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00:00 - 19:0019:00 - 00:00

allquixotic
allquixotic
7:03 PM
@bertieb true that, but aren't 10 GbE chips still rather expensive to manufacture and power-hungry?
I don't want to pay $500 for a motherboard because $250 of it is a super high-end 10 GbE chip
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
lol
 
bertieb
bertieb
If 10GbE connections were common, volume would start to increase and chip price should in theory come down
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
when you're spending £300/mo on your internet connection, i don't think you care that much about the power.
 
bertieb
bertieb
But yeah, still pricey at the mo
 
allquixotic
allquixotic
my internet connection is gigabit in both directions in theory, but I get a bit less because of dynamic QoS preventing stalls
 
bertieb
bertieb
7:05 PM
@djsmiley2k Hyperoptic's 1GbE connection is about the same price as my current FTTC contract
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
:O
how much are they?
atm i'm paying like £25/mo for 100Mbit
 
bertieb
bertieb
48 quid / mo first 12 months
60 quid thereafter
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
for 10Gbe?!
:O
 
bertieb
bertieb
150MB fibre is 31/35
1GbE
Their 10GbE is proof-of-concept and pricing plans are not available for that :P
Feh, VM's fastest home conenction is 300/20, disappointing upload throughput that
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
if you want good upload, have to go business...
tho tbh that's fair enough imo
 
bertieb
bertieb
7:12 PM
VM's business lines go "up to" 20Mbit also
(I checked :P)
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
lol no
we had 500Mbit over 1Gb carrier from VM, when I worked in brum, errrr 12 years ago? maybe more
 
bertieb
bertieb
I know what you mean, proper business
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
dual homed, with a BT provided backup line of 500Mbit on 500Mbit carrier
then again it was like £30k/annum
 
bertieb
bertieb
Aye; they call it "Managed internet access" and you have to ask them for a quote
Their fastest "off the shelf" business broadband is up to 20meg
23
A: Why upload rates are lower than download rates in normal internet connections?

Jon SkeetMost broadband services use ADSL: asymmetric digital subscriber line. The "asymmetric" bit of that refers to the asymmetric bandwidth, i.e. the upload bandwidth isn't the same as the download bandwidth. From the referenced wikipedia article: There are both technical and marketing reasons ...

Do we need an update to this?
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
it should likely explain why ftt[c|h] and cable often aren't symmetric iether
 
bertieb
bertieb
7:14 PM
I VTR'd superuser.com/questions/1038209/… on the basis that the nearly 9 year old question dealt with exlusively ADSL, not fibre etc
But yeah, updated answer or separate question
(Jon Skeet-ness notwithstanding)
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
the answer below is actually more correct these days lol
 
bertieb
bertieb
The "people download more than they upload so connections are that way" one?
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
yeah
Of course, that too is slowly changing
 
bertieb
bertieb
It's a bit circular for my liking
> it is the way it is because if it wasn't the way it is it wouldn't be the way it is
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
but even with people using stuff to backup to 'the cloud', there's still a huge discrepancy towards download.
 
bertieb
bertieb
7:18 PM
(H/T Black Books)
But aye, cloud stuff, Twitch etc
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
well it's the way content consumption works
 
bertieb
bertieb
Aye but you never know what people will do until you give them the ability and opportunity
 
djsmiley2k
djsmiley2k
Nod
 
bertieb
bertieb
Hey ho
A more technical answer written well by someone in the know (not I) would get an up boat vote from me, FWIW
If there is such an answer; most places do the whole "people want more download than upload"
I guess there's scope for a slightly different question
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
7:36 PM
...and I'm buying a PrimoCache license, 21 days into a 60-day trial. It noticeably increased performance and shaved a significant amount of I/O from the disk during routine Windows updates on the cheap netbook. (@Bob)
 
Canadian Luke
Canadian Luke
7:47 PM
@bwDraco Is it a proxy server?
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
No. I bought this Lenovo Flex 4-1130 as a low-cost device for lighter use and for travel.
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
8:01 PM
(using a sacrificial SSD originally purchased for a different laptop, connected via USB 3.0 through an enclosure, for caching and write buffering)
1
Q: Using a portable SSD to divert or reduce writes to system storage on a low-memory Windows 10 laptop

bwDracoTL;DR Is there a way to use a USB 3.0 portable SSD to reduce writing to an inexpensive laptop's low-capacity eMMC storage? The system has only 2 GB of RAM, so paging is often unavoidable, resulting in more writes than would otherwise occur to the already fragile TLC NAND. Background This que...

