addie

@addie@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My new laptop chip has an 'AI' processor in it, and it's a complete waste of space⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  SIMD is pretty simple really, but it’s been 30 years since it’s been a standard-ish feature in CPUs, and modern compilers are “just about able to sometimes” use SIMD if you’ve got a very simple loop with fixed endpoints that might use it. It’s one thing that you might fall back to writing assembly to use - the FFmpeg developers had an article not too long ago about getting a 10% speed improvement by writing all the SIMD by hand.

  Using an NPU means recognising algorithms that can be broken down into parallelizable, networkable steps with information passing between cells. Basically, you’re playing a game of TIS-100 with your code. It’s fragile and difficult, and there’s no chance that your compiler will do that automatically.

  Best thing to hope for is that some standard libraries can implement it, and then we can all benefit. It’s an okay tool for ‘jobs that can be broken down into separate cells that interact’, so some kinds of image processing, maybe things like liquid flow simulations. There’s a very small overlap between ‘things that are just algorithms that the main CPU would do better’ and ‘things that can be broken down into many many simple steps that a GPU would do better’ where an NPU really makes sense, tho.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve's huge Steam Deck update is now ready for everyone, including rival AMD handhelds⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Broke my first one on the final boss of Sekiro, which can be quite intense in places. Bought another one immediately when they announced they weren’t making them any more.

  Hesitation is defeat. Although, wish I’d got three as well…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unofficial PC port of Zelda: Majora's Mask, 2 Ship 2 Harkinian has a big new release out⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Original release was fantastic - super-smooth, high resolution, “how I remember it on the N64”, ie. not true to the original at all, but like the impression it made on me as a youngster. Super-dark storyline and minimal hand-holding makes it very unusual for a Zelda game, absolutely stunning bit of porting work. Everything you could possibly want in 2024.

  And then I got to the down-the-well bit, and that can just fuck off. New release needs a dedicated keybinding to skip that time-wasting shit, could bind it to a mouse button just so that there’s no difficulty finding it when the time comes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI products like ChatGPT much hyped but not much used, study says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re bullshit generators, essentially - it doesn’t matter to them whether they generate something that’s ‘true’ or not, as long as it’s plausible. Depends what you intend to use them for - if you want a throw-away image for a powerpoint slide that will only be looked at once for a few seconds, they’re ideal. They generate shit code and boring, pointless stories, so couldn’t recommend them for that.

  If you’re a D&D GM that’s in need of quite a lot of ‘disposable’ material, they’re alright. Image of a bad guy that you can then work into the story? Great. Names for every single Gnomish villager? Great. Creating intricate and interesting lore that brings your world alive? No, they are not actually intelligent and cannot do that - that’s the part that you provide.

  At the moment, huge amounts of venture capitalist money is making these things much cheaper than their true cost. Can only imagine the price of them is going to go up a lot when that runs out. You might not be able to afford the subscription, but you’ll be in good company soon.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Copilot key is based on a button you probably haven’t seen since IBM’s Model M⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  But will that stop me from rebinding it as my ‘compose’ key? Normally I use AltGr for that, but more modifier keys are always welcome…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨(I wonder if he knows about lemmy)1 divided by 0 (a 3rd grade teacher and principal got it wrong), Reddit r/NoStupidQuestions [4:51 | Dec 02 2023 | bprp precalculus]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Division is defined as the inverse of multiplication. The answer to one divided by zero is the same as asking which number you would multiply by zero in order to get one. No number has that property, not even infinity. So the answer is undefined.

  One divided by ‘epsilon’, where epsilon represents a very tiny number, approaches infinity for ever tinier epsilons, so in some maths contexts infinity makes sense. But in general it’s a meaningless question, and so can only have a meaningless answer.