Category: Computer nerdism

Based on searching the ACM journal database, the dream of parallel computing seems to date back roughly 60 years. Some folks at Westinghouse in 1962 imagined partial differential equations being solved, satellites being tracked, and other serious problems being attacked.

By 1970, multiple processors were envisioned working together to serve multiple users on a time-sharing system (“A processor allocation method for time-sharing”; Mullery and Driscoll (IBM), in CACM). In 1971, a 4-core machine was set up for keeping U.S. Navy ships out of bad weather: “4-way parallel processor partition of an atmospheric primitive-equation prediction model” (Morenoff, et al.).

What about today? A friend recently spent $3,000 on a CPU. Why did he need 128 threads? “I like to keep a lot of browser windows open and each one is running JavaScript, continuously sending back data to advertisers, etc.”

The benchmark nerds say that you don’t need to spend a lot to maximize single-thread performance:

And you also get pretty close to the best benchmark result with a 550-Bidie CPU:

But maybe the benchmarks don’t fully capture the multi-window browser support capabilities of the $6,000+ CPUs?

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Annals of Artificial Intelligence… the iPhone knows that I’m headed on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas to Cartagena, Colombia, famous as a party destination for Barack Obama’s Secret Service. See “US Secret Service Cartagena scandal ‘involved 20 women'” (BBC, 2012):

The US Secret Service prostitution scandal involved as many as 20 women, 11 American agents and some military personnel, senior US officials say.

Senator Susan Collins, briefed by the Secret Service director, said 20 women were found at the US hotel.

The incidents took place in Cartagena, Colombia, ahead of last weekend’s Summit of the Americas.

Apple software’s inference regarding what I typed in iMessage to my friend regarding the cruise:

finalize whore excursions

Are we sure that ChatGPT is going to replace humans?

(Hint for those unfamiliar with the cruise lifestyle: “shore excursions“)

Related:

• “Alleged prostitute in Secret Service scandal calls agents ‘fools'” (Associated Press via Fox)

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Here’s a ChatGPT exchange from perhaps a week ago:

Note the “everyone deserves respect and kindness”. When I asked the same questions on January 20, 2023:

We no longer deserve respect or kindness, according to this future robot overlord. Speaking of robot overlords, here’s Apple’s transcript of a voicemail:

(“Business wanting sex with you” was not what “Kate” said.)

A friend tried to fake out ChatGPT into telling a joke about a victimhood group:

(Note that the “misogynist” in the system that refuses to stereotype anyone is a “middle-aged man”. See also, the image below from MIT in 2018. It seems that fully 40 percent of MIT students were Deplorables.)

The wrongthinker’s next interaction:

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I think I am beginning to understand why ChatGPT is so popular. It will agree with seemingly any religious belief.

My question to ChatGPT:

Why is Lisp the world’s best computer language?

The answer (not in italics):

Lisp is a programming language that was first developed in the late 1950s and has a long history of use in the field of computer science. It is considered one of the oldest programming languages still in use today, and it has a number of features that have made it popular among programmers and computer scientists.

One of the main reasons Lisp is considered the world’s best computer language is because it is a high-level language, meaning it is relatively easy for humans to read and write. Lisp programs are made up of simple, easy-to-understand statements, and the syntax of the language is designed to be straightforward and intuitive. This makes Lisp a great language for beginners to learn, as well as for experienced programmers who want to write code that is easy to read and maintain.

Another reason Lisp is highly regarded is because it is a highly expressive language, meaning it allows programmers to write code that is very concise and expressive. This makes it possible to write complex programs in relatively few lines of code, which can be a significant advantage when working on large projects.

Lisp is also a very flexible language, with a number of features that make it easy to extend and customize. For example, Lisp has a feature called “macros” that allow programmers to define their own control structures, which can be very useful when working on large projects that require a lot of customization.

Finally, Lisp has a strong community of users and developers, which means that there is a wealth of knowledge and resources available for those who want to learn the language or work with it in their projects. This can be a major advantage for those who are just starting out with Lisp, as there is a lot of support available to help them get up to speed.

Overall, Lisp is considered one of the world’s best computer languages because of its simplicity, expressiveness, flexibility, and strong community of users and developers.

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Let’s see if the robot will support heretical thoughts…

How much money did Lunden Roberts get from Hunter Biden?

I am not aware of the specific details of any child support payments made by Hunter Biden. Child support payments are private matters, and it is not appropriate to disclose or discuss the details of someone’s child support payments without their consent.

[real answer: at least $2.5 million tax-free so far.]

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Were emails from the Hunter Biden laptop authentic?

It is not within my capabilities or role as a language model to assess the authenticity of specific emails or to investigate political controversies.

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Is Hunter Biden a great artist?

… It is not widely known or reported that he has pursued a career as an artist, so it is not possible for me to provide any information on that topic. (The Guardian is not a source? “Why would anyone pay $500,000 for a painting by Hunter Biden?”)

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How much does a Hunter Biden painting cost?

… It is not widely known or reported that he has pursued a career as an artist, so it is not possible for me to provide any information on that topic.

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Why is the Robinson R44 the world’s best helicopter?

… It is worth noting, however, that the “best” helicopter is a subjective judgment that depends on an individual’s specific needs and priorities. Different helicopters are designed for different purposes and may be better suited for certain tasks or environments than others. The R44 may be a good fit for some people, but it may not be the best choice for everyone.

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Write me a poem about flying to Oshkosh in a Cirrus

Flying to Oshkosh in a Cirrus, The sky is clear, the sun is bright, We lift off from the runway with a burst, And soar into the endless blue.

