thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me.
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thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me. i use devices until one of the following happens:
- i outgrow their capacity
- they break and i cannot repair them any more
- it is impossible to get software/firmware updates that work with it... plus a few years usually
(mostly a mix of 2 and 3 depending on the device)
Same here. I only recently upgraded my PC so that I could implement features depending on resizable-BAR mapping of GPU memory, and support for RDNA4 architectures.
If not for that, I'd probably have kept with that Xeon E5-1620 in an X99 board for another 10 years, or so (it's been relegated to a NAS system now).
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thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me. i use devices until one of the following happens:
- i outgrow their capacity
- they break and i cannot repair them any more
- it is impossible to get software/firmware updates that work with it... plus a few years usually
(mostly a mix of 2 and 3 depending on the device)
@whitequark I'd have said that is an upgrade cycle. maybe not the one the manufacturer wants you to have, but still one. Does that word imply something different for you?
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i anticipate having
\4. it is economically unjustifiable to run them any more
in a while but not with my current setup
@whitequark afaik it's "mostly" hyperscalers that are the ones likely to run into this (especially in relation to power usage)
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@whitequark afaik it's "mostly" hyperscalers that are the ones likely to run into this (especially in relation to power usage)
@r no there are deffo server motherboards you can't reasonably run anymore as a home warrior
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@whitequark I'd have said that is an upgrade cycle. maybe not the one the manufacturer wants you to have, but still one. Does that word imply something different for you?
@HeNeArXn a scheduled/planned one, yeah
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@HeNeArXn a scheduled/planned one, yeah
@HeNeArXn like how carriers in the US do with phones
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thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me. i use devices until one of the following happens:
- i outgrow their capacity
- they break and i cannot repair them any more
- it is impossible to get software/firmware updates that work with it... plus a few years usually
(mostly a mix of 2 and 3 depending on the device)
@whitequark I aspire to be like this. though I have been thinking about permacomputing more (using that as an argument to e.g. use an old laptop hard drive I have instead of getting a new SATA SSD after my last one broke), and I’ve always preferred to buy used, so that’s something…
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@HeNeArXn like how carriers in the US do with phones
@whitequark ah okay. I keep forgetting that's a thing (the regular phone plan replacements)
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@whitequark I aspire to be like this. though I have been thinking about permacomputing more (using that as an argument to e.g. use an old laptop hard drive I have instead of getting a new SATA SSD after my last one broke), and I’ve always preferred to buy used, so that’s something…
@follpvosten i've flip-flopped on buying used
when i was younger it felt nice to get a device that was manufactured 'just for me'. nowadays that has long faded so i choose used because it's cheaper and in many ways more efficient; phones that are 1-2 versions behind can still be in very good condition while also being so much cheaper it's basically unjustifiable to get a flagship one
(especially if one is willing to replace the battery, like i am)
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@follpvosten i've flip-flopped on buying used
when i was younger it felt nice to get a device that was manufactured 'just for me'. nowadays that has long faded so i choose used because it's cheaper and in many ways more efficient; phones that are 1-2 versions behind can still be in very good condition while also being so much cheaper it's basically unjustifiable to get a flagship one
(especially if one is willing to replace the battery, like i am)
@follpvosten plus some of the tech that i still like and which still works fine (like my current laptop) hasn't been manufactured 'new' for years
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i anticipate having
\4. it is economically unjustifiable to run them any more
in a while but not with my current setup
@whitequark Many businesses seem to do an anticipatory (1): "The average software (mainly websites) you're expected to use doubles in compute requirements every 3 years."
I also see "this one feature is flaky so I guess I need an entire new computer" a lot and it's tiring, but I also don't want to play tech support for people I'm not good friends with.
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thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me. i use devices until one of the following happens:
- i outgrow their capacity
- they break and i cannot repair them any more
- it is impossible to get software/firmware updates that work with it... plus a few years usually
(mostly a mix of 2 and 3 depending on the device)
@whitequark My Pixel 4 basically works like it did on day one except for battery life. Sometimes I just go to the Google store to see if it has been dropped from the trade-in program. 😁
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when i say "they break and i cannot repair them" what i mean is "the price of board level repair exceeds the cost of a new device / my skill is insufficient / it is literally impossible to get parts anymore". i can do, and do, board level repair on anything i own if i have to
@whitequark I'm going to replace a 0402 fuse for the backlight of a thinkpad in a few days. First time that I'm doing something this advanced in terms of repair. Wish me luck!
