IHeartBadCode

Well looking at the patch

+config NR_CPUS_RANGE_END
+	int
+	default 8192 if  SMP && CPUMASK_OFFSTACK
+	default  512 if  SMP && !CPUMASK_OFFSTACK
+	default    1 if !SMP
+

It looks like it’s doing and end range of 8192 but with the off stack flag set. And it seems that…

+	  This is purely to save memory: each supported CPU adds about 8KB
+	  to the kernel image.

Which looks like they’re trying to save memory to avoid TLB stalling on the CPU’s bitmap. I think if the chip maker is indicating that slab allocation is fine for more at the moment (which the patch looks to be coming from Christoph Lameter, who works at Ampere), it’s best to assume they’ve tested it on their end. Or at least I would think so. If they felt that more on the stack was a fine option, I would think that, that’s exactly what they would pitch to the KML. Them saying there’s a need for offstack past 512, I’m guessing there’s a reason and the one I can think of is TLB stalls.

Well the issue at hand is that this is starting to get to the point that like the x86 arch, you cannot just move the NR_CPUS value upward and call it done. The kernel needs to keep some information on hand about the CPUs, it’s usually about 8KB per CPU. That is usually allocated on the stack which is a bit of special memory that comes with some assurances like it being continuous and when things go out of scope they are automagically deallocated for you.

However, because of those special assurances, just simply increasing the size of the stack can create all kinds of issues. Namely TLB missing, which one of the things to make CPUs go faster is to move bits of RAM into some special RAM inside the CPU called cache (which there’s different levels of cache and each level has different properties which is getting a bit too deep into details). The CPU attempts to make a guess as to the next bit of RAM that needs to move into cache before it’s actually needed, this called prediction. Usually the CPU gets it right but sometimes it gets it wrong and the CPU must tell the actual core that it needs to wait while it goes and gets the correct bit of RAM, because the cores move way faster than the transfer of RAM to the cache, this is why the CPU needs to move the bits from RAM into cache before the core actually needs it.

So keeping the stack small pretty much ensures that you can fit the stack into one of the levels of cache on the CPU and allows the stack to be fast and have all that neat automagical stuff like deallocation when it goes out of scope. So you just cannot increase the NR_CPUS value because the stack will just get too large to nicely fit inside the cache, so it’ll get broken up into “pages” with the current page in cache and the other one still in RAM and there will be swapping between the pages which can introduce TLB misses.

So the patch being submitted for particular configurations will set the CPUMASK_OFFSTACK flag. This moves that CPU information that’s being maintained to be off of the stack. That is to be allocated with slab allocation. Slab allocation is a kernel allocation algorithm that’s a bit different than if you did the usual C style malloc or calloc (which I will indicate that for any C programmers out there, you should use calloc first and if you have reasons use malloc. But calloc should be your go to for security reasons but I don’t want to paper over details here by just saying use calloc and never use malloc. There’s a difference and that difference is important in some cases).

Without deep diving into kernel slabs, slabs are a bit different in that they don’t have some of those nice automagical things that come with the stack memory. So one must be a bit more careful with how they are used, but that’s the nice thing about the slab allocator is that it’s pretty smart about ensuring it’s doing the right thing. This is for the 5.3 kernel, but I love the charts that give a overview of how the slab allocator works. It’s pretty similar in 6.x kernels, but I don’t have any nifty charts for that version, but if some does I will love you if you posted a link.

That said, it’s a bit slower but a fair enough tradeoff until there’s some change in ARM Cortex-X memory cache arrangement. Which going from memory I think Cortex-X4 has 32MB shared L3 cache, which if you have 8KB on the 8192 CPU max, you’ll need 64MB just to hold the CPU bitmap in L3 which is slow compared to the other levels. And there’s other stuff you’re going to need in the cache at any given time so hogging it all is not ideal. Setting the limit for stack usage to 512 is good as that means the bitmap is just 4MB and you can schedule well ahead of time (the kernel has a prefetcher which things within the kernel can do all kinds of special stuff with it to indicate when a bit of RAM needs to be moved into cache, for us measly users we can only make a suggestion called a hint, to the prefetcher) when to move it all into cache or leave it in RAM. So it’s a good balance for the moment.

