friedmud

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friedmud
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  • No, Apple's new Mac Pro isn't overpriced

    friedmudfriedmud
    I'll throw my 2 cents in here.

    I work in massively-parallel (think: 100,000 core+ supercomputing), scientific computing.  We've purchased ~100 maxed out (~$7k) Mac Pro cylinders over the past few years for our workstation needs.

    When the new Mac Pro was announced - we knew that the configuration we would want (28 core, ~128GB of RAM) would be more expensive than the $7k we've been paying.  We estimated anywhere from $15k to $20k.  It turns out that $15k is the number.

    In the interim, we looked into switching over to Linux workstations with 32-core threadrippers.  We bought 10 machines like that for about $6k and gave them to our developers who felt like they wanted to switch to Linux.  It hasn't been pretty.  2 of the boxes have had hardware problems... and all have had significant downtime because of "Linux issues" (and these people are Linux experts... but, to this day, software upgrades on Linux STILL have a decent chance of breaking your system).

    Now the new threadrippers are coming out... and the 64-core ones will be out soon enough.  Those look _super_ enticing... but we're not going to do it.  It's simply not worth the cost in lost productivity.  It only takes losing 50 (yes, really) hours to make up the $8k difference between these machines.  That's for machines that we know we will use for at least 5 years... so, anything more than 10 hours a year of downtime would make the Linux boxes more expensive (we almost never have problems with our cylinders and I expect it to be the same for these new Mac Pros).

    Therefore: we just put in our upgrade request... we're going to (in phases over a couple of years) buy ~40 of these new boxes at $15k.  Yes, they are expensive... but for what we do they are simply the best option.

    EDIT: And... all new hires will be receiving the $15k machines as well...
    philboogiewelshdogpscooter63macplusplusStrangeDayshucom2000fastasleepjdb8167maxit

  • Netflix drops AirPlay support citing unnamed 'technical limitations'

    friedmudfriedmud

    Netflix is introducing "mobile only" plans in some markets at a steep discount.  They don't want those people to be able to "get around" the mobile only restriction by being able to use AirPlay.  I assume that they have more control over the chromecast stuff - so they can effectively shut that down for mobile-only users.

    Personally - I've never used AirPlay for Netflix... as Dave points out I just use my AppleTVs connected to each one of my TVs (which also have their own Netflix app).  Hell - even my 4k Bluray player has a Netflix app... and so does my Nintendo Switch.  Airplay just isn't necessary...

    gatorguyelijahgNY1822doozydozenmatrix077n2itivguyentropysracerhomie3chasmstevenoz

  • Google Maps becomes first third-party navigation app with Apple CarPlay support

    friedmudfriedmud
    chasm said:
    Although I’m incredibly unlikely to ever use Google Maps, as I don’t want them to know where I travel to and try to sell me stuff based on that or sell that information elsewhere, I’m delighted that third-party navigation app are now available. And for those few people where Google Maps is in fact better (or Waze, to name a better example) than what Apple Maps offers (this perception was true once, but now it’s more myth than reality IMO — Google Maps has gotten me lost plenty of times!), it’s great that they have the option.

    Rob53’s point about waypoints is certainly a true advantage, though I find I just say “hey Siri, directions to [destination 1]” and then ask Siri for directions to the second destination [et al], so I haven’t missed waypoints. It would be nice for Apple can add that feature in the future, but “adjusting routes” is a thing already built into Apple Maps now. When asking for a given destination, the Maps app usually offers me at least two options on how to go — and of course if I choose to veer off the selected route (say, due to traffic) and join the other route, Maps just recalculates and eventually puts me on the other path. In my case, if I need to go seriously off-route because of a problem, I generally call up Waze and have it give me an alternative.

    You realize that Waze is owned by Google and still gives them all of your location information, right?

    Not that I care: I’m one of those crazy nutters that LIKES targeted advertising!  If I have to see ads - I would rather they be relevant!

    As to the topic at hand - I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.  I got to try out Google maps in my car last night and it’s every bit as glorious as I thought it would be!

    I’m glad this day finally came!
    muthuk_vanalingam

  • Tested: Thermal conditions in the 2018 i9 MacBook Pro dramatically hampering performance

    friedmudfriedmud
    DuhSesame said:
    So you can reach full turbo on all cores?  Have you tried Prime95 or even LinPack?
    Are you talking about during startup?  If so - then yeah - while the CPU is cold it will burst pretty high (but not to the 4.1GHz max) even if you're hitting all cores... but then it settles back to ~3.3-3.7GHz as the max with all cores running (see my earlier post showing that it pegs right at 3.7GHz)... which is below the 4.1GHz that's stated.

    The other thing with the scientific code is it initially does more on the first processor - then the others fill in and it stays pegged on all four until the end.  So some of that initial burst is a bit because it's one core starting up for a moment.
    roundaboutnow

  • Tested: Thermal conditions in the 2018 i9 MacBook Pro dramatically hampering performance

    friedmudfriedmud
    Mike Wuerthele said:
    sarishapalken said:
    For those anoyed with heating issue, just disable Turbo Boost. You can do it using another app like Turbo Boost Switcher or so. On redding there are even some posts reporting better performance with Turbo Boost disabled on certain tasks due to this issue.
    We started looking into this last night. With any luck, we'll get some numbers today on it.
    Mike: can you guys please try my simple program above?  We need more controlled testing on this than hitting "Run" in a rendering application.

    This is important to me because my team is getting ready to buy 5 of these new machines.  We do massively parallel scientific computing and use every single ounce of capability out of our laptops workstations... so if this thing really is thermal throttling then I need to know about it!
    muthuk_vanalingam