Post AxGV2Z7rWAwJBa239s by cford@toot.thoughtworks.com
(DIR) More posts by cford@toot.thoughtworks.com
(DIR) Post #AxGRmeMtxVOmwvmn1k by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:03:22Z
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Why are people using the word "compute" in a new way, I think as a short hand for "sever resources" all over the place. eg. "we will invest in more compute" and "there isn't enough compute for that" etc.Where did this start? Do we like it?
(DIR) Post #AxGS4IPCM5Gu2rH4Ua by jbqueru@floss.social
2025-08-17T15:06:31Z
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@futurebird I've worked in companies where servers weren't uniform, some were meant to compute things, others to handle large data sets in RAM, others to store persistent data. The nodes that were mean to compute were called compute nodes, and collectively, compute resources.
(DIR) Post #AxGSIz9mChEggq47Qu by meulop@mastodon.online
2025-08-17T15:09:12Z
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@futurebird because a lot of the time your network and storage devices are just servers running specialist software, so "compute" is meant to make it clearer you mean "servers dedicated to the actual thinky bit"
(DIR) Post #AxGSyNYeNxnyF3RDSC by yuki2501@masto.hackers.town
2025-08-17T15:16:38Z
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@futurebird I blame Google Cloud.
(DIR) Post #AxGTDTbWBiFnKzyisC by JamesWidman@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T15:19:23Z
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@futurebird possibly started with the phrase "compute shader"? (as opposed to "pixel shader" (where the word "shader" was more obviously justifiable), a.k.a. a "fragment shader"; or "vertex shader")so then if you abbreviate those phrases, you get "fragment", "vertex", and (in later versions of OpenGL/Direct3D), "compute".
(DIR) Post #AxGTSWhSxYNrHcw9B2 by patsplat@open-ground.org
2025-08-17T15:22:07Z
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@futurebird I recall it becoming part of the common parlance via Amazon web services “elastic compute cloud”It may have been a term of art in some circles. But as I recall, prior hosting talked about “app servers” rather than “compute”.
(DIR) Post #AxGTYLPtp7pe1gUiPo by micahcraig@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T15:23:10Z
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@futurebird It comes from cloud billing and resource allocation. Your, eg, AWS bill is broken down by 'Compute' and 'Storage' that your deployments have consumed in the previous billing cycle. It's become a popular term of art in the industry since it allows us to attach billing line items to specific departmental budgets.
(DIR) Post #AxGU7YagpoZ11JKeoK by dirtwizard666@cyberpunk.lol
2025-08-17T15:29:31Z
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@futurebird I have learned to identify this use of the word with someone being full of shit in a very specific way. It's a useful tell. It is the language of my enemies.
(DIR) Post #AxGUGjrMJ4zGZmVVI0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:31:06Z
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@dirtwizard666 OK I wouldn't take it that far. But it's a red flag if the person isn't a serious tech expert... I do think some use it as jargon... and others to make it seem like they know jargon.
(DIR) Post #AxGUN9WBp0XRtNfDY8 by cford@toot.thoughtworks.com
2025-08-17T15:04:30Z
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@futurebird I like it. I think it distinguishes from things like storage or network.
(DIR) Post #AxGUNAWa52Rh0sr2nY by alec@perkins.pub
2025-08-17T15:07:36Z
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@cford @futurebird this. It’s been the word used by cloud platforms to describe resources that do processing for a while now, especially since “serverless” has changed the unit from server to function call, and billing has become compute time.
(DIR) Post #AxGUNBJ9ATIHRVZpUu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:32:15Z
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@alec @cford The contexts I've encountered it have not used it with enough precision to help me to understand this distinction. I think it's being abused by posers. :/
(DIR) Post #AxGUhnpFfYL8hAQVyC by th@social.v.st
2025-08-17T15:36:00Z
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@futurebird we should only use "computer" in the original sense
(DIR) Post #AxGUly91FJS1rBewbI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:36:52Z
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It kind of reminds me of how in math we call N0 "n sub naught"Why not "n sub zero" ? Nobody knows. It's not like it isn't a zero in the subscript but that is how I learned to call it as a baby grad student. So that is how it is.
(DIR) Post #AxGUp2jQeBTCx89hjM by VCP@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T15:37:23Z
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@futurebird i don’t like the word aspects. Like when people started to say “product” as a plural instead of the plural. Gives me the ick…businessy
(DIR) Post #AxGUpkh9C1mzInQVHc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:37:25Z
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@th Computer is People.
(DIR) Post #AxGV0UanOyQyXxZpqa by davad@mas.to
2025-08-17T15:39:27Z
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@futurebird as a shorthand for "CPU capacity on servers", I don't know how new that is. But I've also been embedded in the cloud computing world for a while. And you are often billed separately for storage, network traffic, and compute usage.