But Server style ARM is making headway and so it makes sense to do a lot with it in the same way the kernel handles server style x86 and other server style archs like POWER and what not. But not mess with it too much for consumer style ARM, which hardly needs these massive bitmaps.

He’s the right age for a midlife crisis and a lot at that point can get triggered by growing mortality combined with a perceived lack of accomplishment in life. Additionally, as others have said, substance abuse is likely a factor in his life. A lot of wealthy people have huge substance abuse issues that their access to vast resources allows them to buffer most of the usual consequences of such. On top of all of that, he’s going through a divorce and child custody case with Grimes that is gearing up to be more toxic than a bottle of freshly pumped reactor four coolant water from the Chernobyl disaster.

Yeah I think mental breakdown is a pretty good bet. It is highly likely Musk has a substance abuse issue on top of all of that which is likely not helping anything. The wealthy in the United States do have some of the highest substance abuse rates because for many of them, their lifestyles and access to their vast wealth helps to buffer pretty much a lot of the usual consequences that people face with substance abuse issues. It wouldn’t surprise me the least to hear Musk diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and that he’s largely avoided his “come to Jesus” moment in that due to his vast wealth.

the way hes talking is weird

Yeah, it looks exactly the same way my Aunt used to talk when she was heavy on psychedelics, including the body language. It’s a kind of disinhibition where the mind isn’t firing any of the parts that would usually guide a person on making thoughtful responses and keeping up with the current situation. Like Musk in the video constantly looks like he’s talking to someone out in the audience rather than responding to the person asking the questions but then after talking jets his head right back to the person asking questions like he’s asking “more fuel please”.

I would be surprised if all of this isn’t driven by some substance abuse. But that said, none of anything that’s happening is likely good for his mental state, even with his wealth all of this is likely taking a toll on his mental state. The drugs only beg the question of how aware he might be of his declining mental health. But he’d likely tell any doctor concerned about Musk’s mental state to go fuck themselves at this point.

Musk responded that the advertising boycott is likely to kill the company. “What this advertising boycott is going to do is it’s going to kill the company, and the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company and we will document it in great detail,”

When Sorkin pointed out that advertisers see things differently, Musk replied, “oh yeah? Tell it to Earth.”

Sorkin continued: “They’re going to say, Elon, that you killed the company because you said these things and they were inappropriate things and they didn’t feel comfortable on the platform. That’s what they’re going to say.”

“And let’s see how Earth responds to that,” Musk replied.

I mean… I think that pretty much removes any last doubt anyone might have had that Elon Musk had any grasp on the reality that he himself exists in.

Yes

but there’s no good reason for studios to insert ads in the middle of a game

“Au contraire!”

— Ubisoft, highly likely.

I see your discs. Here’s my Mandrake 7 discs.

Things to note about these:

• Most models are 220V 30A. If you have an electrical already, you likely have everything you need here. If you have gas, you will need to run 10 AWG or 8 AWG wiring and install a new breaker. Depending on where you live, you’ll likely need a permit and have your handy work inspected before putting the water heater to service. If you aren’t sure when you’ll need 10 AWG over 8 AWG, hire a professional.
• The 120V 15A models are slower at heating water and do so for a smaller volume. These models you can plug right into the wall, but they are usually a bit slower at coming to temperature for the water and for smaller volume. There’s a Rheem version that’s plug-in and has something like a 80 gallon store. However, it is highly recommended for use only in warm climates and installed outside in a small enclosure. Basically if you don’t live in Southern California, Texas, Florida and all the states that touch those states in between them, you shouldn’t try using this.
• Like all heat pumps, there is an air filter that you need to replace. Usually these devices have apps that will notify you when a filter is needing to be cleaned or replaced.
• Also like all heat pumps, there’s a fan motor that will make sound. Luckily, most heat pump water heaters attempt to minimize the sound. That said, it’s not zero sound and nobody should be recommending that one of these things be installed in a room adjacent to a bedroom. I mean, this is one of those things that really depends on “how well do you tolerate noise?” But these things will produce a pretty consistent hum.
• The act of cooling the air from these reduces the humidity in the air. So you must drain that water that is produced. I think this is one thing that catches most people off-guard about these. Most water heaters don’t have a method for draining water because water around a water heater is usually a bad sign. So you do need to drain off the condensate. You can take a big bucket and collect the water to bail later, but how much water it’ll produce is dependent on what the humidity is in your area. If you’re in like Florida except something like a hint over a gallon of water per day. But most professional installations will install a drain line for you that leads to the outside, unless you’re putting this thing like smack dab in the dead middle of your house and you’re on a slab. That would obviously present a slightly higher challenge for that drain line installation.