ssd performance usb-flash-drive cache windows-10-v1703
Enclosure is USB 3.1 Gen 2 (confirmed on Astaroth), but Bifrons only supports USB 3.0. The performance difference is minimal, though.
 
allquixotic
allquixotic
@bwDraco are you talking about using a portable SSD as pagefile to augment RAM, or are you talking about tiered storage?
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
@allquixotic Not exactly as pagefile, but as a read/write cache and as a write buffer which reduces redundant writes to the same LBAs and combines random writes into larger sequential writes, both of which increase the endurance of the system volume.
PrimoCache works in kernel mode at the block level. It basically intercepts every I/O that goes to the system volume and directs it to the cache.
Last I checked, @Bob runs PrimoCache on his desktop.
A major new feature in version 3.0 is the ability to use the cache volume as a defer-write buffer. Previously, only RAM could be used for this purpose, and the cache volume could only be used for read caching.
 
Canadian Luke
Canadian Luke
8:17 PM
Cool
 
allquixotic
allquixotic
so basically doing in software what Adaptec maxCache 3.0 does in hardware
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
But do note...
> Note that this kind of write buffering carries the risk of data loss or corruption in the event of a system crash so it's not suited for mission-critical applications.
 
allquixotic
allquixotic
yeah, that's why maxCache has either a battery backup unit or does synchronous writes to a small, high endurance, high speed SSD called the flash cache
@bwDraco how does that impact IOPS throughput and individual I/O latency? especially with the "retpoline" of meltdown/spectre mitigation, we're getting to the point where each I/O does a bouncy-bouncy-bouncy-bouncy-bouncy before it actually completes
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
An enterprise RAID card is very different technology.
 
allquixotic
allquixotic
not to mention AV scanners
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
8:21 PM
Eh, it's going to bottleneck the cache volume, but the laptop's eMMC is slow enough with random I/O that it still winds up being faster.
 
Michael Frank
Michael Frank
8:48 PM
It's just going around in a circle! D:
 
bertieb
bertieb
It's turtles Technet all the way down around
 
 
1 hour later…
Canadian Luke
Canadian Luke
10:17 PM
!!google recursion
 
Bob
Bob
10:30 PM
morn
@bwDraco used to run it read-only, but when I checked a couple weeks ago it apparently got disabled at some point
I need to install an updated version sometime
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
roar
 
Bob
Bob
used to run my os off raid1 + primocache
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
I had one case of data corruption earlier, but that was due to a BSOD triggered by the Wi-Fi driver after disabling the cache to allow the portable SSD to be removed.
 
Bob
Bob
moved os to ssd on win10 and left the cached raid for storage
probably could've switched to intel's caching but too lazy
 
bwDraco
bwDraco
I've yet to determine if the Wi-Fi problems are truly solved, but things seem okay after reverting to the inbox driver.
 
Bob
Bob
10:34 PM
couldn't on older board cause the sata 2 and 3 ports were independent but new board would've handled that fine
@bwDraco yea I think I switched to read only after something made the drive unbootable
course, that was early days... recent versions have had a lot of bug fixes
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:08 PM
we came 2nd to last in the quiz
quick question for the former colonies: which would you rather have? Prince Charles or an Elected official as head of the commonwealth?
@CanadianLuke @JourneymanGeek
@Bob
@jokerdino @rahuldottech
@MichaelFrank
 
Bob
Bob
@Burgi As figurehead? Prince Charles.
Cause have fun fairly electing one across half a dozen countries.
 
Burgi
Burgi
58 countries are in the commonwealth and not all of them are democracies
its been on the news here all day
just thought i'd canvas opinion
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Bob I was reading about the past UN secretaries general, seems like a whole bucnh of back-and-forth to get someone elected for sure
 
Bob
Bob
@bertieb Also said figurehead (here) is supposed to be a check on the government.
 
Burgi
Burgi
they had the president of cyprus on the radio and he was very much for an elected head of the commonwealth
 
Bob
Bob
11:14 PM
If the gov fucks up badly enough, they can force an election.
Having yet another elected politician in that position ... sounds like a bad idea.
Same reason US supreme court isn't elected, basically.
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Bob Ah, head of commonwealth has that role? I thought it was for the... whatchacallit
The thing the internet wanted Shatner to be for Canada
Hmm
 
Bob
Bob
@bertieb Technically the Governor-General here. But technically-technically he represents the monarch.
 
bertieb
bertieb
Governer General is the thing I'm thinking of
 
Burgi
Burgi
his idea was that the head of the commonwealth could draw on almost 2 billion people to effectively do the head of it
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Burgi doesn't particularly matter to me? :P
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:16 PM
@JourneymanGeek is SG not in the commonwealth?
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Bob Yeah, that's the one... I thought the role got renamed to be something a bit less... colonial overlordy :P
 
Bob
Bob
@Burgi I'm not sure if that's malicious or naive.
 