(DIR) Post #AxGV2Z7rWAwJBa239s by cford@toot.thoughtworks.com
2025-08-17T15:39:48Z
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@futurebird @alec Shocking! 😀
(DIR) Post #AxGV4aokCQVv0m3Yqu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:40:11Z
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@cford @alec I know. How could such a thing happen? LOL
(DIR) Post #AxGV5r55DXvhk2Ii9I by noplasticshower@infosec.exchange
2025-08-17T15:40:27Z
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@futurebird I had a math prof from the UK who said both naught and zed. We mostly ignored him. He graded his linear algebra class on a Bell curve which was a bitch for the 9 of us in the class. He did not care that UVa didn't really do that.Rat bastard he was. But I will say my linear algebra remains exceptionally strong ever since.
(DIR) Post #AxGVDLSseKfM0D0Gf2 by drmambobob@ecoevo.social
2025-08-17T15:41:43Z
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@futurebird Zero is naught is British English so maybe that’s where that came from?
(DIR) Post #AxGVE8TyP3eg1mtKfQ by noplasticshower@infosec.exchange
2025-08-17T15:41:57Z
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@futurebird in high computer science we have used compute that way for at least three decades (my PhD is from '95)... especially in machine learning #ML
(DIR) Post #AxGVFcIT2V7GmkDRVQ by maco@wandering.shop
2025-08-17T15:42:12Z
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@futurebird I remember having a physics TA who called 0 “naught” EVERY time, and I would always hear it as “not,” as if he was constantly correcting himself, like “3.103” sounded like “3.1, not 3.”
(DIR) Post #AxGVfpMv3rDwr7nRYG by tofugolem@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T15:45:56Z
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@micahcraig @futurebird Why does this remind me of the time Google changed the meaning of "domain name" to "everything between the double slash and the first slash"?
(DIR) Post #AxGVfqXahfM2UVnTpA by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T15:46:54Z
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@tofugolem @micahcraig What was it before that?
(DIR) Post #AxGVnyhGGOYe6SCJs0 by clew@ecoevo.social
2025-08-17T15:48:22Z
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There’s a line about server names reflect them having been research animals, then show animals, then pets, then commodity livestock. “Compute” frames it like chemical processes, amines developed in batch and flow reactors.I can like “computation” for the abstract, computer-science, proofs end of discussions, and “compute” for the physical instantiation.@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AxGW7gvi1wCon8M72u by TerryHancock@realsocial.life
2025-08-17T15:51:55Z
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@futurebird"Compute" has been used as a modifier for >20 years, with "cluster", "farm", or "cloud" -- to mean a parallel arrangement of computers optimized for CPU speed (and sometimes RAM).As opposed to clusters optimized for network requests, which was the norm for a long time.So they dropped the main noun. Probably "cloud" is implied now?The only sour note for me is that it tends to be associated with LLM/SD AI and crypto mining these days, instead of science, engineering, or animation.
(DIR) Post #AxGWeCJSsrUBOJy2KG by bug@chitter.xyz
2025-08-17T15:57:46Z
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@futurebird maybe there were too many mortal kombat nerds joking about subzero
(DIR) Post #AxGWxMrvrSwfdFEKzA by catmisgivings@stranger.social
2025-08-17T16:01:18Z
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@futurebird compute number go up: compute is clutch!
(DIR) Post #AxGX1XCPOacipSnKim by tofugolem@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T16:02:02Z
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@futurebird @micahcraig Each thing separated by a dot was a domain name.
(DIR) Post #AxGa1ObJfCJQ1a4Qq0 by roytoo@mstdn.social
2025-08-17T16:35:36Z
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@futurebird At work I've heard it in this usage for at least 8 years and perhaps even 10.
(DIR) Post #AxGalm4Sjatw8Wonuy by mkb@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T16:44:01Z
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@futurebird In computer science terms, we’ll say a particular task is “compute bound” (or CPU bound), “memory bound,” or “I/O bound.” It’s a shorthand way of identifying whatever the limiting factor is. When AWS brought us into the “infrastructure as a service” (IaaS) era, before long they offered different categories of virtual servers for each type of workload. “Compute” in the way you describe is somewhat new but only a short hop from how we’ve been talking about IaaS for a while.
(DIR) Post #AxGbAMttSFZjJMbOfQ by dragonfrog@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-08-17T16:48:12Z
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@th @futurebird that's the compute cluster. Across the hall is the storage cluster - an office of people typing and looking up index cards. The web cluster is in the corners of the ceiling, catching flies.
