I often see superbly restored SGI equipment at VCF and also own a few SGI equipment that I hope to get to some point in my life but I have never seen any interesting new software or usage of these machines other than the stock "cool" demo programs(The file manager, the gears demo and others running at the same time). Is there any actual cool homebrew occuring on these platforms?
I think the lack of a real usable emulator for SGIs is holding back any kind of homebrew. I say this as one of the developer's that got SGI Indy emulation working in MAME. Yes, it works, but it's too slow and too old to be usable. I spent some time after the MAME effort working on a custom high performance emulator for Crimson/Onyx/Reality Engine, but I've kind of burned out again. Maybe some day if I'm really driven again, and had help. I've done most of the reverse engineering already, it's just a lot of code.
I think that if a high performance, usable emulator for some of the big systems existed I think some of the old software might be rediscovered and show up on the internet.
I think the problem was that the machines were always very expensive, even used.
My Fuel has an SSD and Id use it daily except:
- It's loud
- It's single core
- It's a furnace
- It's very very loud
It has a fairly modern Emacs, ssh and a non distracting UX. The browser is the only real thing that is too old to be useful, feature and performance wise, but that's just bonus points productivity wise (besides, rdesktop into a modern machine and you can watch youtube)
If I had a 900 MHz O2 loaded with RAM, and an SSD (SCSI SSD, ha!) it'd probably be my daily driver.
Right now I cant get to the machine (off, in the basement) but it is some run-of-the-mill SATA drives using a SATA expansion card.
It works great but I just use it for /opt since I ran out time to move more of the machine into it.
You cant boot off the SSD, so I still use a SCSI but you can replace that too if you boot the SGI off the network.
Silent SGI:
Having gotten rid of the SCSI drives completely w/ the network boot, you can put a modern, more silent, PSU [1] (but hurry, ones w/ enough current on 5V (?) are rare), and then replace the GPU and CPU fans and turn of environmental monitoring.
[1] i had to replace mine; my 500 MHz Fuel is notorious for bad psu
Do not turn off environmental monitoring. That's for debugging only. That's how people are cooking the video cards. Please get your fuel /properly/ repaired by say weblacky on irixnet. The reason why? With env monitoring off, the system won't respond to overheating on the graphics card and it'll cook it alive. The fuel has notoriously bad airflow (air doesn't move right angles)
Your contributions to the Indy alongside Ryan's contributions were neat, truly. You plowed the road so others can navigate it. There's a rumor about a faster Indy emulator... but don't hold your breath yet. (Not a project I'm part of, but I've been told snippets)
The OS/hardware though, has serious limitations that while no problem for me, definitely pisses off people. Examples:
No atomics/Thread local support. Doesn't matter that someone ported GCC 15 -- you can't make use of many useful newer language features.
Immediate Mode OpenGL only. There's no direct hardware access. Not a problem for me, but every SGI out there is fixed function only. I've had people bitch to high hell we don't have shaders.
and in general, some people just think the OS is janky. I love it, but not everyone is me.
> Not a problem for me, but every SGI out there is fixed function only.
Is that true? I remember sgi had a shader library for modeling light aimed at the automotive market.
All the demos and examples were showing off car paint colours in different environments.
The CPUs are close, but the Indy is otherwise pretty different from the N64. Totally different graphics architecture, and - relevant to getting it on MiSTer - it’s a workstation rather than a video game console, necessitating quite a bit more complexity. I’d be really surprised if it could be squeezed on.
(Though, full disclosure, I said the same thing about the N64 before the core for it came out - the folks working on MiSTer are incredible.)
To my knowledge - and I'm not an expert here - the N64 hardware is pretty unique and doesn't really resemble any of SGI's other chipsets. Not in precise capabilities - the XZ, for instance, didn't even support hardware texture mapping - and not in overall technical design.
It does seem a little bit like an ultra-simplified, integrated version of the RealityEngine [0]. The RealityEngine had "6, 8, or 12 Geometry Engines" split out across three to six boards, each powered by an Intel i860XP, that then passed their work along to Fragment Generators. This roughly corresponds to the RSP, which was just another MIPS core (with vector/matrix extensions), passing its work along to the RDP on the N64. I'm not sure how programmable the RealityEngine's pipeline was compared to the surprisingly flexible RSP.
Remember, the constraints for a graphics workstation are really different than for a game console - especially on the low-end, totally different corners are going to be cut. An Indy still needed to be able to generate a high resolution display and allow modelling complex scenes for film and TV; but while some degree of real-time 3D was important, it was expected that artists could be modelling using wireframe or simplified displays. A game console was displaying low-resolution and relatively low-detail scenes, but they still wanted them to look aesthetically "complete" - shading, textures, fog, lighting, particles - while running at real-time speeds. SGI used their expertise and built something custom-fit for the job at hand, rather than just reusing an existing solution.
