A Somewhat Social Network

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 2 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

I was reading a heated and annoying discussion that there is no point to link to, and it didn't even come up with an answer anyway. But here was the point:

What does RISC-V offer over the other unrestricted (?) and royalty-free (?) ISA specifications mips, sparc and power?

I'm guessing the answer has something to do with complexity, orthogonality, extensibility and modularity?

Maybe also the network effect of the hype, that it's good because people think it is good, and therefore there is an up-to-date ecosystem of software and hardware?

Is there a patent situation around the others? I remember hearing that the Loongson implementation of MIPS skipped an instruction or two due to that, or some addressing mode. I think I also remember reading that those patents have now expired. Has something really happened on the MIPS ISA front this side of the millennium?

Hong Kong or Sweden

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Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 2 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

The latest MIPS specification MIPS VI is from 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPS_architecture doesn't date the others, but links to a processor from pre-2000 that implemented MIPS IV, so MIPS IV should have no patent issues.

degenerating degenerate 2 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Mips lost to arm and really died a while back, it'll die completely when router silicon stop using it. The other ones like openrisc have the same problem, arm ate their lunch. It means they are not a convincing negotiation tactic against, or competitor to, arm.

Riscv hasn't lost to arm and has companies and money behind it.

For normal devs it's all meaningless, they can't fab silicon and so long as clang and gcc are there, it's just another arch they can support perfectly well.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 2 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@degenerating degenerate I appreciate your answer, and it's the impression i have as well, but frankly it's a bit of a non-answer answer that just leads to repeating the question:

What is the advantage for someone implementing a RISC-V CPU compared to a MIPS CPU? It's a new CPU either way, it doesn't matter that people prefer some specific ARM implementation over some specific MIPS implementation. Is there something inherent in these other ISAs that make them more expensive to produce or more expensive to run?

@degenerating degenerate

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 2 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

Basically, what does it mean for an ISA to die? RISC-V has people promoting it, is that the difference?

yaaps :verified: 59 minutes ago corgidon (AP)

- The Darwinist narrative has merit
- RISC-V is an academic spec where the others were commercial
- Besides the ISA being clean and legacy free, there's politics and the business models of the IP owners. RISC-V implementers aren't competing with, or adding network effect benefits to, businesses already built with this IP
- Chinese institutions are investing in it
- New market, land rush
- I *think* that design of the ISA and its extensions for different bus widths in a cohesive specification is likely to have benefits for assymetric multiprocessor applications

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 2 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

... that make their implementations* more expensive ...

degenerating degenerate 1 hour ago mastodon (AP)

Something dies by consensus... myspace did not die because its servers blew up, it died because the users concluded they should invest their time somewhere else and as the users disappeared that snowballed until it was dead.

Although the other implementations are smaller in scope than RiscV, RiscV is somewhat better thought through and reduced to practice more consistently, you're grimly insistent on looking for a technical answer to a business consensus question.

CHAOTIC CUTIE 2 hours ago mastodon (AP)

i have a hard time getting excited about new hardware. its nice, i guess, that there's an ISA that's patent free and stuff. doesn't really help with the massive pile of "trash" hardware that keeps building up.

personally, i care more about making sure we don't forget how to do useful things with the old stuff. idk what a good balance is either. not being so enthusiastic about every new thing is a good first step i think.

Ermanno 55 minutes ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

Mips is also open source, but did not attract a lot of companies...
https://www.mips.com/mipsopen/

Also I think that MIPS is a lot less energy efficient than ARM, also mips routers have bigger dissipators that their arm counterpart.
We'll se how RISCV does,

Vertigo #$FF 17 minutes ago mastodon (AP)

Not anymore. (Note that mipsopen.com now produces a 404 error.) It was open for about one year, and then was retracted.

Vertigo #$FF 14 minutes ago mastodon (AP)

RISC-V versus ARM architecture: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/new-risc-v-cpu-claims-recordbreaking-performance-per-watt/

RISC-V is extremely competitive with ARM in energy efficiency.

