The cause in this case was AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link.) Holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi icon and clicking "Enable Wi-Fi Logging" and then checking /var/log/wifi.log will show AWDL scans starting and ending randomly, and when the scan is active it causes latency spikes every 1s like clockwork. Unrelated to AWDL, but if a process is requesting a Wi-Fi network scan (different from an AWDL scan), /var/log/wifi.log will also tell you the name of the process, such as "locationd" when the Location Service needs your location. (Tangential, but the locationd process rarely causes these latency spikes for me - on a default macOS install it very rarely requests scans in my experience, backed by my analysis of the log.)
AWDL has to be used for things like AirDrop, so it's expected to have this latency increase while you have the AirDrop window open scanning for nearby devices / sending files to other devices. There are other uses of AWDL (AirPlay, Auto Unlock, Universal Clipboard at the very least)[0], but I don't know what was triggering it so actively in my case... and why it wasn't happening on my M1 Air. It also wasn't always happening in the background like this, it just started that day.
The "fix" was to disable the awdl0 interface, but that may also cause AirDrop/AirPlay and related services to not function (I did not test.) It's easy to re-enable it though.
To disable:
ifconfig awdl0 down
To enable:
ifconfig awdl0 up
Upon disabling, the latency spikes go away permanently.
As a heavy twitter user who mostly enjoys it (I'm very particular of who I follow), I just don't understand what they've been doing all this time. Their product has been incredibly stagnant for years save for the occasional feature here and there and some styling.
They've screwed over devs trying to build on their APIs and eroded all trust along the way. New features have been rolled out haphazardly, and they totally botched Vine and let TikTok takeover.
Despite all these issues, I like it, but it's increasingly frustrating to use, and can't help but question what's going on inside the company.
Related: Here's how to hide all the crap they've been adding to the timeline
I have heard about a man who remained unmarried his whole life, and when he was dying, ninety years old, somebody asked him, “You have remained unmarried your whole life, but you have never said what the reason was. Now you are dying, at least quench our curiosity. If there is any secret, now you can tell it, because you are dying; you will be gone. Even if the secret is known, it can’t harm you.”
The man said, “Yes, there is a secret. It is not that I am against marriage, but I was searching for a perfect woman. I searched and searched, and my whole life slipped by.”
The inquirer asked, “But upon this big earth, so many millions of people, half of them women, couldn’t you find one perfect woman?”
A tear rolled down from the eye of the dying man. He said, “Yes, I did find one.”
The inquirer was absolutely shocked. He said, “Then what happened? Why didn’t you get married?”
And the old man said, “But the woman was searching for a perfect husband.”
I posted these earlier about Shigeru Miyamoto, and just transcribed a highlight from one of the videos of his two GDC keynotes (but watch both keynotes in full -- every word is profound, and they bracket an amazing time in game development history: 1999-2007!):
In an earlier talk, he explained that he designed his games starting with how you physically interact with the controls you're holding in your hand, and then inwards into the computer, instead of the other way around like so many other people tend to do.
In a later talk, about the Wii, he explained that now he designs his games starting with the facial expressions of the people playing them, then to the physical experience that could evoke such an expression, then on into the computer that could conduct such an experience.
As an example, he showed a picture of a grandfather with his granddaughter sitting in his lap, playing a game, looking totally entranced and delighted at the game, and her grandfather looking at her, with just as entranced and delighted an expression as on his granddaughter's face, even if he didn't necessarily understand what the game itself was about. He got so much enjoyment out of just watching his granddaughter enjoying the game, that it was fun for him, too.
The Wii was so successful as a social party game, because the players themselves were more fun to watch than the game on the screen, because they make spectacles of themselves, which is much more entertaining to watch than the computer graphics. And you don't get bored waiting for your turn to play, because it's fun watching other people play.
I wrote this earlier on another forum but I'll repost it here:
I've seen Shigeru Miyamoto speak at several game developer conferences over the years. He's absolutely brilliant, a really nice guy, and there's so much to learn by studying his work and listening to him talk. Will Wright calls him the Stephen Spielberg of games.