Nay, the N64 is pretty unique hardware-wise. Conceptually it's vaguely similar to the O2, the RCP is an R4000 fixed function CPU with some extra graphics instructions IIRC.
I'm not aware of any cool homebrew, but there is a certain level of cool being able to compile the code for some N64 games using the original IDO compiler on original hardware. You can even compile one of the many decompiled games like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie and more that all will produce the exact binary shipped on the cartridge byte for byte, all from reverse engineered work to create byte matching equivalent C code.
Yes! I don't use my O2 a lot (I think the PSU is flaky, and I'm not super interested in IRIX), but I'm aware of at least https://forums.sgi.sh/index.php, among other similar sites, full of people porting/developing software for IRIX. It's a pretty active community for a 90s workstation platform, the most active one I'm aware of!
The main watering hole for the hobbyist community around these machines vanished from the internet a while back, taking the forums and info around porting software with it.. I guess some of it is available via wayback etc.
Really garbage administration they have in NY. Hochul and a lot of her ilk have done things like block right to repair after years of activists trying to get it passed.
The way it worked was as follows:
1. Local groups push to get right to repair passed
2. Fails repeatedly for years
3. They finally get it past the houses and onto the governor's desk
4. Governor gets a visit from a 'unknown' (hint likely Apple) lobbyist, refuses to sign even though they have to
5. They wait until the very last second and then adds last minute 'amendments' neutering the bill.
6. Their sycophants then try to shut down any discussion on Reddit/other social platforms from anyone who criticizes the bill.
They are going to keep doing this crap, the government needs to be voted out but just like NJ, NY is captured by really corrupt 'neoliberal' Democrats so its an uphill battle to get someone better in there. The incentives are not there: In NJ and most of NY the economic base is the wealthy suburbanites who like the way things are and will fight efforts to make radical change. That results in a lot of 'think of the children' type people who would welcome any and all bans on things like 3D printing of guns.
The merger was most likely now because they have to do it before the IPO. After the IPO, there’s a whole process to force independent evaluation and negotiation between two boards / executives, which would be an absolute dumpster fire where Musk controls both.
A public SpaceX will still be run by Musk. A public SpaceX would have to sell assets like X for a huge loss given its debt load, which would also take a propaganda machine out of Musk’s hands.
I read somewhere that Musk (or maybe Theil) companies have processes in place to quickly offload data from a location to other jurisdictions (and destroy the local data) when they detect a raid happening. Don't know how true it is though. The only insight I have into their operations was the amazing speed by which people are badged in and out of his various gigafactories. It "appears" that they developed custom badging systems when people drive into gigafactories to cut the time needed to begin work. If they are doing that kind of stuff then there has got to be something in place for a raid. (This is second hand so take with a grain of salt)
EDIT: It seems from other comments that it may have been Uber I was reading about. The badging system I have personally observed outside the Gigafactories. Apologies for the mixup.
Everyone defines their own moral code and trusts that more than the laws of the land. Don't tell me you've never gone over the speed limit, or broken one of the hundreds of crazy laws people break in everyday life out of ignorance.
The speed limit is not a law the same way "don't murder" is a law. And "don't destroy evidence of a crime" is a lot closer to "don't murder", legally speaking.
Twinkies are just a simple yellow spongecake filled with cream. They are so unhealthy because in the quest to keep the price something that people can afford (or for greed in profits) companies are forced to turn it into processed zombie garbage but if you break it down, a Twinkie was only just originally a simple yellow spongecake with some cream. A treat served to guests during coffeetime.
Its financialization of everything including food, government tipping the scales against peoples well being and a declining purchasing power of the average american that has resulted in this awful reality where food isn't food.
> They are so unhealthy because in the quest to keep the price something that people can afford (or for greed in profits) companies are forced to turn it into processed zombie garbage
Well, sort of. That processing is generally there not so much specifically to keep the price down as to prolong the shelf life. But it's true that without the preservatives you'd be paying higher prices.
Tastykakes[1] are about the same price as Twinkies but have half the shelf life (or less, depending on the product) due to fewer preservatives and better ingredients. They don't have the distribution that Twinkies have, but it's grown to include the entire East Coast at this point, I think. Still pretty bad for you but several rungs up the garbage ladder, for sure. I don't understand how Twinkies are able to compete in their market.
It is true. The shelf life of those Tastykakes is three weeks. A Twinkie's is six. The shelf life of a Tastykake pie is seven days. They haven't changed much or at all since I was a kid.
Have you tried a Tastykake (and a Twinkie)? The difference is obvious if you can spare the calories.
