact cement. Use it according to package instructions

Psycogeek

@Boris_yo sure if you want it to be like a chunk of metal. try ShoeGoo

Boris_yo

@JourneymanGeek I don't have contact cement. I have general epoxy and superglue.

Journeyman Geek

superglue may work. You don't want to use epoxy for that

Psycogeek

Barge amazon.com/Barge-Cement-Rubber-Leather-Glass/dp/B002JL2ZHE/… is a good slightly thicker rubberised 2 side Craft cement, shoe goo is better for "filling"

Oliver Salzburg

9:53 AM

Why would I get an "HDMI cable with Ethernet"?

Journeyman Geek

depends. ;p. IIRC the most recent HDMI standard uses that.

Psycogeek

"HDMI 1.4 introduces a feature called HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) among other features.[50][51][80] Like ARC, the HEC feature use two pins from the connector: a previously unused pin and the hot plug detect pin.[80][83]

HDMI Ethernet Channel technology consolidates video, audio, and data streams into a single HDMI cable, and the HEC feature enables IP-based applications over HDMI and provides a bidirectional Ethernet communication at 100 Mbit/s.[51] The physical layer of the Ethernet implementation uses attenuated 100BASE-TX type signals on a single twisted pair for both transmit and recei…

2 way street

backwards compatable to normal HDMI

Bob

10:16 AM

O_O

@JourneymanGeek officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/…

That looks... bulky.

> power rating:15MW;

Wait. I can pump 15 megawatts through this?

Journeyman Geek

Sure. It might melt your entire skull

Journeyman Geek

10:34 AM

Apparently I might have my name on the end titles of mockingjay part2

Psycogeek

10:52 AM

executive producer ? which often refers to anyone who worked long enough for free, or forked over enough money

HackToHell

@JourneymanGeek cooool

You are working on the vfx or something for that movie ?

Journeyman Geek

11:13 AM

Naw. Basically everyone involved is mentioned I think.

@HackToHell I do work for a vfx firm :p

HackToHell

@JourneymanGeek cool, like dreamworks ?

Journeyman Geek

Naw. My job's slightly more secure

(DreamWorks just laid off a ton of folk (

HackToHell

oh

I know a Dota guy who works at dreamworks bangalore

Journeyman Geek

Double negative, we just merged with prime focus

HackToHell

He usually rambles about the stuff they do there

Journeyman Geek

11:16 AM

Ahh. I just fix computers. :p

Eventually I may learn the darker arts of the weird shit we do

Bob

11:46 AM

Hm.

WD Elements 3 TB, USB 3.0 external. $90.

I might pick one up if they still have them on Monday.

Bob

12:01 PM

O_O engadget.com/2015/02/05/one-dollar-lightning-cable

Journeyman Geek

<3 daiso ;p

That Brazilian Guy

HELLO GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

and good night @JourneymanGeek

and good late night @Bob

Bob

lol

'night

That Brazilian Guy

(How come there's no English word for madrugada)

Journeyman Geek

woof

Bob

12:13 PM

@ThatBrazilianGuy @JourneymanGeek's probably more around evening now.

That Brazilian Guy

Evening? My phone says it's 11pm in Australia

Bob

Something like dawn > morning > noon > afternoon > dusk > evening > night > midnight > night > dawn

@ThatBrazilianGuy ...I said @JourneymanGeek, who is in Singapore.

Your "late night" is just night

That Brazilian Guy

Oh. Double "@"'s are confusign

11pm is late night in my book

If a friend calls me at 11pm it better be an emergency

Bob

Oh, it's considered late. Just no special name.

Earlier would be evening.

Journeyman Geek

its quarter past 8 ;p

That Brazilian Guy

12:18 PM

I know, I'm stalking all of you

Journeyman Geek

XD.

That Brazilian Guy

Journeyman Geek

@Bob I love how it says "upside"

Other side should say "cheap" ;p

That Brazilian Guy

@Bob In Portuguese it's a little ~~simpler~~ less sane:

day: from sunrise to 11:59am

evening: 12pm to sunset

madrugada: from a vague really late night to a vague few hours before sunrise

night: from sunset to sunrise

day (yes, day again): period of 24 hours from 12am to 12am

Journeyman Geek

12:41 PM

bleh

this is odd

I made a pair of small purchases online using my debit card a few days ago

It hasn't turned up on my card yet

Boris_yo

Jimmy Wales again asks me for Wikipedia donation. I paid $5 last year but did I get on "donators list" or they really need donations this year?

allquixotic

1:25 PM

@JourneymanGeek it seems that the 850 Pro can saturate 6 Gb/s, since the benchmark numbers are exactly double (for reads, especially) after switching ports

Bob

@ThatBrazilianGuy I'M NOT IN MELBOURNE

allquixotic

it was definitely hitting the SATA limit before, so if it doubled the speed, it's hitting it again

@ThatBrazilianGuy I'M NOT IN NEW YORK

but that's the correct timezone anyway ._.

