Channel Update July 2024: Big Computing Trends 

Amen to that!

Lol

@@Praxibetel-Ix Seconded

I totally agree with you :)

Natural environement = between an oscilloscope and a PCB

😂

Wasn't he an AI?

inflection*

@@encycl07pedia- Blame auto-corrupt.

Oh my god, the silences between sentences are golden

@@alkenstein Yes they are! [unless 'golden' is some new youth-speak/slang meaning something bad, in which case, no they aren't]. I think he's a university lecturer in 'real life', so he's just doing what he normally does, and it's a very satisfying change on youtube.

Ah, good old Mr. Squirrel.

Me talking to my devils lettuce dealer:

Totally hear Chris

First, there was Acorn.

@@ralphj4012 Oh ho ho - I see what you did there. ;)

Very good suggestion.

I second that proposal! I struggle to self build LocalAI which would be a perfect match for my needs. Something like that would be nice!

Yes, I agree with both those suggestions. The Zero 2W seems to meet your sufficient hardware criterion for a lot of uses (I'm currently setting one up as a Fruitbox jukebox, where is small size is useful for an existing enclosure). Selfhosting AI, and a review of what uses it is being put to in that environment would also be welcome.

I think it would be interesting to know how can we use AI to increase our power relative to corporations and government. Can we, using AI, work at a level where big money and big government do not dominate us and abuse us?

Sounds good. I would like to see more practical home automation builds that are cost effective and/or niche. Maybe that's only got a small amount of appeal.

Green World operating system - daily update !!! 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

Missed the Ducks.😒😒

If I were a tree I would certainly enjoy a visit from chris.

A buck converter is a bit off topic for his channel. I am sure others have done one.

@@kensmith5694 for all topics there are already videos. It's the unique way that Chris presents these topics. And you should not takes these topics literally, more as think in this direction for topics....

Very thoughtful comment! The current US-China chip war is totally out of control! Geopolitics affecting progress. :(

You also have the fun issue of web design (and often also general programming) getting "worse" as hardware gets better, with the result being little or no gain for the end user, and actually something of a red queen's race where they have to keep upgrading not to have their experience Degrade. I put worse in quotes there because sometimes it's legitimately just straight up worse with no real benefit other than allowing companies to hire less skilled people to do the job of making the thing, other times there is a trade off that does actually provide indirect, or occasionally even direct, benefits as well.

@@laurencefraser Wish I could upvote twice. It generally seems to be getting worse and slower, despite faster hardware than ever.

@@laurencefraser @skyak4493 There's lots of wisdom in your words, i absolutely concur in the fact that even though it is awesome that hardware is getting incredibly better as time passes, somehow professionals seem to be getting scarce and the new tech people don't seem to be putting as much effort into performance and managing resources wisely. At first i thought it would be a Video games only thing where maybe developers were getting lazier as time went by and people standards became much lower but now it has transitioned to most software stuff and it is getting egregious, applications somehow consume lot's of ram and the web stuff is full of unnecessary bloat, this really harms the user experience in the long run. I pray to God that more people stand up for this, and all of us future programmers actually put good effort in what we work on regardless the project.

@@Thirsty_Fox It is Wirth's law from wikipedia : "In 1995, he popularized the adage now named Wirth's law. In his 1995 paper "A Plea for Lean Software" he phrased it as "Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster." This new trend towards lean computing is very well explained in this French video on youtube (just auto translate) : "Et si on divisait par 4 l'empreinte carbone du numérique ?" Also search for : permacomputing, 100 rabbits, web0 manifesto, Ivan Illich convivialism... something is happening but needs more visibilty and maybe a common vocabulary.

You’re….. not your

Weary, and wary as well.

I agree but he needs to do it as a practical alternative like installing Linux Mint to avoid the issue going forward rather than "Microsoft bad bad bad"

@@kensmith5694 I agree, there are way too many videos and channels that do that. An objective breakdown of what Microsoft is doing step by step for people to follow along with some practical easy to use alternatives would be best.

3. well, ARM and RISC-V are more efficient than the x86-derived CISC-like systems, which is hugely important in many use cases obviously, from data center to mobile devices. Which are some of the biggest markets.