(DIR) Post #AxGbGLcL8cyZ4MF7JY by petealexharris@mastodon.scot
2025-08-17T16:49:30Z
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@futurebird I'm not delighted by it as jargon, but halving the syllables of the noun "computation" is fine to me as language change.
(DIR) Post #AxGbcVRtGX1XvpvAmm by KanaMauna@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T16:53:34Z
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@futurebird Being trendy. That’s it.
(DIR) Post #AxGeGe6qgWBiHfLZPU by wcbdata@vis.social
2025-08-17T17:23:12Z
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@futurebird In my personal headcanon, "compute" in this context is short for "computing power."
(DIR) Post #AxGeXpGwR247pNGAV6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T17:26:19Z
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babbling in the backcheck that server rackmy baby's really cutegot stacks of that computecus's she a a Large Model(Large Model)Such a Large Model
(DIR) Post #AxGeZWMZi3xdlFheMK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T17:26:40Z
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Follow me for more innovative bars.
(DIR) Post #AxGfPr3e0pwN0Enqs4 by tofugolem@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T17:34:02Z
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@risottobias @TerryHancock @futurebird @micahcraig Please don't trust my faulty memory, but I do remember people complaining about Google using "donation name" to sloppily refer to fully-qualified domain names or even "fubar dot com" or whatever.
(DIR) Post #AxGfPsGRWjlwkDnaSW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T17:36:01Z
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@tofugolem @risottobias @TerryHancock @micahcraig I always thought that fubar was the "domain name" and fubar.com was the "address"If you had things.fubar.com then things was the "sub-domain" or "folder"
(DIR) Post #AxGfiy3cDF1WDIu3qS by catselbow@fosstodon.org
2025-08-17T17:39:33Z
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@futurebird Math is naughty.
(DIR) Post #AxGhQjkCtC9CWCGA4W by middleclasstool@phire.place
2025-08-17T17:58:32Z
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@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AxGhjpjmpZK6blAXnU by adrake@sfba.social
2025-08-17T18:02:06Z
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@futurebird that's been normal terminology in the tech industry, at least among those of us managing said servers, for at least my entire post-college career (2012). It's just gotten more media attention lately.
(DIR) Post #AxGiLxdTugvY6mOtAu by trochee@dair-community.social
2025-08-17T18:09:00Z
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@futurebird 💀
(DIR) Post #AxGkSjgKOOpslY5eHg by dpnash@c.im
2025-08-17T17:32:23Z
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@futurebird Not sure about times previous to this, but I started working with AWS for work purposes about 13 years ago, and "compute" was the standard term there (and then) for "virtual machine instance, or similar resource, used for CPU-heavy operations, as distinct from networking and other uses". "Elastic Compute Cloud", AWS's service for building and launching general-purpose virtual machines, goes back to 2006. So it's close to 20 years old at a minimum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud
(DIR) Post #AxGkrzm9gzzFv6rPma by trochee@dair-community.social
2025-08-17T18:12:30Z
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@futurebird My conda got work for you Cause you got that GPU All the ladies want to knowThey love that tensorflow Cause my baby got rackEtc etc
(DIR) Post #AxGmlqP5pAEN1ZGfnk by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-08-17T18:58:32Z
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@futurebird I definitely had math, physics, and cs profs who said "tee zero" for "T₀", and others that said "tee null" for "T₀" To me these two seemed each about as common as "tee naught".
(DIR) Post #AxGms4MGr3KO2aurzc by tofugolem@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T18:59:34Z
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@futurebird @risottobias @TerryHancock @micahcraig When I was in IT, I was a generalist. Everything I knew was self-taught, and what I know should NOT be trusted!
(DIR) Post #AxGnOJ5jc0s50BYOFU by nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social
2025-08-17T19:05:27Z
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@futurebird Could that be to differentiate from, say, N*0 or to imply that it means something more akin to a null than to a true zero?
(DIR) Post #AxGoCrsgXWC9NYYjei by nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social
2025-08-17T19:14:36Z
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@futurebird To make things more confusing (perhaps) AMD also has "Compute Units" in their GPUs (and GPU chiplets on CPU packages.)Though it's not entirely unfitting apparently. It seems a "Compute Unit" is actually referring to a collection of the various types of processing components, so it ultimately actually does refer to units used for a form of computations.(In reference to the LLM mention, I'm seeing mentions of "numeric compute" referring to usage of CUDA or compute cores for ML acceleration.)
(DIR) Post #AxGrqVIaDdvimrGRgO by lufthans@mastodon.social
2025-08-17T19:55:21Z
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@futurebird seems like we've been saying compute for infrastructure since long before the cloud, though perhaps not before Sun's "the network is the computer"As I recall, it generally had to do with number crunching for parallel processing on supercomputing clusters ( beowulf, et al )Maybe also for inefficient server side includes :)