qupada
@qupada@kbin.social
- Comment on Just a bunch of enclosures 7 months ago:
Came to post the same. Seems like the most awkward possible way to phrase that.
Your "Disks not included" suggestion, or heck, just "empty" would surely be better.
- Comment on A DisplayPort Port That You Can Plug HDMI Into 8 months ago:
eSATAp! What a wild combination.
Not actually a terrible idea, even if it frequently was limited to powering 2.5" drives due to a lack of 12V. Some had extra contacts for that, but most that I saw didn't.
- Comment on Samsung purposely knives customer's TV to weasel out of repair 9 months ago:
From the video description:
I have been a Samsung product user for many years, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon
And all sympathy I had for this person just vanished. If you don't demand better, they will keep doing - and getting away with - shit like this.
Voting with your wallet might be the one voice you have left in this world, what a way to squander it by continuing to buy products from companies whose representatives behave in this manner.
- Comment on Mark Zuckerberg indicates Meta is spending billions of dollars on Nvidia AI chips 9 months ago:
The estimated training time for GPT-4 is 90 days though.
Assuming you could scale that linearly with the amount of hardware, you'd get it down to about 3.5 days. From four times a year to twice a week.
If you're scrambling to get ahead of the competition, being able to iterate that quickly could very much be worth the money.
- Comment on Mark Zuckerberg indicates Meta is spending billions of dollars on Nvidia AI chips 9 months ago:
And spatulas. Don't forget the spatulas.
- Comment on Minisforum MS-01 announced. 2x10g sfp, 2x2.5gbe, pci slot, 3xm2 slots. 2xUSB4 40g. What do we think? 10 months ago:
I'd be curious to see how much cooling a SAS HBA would get in there. Looking at Broadcom's 8 external port offerings, the 9300-8e reports 14.5W typical power consumption, 9400-8e 9.5W, and 9500-8e only 6.1W. If you were considering one of these, definitely seems it'd be worth dropping the money on the newest model of HBA.
I'm definitely curious, would only personally need it to be NAS + Plex server for which either of the CPUs they're offering is a bit overkill, but it's nice that it fits a decent amount of RAM, and you're not forced to choose between adding storage or networking.
- Comment on Minisforum MS-01 announced. 2x10g sfp, 2x2.5gbe, pci slot, 3xm2 slots. 2xUSB4 40g. What do we think? 10 months ago:
Single-sided drives can be up to 4TB though, no?
- Comment on Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards for the first time since 1994 10 months ago:
It was linked a little up thread, but since you're (probably) referring to the "Space-cadet" keyboard, it was seven.
Technically, they drew a distinction between the "shift" keys (of which there were three), and the other modifiers (four).
In modern times (or for Linux at least), Meta has essentially coalesced with Alt, so the modifiers we've retained are Control, Alt, and Super (Windows), with only "Hyper" having been lost along the way.
The remaining two shifts (also lost to time) were "Top" (symbols) and "Front" (Greek), with the Greek supporting combining with shift (there's a table on that Wiki page).
- Comment on [deleted] 10 months ago:
I was going to write a rebuttal. And then I decided that the "zero points" speech from Billy Madison will suffice.
- Comment on Toshiba exec claims hard drives are 7X cheaper than SSDs and will continually evolve for large datacenters 10 months ago:
Not in so much detail, but it's also really hard to define unless you've one specific metric you're trying to hit.
Aside from the included power/cooling costs, we're not (overly) constrained by space in our own datacentre so there's no strict requirement for minimising the physical space other than for our own gratification. With HDD capacities steadily rising, as older systems are retired the total possible storage space increases accordingly..
The performance of the disk system when adequately provisioned with RAM and SSD cache is honestly pretty good too, and assuming the cache tiers are adequate to hold the working set across the entire storage fleet (you could never have just one multi-petabyte system) the abysmal performance of HDDs really doesn't come into it (filesystems like ZFS coalesce random writes into periodic sequential writes, and sequential performance is... adequate).
Not mentioned too is the support costs - which typically start in the range of 10-15% of the hardware price per year - do eventually have an upward curve. For one brand we use, the per-terabyte cost bottoms out at 7 years of ownership then starts to increase again as yearly support costs for older hardware also rise. But you always have the option to pay the inflated price and keep it, if you're not ready to replace.
And again with the QLC, you're paying for density more than you are for performance. On every fair metric you can imagine aside from the TB/RU density - latency, throughput/capacity, capacity/watt, capacity/dollar - there are a few tens of percent in it at most.
- Comment on Toshiba exec claims hard drives are 7X cheaper than SSDs and will continually evolve for large datacenters 10 months ago:
Being in an HPC-adjacent field, can confirm.
Looking forward to LTO10, which ought to be not far away.
The majority of what we've got our eye on for FY '24 are SSD systems, and I expect in '25 it'll be everything.
- Comment on Toshiba exec claims hard drives are 7X cheaper than SSDs and will continually evolve for large datacenters 10 months ago:
There's some space occupied by the servo tracks (which align the heads to the tap) in LTO, but if we ignore that...