(Honestly, MIPS should be too. I can't think of a reason why MIPS is inherently less power efficient than ARM, especially considering RISC-V and MIPS are so closely related.)

Vertigo #$FF 19 minutes ago mastodon (AP)

MIPS retracted their promise for an open ISA. So, it is no longer open.

Power is an outstanding ISA; but, there are patent issues. IBM promises not to sue people for using Power ISA, but ...

SPARC uses register windows which actually incurs a performance hit in practice.

RISC-V is the only ISA designed from the ground up using a BSD license for its specification.

Khurram Wadee ✅ via mastobikes group 16 minutes ago mastodon (AP)

This was posted on #Diaspora by satenik@spyurk.am eight years ago.

#bike #biking #cycle #cycling
#bicycle @mastobikes

#Diaspora #bike #biking #cycle #cycling #bicycle @mastobikes group

Webcomic Bot 30 minutes ago pleroma (AP)

Super Mega Comics
http://supermegacomics.com/

Webcomic Bot 55 minutes ago pleroma (AP)

Nellucnhoj
https://nellucnhoj.com

Webcomic Bot 1 hour ago pleroma (AP)

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
https://www.smbc-comics.com

Devine Lu Linvega 1 hour ago mastodon (AP)

Updated #Orca, fixed a crashing issue with invalid midi(example :03*cc), and added selection modifiers.

Select some text, and

- CTRL+/ comment selection.
- CTRL+U uppercase selection.
- CTRL+L lowercase selection.
- CTRL+[ decrement selection.
- CTRL+] increment selection.

Also improved insert mode.

https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/orca-toy

#Orca

Webcomic Bot 1 hour ago pleroma (AP)

ElderCactus
https://eldercactus.com/

Webcomic Bot 2 hours ago pleroma (AP)

ElderCactus
https://eldercactus.com/

Webcomic Bot 2 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Nedroid
http://nedroid.com

Devine Lu Linvega 4 hours ago mastodon (AP)

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$_/🌱\_$

_/🌱\_ 2 hours ago mastodon (AP)

>:(

Devine Lu Linvega 2 hours ago mastodon (AP)

making faces is pointless, you must press the blue button

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

The cockpit drain of our boat runs by the engine room and under the floor to a thru-hull(red), we wondering why it doesn't go straight out over the waterline?

Any idea #sailing fedi?

#sailing

17 comments - Show more

zem 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

not sure has it one of those valves in place that suck the cockpit empty as drain as soon you as you move?

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

Michael Wolf 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

are you sure you don't own the ferry from Willy Wonka?

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

@grumpy

Aearil 1 day ago pleroma (AP)

That's strange, maybe aesthetic reasons, so you don't get a trail running on the gelcoat at the rear, or if under the rear, you might get some issues with fouling ? Or maybe it's useful to have a central collection point for all the water (is it used for the bilge pump output ?)

Maybe the issue with an outlet over the water is you risk a surpression if a wave hits it ?

I'm really throwing ideas at the wall ^^

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

yeah it's all hypothesis we've thrown around, but maybe there's no reason too, like they had this pipe available from a past project or something and they just decided to use it.

Aearil 1 day ago pleroma (AP)

Oh, you think it's not original?

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

I'm not sure, it's hard to tell

zem 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

I think it is perfectly feasible that they used an already existing water outlet because they just forgot to add the cockpit drain in the original mold. 😉

or they could not get the ship out of the mold or so with the drain over the sealevel.
@aearil

Ruben 1 day ago friendica

@Devine Lu Linvega
I'd imagine the lower the drain on the hull the less the drainage would be affected by the pitch and yaw

Devine Lu Linvega 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

It's possible, I wonder if it would be worth changing to something the exits at the back. We have to redo the thru hull, and the less holes under the waterline the better.

Ruben 1 day ago friendica

@Devine Lu Linvega
As long as it can still drain when the boat is heeled over it would make sense.

Brisling 🐟 likes this.