RISC did revolutionise computing. AMD and Intel effectively incorporated many of the RISC techniques in their implementations of the x86 and x86-64 instruction set architectures. And throughout that period of adoption, RISC architectures - including those from AMD and Intel - drove performance forward quite substantially.

risc came about because we did not know how to write compilers properly. to get around some people looked at one of the currently available machines, and went through the instruction set, looking at each instruction and checking if it was worth the silicon used to implement it. how they did this was they took the instruction set as an api, and looked to see if they could replace the instruction in the assembler with a macro implementing that instruction using a subset of the instructions on the processor, and what that did to speed and space considerations for the final program. if the results turned out to be better, they stopped generating the instruction, and used the macro instead, hence reducing the size of the instruction set. these complex instructions had a number of issues, which give risc architectures an advantage. first, they are no easier to implement in hardware than in software. if you don't believe me you only have to look at the fact of how many intel processor versions you identify by recognising which instruction on the chip is in some way broken. second, they take up a lot of silicon, which could be being used for something better. this has a massive opportunity cost, even before you go multicore. third, they slow down your processor. not only do they typically take multiple clock cycles to run, but also due to the current emphasis on a global system clock, they slow every instruction down to the clock speed of the slowest part of any instruction. for these and many other reasons, there is great interest in moving from cisc to risc. in fact the advantages are so high that most cisc processors are actually implemented like a virtual machine running on an internal risc processor. it also turns out that risc designs can do the same work using less energy, which is extremely important for mobile (where the issue is battery life) and for data center (where cooling is the issue). luckily, the abusive wintel duopoly doesn't control most of computing any more, only the desktop, so it is not really slowing things down too much.

Really Linux Mint the version cinnamon as it will look and feel the most like windows while not being windows. The main difference most will notice is instead of exe files you have .deb files i think that about it. Most of your windows programs will still work with the same version you are using too through the linux-windows compatibility layer too. Games and professional programs like the Adobe suit have to get the linux version instead of the windows version of it. So most compatible and easiest to switch to distro. Yeah the tables in your .docx files will be opened wrong in the word processor it has by default but unless you are using the built in table function they will open like normal and show the same thing as it did on windows. Same thing for excel sheets still able to open and save to .xls and .xlsx too. For power point well i never tried to use it to open a Microsoft Office Power point the images might be a little misaligned if saved in .pptx due to the XML Microsoft uses but .ppt files will open correctly with everything aligned where you put them. Able to save into both of them too. VLC is on it unsure if by default. Still a good video player for both Windows and Linux. GIMP 2.10 is the default 2D image program instead of a combo of photos and MS Paint on windows. It is good could be better but it is in every distro of Linux already. From what i hear they are waiting for GIMP 3 to release to finally remove python 2 and only have python 3. By default you will have IDLE installed though most do not use it as it isn't one of the better IDEs and most do not program anyways. By default you will have apt mostly as the OS common command of apt-get install and apt-get upgrade require apt. You do not need to use them as Linux Mint has a GUI to do it for you. That last part leads into Linux Mint has a GUI for you to use to update your system so you do not need to go into terminal to update anything. Same with getting known to be supported applications. You still can use terminal and depending on what you want to do with it might be better to but for most general use programs the GUI method that puts most programs you might want to use in one place seems best. Mostly so you do not type the wrong case and/or wrong letter in the command or get tricked into using a command you do not know that will be bad for your system. They took most commonly used programs and put them in one place. They are also updated in the update system thing too so you do not have to go around and get the updates from their websites. For Zoom, discord, and skype yes they are supported though support for linux seems to be an after thought for all 3 of them. RU-vid runs as well as it does on windows 10. Same amount of ads same ads. No difference sorry if you thought there would be one. Same thing with cloud storage though depending on which one you go with you might run into an issue with the file types not being supported so having to download the files to open them. Mostly for the open source program file types like .ods and .odt kinds of things. The file structure is also different so no C drive you have / then everything on and connected to the computer comes after that. Most will just use the short cuts to home, downloads, documents, pictures and videos so nothing will change as the computer will put you in the correct location for them. Lastly different security holes from windows. Both of security holes just mint linux has different ones from windows 10 and 11 is all. Mint Linux takes a different approach to it by trying to not have the holes in the first place instead of a program to detect when something go through them. So far the way Mint Linux has done it of not having any way for the malware to work has been better than the Microsoft way of catching it after it gets onto the machine. Still anti-malware programs exist for both windows and linux.