Bob

Same :P

Though I believe Victoria has different DST dates.

allquixotic

who's Victoria and is she cute?

2

oh wait. Aussieland

the 850 Pro has a gig of DDR2 cache that apparently doesn't make things any faster or slower on a 2 GB (volume, not block size) read

stuff loads SO fast O_O

click Chrome icon -> K, it's up!

Journeyman Geek

lol

allquixotic

1:31 PM

Star Citizen's loading is RAM and GPU-bound now O_O

most of the waiting is apparently the time it takes to transfer all the stuff into VRAM

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: when does the cache help?

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek probably on writing, since the writing is (depending on % of disk full) 5% - 50% slower than reads

Journeyman Geek

ahh

allquixotic

buffer the writes in RAM for a second or two

reads always immediately bump into the SATA ceiling, though

either that, or if you use a tiny block size, transfer overhead (CPU, etc) slows it down

Bob

@allquixotic ...your SSD has more RAM than my RPi

2

allquixotic

1:36 PM

and now my CPU is becoming a bottleneck everywhere :/

Star Citizen is patching at only 92 MB/s, because the binary diff algorithm is eating a CPU thread (4 cores + HT so a process eating 12.5% CPU is pegged)

Bob

@allquixotic So it was worth the $$$? :P

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: also, those things have a 10 year warranty

allquixotic

2:36 PM

@Bob Yes! Now I have a new problem: I need a faster CPU! :P :P

j/k

Journeyman Geek

lol

@allquixotic: I want a nicer monitor, which needs a nicer graphics card...

next thing I know, I have two desktops ;p

allquixotic

I'm committed to not buying a new monitor and GPU until they have affordable FreeSync monitors on the market, and the new GPU die shrink (I always forget the nm number) below 28nm

and I'll probably wait about 6 months after they launch to buy, to ensure good stock availability, the absence of price gouging, and possibly a small discount

not paying a $200 premium for a new GPU again

Journeyman Geek

lol

I'd like to go 4K. Its a bit pricy but meh.

allquixotic

I tend not to buy the highest end monitors. that's one thing where I can live with it being Good but not the best

I really don't want a 4K monitor. they're too demanding on the GPU.

my next upgrade will probably be 1440p ("2K" or 4 x the number of pixels as 720p).

Journeyman Geek

2:51 PM

@allquixotic: heh. That seems conventional wisdom here ;p

I figure I'll save enough for either, then make a decision based on the situation at the time.

allquixotic

looks like the first FreeSync monitors are going to be ~~Tamil Nadu~~ ~~Tennessee~~ twisted nematic (TN)

Journeyman Geek

yeah

Freesync is gamer centric, and TN has some advantages there.

allquixotic

does it?

Journeyman Geek

faster response times

they also iirc have higher refresh... freqencies?

(but all of my current monitors are 60 hz and that seem fine)

allquixotic

I'm probably going to do nothing with this year's tax money except pay off debt. Next year I'll try to get a FreeSync display, a new GPU, and a new motherboard and CPU.

Journeyman Geek

2:55 PM

XD

I figure my current rig is good enough for incremental upgrades

user965347

anyone

hei

allquixotic

honestly, I'm not too worried about having stuff pegging my CPU now (thanks to the 850 Pro eliminating storage as a bottleneck). If a program is going to peg a 3770K core, there's no sense in trying to go beyond that. It's uneconomical.

Journeyman Geek

(and my mom's been nagging me about spending... even before I got paid ;p)

user965347

hei do u know why mysql cant change directory?

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek hehehe

user965347

2:57 PM

datadir=<<somedir>>

Journeyman Geek

lol, I figure I'll try to get more ram when DDR4 comes out, and no one wants DDR3

(until it gets rare and...)

user965347

i got error in starting mysql

in centos 6.5

service mysqld start

it says err 13

Journeyman Geek

The 850 pro sounds like something I want so I can do a sliding upgrade (that goes into my desktop. my 840 goes into my laptop, my laptop HDD goes into my dad's laptop, and his HDD becomes the new drive of impending doom)

user965347

it says the error means mysqld doesnt have a access rights to that directory

allquixotic

@user965347 Check the permissions on the directory, and make sure all parent directories up to the directory root have the execute bit set for everyone.