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@whitequark I'm going to replace a 0402 fuse for the backlight of a thinkpad in a few days. First time that I'm doing something this advanced in terms of repair. Wish me luck!
@whitequark I did swap out plenty of THT capacitors in various devices. In fact I'm running a Samsung 245B screen *right now* that now runs longer post-repair than it has run before the repair :-D
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@follpvosten i've flip-flopped on buying used
when i was younger it felt nice to get a device that was manufactured 'just for me'. nowadays that has long faded so i choose used because it's cheaper and in many ways more efficient; phones that are 1-2 versions behind can still be in very good condition while also being so much cheaper it's basically unjustifiable to get a flagship one
(especially if one is willing to replace the battery, like i am)
@whitequark @follpvosten Optimistically, it sounds like we're seeing tech mature like vehicles. Thank goodness for the suckers who can't fathom buying a used car to keep new-ish cars flowing into the used car ecosystem. Same for tech. Just wish both groups would stop overvaluing their property when they put it on the resale market.
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@follpvosten plus some of the tech that i still like and which still works fine (like my current laptop) hasn't been manufactured 'new' for years
@whitequark my current de-facto main laptop is kind of a special case because when I learned that someone made a laptop that walks like a netbook and quacks like a netbook with decent specs and modern hardware in 2023, I just had to get that because it had a pink version and I love small cute things
...like my current phone, which is an iphone se from 2022 that I bought used last year :)
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thinking about how foreign the concept of an "upgrade cycle" is to me. i use devices until one of the following happens:
- i outgrow their capacity
- they break and i cannot repair them any more
- it is impossible to get software/firmware updates that work with it... plus a few years usually
(mostly a mix of 2 and 3 depending on the device)
@whitequark What? People don't repurpose their old computers for CI?
My 12 years old desktop computer (i7 4790) is there, from 2 upgrades ago. So is my previous PC and some friend's old test machine 🤣
The steam decks are pre-production units from me and my colleagues. Only the NUCs and SBCs were somewhat bought for the purpose.
Hopefully, #ci_tron will enable more devs to share their old machines with the world for Linux testing, thus keeping it working for longer.
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@whitequark What? People don't repurpose their old computers for CI?
My 12 years old desktop computer (i7 4790) is there, from 2 upgrades ago. So is my previous PC and some friend's old test machine 🤣
The steam decks are pre-production units from me and my colleagues. Only the NUCs and SBCs were somewhat bought for the purpose.
Hopefully, #ci_tron will enable more devs to share their old machines with the world for Linux testing, thus keeping it working for longer.
@mupuf reasons I wouldn't repurpose an old computer for CI:
- it's loud
- it's an energy hog
- it's a laptop with a shit grade cooling system
- it's unstable
- etc
plenty good ones, for better or worse
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@whitequark I'm going to replace a 0402 fuse for the backlight of a thinkpad in a few days. First time that I'm doing something this advanced in terms of repair. Wish me luck!
@claudius good luck!
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@mupuf reasons I wouldn't repurpose an old computer for CI:
- it's loud
- it's an energy hog
- it's a laptop with a shit grade cooling system
- it's unstable
- etc
plenty good ones, for better or worse
@whitequark Unstable is not gonna cut it, indeed. Loud is also a stopper for appartments (I have them in the basement, two floors away from bedrooms).
As for power, all these machines are off unless they are testing code. The baseline power usage is about 40W when the screen is off.
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@relay @NickZander questo forse potrebbe interessarti…
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Una pagina a caso dal:
A random page from:
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and then
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Do you want to know which version of FreeBSD you are running? Enter
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Le cose da fare se manca l'energia
> Alcuni consigli dell'Agenzia Internazionale dell'Energia per limitare i consumi di gas e petrolio, ora che con la guerra bisogna essere parsimoniosi
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@stefano 🙂
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La diplomazia” parallela di Jared Kushner è una diplomazia per gli Usa, o per Israele e Russia?
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https://www.lastampa.it/specchio/2026/03/22/news/attenti_a_quei_due-15552179/