Burgi
Burgi
probably naive
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Burgi we don't really make a big deal of it
 
Bob
Bob
"you have 2 billion people to pick from!" translates more to "here, pick from like 10 candidates who could afford to make themselves visible"
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:17 PM
i'll be honest i was on the fence about the topic
 
Bob
Bob
10 if you're lucky. more likely less than 5
and you know the political fighting is going to get messy
 
Burgi
Burgi
is the political fighting going to be less if prince charles is head of the commonwealth?
 
Bob
Bob
@Burgi well, the movement to make AU a republic might (?) go through, but more likely we'll just keep status quo
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
And we have our own, allegedly elected head of state and our government considers gerrymandering an artform
 
Bob
Bob
Maybe too cynical but elected officials these days are never "ordinary people"
Just whoever can pay more and lie better
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:19 PM
my thinking is that if the commonwealth more of a political bloc like the EU or the UN the argument for an elected head would be stronger
given that its just effectively a loose trading club maybe a ceremonial head might be the better option
is SG actually a true democracy?
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Burgi hmm. IMO, no
 
Burgi
Burgi
thats what i thought
 
Bob
Bob
@Burgi you're gonna have to define "true democracy" too
cause I don't think any country is a true democracy
 
Burgi
Burgi
parlimentary democracy?
 
Bob
Bob
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:23 PM
the UK, Aus, NZ etc?
idk
my thinking is that maybe they should retain an unelected head of commonwealth for the next 20 years or so but have it written into law that they should start moving towards a democracy
the plus side for prince charles is that he is pretty much neutral
 
bertieb
bertieb
He's into some interesting stuff, which he's lobbied ministers about
Homeopathy / alternative medicine and such
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Burgi eeww
 
Burgi
Burgi
the downside is that he would only represent less than 0.7% the population of the commonwealth
 
bertieb
bertieb
I'm not sure the monarchy 'represent' anyone :P
 
Burgi
Burgi
you know what i mean
 
bertieb
bertieb
11:29 PM
Not sure- if he succeeds Lizzie he'd technically be HoS for a whole bunch of places still
(assuming their governments ratify the succession)
(and there's no adoption of republicanism)
There was an article about the succession recently
 
Burgi
Burgi
there was a very angry indian lady on the radio saying that the commonwealth was neocolonialism but she was countered by some guy from fiji or somehting
basically his argument was that being in the commonwealth afford his citizens extra rights and access to trade markets they would otherwise be excluded from
 
bertieb
bertieb
That's an argument for further trade integration etc
I still don't think NZ forgave us for abandoning their butter when we started to buy from EU instead
 
Bob
Bob
10
Q: Is Starman in the Tesla Roadster a real human?

Chandu GamageI first need to know if starman is a real human or a robot. If he is a real human, how does he live? How many years can he live in that car?

spacex falcon-heavy starman
 
Burgi
Burgi
i found it a really interesting debate that i thought i could gain extra insight to with the large commonwealth population of the channel
 
Bob
Bob
@Burgi You also have to remember that outside of the UK-centric view each country an independently choose their head of state.
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:34 PM
see that is valuable insight that i hadn't considered
 
Bob
Bob
Can't remember what's in the AU constitution but there's nothing the UK can do to stop us from either keeping or removing the AU monarch
 
Burgi
Burgi
india liked the trade arrangement but wanted to be a republic so they invented the commonwealth
 
Bob
Bob
e.g. completely distinct from her other roles, she is Queen of Australia
 
Burgi
Burgi
empress of india also iirc
 
bertieb
bertieb
^^ that was the point the article was making
Could end up in a situation with different monarchs of different places
and /r/paradoxplaza would have a collective nerdgasm
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:36 PM
lets be honest, in the UK we love prince phillip
but he is extremely racist
 
bertieb
bertieb
(CK2 is a fun game and I would recommend it heartily, FWIW)
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Burgi not any more.
 