I have tried almost all of the Tastykakes that I could purchase here on the east coast. They seem quite average in terms of quality. While I have never eaten a Twinkie and Tastykake side by side I do concede that Twinkies these days are a bottom of the barrel level of quality and TastyKakes are at least a small level above. I'm just looking at that ingredient list and it seems quite processed.
I think you misinterpreted my original comment, but I applaud your diligence in sampling the entire Tastykake product line. The pies are my favorite, though I rarely eat them as I value my health. I would not touch a Twinkie unless I were starving, or perhaps as part of a paid stunt if the money was right.
Understood. I do enjoy the coconut juniors Tastykake but I am focused on cutting out all processed and unnatural ingredients so I am forced to produce more at home. Its just the world I feel we are stuck in now.
Its a combination of three things: A triple whammy. Yes preservatives are extremely important. But we are now seeing reduced sizes as well as ingredient substitutions to preserve some semblance of the taste while using cheaper ingredients.
The un-ultra-processed version of Twinkies are also going to contribute to obesity and heart disease. Sponge cake and cream is high in empty calories, very high in saturated fat, and all around bad for you.
I think people sort of miss the forest for the trees with this stuff. Making your own milkshakes, or ice cream, or fried chicken, or Twinkies, will not save you from obesity.
It's not the processing per-se. All these foods are ultra-palatable, readily available, and high in calories/saturated fat.
So there isn't a free lunch in life but you can fight back against financialization. In the case of a Twinkie follow this guide to make a proper twinkie at home: https://youtu.be/lD2OOTx2G9k?t=592
You will be spending your time but you basically "reverse" the financialization of the product in a way. You could also pay someone to make it for you but then you'd be spending more money (again no free lunch so you have to pick what you want to sacrifice: your time or more money)
I've been trying to do more of this at home to cut out anything processed at home but I have to accept that given limited time I have to let some food items I used to enjoy just go by the wayside.
I've also been trying to do this elsewhere such as "home cooked software" thats tailored to me only and does not include ever increasing junk I dont want.
A lot of the nationwide products that got started a century ago were first produced without any artifical ingredients. Until years later as each additive creeped in. I imagine a lot of them under persuasive sales presure from the vendor of the additive.
Doesn't mean they were not yet seriously processed or truly the healthiest to consume.
Thats one of the points im trying to make. Incomes have stagnated, people at the lower end already were kind of splurging, now they cant justify it at all. So further cost reductions have to go into the product. COVID also masked the ability of companies to just extract more profit out of the product due to the price shocks that never went back down.
I have an interesting perspective because my town is currently being sued by the state for years of secret discrimination by police and authority(my neighbors obviously voted strongly MAGA) so its an interesting hard right perspective.
After sitting and observing my local town's MAGA base for the better part of two years straight(by attending town meetings and joining all their facebook groups) it is clear that there is no real long term plan. They just love to get a rile out of others and deeply believe that Trump is doing great and that any problem is caused by someone else.
Its depressing trying to steelman that behavior because you realize that the country you grew up in had these people there. Growing up in the same town, everyone I interacted with was serious about excellence. My parents, my neighbors, my teachers and my classmates. There was this minimum standard where everyone from the businessman to the garbageman may have had different views on life but everyone still did their best every single day and still had this mentality of growth.
Its gone now. The cracks started to form after 9/11 when the quiet racists came out but it really seems like one grievance after another built up until Trump came along and caused all these people to put all their chips on supporting him do or die. Man going back to 2016 if Hillary had won, I wonder if the temperature would have come down. Part of the current hubris that they have is the same thing I saw under Bush(many Trump people are former all in on Bush supporters). They think they can do no wrong but eventually reality set the Bush people straight because when the economy crashed and people started to feel real pain, all those people went back into their caves for a while. I think the only thing that will stop MAGA is that the coming crash has to really really hurt. Thats when the jokes stop and they become serious again. It has to be absolutely obvious that Trump caused it which means that it has to be severe.
I often hope that maybe if Trump just peacefully passes away that it will finally fizzle out. Maybe thats a better outcome?
> Its depressing trying to steelman that behavior because you realize that the country you grew up in had these people there.
Maybe we should stop steelman them all the time. That is how they got enabled by centrists and pundits and moderates so much, they became the rulers. Steelmanning obvious bad faith actors is just another fallacy.
Steelmanning consists of ignoring disturbing claims conservative right says, not listening to what they are actually saying and replacing what they are saying by some feel good fiction of good intention.
The other method of challenging them and trying to prove your point does not work either. There is no solution it seems. They need to suffer the consequences of their decisions on their own.
