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Is that a lot?

It’s a lot on a MacBook but not on a windows laptop where it’s easy to swap out to a much bigger drive :) . I still prefer my apple/linux world however and glad that all the software that I need to use currently lives there.

Not really. Some dislike the idea of wastefulness, others want a reason to hate on Microsoft, and a minority are actually on 128gb/256gb drives where 9GB can actually be meaningful.

The part with only 16 cores but 512MB L3 cache ... that must be for some specific workload.

Oracle can charge $40-$100k+ for EE including options per core (times .5)...and some workloads are very cache sensitive. So a high cache, high bandwidth, high frequency, high memory capacity 16 core CPU[1] (x2 socket) might be the best bang for their buck for that million dollar+ license.

[1] https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/server/epyc/9005-...


Surely that's a good reason for Oracle to increase their prices even more, leading to a cat-and-mouse game between CPU makers and software license sellers.

Oh yes, this cat-and-mouse game has been going on for more than a decade. But despite that, for any given time and license terms, there is a type of CPU that is optimal for performance/licensing costs, and when the license is as expensive and widely used as it is, it makes sense to sell CPUs for that specific purpose.

Hopefully ending when nobody uses Oracle.

It is very Oracle that their license policy gives a reason to make crippled CPUs.

The topology of that part is wild, it's physically the same silicon as the 128-core part but they've disabled all but one core on each compute chiplet. 112 cores are switched off to leave just 16 cores with as much cache as possible.

Inter-core latency will be rough since you'll always be hitting the relatively slow inter-chiplet bus, though.


Does anyone know if modern AMD chips allow mapping the L3 cache and using it as TCM instead of cache? I know older non-X86 processors supported this (and often booted into that mode so that the memory controllers could be brought up), but not sure if it's possible today. If so, that would sure make for some interesting embedded use cases for a large DRAM-less system...

The coreboot docs claim that modern AMD parts no longer support cache-as-RAM.

https://doc.coreboot.org/soc/amd/family17h.html


Wow, thanks for the link, I had no idea:

> AMD has ported early AGESA features to the PSP, which now discovers, enables and trains DRAM. Unlike any other x86 device in coreboot, a Picasso system has DRAM online prior to the first instruction fetch.

Perhaps they saw badly trained RAM as a security flaw? Or maybe doing it with the coprocessor helped them distribute the training code more easily (I heard a rumour once that RAM training algos are heavily patented? Might have imagined it).


Lame.

Using it as TCM ram seems super useful.

Although you would need to fight/request it from the OS, so technically I see why they might ditch it.


If you keep your working set small enough, you should be able to tell the CPU it has RAM attached, but never actually attach any RAM.

It would never flush any cache lines to RAM, and never do any reads from RAM.


Part of me is asking whether some of the 'mitigations' to various things in microcode have necessitated reads from RAM?

The "original" UBO is basically the mother of all supply chain vulnerabilities and whenever the inevitable exploit happens, everyone who thought they were a connoisseur of privacy is going to get completely pwned. UBO Lite works without being a gigantic security vuln.

Some people may think what you're saying is outlandish, but it's worth remembering that this is pretty much what already happened to Ublock (which led to the forking of Ublock Origin and return of gorehill)

Not saying it cannot happen, but in Firefox, it is a “Recommended“ extension which gets reviewed per release. A sophisticated attack could slip through, but a ham fisted takeover is unlikely.

It's also worth mentioning that Firefox doesn't force you to auto-update add-ons, but Chrome/Chromium do. (There was a hack workaround to keep Chromium from updating, but I forgot what it was or if it still works. It wasn't a trivial option in the browser itself like it should be.)

I use a certain extension. An update turned the extension into payware, locking 90% of the features behind a paywall. So I refuse to update it and instead continue to use the revision that still has all the original features. I would be absolutely incensed and outraged if my browser insisted on forcing me to update this extension!

Surely there are better ways for a developer to make money off of an existing extension without suddenly locking previously available functions behind a paywall. Perhaps instead paywall NEW features? Or ask for donations?


> and doing lots of walking

If you just teleport a fat guy from Bentonville to Manhattan and give him a Metrocard he will lose a pound a week. The people who say nobody can lose weight, it's too hard, cannot explain why there are macroscale populations with lower obesity.


"It's too hard" includes "It's too hard to just magically change the environmental factors making it difficult for this specific person". We can't just magically move every obese person to NYC, and unwalkable car-dependent infrastructure cannot be fixed overnight either, even if the people living there all decided to vote for politicians who would legitimately work towards making that happen (still seems unlikely). Unless and until we work towards fixing the societal problems that created the obesity crisis in the first place, we still need short term solutions for the next couple decades at least.

Those same populations are gaining weight at a trajectory that is behind the US but still headed the same direction. AFAIK most western European nations have a majority of people overweight, with 20-25% obese. This is less than the US (though it's very regional within the US), but you don't get to brag about a 1-in-4 obesity rate.