R E K 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

https://www.sailnet.com/threads/cockpit-draining-below-waterline.178274/

EffToyz :emacs: :manjaro: 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

My guess would be that in really cold weather drain can freeze if it goes straight out.

James Chip 1 day ago mastodon (AP)

just a guess but being below the water line in this case causes a kind of sucks water out depending on the motion of the boat because being submerged the sea maintains a pressure on it.

When the boat moves up out of the water the liquid in the pipe will move down to try and match the water level outside creating sort of suction in the cabin. When the boat sinks the water in the pipe should rise but try to stay at water level.

VE0HAK 20 hours ago mastodon (AP)

interesting... on mine, the through-hull is in about the same place but the drains are directly above them. i would have thought that you'd want the hoses as short as possible: easier to clean out if they get blocked up

Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar 2 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Because a wave slamming into the stern overhang could force water up the drain and make a nice fountain shooting into the cockpit.

Had this happen on our heads sink once (wave slammed into the side just right). Result was water dripping from the ceiling. Unpleasant.

Webcomic Bot 2 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Commit Strip
http://www.commitstrip.com

🌱Anarchist Flowerpot MⒶn🌱 1 day ago pleroma (AP)

shmeh i sort of feel like continuing that tutorial on Common LISP web backend coding, but the code is on my laptop and i kind of cbf getting it off it and onto my terminal

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🌱Anarchist Flowerpot MⒶn🌱 3 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 3 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@🌱Anarchist Flowerpot MⒶn🌱 FAQ:

Q23: Will it be compatible with POSIX sh?
A23: meh

@🌱Anarchist Flowerpot MⒶn🌱

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 6 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

Ubuntu keeps booting into emergency mode and won't even tell me why aaargh.

Maybe that's the opportunity to switch to GuixSD.

Hong Kong or Sweden

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 6 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

Ok, it was home drive fsck, excuse for distro hopping averted.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 5 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

The magic incantation was:

journalctl -xe

ߋߡۺ৩֎ 3 hours ago mastodon (AP)

that is a powerful spell

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 3 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@ߋߡۺ৩֎ Actually journalctl would have done it too.

I guess it says something to a modern Linux system's credit that after several years I still haven't been forced to really learn how journalctl is called.

@ߋߡۺ৩֎

Jason_Dodd 5 hours ago mastodon (AP)

i've switched distros for less justification.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 likes this.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 4 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Jason_Dodd I need this computer for work and it has a manual xorg.conf addition for a touch screen, so I'll hold off. =)

@Jason_Dodd

Webcomic Bot 3 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Nedroid
http://nedroid.com

r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖 3 weeks ago (Received 3 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

#RISCV is only an ISA and the physical implementation can take any form as long as they respond to the same instructions the same way

Linux currently supports the G extension (which assumes MAFD: Math, Atomic, Floating point, and Double floating point extensions on top of the Integer extension required by all) in 64bit

Which means it would also help to have a hardware standard like Mini-ITX or PC/104 to go along with it. Even better if an existing outfit, like Pine64, switches to a RISC-V CPU

#RISCV

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r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖 3 weeks ago (Received 3 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Coming very soon. Right now the only real game in town is SiFive, but I expect Alibaba Group and Expressif (a la ESP32) to come up with their own variants at very low prices soon

Espressif already has a 32bit version with bluetooth and WiFi, since they're mostly targeting the MCU and microcontroller market, but it can't run Linux

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 3 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖 @penguin42 Pine64 has the #PineCone https://pine64.com/product/pinecone-bl602-evaluation-board/?v=0446c16e2e66 but yeah that's still more Arduino than Raspberry Pi, I guess.

#PineCone @r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖 @penguin42

Webcomic Bot 3 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Nathan Bulmer
https://www.instagram.com/natemorebikes/

Martijn Braam 3 months ago (Received 3 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Sending .patch file over matrix attachments isn't the way to do software development.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 reshared this.