Journeyman Geek

2:59 PM

probably a 256gb model tho, not a 1tb ;p

allquixotic

MySQL starts as the user mysql by default on CentOS (if I recall), so if that user doesn't have permission, obviously it won't work.

That kind of error simply doesn't happen on a vanilla CentOS install (because the permissions are correct out of the box), so it must be broken due to something you've done.

Journeyman Geek

like moving the directory? ;p

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek o_O

@JourneymanGeek Basically, yes.

@JourneymanGeek that sounds like a LOT of image copying

Journeyman Geek

;p

actually only 2.

the desktop, I can do a recovery (from network)

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek in tests, the 512 GB and 1 TB models performed basically the same, but the ones with fewer NAND dies are slower... splurge for the 512 :P

Journeyman Geek

3:02 PM

the laptop needs some finassing cause its a bigger drive than mY SSD

allquixotic

it's incredible to have something that expensive in that small of a package though

I got it in the box and looked at it and was like "awwwwwwwww" at first, and then "holy !@#($ this thing is worth $608!?!?!?"

it's almost like jewelry now

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: price difference is big.

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek true

but in the US on Amazon, the 850 Pro is marked down by $92 from its launch price

Journeyman Geek

and 256 is enough and I don't need a raging speed demon

allquixotic

@JourneymanGeek I do! :D

Journeyman Geek

3:04 PM

;p

allquixotic

I'm already using about 450 GB on the SSD -- pretty much, all my games and my Chrome profile

KSP loads up so fast it makes me want to cry

the file names just fly by

Journeyman Geek

I'm happy with the performance of my 3tb hdd for local/bulk storage ;p

allquixotic

...at 3000 km/s

just got a terrible, terrible idea

Journeyman Geek

;p

allquixotic

O_O

if I bought an HBA that can do hardware RAID10, I could plug the HBA into my Intel SATA controller and do IRST!

Journeyman Geek

3:06 PM

0_0

allquixotic

nested SATA sounds latency-y, though

Journeyman Geek

ya ;p

and the moment you have a add on HBA, your boot times are shit

granted, our new twenty core workstations take something like 30 seconds to even start booting

(then go through 2 different raid card bioses... then...)

DragonLord

3:27 PM

@JourneymanGeek Staggered spinup, ahoy

Dual-socket Xeon workstations, I suppose

Journeyman Geek

naw. only 2 drives. Its just slow

ya

DragonLord

Brand?

Journeyman Geek

Dell

DragonLord

@JourneymanGeek Figured. Proven Dell workstations.

Pricy, but pretty impressive hardware

Journeyman Geek

lol. we actually need them

and yeah, super pricy

DragonLord

3:31 PM

@allquixotic No wonder why you needed 1 TB

I tend to keep usage down as much as possible

Journeyman Geek

I checked the retail price on the config we use and its something like 8K. Each

DragonLord

@JourneymanGeek ouch!

The CPUs themselves aren't cheap

Journeyman Geek

And I think some of them get colour calibrated monitors

which are also pricy

(and this folks, is what brings your movie magic to the big screen ;p)

That and rooms of artists working their collective asses off ;p

DragonLord

Not sure if I would ever build a PC this powerful, but I'm a gamer and certainly don't need the sorts of compute, workstation video cards, or RAM you guys use :)

I suppose you have 64 GB+ memory

Can't imagine needing more than 32 GB for my personal use

Journeyman Geek

lol

DragonLord

3:40 PM

Nor can I anticipate needing more than 8 cores

Journeyman Geek

yeah.

I think our older systems go up to 192

in theory.

DragonLord

Dell says these machines take up to 512 GB (16x32 GB)

Journeyman Geek

We have between 16 (low end 2x2) to 48 usually

DragonLord

Not that modules with more than 8 GB are even available for non-workstation/server use

Journeyman Geek

XD. workstation boards also have more slots.

DragonLord

3:42 PM

16 GB and 32 GB modules are invariably ECC modules for workstations and servers

At least right now

Journeyman Geek

yeah

(Actually that's one of the things we end up having to work out. Who needs these machines the most)

and that's painfully esoteric

DragonLord

512 GB is the max Windows 8.1 Pro allows

Journeyman Geek

we don't really run windows.

DragonLord

Windows 8.1 Core is capped to 128 GB

Journeyman Geek

Actually our worst machines run windows.

DragonLord

3:44 PM

Then what OS?

Journeyman Geek

Centos

DragonLord

Ahh

Journeyman Geek

(with a ton of oddities which I can't really talk about)

DragonLord

I'm not going to ask for trade secrets or confidential information (e.g. the name of the company you work at), of course, I respect that

Journeyman Geek

yeah.