>This is less than the US (though it's very regional within the US), but you don't get to brag about a 1-in-4 obesity rate.

Are you sure?

>In 2023, over 35 percent of adults in the Netherlands were classed as overweight, meaning they had a body mass index (BMI)of between 25 and 30. Furthermore, just under 16 percent of adults were obese

>47 percent of French adults were overweight, of which 17 percent suffered from obesity

>49% of the Belgian population has overweight, of which 18% have obesity.

>Spain: 43% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight and 16% were living with obesity

>46.6% of women and 60.5% of men in Germany are affected by overweight (including obesity). Nearly one-fifth of adults (19%) have obesity.

Looks like it's actually 1-in-5.


For the purposes of this discussion, I will take your numbers as truth and run with it.

Are you arguing that 1:5 is good, but 1:4 is bad?

The only large populations of people in the world that aren't quite fat are southeast Asians. And this is fairly accurate whether they leave in southeast Asia or in the US or western Europe. Not 1:5, closer to 1:20 or in one case 1:50.

Even then, southeast Asian obesity rates are climbing. The US may have led the pack because of a consistently high standard of living, but I don't see any indication that there are macroscale populations anywhere in the world keeping the disease at bay.


>Are you arguing that 1:5 is good, but 1:4 is bad?

No, I'm saying that 1:4 is something to brag about, and 1:5 is even better.


Surely you have a study to support this? Or are we just speculating. The problem with this particular area is that it's not intuitive, and relying on "common sense" guidance is why everyone got fat in the first place.

Does it matter? This is a discussion forum, not a scientific journal. If you have something more informative to add, just do it.

Generally here if you make a claim it's totally fair to be asked to substantiate it. I already provided the evidence that this individual was wrong, so I'm looking to see why they think otherwise. Maybe they'll teach me something new.

> Generally here if you make a claim it's totally fair to be asked to substantiate it.

Anything is fair. It is a discussion forum. You can say whatever the hell you want. But it is equally nonsensical.

> so I'm looking to see why they think otherwise.

You looked for someone else – someone who prepared a study – to tell you why it might be otherwise. But if you want to talk to someone else, go talk to that someone else. If you want to come here, be happy with the people who are here. They might actually teach you something without having to defer to random other people.


I'm taking a moment to enjoy your username in the context of this back and forth.

Questioning questionable claims is as much discussion as anything else.

Questioning the person who made the claim, sure. Get them to elaborate. That improves the discussion. But halting discussion until they can come up with the words of someone else to justify their claim, as seen here, just makes you look stupid. If you would rather talk to someone else, go talk to someone else instead. At the end of the day, all is fair in discussion, so go for it – call for someone else to enter the discussion if you want. But as all is fair, we're also going to call out your stupidity when you do.

The bit that you're (intentionally?) missing is that this is just a polite way of saying "you're full of shit". The only person being stupid here is the person making strong empirical claims without qualifying them or providing supporting evidence.

I could see a reasonable complaint that asking for studies is being passive-aggressive, but it's the sort of passive-aggressive that both helps keep the discussion more civil and leaves room to actually substantiate the original claims (that is, it's actively better for keeping the discussion going!). Just saying "lol, no, wrong" kills the discussion far more than talking about (lack of) evidence.


> The bit that you're (intentionally?) missing is that this is just a polite way of saying "you're full of shit".

If someone is full of shit, and assuming you care, then logically you would put in the effort to fix their misunderstanding, not tell them off. Exclaiming that someone is "full of shit", politely or not, is stupid. If you don't care, then why not own it? Don't care.

> The only person being stupid here is the person making strong empirical claims without qualifying them or providing supporting evidence.

There can be more than one stupid party involved.

> I could see a reasonable complaint that asking for studies is being passive-aggressive

It is just straight up nonsensical. I get that is was only ever a silly meme and always understood to be nonsensical, but a meme that has become quite tired. It was funny 20 years ago, perhaps, but at this point it is time to lay it to rest. I mean, anything goes in discussion. If you still think it is edgy, go for it. But the rest of us will still think it is stupid.


Realistically this treatment is just not available to most people (for the simple reason that there are way too few non-car-dependent cities in the US, and the ones that there are are super expensive). But GLP1 agonists are available to most people.

Giving fat guys ozempic is significantly easier than teleporting them all to Manhattan

> Man, the garage is going to be clean and superbly organized in a few weeks.'

Manic behaviors also associated with older, popular diet drugs like meth.


I said a few weeks ;-). The garage is pretty big, but not that big. It's going to be gloriously organized in a few weeks because I spend a half hour or so in the evenings to move the project forward. I'm very relaxed about it. I'm just doing exactly what I kept telling myself I should do to make the garage as organized as I want, rather than finding pretty much anything else to do.