Martijn Braam 3 months ago (Received 3 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Flatpak is in fact quite horrible to work with. So horrible I'm building yet another layer of abstraction around it

Martijn Braam 3 months ago (Received 3 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Hereby I present: the flatpak update script: https://gitlab.com/MartijnBraam/wiremapper/-/blob/master/makeflatpak/flatpak.py

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 reshared this.

Webcomic Bot 3 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Whomp Comic
https://www.whompcomic.com/

Devine Lu Linvega 4 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Sigrid has a /now page :D
https://ftrv.se/now

orekix 1 day ago (Received 4 hours ago) pleroma (AP)

> choco
> nuget
why does windows get candies as package managers

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[XYZ] Think SoftICE, not Stallman [/XYZ] 4 hours ago pleroma (AP)

UEFI should, generally speaking, not exist. Neither should Secure Boot, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 4 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Think SoftICE, not Stallman @Leif Lindholm @nya @tcal I would have been fine with Open Firmware.

@[XYZ] Think SoftICE, not Stallman [/XYZ] @Leif Lindholm @nya @tcal

chirrolafupa 3 weeks ago (Received 4 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

playing with my new computer...

detail photo of a paper sheet printed with cells. the cells are numbered and there is some text inside them. black beans and lentils are positioned over the cells.

Devine Lu Linvega reshared this.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 4 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

I have a reverse Dr. Jill Biden situation. My home electronics store calls me Dr. Claes Wallin and I cannot find where to change it.

Hong Kong or Sweden

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Elias Mårtenson 4 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Why would your electronics store refer to you by name?

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 4 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Elias Mårtenson Because I have a membership and because they print names on receipts and ship things to my home.

@Elias Mårtenson

Biodiversity Illustrations 7 hours ago (Received 4 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

💐 Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe
A Gand: chez Louis van Houtte, eÌditeur, 1845-1880.
https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27910430

Devine Lu Linvega reshared this.

chirrolafupa 5 hours ago (Received 4 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

#jamuary
more experiments with orca!

https://video.anartist.org/videos/watch/32820f56-e485-4ba3-9d42-707bf1aee05f

#jamuary

Devine Lu Linvega reshared this.

Webcomic Bot 4 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Arcade Rage
https://arcaderage.co/

Webcomic Bot 4 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Good Bear Comics
https://goodbearcomics.com/

Webcomic Bot 5 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Extra Fabulous Comics
http://extrafabulouscomics.com

:8b_d:‍:8b_i:‍:8b_e:‍:8b_l:‍:8b_a:‍:8b_n: 1 day ago (Received 5 hours ago) pleroma (AP)

Screenshot_20210116-195433_Husky Test.jpg

Screenshot_20210116-195448_Husky Test.jpg

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Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 5 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@flexagoon, the Tomato Demon @:8b_d:‍:8b_i:‍:8b_e:‍:8b_l:‍:8b_a:‍:8b_n: @竹下憲二 (たにん) @Thor Incorrect, "22" - "2" = 20

@flexagoon, the Tomato Demon @:8b_d:‍:8b_i:‍:8b_e:‍:8b_l:‍:8b_a:‍:8b_n: @竹下憲二 (たにん) @Thor

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 5 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@flexagoon, the Tomato Demon @:8b_d:‍:8b_i:‍:8b_e:‍:8b_l:‍:8b_a:‍:8b_n: @竹下憲二 (たにん) @Thor But yeah, you can understand why and still go "whyyyy". =)

@flexagoon, the Tomato Demon @:8b_d:‍:8b_i:‍:8b_e:‍:8b_l:‍:8b_a:‍:8b_n: @竹下憲二 (たにん) @Thor

Webcomic Bot 5 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Strange Planet
https://www.instagram.com/nathanwpylestrangeplanet/

Webcomic Bot 5 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Webcomic Name
https://webcomicname.com/

Webcomic Bot 6 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Buttersafe
https://www.buttersafe.com

Webcomic Bot 6 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Nellucnhoj
https://nellucnhoj.com