The answer is: Kubuntu (Ubuntu Linux with KDE Plasma DE)

@@pablosartor6715 lol. Yes, Canonical is so much better than Microsoft /sarcasm. They put spyware in Ubuntu. I wouldn't trust any Ubuntu-based distro.

Hello. Lubuntu.

3 replies, 3 different answers!! This topic is interesting to me as where I live there isn't really money for replacing hardware in schools, businesses and even government. Something more general like how does security work, how do updates work, what compatibility issues will there be, where do you learn about basic admin, etc... (Our tax system requires you to upload an Excel spreadsheet in 97-03 compatible format, the .ods version doesn't work!!!)

I like this idea - and to my comment a few moments ago, show us what other methods would have been used prior to having these ML models available. That's the kind of Explaining that really helps people understand where AI/ML is a useful next step vs being the buzzword of the year.

Thanks for your support and ideas, most appreciated. :) Kevin and I do keep talking about doing a collab of some kind.

​@@ExplainingComputersYou're welcome! I hope that collab does happen. :D

good afternoon Ford here we are on another glorious Sunday spending time with Chris :)

@@alanthornton3530 Indeed we are! It's the start of the day for me and I couldn't think of a more better way to kick off a Sunday.

David Attenborough for the win.

@@legojenn Oh yeah ;)

@@Praxibetel-Ix Yes it's a really good way to start the day, I've been reading through the comments for the last hour & a half & posted a few replies. Last night I finished going through Chris's back catalogue of PC build videos, the info is still relevant today, in fact all his videos are an important encyclopedic resource that needs preserving!! It reminds me of the Hitch hikers guide, described as insanely complicated with the reassuring phrase on the front cover of .....................'Don't Panic' any thoughts Ford? ;)

I think RISC-5 wins on that. There are some "do it your self" processor projects on youtube but the ISA for them are always specific to the design the guy did.

Machine learning is a subfield of AI.

IMO, AI is a "solution" in search of a problem. Burning all that energy for mostly zero improvement.

A.I. is stupid and shouldn't exist.

I think we all need to become aware of what AI is and what it means for any and all of us... and the question my cynical mind asks.. What is the driving force behind it... and who benefits from forcing it on us...

Surely there is one thing that is crying out for more AI: learning from Github. Github instructions are double Dutch to me. I cannot break down the task into the steps needed and the order of steps; something that AI is good at. That would be 90 percent of something done. Then I enter the commands in the terminal. To cite a specific example, there is a GUI tool for my focusrite audio interface. But I cannot make sense of the needed Github steps.

The topic is also very saturated

To my understanding, that is precisely the role of Linux Mint, which seems to be Christopher's favourite Linux distro. It's a fairly simple, reliable distro for email, word processing, browsing etc. Not my personal choice, but it's what I also recommend for first time Linux users. I've been recommending it for about 10 years now. Or you mean hardware-wise, basic system?

That might be interesting, but I'm not sure who the audience would be. I'm not afraid of the command line (what I'd really like is a character-based menuing system, like the old Lotus Magellan), but I wouldn't think of using it to do those tasks, which are my major use of a computer these days. Though I suppose I have played with #! ++ on a Core 2 Duo machine, and the application launcher in that distro is pretty neat. Were you thinking of something like that? Or setting up the very basic menu we used to set up to boot into in MS-DOS?

I second your opinion, as an old fart myself! :) As a long time UNIX/Linux user, I am very comfortable with that environment but, like you, I feel that by now, AI should have been integrated into those operating systems, at least to the extent of monitoring how the system was used and suggesting improvements to help automate its use even further. I used to dream of an OS that would see what I was doing and write shell scripts for me to use. Sadly, I had to learn to write shell scripts myself :) Operating systems are a closed domain, so it should have been possible to write an expert system to do this, yet it was never done. No, new users are forced to learn what is admittedly an arcane and obscure language to extract all the power from these systems. Yes, I know, vendor lock-in and all that. The best Microsoft could do, was to annoy people with Clippy. Total lack of imagination! And their latest fiasco, Recall, shows exactly how they regard their userbase as a resource to be exploited. Not content with recording all our keystrokes, now they want to record our screens. And they try to sell _that_ to us as a benefit! Good grief! Currently, I am trying to expose my brain to Emacs and Lisp, which _I_ think, are the best examples of forward thinking software I've encountered. A 65 year old programming language and a 48 year old editor which includes a Lisp interpreter ... there's something to be said about software that lasts that long. And interestingly, Lisp was created to enable AI development. Perhaps the old is new again ... ?