Decades ago I tried phentermine for a couple months. Now that was a ride, and you might call the experience closer to manic. I was a machine. This is not like that.


I read the “in a few weeks” totally differently than the other reply. In my mind, I was thinking, “wow, you’re able to plan that far ahead and stay on track??” And now you say you’re able to accomplish that by dedicating a time block per day?! That’s superhuman level of control that I can only dream of!

It's not the manic behavior, but the opposite. GLP-1 agonists appear to reduce the impulsive behavior.

Does anyone have references on any explanation, or even partial explanation, on why this might be the case?

The published stuff I can find seems to be at the level of anecdata, scarcely better than "I know a guy who..."

- What people talk about on social media: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10669484/

- Some people made large "reckless" life choices: https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article-abstract/doi/...


There are about a dozen published studies using GLP-1 analogues in animal models showing reduction in addictive behaviors (search for papers by Jerlhag, Leggio and Schmidt). The prevailing theory seems to relate to dopamine regulation.

> Does anyone have references on any explanation, or even partial explanation, on why this might be the case?

Not yet. The effect appears to be real, but it's too soon to tell: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/ozempic-and-other-...

From my own anecdata, unnecessary impulsive eating probably reinforces the impulsive behavior. You start associating impulsive behavior with a reward.

GLP-1 not only removes that, but adds a slight negative reinforcement. Impulsive eating no longer brings reward, but makes you feel over-full. This can then down-regulates the pathways that lead to increased impulsive behavior.


Great description, thanks!

I won't sugarcoat my problems. I knew I wasn't hungry when I'd eat sometimes. I knew it would keep me overweight. I knew it wouldn't even feel great afterwards. And yet, more often than not I did it. And beat myself up over it every time. Very demoralizing, even without help from moralizing folks on the internet.

On tirzepatide the impulse is just gone. I feel like I can take it or leave it, and since the consequences of eating unnecessarily are quickly negative, I just don't do it.


> GLP-1 agonists appear to reduce the impulsive behavior.

Does it reduce sex drive as well?


No it doesn’t but some people have started TRT therapy too which will increase testosterone and then sex drive too

Doesn't losing weight already increases your Testostrone?.. people seriously shouldn't get on TRT unless they need it medically, once you start it, it's for life and also you will be infertile.. (source I am on HCG, an alternative to TRT due to its side effects).

That's correct - you need to be seen by a doctor before embarking on TRT. For me, I have no intent of having any more kids. Infertile can be reversed.

TMI, but no.

Not that Gboard it seems

A person who only makes $400k TC at Meta won't even have a first home in the Bay Area, much less another one in Aspen.

Plenty of people with $400k TC at Meta have Bay Area homes. $400k TC doesn’t mean “I just got the job where’s my $2m house.” But over a career (Facebook is 20 years old) it does.

The median home-owning household in the bay area doesnt make anywhere close to $400k/yr. Its expensive, but not that expensive.

I don't think that's a good way to view it. How about the median home buying household? In my town the median sale price this year has been $1.6 million, considering interest rates and property taxes that amounts to $10k/mo housing costs, which is over half the take-home pay of a $400k gross income in California. This is not even to mention the fact that nobody will lend you a mortgage based on the equity portion of your TC, they will usually only count the salary portion and discount the equity portion.

Napkin math:

$400k * 0.6 = $240k post tax

$240k - $36k rent = $204k

$204k - $50k annual expenses = $154k

So if you just work that job for 3-4 years you'll easily have a heavy down payment for a house, assuming no promo, no raises.

If you work the job for 7-8 years you can buy a house (more like a townhouse) all in cash. Not going to be the best house on the market, but it's doable.

This is all not considering investing in the stock market, raises, being frugal with your expenses, living with roommates to save up a bit, etc. there's lots of ways to parlay more money than most other people will ever make annually into a home


Your belief in stationary housing prices is charming.

Read the last part of my comment. I left out many natural ways one's earnings and investments and savings could increase over time also. The math still maths

The "outliers" employ a quarter million software engineers. You are asking for reality to be warped and censored to suit your weird vibes.

No one called for reality to be censored - simply a toggle that shows the summary stats with and without outliers included. This is the kind of thing folks learn in Stats 101.

How are you defining "outlier"?

You can obviously exclude the top 25 percentile of salaries, since the app shows breakdowns by percentage, but I doubt levels.fyi has accurate data on the number of employees of each company in a particular region.


Weird because my experience is the opposite. I worked for a company that makes everyone use Windows, and I accessed my PC using Citrix. I always assumed that the incredible amount of lag and jank was contributed by Citrix. Then after I'd been working there a while I went to the office in New York where my actual desk was, logged into actual physical PC I'd been using the whole time, and it was exactly as bad in person! Right click, wait one whole ass second, context menu drifts into existence. Jank everywhere. I couldn't believe people pay real money for it.

This release of Ubuntu uses 6.11 which is about as fresh as anyone could hope for.

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