But all that said, these things are super neato. It’s just really important for people to have realistic expectations before installing one.

I mean, the Brits might be chomping at the bit for it. I mean with Brexit and all, I’m pretty sure it’s been greyer than usual in the UK. Nothing like completely mopping up some country trying to invade your land to put on a slightly brighter disposition.

That said, I think Milei has mostly been talking about attempting to get them back diplomatically. Which I’m highly doubtful anyone remotely responsible for making that kind of decision in the UK is vaguely affable towards entertaining. Just a hunch.

Walzer said Musk and Grimes could spend months just trying to prove which state the kids actually lived in.

That’s putting it lightly. Parental disputes that cross state lines is some of the messiest shit one can go through. Just ooof. Dude probably thinks evaporating $44B on Twitter was rough, he’s just getting started on this shit.

Just out of curiosity have we posted about the dog leading their owner to a cat that was stuck down a well? I haven’t quite got the hang of searching here yet, but we could post about that if we haven’t already. Just saying.

For those wondering. The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) who wrote this is a rabid libertarian/conservative think tank group. If you read through on this you’ll see their “solution” is that government just makes it difficult for able-bodied people to work.

To which I would say, “Yes government should make it difficult for able-bodied people to be coaxed into slave labor wages that while technically gets them above the poverty line, offers no economic mobility. The entire point is that all people should have the ability to not just work but to work towards something that personally affects them in a positive manner, not just grind out 300,000 widgets to allow some CEO buy a new yacht.”

This is a SLAPP with chilling effect.

And I don’t disagree with you one bit there. But Texas’ anti-SLAPP law is the Texas Citizens Participation Act and it used to be one of the strongest in the country. In 2019, it was modified by the Texas Assembly to introduce a lot of gray area and weaken it considerably.

So I don’t disagree with the assertion that this is absolutely frivolous. But Texas’ current laws on the book are likely to give Musk enough room to avoid challenges on that aspect.

and I can tell you that they followed accepted academic practice

Oh no doubt, that’s the point. To sow doubt on that whole process.

IBM and Apple know pretty well how Internet advertising works

Oh yeah, the notion that they’re indicating that Apple pulled their revenue because of “THIS REPORT” is just them grasping. But Musk is absolutely banking that IBM and Apple won’t file brief with the Judge to provide more motivation to stick to the broad questions put forward by Media Matters. Business wise, this case isn’t bringing dollars back to the platform, it is just being vindictive. Musk had his feels hurt and now he wants to hurt something else.

he’s got full blown narcissistic rage

I’m going to guess that one. Just the way Musk’s been talking about this case, it feels like this one got deep under his skin.

That’s how Tesla won their most recent case with an autopilot failure. They acknowledge that the car did indeed drive itself into a tree. But that the company did not knowingly sell a defective product as they routinely update the vehicle.

That wasn’t the argument that won the day for them, but it was the argument that allowed them to start on a way more technical footing that would allow them to misdirect the court to focus more on any driver impairments.

Musk’s lawyers are insanely good at misdirection, they are some of the best at this one particular thing. Additionally, the case was file in an incredibly friendly court to Musk, so it’s likely the Judge will be willing to go down the rabbit hole of insanely technical arguments while losing sight of the more broad questions.

There is a lot stacked up against Media Matters here.

You think Apple & Disney didn’t verify this for themselves before ditching Twitter?

