I've NEVER had a co-worker do that. What I have had happen is a manager (or higher) having that type of opinion (not necessarily because they think they'll be gone), and directing it below.
The Tech Random Crap Thread
- Thread starter DarkAudit
- Start date
So would I be correct in thinking that the reason all of my streaming video apps just took a performance hit is because the patch for this stupid exploit caused an actual physical slowdown of machines running the affected(sp?) processors? And, that if we do see speeds go back up it will either be because the CDN's have had to increase the number of servers and/or replace their Intel chips with AMD chips? I mean, I can skim through the thread and the articles about it and pick up most of the concepts, but am I really reading everything correctly here? And if so, is there an actual benefit to putting an SSD into a 10+ year old computer, because I already have an (ancient) AMD chip and won't be able to afford to replace the machine this year if all of this bs drives Ryzen prices through the roof?
It caused a slowdown, but as I understand it, the patch really only affects programs that strongly benefit from speculative access (lots of potential choices), and seeing how most video decoding is done on GPU these days anyway, your slowdowns are more likely to be due to not having a new enough graphics card to take advantage of GPU decoding. Likewise there's not a lot of decision-making being done when delivering content (the CDNs are just shoveling data in your direction) so this is also unlikely to be affected.
Putting a SSD into a 10+ yr old computer will improve performance, but what it improves is your computer's ability to find and load multiple files on the drive (i.e., "access time"), it will not actually make your computer run faster (unless the reason it was slow in the first place was because it was bogged down trying to read/write multiple files).
--Patrick
Putting a SSD into a 10+ yr old computer will improve performance, but what it improves is your computer's ability to find and load multiple files on the drive (i.e., "access time"), it will not actually make your computer run faster (unless the reason it was slow in the first place was because it was bogged down trying to read/write multiple files).
--Patrick
My biggest issue is load time, and especially browsers accessing their cache before loading a page. At this point, just the act of opening a new tab in Chrome or Firefox will outright stop all other processes while the tab resolves, and will do it again once I send it to an actual address. I can be playing Eternal Card Game, on my opponent's turn, against a live player, and the whole thing just hangs until my browser is done; or casting something to my TV from my computer; or typing something in Word. It's getting nigh-unusable for any multitasking that requires a browser. And sadly, it's not just web browsers. Want to open a document in Word? Good luck. Hope you don't need to save anything large anytime soon. It's um... it's getting unfortunate. If an SSD would help relieve that, then I have no legitimate reason to replace the machine.
The slowdown I was referring to, however, skips over my computer altogether. Unless I want to watch something I've "acquired" on my own, I never stream from my PC to the TV anymore, for the above mentioned reason. Since moving to a much smaller town and getting a new modem and (le gasp!) a router that is a separate device, which (le gasp again!) isn't automatically set up to allow anyone who wants to connect to it to do so as a guest (stupid comcast and their stupid modem/router/hotspot devices), I never have any of the issues I used to have casting through either the Chromecast or the Amazon FireTV Stick. In fact, Amazon is my device of choice now, it runs so much smoother. Or it did, until about two days ago, when both devices became a lot less smooth. Though, I will admit that I've never studied the architecture behind a CDN, much less the relationship between Netflix's on-device app, the FireTV stick, and AWS; so really, the whole thing could be unconnected aside from really coincidental timing - hence the question.
Your first issue sounds more like insufficient RAM, which should be easy enough to check using Task Manager/Activity Monitor. When your computer is starved for memory, switching from one app to another will hit you with a time penalty while unused stuff is packed up and swapped to disk while other stuff is loaded from disk and unpacked. Chrome is notorious for using more memory than other browsers, which it does in order to separate each page into its own process. It's true that having a faster drive will reduce this impact, but to actually fix it means installing more RAM. Again, you should check your actual RAM usage before making any hardware changes, it's really easy (and free!) to check and you'll find out right away if that's what it is. If your "available" memory is only measurable in MB then it's time for more RAM.
--Patrick
--Patrick
Nope, RAM isn't the issue. I have multiple GB free (in fact, I can have up to 3GB free, which is 50% of my RAM, while the issue is happening). That was my first consideration, but since I can only add up to a total of 2 more GB (for a total of 8) with this motherboard, it's not high on my list of things to buy, even though it's usually dirt cheap.
I don't know the source of Gared's issues, but Patrick, this assertion is incorrect. Speculative execution is the source of the bug/exploit, but the fix is to make every call to the Operating System's Kernel layer super-expensive compared to how it was before by "purging" the RAM that the process can see (not just legally access, see at all) and not storing ANY kernel memory there. So this makes any system calls (even allocating memory on anything but the stack) have a much greater cost than before.
So if your program has lots of branches, it doesn't make a difference versus a program with fewer. But if you hit the kernel a lot (file/network access, or just allocating/deallocating memory a lot) then you will see a hit.
