I am glad something great about Facebook is being voted on top on HN. Along with another day on post about OpenAI adopting Ads as revenue solution to problem.
>In this article I will try to explain why I find his framing fascinating but incomplete. Evans structures technology history in cycles. Every 10-15 years, the industry reorganizes around a new platform: mainframes (1960s-70s), PCs (1980s), web (1990s), smartphones (2000s-2010s). Each shift pulls all innovation, investment, and company creation into its orbit. Generative AI appears to be the next platform shift, or it could break the cycle entirely.
A lot of the AI and LLM argument on whether it is really eating the world misses one point, and I think Evans implied but not pointed out explicitly.
Had it not been AI investment, we wouldn't have the current hardware improvement and innovation rate.
Most people have heard about the limit of Moore's law, but every single time it appeared in headline is an economic model limit rather than limit of physics. We were predicting a stop to growth in 90s because we couldn't see a 400M PC market shipment in 2010. Turns out Smartphone carried that forward, and it is what funded growth of TSMC when most on HN even knew much or heard of TSMC. The same goes with LPDDR RAM, Pure Play IP, Wireless, Network, etc. All the hardware improvements that came with Smartphone is now continued to be developed at rapid pace due to AI and Hyperscaler.
What Evan were suggesting is much simpler, could AI automate things that previously were not possible for 99% of business outside of Tech and Software. The answer is a simple yes. And worth pointing out ChartGPT is closing in on a billion weekly active user.
A lot of HN discussion about AI often centered around software development. And whether it is good enough of it. Most of the world outside are happy enjoying AI for many things. What used to require a mildly technical person to do on excel can not be done without one. It is opening up software to even more people. It is creating more value than people imagine, and users are willing to paid for it.
I think, I may be wrong Windows 3.11 was the last Window that provide instantaneous GUI response. Windows 95 was still fast by today's standard but it wasn't "instant".
Windows 3.x did not have preemptive multitasking, apps had to yield in the message loop (cooperative multitasking). This meant that an instantaneous response was possible, but often wasn't, at all. Win95 brought true preemptive multitasking, which was a breath of fresh air.
>What's up with the trend of articles that seem like they're written by someone after a couple of sessions in a freshmen comp sci class?
This is funny and cracked me up. Because the author is actually the one who teaches CS in University.
>Nothing new here and a discussion of DB transactions without even mentioning ACID compliance and the trade-offs? You're better off picking up a 40 year old textbook than posts like this.
That would have been a very long blog post. Edit: I just realise Ben has already replied above.
I dont disagree with you on the chain of thoughts, the only problem is your thesis assumes UK could go back to its glory and superpower. Remembered by many during and after the World War II. And innovate to stand on its own, without the support of EU.
All of that is theoretically possible. And a very admirable goal to have. The problem is modern Britain is no longer what it once was. From Strategy to execution it is increasingly rare to find a field where they lead, and more often then not talents that produces value are captured by the US.
The current climate, culture and geopolitical issues suggest it will take much longer than 15 years, likely a whole generation cycle roughly 30 years. And depending on how you count it we are at 6 - 10 years already.
> From Strategy to execution it is increasingly rare to find a field where they lead, and more often then not talents that produces value are captured by the US.
People may agree or disagree on Brexit. But my god your sentence sums up what is happening in the UK, without anyone to blame, whether it is Russia, China, US or EU, UK have simply failed to strategically plan or execute on anything.
And there are plenty of people on HN would say otherwise and say UK is fine.
What matters is the capacity per volume, per mass and per dollar.
The capacities per volume and per mass for these glass slabs are already very competitive. They are about the same as for the best tape cartridges currently available. The capacity per volume is about twice better than for the best HDDs, and the capacity per mass is much better than that, because HDDs are very heavy.
If such optical storage had not been so expensive as it is for now, it would have already been much better than any cloud storage. The slow writing speed is similar to that of file downloading or uploading over the Internet. Reading can be done much faster than writing, because it uses ordinary lasers and a video camera, not the very expensive femtosecond-pulse lasers used for writing.
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