Bob
Bob
@bertieb Yea, there's been talk of it, but it didn't pass last time. Was fairly close then, though.
Australian republic referendum, 1999
The Australian republic referendum held on 6 November 1999 was a two-question referendum to amend the Constitution of Australia. The first question asked whether Australia should become a republic with a President appointed by Parliament following a bi-partisan appointment model which had been approved by a half-elected, half-appointed Constitutional Convention held in Canberra in February 1998. The second question, generally deemed to be far less important politically, asked whether Australia should alter the Constitution to insert a preamble. For some years opinion polls had suggested that a...
 
bertieb
bertieb
That's another debate
He says or has said some odd stuff but I'm not sure he's on the same level as whatsisface who shot Jo Cox, for example
 
Burgi
Burgi
@Bob the no campaign inhaled too many fumes from the sheep dip.... ;)
 
Bob
Bob
11:39 PM
Whether each country decides to become a republic on either own is far more significant than any elected "head of the commonwealth"
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Bob I think y'all are playing it collectively safe in case there's another Emu War :-P
(I keed, I keed)
 
Burgi
Burgi
says the scot
 
Louis
Louis
Is this dialog some kind of artifact from a previous version of Windows?
 
Burgi
Burgi
no
 
bertieb
bertieb
Hey, just cause we invaded you, panicked because there was plague, came home and wiped out a third of our own population doesn't mean we aren't good at warfare!
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:40 PM
its dialogue about a current world event
 
Louis
Louis
lol
oh, never mind then
 
Burgi
Burgi
;P
@Louis looks like vista to me
 
Louis
Louis
Yeah, the ribbon is Vista-like... makes the text up there hard to see
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Bob we have always had a non royal head of state since the post colonial era
 
Louis
Louis
Wondering if it's just my computer that does this
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
11:43 PM
So imo not critical
 
Burgi
Burgi
@bertieb i think your downfall came from the fact that you gave all your money to a known fraudster who promised you a scottish colony in south america then ran away with it
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Burgi Unrelated to invasion but okay
Gotta get dem colonies
 
Burgi
Burgi
but more relevant
 
bertieb
bertieb
To wha?
 
Burgi
Burgi
can't run a country without the monies
 
bertieb
bertieb
11:44 PM
Ah!
And some people say the English look down on Scotland :P
Not a bit of it :D
 
Burgi
Burgi
in the signing of the act of union, England (the UK) took responsibilty for Scotland's debts
almost all of which related to scotland's failed attempts at colonialism
 
bertieb
bertieb
Yeah, it was something like 1/4 of the entire country's output
Possibly more, been a while since I read up on it
 
Burgi
Burgi
tall, fair skinned gingers were never going to cope with the south american sun/heat... ;)
 
FML Cat
FML Cat
Yay! Go Scotland!
 
Burgi
Burgi
it was one of the arguments they used in the independence debate
 
FML Cat
FML Cat
11:48 PM
That we should colonise South America?
 
bertieb
bertieb
I think it was the tropical diseases and such, wasn't the most habitable for the uninitiated
 
Burgi
Burgi
some professor somewhere figured out that based on the interest at the time scotland would be in more debt than yeman or the sudan today without the act of union
 
bertieb
bertieb
Sounds legit
 
Burgi
Burgi
that said, England wouldn't be one of the world's top economies without the raping and pillaging done during the 17th, 18th and 19th century
<.<
as the only englishman here...
 
FML Cat
FML Cat
So, you're saying we should rape and pillage South America?
 
Burgi
Burgi
11:53 PM
RULE BRITANNIA
@FMLCat no we tried that, the spanish and Portuguese beat us to it
 
Michael Frank
Michael Frank
@Burgi I don't really care, tbh. Did the Queen die or something?
 
FML Cat
FML Cat
Search Amazon for E5823 battery, none of the results are an E5823 battery. Or any sort of battery.
 
Burgi
Burgi
@MichaelFrank no but it is a serious question because she is in her early 90s
and it will throw a lot of smaller countries into trouble because they haven't actually declared a head of state
 
FML Cat
FML Cat
aka she's exceeded her life expectancy
 
Burgi
Burgi
yes
 
Michael Frank
Michael Frank
11:57 PM
@Burgi I fully expect her to live forever.
 
Burgi
Burgi
:O
 
Michael Frank
Michael Frank
Or at least until Charles karks it. nod
 
Burgi
Burgi
i thought all kiwis were staunch republicians
frodo isn't eligible to be your head of state btw
 
bertieb
bertieb
@Burgi Have you been reading How to Win Friends and Influence People ?
:P
 
Burgi
Burgi
:)
 
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