Current-generation LTO9 has 1035m of 12.65mm wide tape, for 18TB of storage. That's approximately 13.1m², or just under 1.4TB/m².
A 90 minute audio cassette has around 90m of 6.4mm wide tape, or 0.576m². At the same density it could potentially hold 825GB.
DDS (which was data tape in a similar form factor) achieved 160GB in 2009, although there's a lot more tape in one of those cartridges (153m).
Honestly, you'd be better off using the LTO. Because they're single-reel cartridges (the 2nd is inside the drive), they can pack a lot more tape into the same volume.
- Comment on Toshiba exec claims hard drives are 7X cheaper than SSDs and will continually evolve for large datacenters 10 months ago:
We've done this exercise recently for multi-petabyte enterprise storage systems.
Not going to name brands, but in both cases this is usable (after RAID and hot spares) capacity, in a high-availability (multi-controller / cluster) system, including vendor support and power/cooling costs, but (because we run our own datacenter) not counting a $/RU cost as a company in a colo would be paying:
- HDD: ~60TiB/RU, ~150W/RU, ~USD$ 30-35/TB/year
- Flash: ~250TiB/RU, ~500W/RU, ~USD$ 45-50/TB/year
Note that the total power consumption for ~3.5PB of HDD vs ~5PB of flash is within spitting distance, but the flash system occupies a third of the total rack space doing it.
As this is comparing to QLC flash, the overall system performance (measured in Gbps/TB) is also quite similar, although - despite the QLC - the flash does still have a latency advantage (moreso on reads than writes).
So yeah, no. At <1.5× the per-TB cost for a usable system - the cost of one HDD vs one SSD is quite immaterial here - and at >4× the TB-per-RU density, you'd have to have a really good reason to keep buying HDDs. If lowest-possible-price is that reason, then sure.
Reliability is probably higher too, with >300 HDDs to build that system you're going to expect a few failures.
- Comment on Single-use e-cigarettes contain batteries that last hundreds of cycles despite being discarded 10 months ago:
They're not really particularly low power.
Quick search suggests around 8W power consumption with a 2 ohm heater, which at the approximately 4V of a charged Lithium-Ion battery (V=IR, P=VI) checks out to around a 2A draw.
Similar results suggest the batteries inside are in the neighbourhood of 0.75Ah (3.7V nominal) = 2.8Wh. I don't know how much of that capacity actually gets used during the "lifespan" of the vape, but I'd guess half would be a good estimate. In any case, probably safe to assume you need to pack around 2Wh in at minimum.
A Lithium AA battery (Li-FeS2 chemistry) gives you 3.4Ah @ 1.5V = 5.1Wh, but has a maximum discharge current of 2.5A (only 3.8W). The AAA is only 1.2Ah with 1.5A discharge, but two of them would give you 3.6Wh and 4.5W, closer to the target but still under.
You could probably arrange this in some sort of configuration whereby the batteries charge a capacitor and that runs the heater, at those kind of numbers it'd need to be at most a 2 seconds off for 1 second on deal, but that honestly seems like it should be fine for, y'know, vaping. Might just need to have an on/off switch to avoid draining the batteries when you're not using it.
But I guess we're at the point where manufacturing Li-Po cells happens in such vast quantities that the extra electronics to charge a capacitor from a 1.5V battery probably cost more.
- Comment on What Amazon Kindle? Here's an Open Source eBook Reader 11 months ago:
What sets some of Boox's models apart from the other e-readers is they're full Android devices; you can install most apps from the Play Store. Perhaps not as great for battery life, but a world apart so far as functionality goes (and you can even install the other e-book vendors' apps if you have existing purchased content).
In the "pocketable" size category, Palma which is a phone form-factor device (I have one of these, has been great), the Page looks very much inspired by the design of the Kindle Oasis, or the Tab Mini C has a colour e-ink display.
- Comment on Do It Yourself 11 months ago:
Back when they were all the rage, one of my colleagues received one of those rubber horse masks in the mail at the office.
Indeed, he had no memory of ordering it.
- Comment on local brewery gave away bottle caps! 11 months ago:
I'm more disturbed that the labelling on the box is in comic freaking sans.
- Comment on Enterprise SSD? 11 months ago:
To expand on @doeknius_gloek's comment, those categories usually directly correlate to a range of DWPD (endurance) figures. I'm most familiar with buying servers from Dell, but other brands are pretty similar.
Usually, the split is something like this:
- Read-intensive (RI): 0.8 - 1.2 DWPD (commonly used for file servers and the likes, where data is relatively static)
- Mixed-use (MU): 3 - 5 DWPD (normal for databases or cache servers, where data is changing relatively frequently)
- Write-intensive (WI): ≥10 DPWD (for massive databases, heavily-used write cache devices like ZFS ZIL/SLOG devices, that sort of thing)
(Consumer SSDs frequently have endurances only in the 0.1 - 0.3 DWPD range for comparison, and I've seen as low as 0.05)
You'll also find these tiers roughly line up with the SSDs that expose different capacities while having the same amount of flash inside; where a consumer drive would be 512GB, an enterprise RI would be 480GB, and a MU/WI only 400GB. Similarly 1TB/960GB/800GB, 2TB/1.92TB/1.6TB, etc.