At one of his earlier talks, he explained that he starts designing games by thinking about how you touch, manipulate and interact with the input device in the real world, instead of thinking about the software and models inside the virtual world of the computer first. The instantaneous response of Mario 64 and how you can run and jump around is a great example of that.
At a later talk about how he designed the Wii, he said that he now starts designing games by thinking about what kind of expression he wants it to evoke on the player's faces, and how to make the players themselves entertain the other people in the room who aren't even playing the game themselves. That's why the Wii has so many great party games, like Wii Sports. Then he showed a video of a little girl sitting in her grandfather's lap playing a game -- http://youtu.be/SY3a4dCBQYs?t=12m29s , with a delighted expression on her face. The grandfather was delighted and entertained by watching his granddaughter enjoy the game.
>So let me move from the vision of Nintendo to the vision that I have always employed personally in my career as a game developer.
>In interviews, I'm often asked about specific elements of my games. Where did you get the idea for that character or that hardware? Why did you design that level in that way?
>And sometimes I can tell that the people who are asking these questions have spend a lot of time analyzing my games in very detailed fashion to search for the answers.
>But the riddle here is the harder they look at the individual parts of the game itself, the further away they get from determining that answer.
>The reason for this is that my initial focus and my primary focus throughout development is not these individual elements of the game.
>When I'm creating a game, what I always try to envision, it's what I always think about, is the core element of fun within the game.
>And to do that, I imagine one thing, and that's the face of the player, while he or she is experiencing the game.
>Not any individual part of the game itself.
>And what the players feel will be reflected on their faces. And as an entertainer, I want them to be entertained.
>I was remind of this recently, when we launched Nintendo DS in Japan, and first put the system out in public, for people to start playing.
>We asked some of those people if we could video tape them, and you can see some of these videos, the first time they're playing the DS, at a web site called MyFirstTouch.ds.
>So let's take a look at two cuts that impressed me most. Let's take a look.
>(Girl singing in joy.) So cute. That guy there is happy because his girlfriends are so excited.
>And of course this grandfather's happy that his granddaughter's having so much fun as well.
>And since this is a stylus, a touch pen, he's able to play the game too.
>So as you can see, not only is the person who's playing the game being entertained, but the people standing around watching are getting caught up in the excitement, and they're being entertained as well.
>And that made me very happy. That's the reaction that I always want.
Biomin also claims that their particles are smaller and therefore more effective at mineralization than Novamin.
Another option for leveling up on toothpaste is using those that contain micronized hydroxyapatite. Options here are Carifree or the Japanese brand Apagard available on eBay or Amazon. Biomin’s formula is proprietary but it might contain hydroxyapatite in part.
I stopped randomly getting cavities after using xylitol gum occasionally and brushing with these various toothpastes, n=1.
There also exist a variety of oral probiotics that claim to rebalance mouth flora away from species that cause cavities.
While no dentist ever told me about any of these options, at least Carifree is starting to market through US dentists.
The cause in this case was AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link.) Holding the Option key while clicking the Wi-Fi icon and clicking "Enable Wi-Fi Logging" and then checking /var/log/wifi.log will show AWDL scans starting and ending randomly, and when the scan is active it causes latency spikes every 1s like clockwork. Unrelated to AWDL, but if a process is requesting a Wi-Fi network scan (different from an AWDL scan), /var/log/wifi.log will also tell you the name of the process, such as "locationd" when the Location Service needs your location. (Tangential, but the locationd process rarely causes these latency spikes for me - on a default macOS install it very rarely requests scans in my experience, backed by my analysis of the log.)
AWDL has to be used for things like AirDrop, so it's expected to have this latency increase while you have the AirDrop window open scanning for nearby devices / sending files to other devices. There are other uses of AWDL (AirPlay, Auto Unlock, Universal Clipboard at the very least)[0], but I don't know what was triggering it so actively in my case... and why it wasn't happening on my M1 Air. It also wasn't always happening in the background like this, it just started that day.
The "fix" was to disable the awdl0 interface, but that may also cause AirDrop/AirPlay and related services to not function (I did not test.) It's easy to re-enable it though.
To disable: ifconfig awdl0 down
To enable: ifconfig awdl0 up
Upon disabling, the latency spikes go away permanently.
[0] https://owlink.org/wiki/