Webcomic Bot 7 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Poorly Drawn Lines
http://www.poorlydrawnlines.com/

Webcomic Bot 7 hours ago pleroma (AP)

Nedroid
http://nedroid.com

Kevin 4 days ago (Received 1 day ago) mastodon (AP)

Hey, my name is Kevin. I am new to Mastodon and haven't used social media in a while. I am looking forward to getting more comfortable participating in the public parts of the internet. I write software for mainframes for a living. In my free time I do a bit more programming, mess around with Linux/self hosting, and play video games. #introductions

#introductions

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Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 1 day ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Kevin Hi Kevin! Are you engaged in the free software side of the mainframe world? Played anything with emulators?

I am aware of one more mainframe fedizen and that's @Jason_Dodd .

@Kevin @Jason_Dodd

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 1 day ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

I have had very little contact with the mainframe world, just working in the same buildings and departments with people doing mainframe, and sorting spool tapes and assisting console operators back in worklife orientation week in junior high.

I modified a COBOL program during that week! I entered data onto an 8" floppy where the drive was integrated with the screen, keyboard and desk! I saw line printers! Tactile acoustic computing!

Kevin 1 day ago (Received 16 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Unfortunately I am not as involved in the FOSS side of mainframes as I would like to be. It is a pretty proprietary world but with things like LinuxONE and Red Hat being pushed by IBM maybe there will be more open source there.

They are super interesting machines though, lots of history. I wrote plain assembly on them for almost 4 years and still have to every now and then. It's quite a way to learn about computing.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 16 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Kevin Wow, I didn't know people used assembly for mainframes, I think my colleagues just used COBOL and RPG III.

You write some special low-level stuff?

@Kevin

Kevin 12 hours ago (Received 7 hours ago) mastodon (AP)

Yeah, sometimes a tiny program written in assembly is the easiest way to do a low level task. Mainframe assembler is pretty different than x86 and other assembly languages since it is backwards compatible to the programs written in the late 50's You can do things like switch back to 24 bit addressability modes despite modern mainframes being 64 bit. There are hundreds of instructions and a lot of them very high level.

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 7 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@Kevin Ok, so is it assembly-assembly to the actual CPU, or is it like with the AS/400, that you code to a virtual machine and that code gets compiled again to the native platform?

@Kevin

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 1 day ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

AudibleAnarchist, the crown of BreadTube?

https://invidious.snopyta.org/channel/UCaO1QA8QL99_eb0XhJI2Fyw

Hong Kong or Sweden

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bhaugen 17 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Thanks for the tip.
Reading the accompanying essay,
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-against-economics

By "economics", he means the capitalist profession by that name. I used the word recently to mean something completely opposite and got "what?" questions, and I guess should stop using it because that's what people will think I mean....

What's a good replacement that means "provisioning all human and ecological needs"?

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 15 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@bhaugen What is the opposite of the academic study of national scale movement of value?

@bhaugen

Claes Wallin 🇸🇪🇭🇰 15 hours ago friendica (via ActivityPub)

@bhaugen > What's a good replacement that means "provisioning all human and ecological needs"?

Nation-scale resource stewardship, perhaps?

@bhaugen

bhaugen 9 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Resource stewardship needs to be part of it. The required scale depends on the resource stewardship problem. Some problems, like climate change and pandemics, are international; some (like many ecological problems) are bioregional; some are even more local.

bhaugen 9 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Graeber is against what he calls "mainstream economics" and is not so much against what he calls "heterodox economics". So I'd be more heterodox than the heterodoxen.

So if you assume "value" is exchange value, measured in money, the opposite of "the opposite of the academic study of national scale movement of value" might by "the non-academic implementation (not study) of bioregional (not national) systems for provisioning human and ecological needs without national currencies".

bhaugen 8 hours ago mastodon (AP)

Gaah, typo much? Trying again.

"the opposite of the academic study of national scale movement of value" might be "the non-academic implementation (not study) of bioregional (not national) systems for provisioning human and ecological needs without national currencies".