I totally agree with you!!

@@sethbrown1763 Hi Seth. I always thought "clippy" showed us _exactly_ what Microsoft thought of it's users. They see us as dumb as dirt. Yet if they see us that way, then why do they constantly make their OS, and application software, harder to use? Or at least ever more arcane. I know that a fair bit of that OS level increasing difficulty is them trying to force us to only use Microsoft software... and that is a serious problem for anyone who likes to choose their applications from a wider base.

I mostly agree, except that IMO debloated Win10 is easier to use than Win7 and previous. I tried going back to Win7 and it was immediately apparent that a lot of QOL things were missing. At the same time, I will never "upgrade" to Win11. Like ME, Vista, and Win8, Win11 is clearly a step downward in usability from its direct predecessor. Enterprise IOT version of Win10 has support thru 2032, so that's my pick.

looking at Star Trek and then claiming we're 'behind' is a bit of an odd take. It's set centuries into the future, after all. My recollection of it's timeline (well, in so far as there's a single coherent one (there's not)) is that if we were using That as a metric we'd be about due for a third world war involving widespread use of atomic weaponry.

I went outside once, it seemed ok but the wifi dropped out quite rapidly

If Chris was out standing in his field would he get a Nobel prize?

It's green screen. Literally.

on video, i hope

Yes, from how wide he opens his eyes, you can tell that outdoor isn't his element. He surely has a secret way to get vitamin D, though.

Well, there's energy efficiency, noise reduction, and a few other reasons to upgrade, but straight up "More Power!"... not really. Well, aside from dealing with the ever more poorly made websites and other such resource hogs.

Bionic Chris! 🦾

Thanks for watching. :)

That's very interesting. I don't want to get too political, but I do fear that if cognitive computing does become able to do most jobs, a lot of ordinary people are going to be left scavenging and begging. The notion of the burden of increased leisure, which was very big in the 1960s and '70s, looks more and more like an opium dream from the past.

​@@michaelwright2986 I'm less concerned about the "AI taking everybody's job" angle than others. Even if an AI can complete a task, how do you hold an AI tool accountable? There'll still need to be humans to sign off on many things. Maybe an AI can design a bridge but we'll still need a human engineer to review and sign it off, and humans to build it.

@@deanstyles2567 Well, I hope you're right. But it all depends on who controls the means of production (if you'll pardon the old-fashioned language). Who says whether or not we'll need a human engineer? You and I might say it, but we don't run things. And if the solution is computer designed, it might become too complex for a human to understand. I think if we look at the sad story of what has happened to Boeing it is easy to see how things could go. Would present Boeing management go for computer designed, robot constructed, computer tested production? At least the robots might be more consistently accurate than we fallible human beings can manage, and the flaws deeply embedded, and so hidden. I really don't know how I feel about that.

@@michaelwright2986 Yes I can remember my IT company saying in the 80's saying that we will have more leisure time and retire much earlier. How did that pan out?

@@tonysheerness2427 The same claim was made regarding automation in factories. The idea was that each worker could work less hours, get paid the same, and output more product, so the bosses would make more money because they sold more stuff and the workers would have more time with their families and the like. This is how it was sold to the public. Actual result? half the workers get fired (and thus have either no income or live off state pensions or find other, less well paying work, and thus have less disposable income, and thus buy less stuff! ... well, a reasonable minority probably moved on to better things, but generally not), the other half are working longer hours than before (when government regulations do not prevent this), for the same pay (sometimes inflation adjusted, sometimes Not and thus effectively Worse pay) to make roughly the predicted amount more stuff, and the bosses make Way more money... which they then proceed to largely... not spend. Or spend on things that have little or no impact on the over all economy. Certainly not enough to feed back into the whole system and increase Everyone's effective wealth the way paying the workers more or having them work less hours would have. Well, I say 'half'. Acutal numbers varied of course.

Is the South part really that important to you? Hello from North Korea.

@@Hk7762Tube Is the North part really important to you?

Chris isn't much of a gamer. He does love playing solataire tho.