DragonLord

3:46 PM

Wondering if I would ever need this kind of hardware

You never know if or when you need it

Journeyman Geek

there's stuff floating about what we use

DragonLord

I might not need it now, but as an enthusiast, I might suddenly find myself needing 12+ cores or 64+ GB of memory for a particular workload

Journeyman Geek

lol

DragonLord

Is it ever worth it to overbuild?

Journeyman Geek

hmm

to an extent

DragonLord

3:48 PM

The 24GB of RAM on my laptop isn't always used but I'm very glad I upgraded

Journeyman Geek

I tend to overdesign then pare down

but I doubt there's very much i do at home that needs more than 4 cores

DragonLord

...because I'm running a task that needs the extra RAM

Chess endgame tablebases

kirill-kryukov.com/chess/tablebases-online

I'm generating 6-man TBs for internal use

Not that I'm a big chess player, but they'll be there

Journeyman Geek

ahh

In my own case I find quantity has a quality on its own

I essentially have different systems for different reasons.

(desktop's only got 16, but not quite used all of that. My work system... on the other hand is an old battleaxe with the same amount of ram, that pretty much does nothing but firefox and terminal sessions ;p)

DragonLord

For consumers, fast quad-core processors are more useful than slower 8-core processors

A lot of stuff still can't take full advantage of highly parallel hardware

At least in consumer space

Journeyman Geek

yup

DragonLord

3:53 PM

Hence, not many reasons to spend $1100 on the Core i7-5960X

Journeyman Geek

(and as I see it, if I need 20 cores in the next decade, I'd rather have someone else pay for it ;p)

DragonLord

Most enthusiasts would prefer the i7-5930K

...even if cost is not an issue

Journeyman Geek

I tend to go for 'mainstream' processors

allquixotic

@DragonLord you can realize basically 100% of your read and write speed as long as you have around 40% of the disk free. that's my goal. I'm not planning to load it up much more than it already is, except at a fairly slow trickle

DragonLord

@allquixotic I try to keep SSDs at least 25% free

Mine is about 78% free right now

allquixotic

3:56 PM

@DragonLord YET :P

Journeyman Geek

I think mine's about half free

allquixotic

@DragonLord absolutely! too many goddamn games that peg a single CPU thread -____-

Journeyman Geek

but I'm pretty agressive about keeping my transient files elsewhere

allquixotic

*shakes a tiny fist*

DragonLord

Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood seems a bit better in this regard but still can't use more than 4 cores

Mostly limited to 2

allquixotic

3:58 PM

@DragonLord actually, it's always fully utilized. the amount that's free is being used as a giant optimization cache to reduce HDD/SSD reads (and DDR3 is way, way faster than even a drive that runs at the SATA 6 Gb/s limit constantly)

Journeyman Geek

yup

allquixotic

@DragonLord certain parts of certain games use more threads; fortunately strategy games have figured out how to multithread the AI in recent iterations

but the loading screens are almost always single-threaded

Journeyman Geek

eww. loading screens

allquixotic

I've been on a crusade to cut down some of my loading screens lately

which was a big motivator for the 850 Pro

with storage and seek time removed as a bottleneck, it still takes a good bit to load (a lot of that is CPU and GPU bottlenecks), but it's a lot faster than when I could hear the HDDs grinding to service all the seeks and reads

DragonLord

For what it's worth, the SSD 850 PRO performs very well even when nearly full

My machine is almost always CPU-bound

Even with tasks like virus scans

allquixotic

4:00 PM

@DragonLord yeah, true, I'm not planning to take it to that limit though.... if things get too cramped, I can move games I play less frequently, or games that don't exhibit long load times even on the HDD, back over to the RAID array

DragonLord

I kept the stock WD Black hard drive for precisely this reason

allquixotic

well, single-threaded CPU performance has hit a pretty hard brick wall since 2009 or so... it's getting better, but the exponential increases are pretty much finished or are very, very shallowly exponential (1-2% per year or so)

everything else in the system keeps getting faster

the maximum perf of a single CPU thread that's available on the market hasn't seen a game-changing increase since Sandy Bridge

DragonLord

I'm taking a graduate-level parallel-computing course and they say we're practically done with single-core scaling.

allquixotic

-____-

gdit

I'm fine with games and programs continuing to have higher CPU demands as time goes on, but if they're going to do that, they need to think long and hard about multithreading that shit so I don't have to wait 10 minutes to load

DragonLord

Sadly, getting software to properly use multiple cores is really hard

Race conditions are just part of the problem

There are parts of software that you can't even parallelize

HackToHell

5:46 PM

4

DragonLord

@HackToHell LOL

Optical disc ejecting freaks the cat out for a moment

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