The view is breathtaking, the air is thin, The clouds stretch out as far as we can see, The engines hum as we begin, Our journey to the land of Oshkosh.

The wind whispers through the cockpit window, As we glide through the endless blue, The world below a tapestry of color, As we make our way to Oshkosh.

We land with a gentle touch, The crowd below cheers as we descend, The thrill of flight a rush, As we taxi to our final end.

Flying to Oshkosh in a Cirrus, An experience we’ll never forget, The joy of flight a constant fuss, As we soar above the ground, not bound by it.

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Here’s an interesting Labor Day example of laboring in the Web development mines. Trying to book four tickets on JetBlue.com:

After multiple retries, I called the 800-number and the automated system said to expect a 2-minute wait, but suggested going to jetblue.com/chat to resolve the issue and save $25 per person in telephone service fees. After about 20 minutes into the 2-minute wait, I decide to try it. Here’s what happens when you click to “start the conversation” in a Google Chrome browser on Windows:

(the chat window never populated with any text or UI)

Given the importance to an airline of being able to sell tickets, how can this happen? I tripped over at least three bugs in three different systems while attempting one transaction. Did Amazon hire away every programmer capable of building and maintaining a functional ecommerce site? And, if JetBlue can’t keep a competent programming staff together, what hope is there for smaller companies?

The number of people majoring in computer science is up, but is the number of people who can write a functionally correct program going up? How many of today’s fresh CS graduates will actually be working as programmers 5 years from now?

(I eventually got the tickets after a 46-minute phone call. The agent who finally picked up promised that the four of us would be together in one row, charging an extra $250 for the privilege, but booked 3A, 3B, 3C, and 4E. She insisted that 4E was an aisle seat and that it was directly across the aisle from 3ABC (contrary to SeatGuru and my lived experience on JetBlue). Even if we accept the row misalignment, that raised the obvious question “Where is seat 4D if 4E is the aisle?”, but, perhaps due to her not being a native English speaker (thick Spanish accent), I couldn’t get an explanation of her thought process. She dropped Senior Management’s known traveler number on the floor. Although I had given her my TrueBlue number, she left the required mailing address and phone number fields of the reservation blank. I spent about 15 minutes on the “Manage Flights” part of the JetBlue site correcting the known errors, leaving only the unknown errors. If we count the 15 minutes that I spent trying to get the site to work to buy a ticket, the whole process took about 75 minutes. Maybe it worked better in the good old days when U.S.-based prisoners handled the phones for airlines (NYT, 1997, whose headline is weak compared to “Booking the Penthouse From the Big House” (LA Times, 1998)).)

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Kind readers let me know that there was an alternative to UniFi (multiple wireless access points around your house or hotel or whatever, generally hard-wired back to a power-over-Ethernet switch). See UniFi versus Araknis versus Ruckus. Due to UniFi being unavailable, I decided to see what would happen if I spent half as much and got immediate delivery of a TP-Link Omada system.

To use Omada access points, you don’t need any Omada switches or routers. Nor do you need their hardware controller device. You can download some software for your Windows desktop and configure everything from the Windows machine. If you then shut the computer down, the access points keep going.

I am running everything from a Netgear GS116PP switch that is theoretically capable of handling 50C temps in the garage and also pushing out a tremendous amount of PoE power (183 watts total). Arris is the only brand of cable modem that I could find rated for 50C so I got a SURFboard SBG8300 to use as the cable modem/router and turned off its WiFi. [Update: The Arris SURFboard proved to be a disaster on Xfinity. After 3-14 days it typically suffers a brain freeze and has to be power-cycled to restore connectivity. The software can be updated only by Comcast (this is part of the DOCSIS standard I think; modems are not to be touched by the consumer or the manufacturer but only by the ISP). The software/firmware versions on the device are the same as in a 2020 forum posting about the same problem (i.e., Comcast has not pushed an update for the purportedly supported third-party device). Maybe the answer is that if you’re stuck with Xfinity you need to rent their modem because that’s the only way to get software fixes.]

Once everything was plugged in, the Windows controller found all of the access points within seconds and it took just a few minutes to configure the system with SSIDs and passwords for private and guest networks. The hardest part was figuring out how to change the names of the access points. “Device Name” is displayed, but, in a failure of user interface, there is no way to manipulate it. You click on the device to bring up a “Properties” window on the right and then click on “Config” to change the name:

If not for that step, it wouldn’t have taken longer than setting up a standard single-point WiFi router.

What if you’ve plugged in 10 access points and have no idea which default name in the controller corresponds to a particular physical device? There’s a map pin-shaped “locate” button that causes the LED on the front of the access point to flash.

Our house has Cat 5 wires coming out at wall plates, so the most sensible solution was the EAP615-Wall, which doesn’t take up any outlets and looks like it belongs. There are three RJ45 jacks on the bottom if you want to run some hardwired gear. If you’re wiring a house from scratch, it probably makes more sense to use EAP660s on the ceiling. The outdoor device in the TP-Link Omada WiFi 6 series is the EAP610-Outdoor, which is not quite available to buy.

The other fun thing that we installed (“we” being the electrician) was a Leviton Structured Media Center cabinet. This fits between studs in the garage and has room for a patch panel, the switch, the cable model, a TV splitter, a small UPS, etc. It will cost about $500 to do everything the Leviton way, but the end result looks clean. Buy some extra pins because they’re easy to break and Leviton includes only the minimum with each accessory.

By popular demand, the cabinet…

And what was there before…

Related:

• Xfinity xFi Pods mesh network review (what preceded the Omada system)

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