Well, we're sorta both right and wrong. You're describing Meltdown, I'm describing Spectre. The remedies for each seem to involve messing with timer reporting (Spectre) and with purging the TLB so kernel memory is truly invisible to user processes (Meltdown).
--Patrick
The fact that they are reading cache memory, bit by bit, using a timer is insane.
It’s just completely bonkers.
This is hard core.
And they can’t fix it with a microcode patch since it’s a cache exploit.
This has been known for awhile, though, the new trick is figuring out which piece of cached memory belongs to the real memory, and which pieces of real memory the operating system resides in.
The only reason this works in a human time scale at all is because the processors are running billions of instructions per second. Have you seen the readout examples of the exploit? They aren’t zooming by faster than you can see - each byte they capture from the OS memory space cost them hundreds of millions of cycles of processing.
It’s mind boggling that people sat down and reverse engineered enough of these chips to figure out an exploit was possible here, then worked on it for countless hours to see if it could work.
And I’m glad they did, because it’ll doubtless result in a fix in the next chip, though probably not a perfect fix since the chip design is already in process, but it’ll probably make the software fix run much faster if not eliminate the problem altogether.
It’s just completely bonkers.
This is hard core.
And they can’t fix it with a microcode patch since it’s a cache exploit.
This has been known for awhile, though, the new trick is figuring out which piece of cached memory belongs to the real memory, and which pieces of real memory the operating system resides in.
The only reason this works in a human time scale at all is because the processors are running billions of instructions per second. Have you seen the readout examples of the exploit? They aren’t zooming by faster than you can see - each byte they capture from the OS memory space cost them hundreds of millions of cycles of processing.
It’s mind boggling that people sat down and reverse engineered enough of these chips to figure out an exploit was possible here, then worked on it for countless hours to see if it could work.
And I’m glad they did, because it’ll doubtless result in a fix in the next chip, though probably not a perfect fix since the chip design is already in process, but it’ll probably make the software fix run much faster if not eliminate the problem altogether.
And the fact they are even mentioned in the same articles as one another (let alone sentence) shows the power of Intel's PR machine, as de Raadt commented on:
IMO de Raddt isn't being dramatic enough. It would be like the emissions cheating being released at the same time as it was found that everybody in the industry was blinking their signal lights at the "wrong" interval and VW trying to show how they're the same as everybody else.
Spectre is annoying, and applications can be patched. Meltdown is a total and complete catastrophe for security, and ONLY Intel is affected.
...and certain high-performance ARM chips.
There's already been 3 or 4 class-action lawsuits filed against Intel. Maybe more, by now.
...which is still not as many as have been filed against Apple for their battery thing.
The tech sector sure seems to be full of lawyers all of a sudden.
--Patrick
Please link that, as the tech paper (pdf link) on the main site says specifically:
They got a toy example working to show there are effects of speculative execution (ie: Spectre), but that's not the same as leaking kernel memory, which is Meltdown.
Please link an article mentioning ARM-related Meltdown (well, anybody BUT Intel), as I haven't seen it yet.
Here you go, straight from ARM, where they specifically reference Meltdown (as CVE-2017-5754).
—Patrick
Fair enough, though if you read through the PDF itself, it's "less bad" than the Intel vulnerability. Same "type" of attack, but getting the information out is MUCH harder. Not impossible, but it's a lot slower.
Right. Only vulnerable to a specific implementation.
They’ll probably still get sued.
—Patrick
Seriously.
All we’re missing is a story about having to replace Disney’s animatronic Trump for going on a grabby sexual harassment rampage due to a flaw in its CPU and a defective Li-ion battery.
—Patrick
Neat idea from Razer at CES: Razer’s Project Linda imagines a laptop dock for the Razer Phone
Image:
Honestly, not a terrible idea IMO. Probably never make it to market, but I like the general idea. I think integrating it as the touchpad is actually kinda genius (in the good way I mean). Eliminates "well where do I put my phone?" problem with other laptop-like docks for phones.
Image:
Honestly, not a terrible idea IMO. Probably never make it to market, but I like the general idea. I think integrating it as the touchpad is actually kinda genius (in the good way I mean). Eliminates "well where do I put my phone?" problem with other laptop-like docks for phones.
I 100% believe we're going that way. People will carry their PCs in their pocket and just dock them when they need to do something with a bigger screen/keyboard and mouse. This will NOT kill the PC, of course, because more powerful machines are always needed for something. But for daily use, a quality phone with a dock could be enough to do 98% of a typical user's non-gaming needs.
I thought we were going that direction several years ago - an android phone had similar capabilities, just not the fancy docking solution.
However PC processors are still exceeding mobile processors in a lot of ways, and mobile processors have a lot of limitations in I/O.
Apple's mobile processors are catching up, though, so I'm hoping that Apple starts producing OS X laptops based on their A series of processors.
Then again, I was expecting OS X and iOS to share features more fully over the last five years too. I'd really like an iPad Pro with xcode, etc running directly on it.