They might have. It would be great if they file a brief with the court to support the argument. I’m pretty sure that Musk is absolutely going to tear through Media Matter’s search history and say some bullshit like “Yeah, if you search for Nazi 10,000 times and Apple 10,000 times, we’re absolutely going to do the thing you asked. But the number of people who actually do that is few and Media Matters made it sound like it was everyone.”

Media Matter’s is going to absolutely need others joining in to provide other sources of information independent of them. That’ll make the almost inevitable argument from Musk that “Nazi + Apple is a rare thing” incredibly weak.

as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform

The thing is that it looks like Musk is going to mount a technical defense. There’s likely to be an admission that there’s all kinds of Nazi crap on Twitter and that they allow it to roam free, within it’s own little echo chamber. The whole “it’s not what the average user experiences” tells me is that what they’re going to do is cover the keywords that unlock the Nazi echo chamber and how that sequence of required words aren’t in some top 5,000 search terms on the site.

I’m pretty sure the entire point will be to sow some distrust on Media Matter’s manner by which they got those screenshots. Basically an argument of “Well, yeah, if you search Nazi 100,000 times and then Apple 100,000 times, we’re going to absolutely show you Nazi + Apple stuff. But the number of users who have that as their search history, we here at Twitter, can count on one hand.”

The idea is to not deny that it is possible to get Nazi + Apple, but to indicate that the chances of getting it are so rare that Media Matters had to know that their research was contrived. I don’t think they’re going to deny one ounce of what Media Matters presents to the court, I think what they’re going to try and do is shift what the underlying question is on the matter. Basically, shifting it to “this happens to rarely that you just have to go out of your way to get it to happen.”

Media Matters will need to keep focus on their broader topic. “X admits that such a combination can happen, they indicate that it is super rare, but there is no way that X could have calculated every permutation. Because of that, the arguments of Media Matter stand firm in that such CAN absolutely happen and X has no idea the frequency of it.”

And the fact that X has filed in a very friendly to them courtroom, it’s likely that the court is going to entertain the more technical merits of the case rather than the broad questions. It’ll absolutely put Media Matters in a very hard position.

There is no way Musk can prevail.

First rule of any kind of litigation. Don’t ever say never. Law is black and white but the people who enforce it and judge it are still fleshy emotion pods.

Musk is clearly doing it to shut down public disclosure and discussion

Oh yeah, he’s absolutely doing that.

For those wondering the others are:

• M(0) = 2
• M(1) = 3
• M(2) = 6
• M(3) = 20
• M(4) = 168
• M(5) = 7581
• M(6) = 7828354
• M(7) = 2414682040998
• M(8) = 56130437228687557907788

And our new one M(9) = 286386577668298411128469151667598498812366

That is two hundred eighty-six duodecillion, three hundred eighty-six undecillion, five hundred seventy-seven decillion, six hundred sixty-eight nonillion, two hundred ninety-eight octillion, four hundred eleven septillion, one hundred twenty-eight sextillion, four hundred sixty-nine (noice) quintillion, one hundred fifty-one quadrillion, six hundred sixty-seven trillion, five hundred ninety-eight billion, four hundred ninety-eight million, eight hundred twelve thousand, three hundred sixty-six.

That naturally involves wear and tear

Houses have wear and tear as well, they unsurprisingly do not suffer the same evaluation by the market as cars do. That doesn’t tell the whole story because a lot of the depreciation of cars is how the market itself views that asset. Some cars even lose up to 20% their value once driven off the lot for pretty much the same reason an iPhone loses value so quickly when a new model comes out or isn’t fresh out of the box.

The entire point is that while the argument of “They’re meant to be driven” and “wear and tear” are valid arguments they are valid because of how the market views that “wear and tear” as a massive negative. Some of that is spurred by the difference between rehabilitation of a used house versus rehabilitation of a used car, that’s including the logistics of how a motor for an early 2000 model vehicle is much harder to find than say a replacement HVAC system. There’s a bit of the logistics of how cars are made and how you cannot just drop XYZ transmission into a random car unlike say how you can just drop ABC model hot water heater into your plumbing.

There’s a deeper reason why that wear and tear on a car is so vastly different and thus treated differently than wear and tear on other more repairable things.

Hey what y’all talking about?

Maybe I’m not Rusting enough.