Thats why I was so depressed. I have an engineering mindset of finding out how to improve things and there seems like there is no solution to this problem that involves remaining with this group as part of your society because it takes two to tango (ie. both sides need to put in genuine effort at growth).
Steelmanning is not challenging them at all. It is whitewashing them, making softer argument so that they are more palatable and frequently undistinguishable from support.
The only person challenged by such steelmanning is opposition to MAGA. They now have two opponents. They are made look as if they were exaggerating or were crazy when they accurately report to what MAGA does or says. They now have an additional, basically unintentional bad faith, rationalization to deal with against them.
> there is no solution to this problem that involves remaining with this group as part of your society because it takes two to tango (ie. both sides need to put in genuine effort at growth).
The problem is that what happens is that the opposition to MAGA is constantly asked to do growth, to steelman, to concede and move more to the right to accommodate MAGA. It is highly asymmetric and provably does not work.
> I have an engineering mindset of finding out how to improve things
I think that making it clear what MAGA wants says and supports to moderates and center is way better strategy then basically helping them.
>Steelmanning is not challenging them at all. It is whitewashing them, making softer argument so that they are more palatable and frequently undistinguishable from support.
I think you misread what I wrote. Yes Steelmanning them is not challenging them. What I said was that if you go the other direction and challenge them it does not work either. It might makes you feel good but no progress gets made.
You put way too much emphasis into my original comment of steelanning them. The original goal of sitting and observing them for two years was to try to understand their mentality, their point of view to then figure out how to convert at least some of them. Thats where the depression came in when I realized that there is no plan, no ideology, and no real end state: just vibes in the moment. This is not a cohesive vision for the future of a country.
I'm strongly of the opinion that we're seeing the consequence of 40 years of neoliberalism in which there's no longer any political objective of actually improving things for normal people, just hoping the private sector will sort things out.
Its certainly a symptom. With corporate financing of elections in the post Nixon years, neoliberalism has run amok and led to the disaster we are in. What I worry about is that only about 50% of the country has a passport. Half the country have never seen how other places are run and now 40+ years later a large percentage of the country wouldn't even remember how things used to be. They just think this is how every place runs.
The movie Fahrenheit 11/9 builds up understanding of the theory using specific case studies on the behavior you describe. They also discuss efforts to try and fight back. It is a recommended watch for anyone interested in understanding the underlying reasons for how we ended up where we are now. I can't believe the film is now eight years old yet feels like it was produced right now. Some of the people who were high school kids in the movie graduated college and are now even running for congress to try to fight back against neoliberalism! :O
Just as a side note: Recently it seems as if there is interest in finishing those projects as a result of data center energy needs. Your point still stands but just wanted to put that out there.
There's been talk for a long time about restarting construction on Virgil C Summer again, but it has never happened. I remember an interview with a Santee Cooper exec that was extremely withering on the prospects of it actually happening. I can't find it now, but here's a 2019 video from the then-new CEO about the people who were looking into restarting construction, that's far less withering:
I'll believe it when it happens. Traditional 1GW nuclear like the AP1000 is just such a huge financial bite to make these days that the only orgs big enough to do it are large consortiums of large companies, or nation state.
It's a tough position because the AP1000 has a much better chance of reaching affordability than SMRs, but nobody wants to spend the $50B-$100B in capital to produce uneconomic nuclear reactors in order to maybe drive down the cost of construction so that future reactors will be economic.
It's a very different situation for funding than solar, because there's small scale use cases where expensive energy makes sense, in places that wires don't reach, etc. etc., on devices, etc., and that's what really drove a lot of the early development of solar manufacturing capacity. That got it to the point that Germany could do subsidies to really scale up the deployment of expensive energy, and since Germany spent that money, it's been smooth sailing for the rest of the world.
The path for nuclear is not as clear as it was for solar.
There is another way to view this. FSD plays fast and loose because they are constantly iterating. The culture at Musk co is that if you dont' keep pushing updates you are in trouble so do we really want to trust that each of his numerous updates are truly tested? This guy is a pathological liar after all. How many lawsuits are they dealing with now?
Supercruise only runs on pre mapped routes. If my life is on the line, I'd rather take the pre mapped routes and supercruise design is better at preventing people playing games to defeat the system (ex.shoving an orange in the steering wheel) so I know that others using the system on the road are following the system guidelines.
Supercruise may not do everything FSD does but it cuts out a large portion of the "fatigue" portion of driving and as a result can be highly trusted value add.
The magic is not money or subsidies. Boeing got far more and they produced bupkis. Its organizational excellence. I don't know if that would survive. I guess if they can keep Falcon 9 stable then its still worth something but I imagine the star employees who grind themselves to dust getting this stuff to work do it for the mission and would depart if this occurred. Would Falcon 9 fall apart of that happens?
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