If you only get a TBW figure, just divide by the capacity and the length of the warranty. For instance a 1.92TB 1DWPD with 5y warranty might list 3.5PBW.
- Comment on Starlink bug frustrates users: “They don’t have tech support? Just a FAQ? WTF?” 1 year ago:
You just know that if they did have a support email address, it'd just reply with "💩".
- Comment on What are some neat things you carry around that come in handy? 1 year ago:
Also - and I realise this might be contentious - but I'd suggest one that takes normal batteries. Mine takes 4× AAA.
With Eneloops (or similar low-self-discharge rechargeables), can have a 2nd set that gets you back up and running in under 30 seconds, and if you get really stuck they're sold in every corner store in the world (heck, throw a pack of Li-FeS2 batteries in the emergency kit, 20 year shelf life).
No worrying about having the right charger cable (commonly a Micro USB, something I don't tend to carry anymore), or remembering to charge the thing lest it go flat right in the middle of what you need to do.
- Comment on Hold my beer - Bungie 1 year ago:
Plays out in small tech companies too, albeit in a slightly different way.
Got that carrot dangled in front of me at a past job. Company was past start-up phase; self-supporting and doing ok, but not outrageously well. Promises of riches should the company be "noticed" and bought for an outrageous amount.
Of course none of that accounted for the CEO (founder and 85% shareholder) being an absolute crazy person, who would change the development roadmap into making a vastly different product than the one we (the techies) believed in, TURN DOWN THE OUTRAGEOUS SUM BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE COULD GET A BETTER OFFER, basically run the company into the ground, and wind up selling it for a pittance (which would have made the employees' share a pittance of a pittance).
I mean most of us had already left by that point, but finding out around 4 years after that he'd turned down about $150M and wound up selling out for $3M, that stung a little.
- Comment on Lemmy is slowly dying while Reddit thriving 1 year ago:
Yeah, it's joined Facebook and Twitter on that "do not click" list for me.
You'd think that quitting cold turkey would have been hard, but it somehow just hasn't been.
- Comment on Why You Can't Currently Download Ubuntu 23.10 - OMG! Ubuntu 1 year ago:
do they even offer any?
On non-LTS releases? Almost certainly not.
You're 100% on the money, if a broken non-LTS release - which you can still upgrade to from an earlier release with
do-release-upgrade, or install from the server ISO thenapt installthe UI - something has already gone horribly wrong, and a couple of days wait for a re-released ISO is by far the least of your problems. - Comment on Raspberry Pi 5 revealed, and it should satisfy your need for speed 1 year ago:
Sadly not so much on the CM4, which is what a lot of people are after these days.
Seem to be plenty of special-purpose bring-your-own-Pi carrier boards (like the Home Assistant "Yellow") that people haven't been able to get CM4s for in going on a year at this point.
- Comment on Why don't laptops have proper low power states where useful stuff like downloads can run during sleep/with the lid closed? 1 year ago:
and the people who do still download, wouldn’t care about doing it while on battery
Very much this; I've got a whole army of machines I can SSH into to launch a long-running download, which frequently additionaly cuts out a 2nd step of copying the file to where it needs to be after downloading it (a action which would normally cause additional battery usage on the laptop).
And I thoroughly agree with you; I want the laptop to go to S3 sleep immediately when I shut the lid, and then pull it out of my bag a hours later with only a couple of percent of the battery consumed in the interim.
- Comment on Would the internet be significantly faster if there wasn't so much farming of metadata / cookies? 1 year ago:
Worse still, a lot of "modern" designs don't even both including that trivial amount of content in the page, so if you've got a bad connection you get a page with some of the style and layout loaded, but nothing actually in it.
I'm not really sure how we arrived at this point, it seems like use of lazy-loading universally makes things worse, but it's becoming more and more common.
I've always vaguely assumed it's just a symptom of people having never tested in anything but their "perfect" local development environment; no low-throughput or high-latency connections, no packet loss, no nothing. When you're out here in the real world, on a marginal 4G connection - or frankly even just connecting to a server in another country - things get pretty grim.
Somewhere along the way, it feels like someone just decided that pages often not loading at all was more acceptable than looking at a loading progress bar for even a second or two longer (but being largely guaranteed to have the whole page once you get there).
- Comment on Would the internet be significantly faster if there wasn't so much farming of metadata / cookies? 1 year ago:
Worse still, a lot of "modern" designs don't even both including that trivial amount of content in the page, so if you've got a bad connection you get a page with some of the style and layout loaded, but nothing actually in it.
I'm not really sure how we arrived at this point, it seems like use of lazy-loading universally makes things worse, but it's becoming more and more common.
I've always vaguely assumed it's just a symptom of people having never tested in anything but their "perfect" local development environment; no low-throughput or high-latency connections, no packet loss, no nothing. When you're out here in the real world, on a marginal 4G connection - or frankly even just connecting to a server in another country - things get pretty grim.
Somewhere along the way, it feels like someone just decided that pages often not loading at all was more acceptable than looking at a loading progress bar for even a second or two longer (but being largely guaranteed to have the whole page once you get there).