I think the real impediment is market segmentation. Right now Apple can get one consumer to buy a phone, watch, iPad, and PC. If they extend the iPad, Phone , or Watch too far they'll find more customers buying fewer devices. Further, the iOS devices are all successfully walled gardens, and they can extract more profit from customers on apps and digital purchases than they do with OS X.
Other players can force them into a position where they might have to cave, though, so I hope that this product becomes successful, and other products similar to it.
But apple is so far ahead in their processor design that even efforts like this might not cause them to budge.
Actually, Disney’s animatronic Trump was programmed to go on a grabby sexual harassment rampage, but a flaw in its CPU and a defective Li-ion battery have prevented it from behaving like the real Trump.
Just facepalm: Taiwanese Police Give Cyber-security Quiz Winners Infected Devices
Either extreme incompetence, or extremely disturbing. Or both. I guess it could be both too.
Odds on not being a mistake? I mean only those who are GOOD at security can possibly blow through the locks, so therefore we have to trace/track those who are interested in it... right?
Either extreme incompetence, or extremely disturbing. Or both. I guess it could be both too.
Nvidia GPUs vulnerable to spectre:
https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/10/nvidia-gpu-meltdown-and-spectre-patches/
As expected, but many were dismissing the idea since they believed it wasn't important as it doesn't carry the kernel of have privilege levels.
Also, an interesting read on how four different teams converged on the same bugs at the same time - bugs that are 20 years old:
https://www.wired.com/story/meltdown-spectre-bug-collision-intel-chip-flaw-discovery/
https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/10/nvidia-gpu-meltdown-and-spectre-patches/
As expected, but many were dismissing the idea since they believed it wasn't important as it doesn't carry the kernel of have privilege levels.
Also, an interesting read on how four different teams converged on the same bugs at the same time - bugs that are 20 years old:
https://www.wired.com/story/meltdown-spectre-bug-collision-intel-chip-flaw-discovery/
Oh, you meant driver updates.
I thought you meant card/chip updates, was going to agree that they're in the doldrums again.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
GeForce NOW is now in beta.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/geforce-now/mac-pc/
I've signed up. I'd like to see if it can turn my old laptop into a beast machine, as it claims.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/geforce-now/mac-pc/
I've signed up. I'd like to see if it can turn my old laptop into a beast machine, as it claims.
GasBandit
Staff member
I know I'd be buying hours every time it was time to go visit the folks. And I've got numerous friends and relatives with aging machines who occasionally want to play, and $1 an hour is cheaper than we used to spend in the arcades back in the day, by a LOT.
You probably need good internet for that though, so don't try it when visiting any of your grandparents.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah they never went to the arcade anywayYou probably need good internet for that though, so don't try it when visiting any of your grandparents.
At least this grandfather HAD internet of some form.
My other grandfather, the one in Grand Junction? Refuses. Says he doesn't need it. Not even when all 5 of his kids and dozens of grandkids are in the house. He will graciously offer to turn on his (3g-ish speed) wifi hotspot on his flip phone if you want to check your e-mail, but take it easy because he only gets 1 gig a month.
And no, he doesn't get cable either (not that I blame him for that). I'm astonished he actually has a DVD player (he probably was given one for christmas I suspect).
As the jitters start to set in on the more net-addicted of his descendants, he will offer to assuage their agitation with a rousing game of Hearts, Monopoly, or 42.
GasBandit
Staff member
When I got home, I set up my steam link and steam controller that has been waiting for me at the office since I went into the hospital.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the steam link, although my TV isn't quite big enough to adequately display the text under icons in 1080p. But that's a side effect of me never valuing couch gaming before.
The steam controller is going to take some serious getting used to. I've never been much of a controller guy since the 90s, give me a keyboard and mouse any day, and I don't know why they assigned left click to be the right analog trigger. The depth of the analog throw really screws up my aim with the mouse cursor in desktop mode. I suppose I'll have plenty of time to practice, as my butt is pretty much glued to the couch for the next few weeks when I'm not working.
Steam link is sure great for playing video files easily though. One side note for people like me who have more than one monitor, you may as well get the steam controller with your steam link because it's the only easy way to switch between monitors on the Fly. You simply mouse off the edge of one monitor to get the other monitor on screen. It's a lot more complicated without a steam controller.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the steam link, although my TV isn't quite big enough to adequately display the text under icons in 1080p. But that's a side effect of me never valuing couch gaming before.
The steam controller is going to take some serious getting used to. I've never been much of a controller guy since the 90s, give me a keyboard and mouse any day, and I don't know why they assigned left click to be the right analog trigger. The depth of the analog throw really screws up my aim with the mouse cursor in desktop mode. I suppose I'll have plenty of time to practice, as my butt is pretty much glued to the couch for the next few weeks when I'm not working.
Steam link is sure great for playing video files easily though. One side note for people like me who have more than one monitor, you may as well get the steam controller with your steam link because it's the only easy way to switch between monitors on the Fly. You simply mouse off the edge of one monitor to get the other monitor on screen. It's a lot more complicated without a steam controller.