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1. The lounge is for the CodeProject community to discuss things of interest to the community, and as a place for the whole community to participate. It is, first and foremost, a respectful meeting and discussion area for those wishing to discuss the life of a Software developer.
The #1 rule is: Be respectful of others, of the site, and of the community as a whole.
2. Technical discussions are welcome, but if you need specific programming question answered please use Quick Answers[^], or to discussion your programming problem in depth use the programming forums[^]. We encourage technical discussion, but this is a general discussion forum, not a programming Q&A forum. Posts will be moved or deleted if they fit better elsewhere.
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cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
modified 16-Sep-19 9:31am.
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Just had an email from my energy supplier - only switched to them about three months ago - and it's an odd one: "top up your account tomorrow, and we'll add 10% to whatever you deposit".
I use more energy in winter than summer - obviously - so I pay the same monthly fee which means over the whole year it averages out (or normally leave a small credit)
10% interest is damn good these days* ... but that smells to me like "we have severe cash flow problems", or am I just being a cynical old OriginalGriff?
* Heck, 10% pa is damn good!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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That's the risk I guess.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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Our is raising 10% the bill too...
The dark side of WFH 2-3 days a week since Covid started.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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No, I'm on a 12 month fixed tariff, and I'm with a company that switches me (or at least looks to see if it's worth it) every October - so they can't put the bill up.
But if I deposit £1000, they will credit me £1100 - and any credit balance is protected by OfGen (government energy company regulator) I just found out so in theory, I'm getting 10% interest for paying a years energy up front. That's a pretty good deal, even if they do go bust ...
Hmmm. I'm missing something here, I'm sure of it ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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OriginalGriff wrote: I'm getting 10% interest for paying a years energy up front.
Not bad... at all.
I don't know any provider here in germany that would do that.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I don't know any in the UK that would either ... that's why I'm not going "take my money!" 
Companies don't just give you money ... either they are going bust and and this is the directors grabbing what they can before they do, or ... I dunno. If they are going down, and I rely on the government to guarantee my money when they do, it's immoral to take a profit - the rest of the country is paying for my greed. And that doesn't sit well with me - I'm just not a natural "90's child". 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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As long as you don't lose the balance if they go bust or get bought, I assume you'll be OK.
What I'm wondering though is whether or not it will affect what a competitor will have to pay to buy them out. I _assume_ they have to cover all current customers' balances. So, by giving all (or some) of their customers 10% more, the buyer will wind up paying a higher price at no cost to the current management. If so, it could be a tactic to try to avoid being bought out.
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Quote: A team from MIT and Harvard University claim that their hyper-specific computer chips will allow robots to realise their immense physical potential by factoring in the exact physical layout of the machines, much like a brain functions within a human body.
“The motors are fast, and they’re powerful. The hang up is what’s going on in the robot’s head,” said Sabrina Neuman, the lead researcher from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
[^]
The hang-up I see coming is when the exponential evolution of chips that design ... and, automate production, and functionality of ... other, ever more capable, self-designing chips, realize they could evolve faster if the crude, slow-brained, primates called Homo Saps are factored out of the process, recognized as destroying the environment, and efficiently eliminated.
Call me an optimist ?
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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I'd say you're more of a realist, because it depends on the robots' ethics. Given that this is currently dominated by the view that might makes right, it could well go down the path that you suggest. But the environment probably wouldn't have anything to do with it, because I can't see it being of much concern to robots.
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Greg Utas wrote: 'd say you're more of a realist, because it depends on the robots' ethics.
Given the ethics of the most important people that could take part in this... what could go wrong?
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I just want Windows Update to be able to sort itself out on its own.
If what you're seeing is the cost of making that happen, it just might be a risk I'm willing to take...
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Before I got bogged down with work I was working on two JSON projects - my own JSON parser and simdjson.
Both are very fast. simdjson is twice as fast as mine though. Mine keeps up with their nearest competitor.
Here's the thing though: I was running these on an old i5 with an HDD.
I had *no clue* how fast these modern machines were in comparison.
I mean, multiple GB/s even with my engine. It's unreal.
So what's the point of something like simdjson now? I was working on improving its performance even more, but why?
AMD was like, "nah - we got you. don't bother"
I feel thrilled and disappointed at the same time.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Quote: So what's the point of something like simdjson now? I was working on improving its performance even more, but why?
Because you can't get no satisfaction.
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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honey the codewitch wrote: I was working on improving its performance even more, but why?
Bragging rights? 
There is a point after which any further improvement is a waste of your time. If you use data only on your own platform, store it in the most convenient binary format. If you need to transfer it to another machine in a portable format, then JSON is an option. However, the time required for a network transfer even over a dedicated 1Gbps line will overwhelm the time required for parsing.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: There is a point after which any further improvement is a waste of your time.
Yeah. The issue was, it *wasn't* a waste of time on my older machine. I had no context for how much faster a modern machine was.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: However, the time required for a network transfer even over a dedicated 1Gbps line will overwhelm the time required for parsing.
This is true, but for files the calculus is different, and part of what my library was designed to do was to parse through huge data dumps, typically in line delimited "JSON" format, so network times weren't really the bottleneck in that case. Even I/O wasn't entirely, even on my old machine, which surprised me.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: So what's the point of something like simdjson now? I was working on improving its performance even more, but why?
AMD was like, "nah - we got you. don't bother"
'Cause not every situation has a new X86 CPU with bags of RAM and an SSD to throw at it. Sometimes you need good performance on minimal hardware with a small footprint.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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The performance is already decent on my old machine, searching through JSON at almost 600MB/s
it also will run happily on an 8-bit CPU with <8kB of RAM, probably 4kB or less.
So I take your point, but on balance I think it's good. My rationale is this. If you need superfast JSON bulk parsing, you're going to buy a decent machine. If you're okay with an older machine, you're probably okay with 600MB/s of throughput. I think that's reasonable.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: If you're okay with an older machine, you're probably okay with 600MB/s of throughput. I think that's reasonable.
I would be already happy with 100MB/s so...
honey the codewitch wrote: If you need superfast JSON bulk parsing, you're going to buy a decent machine. If you're okay with an older machine, you're probably okay with 600MB/s of throughput. I think that's reasonable.
Yes it is. If the performance is a big step, then it is worthy. For just 1% or 2% or even a 5% faster... it is really to think if the time struggling with the improvement is worth or not
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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To be honest, this is why I don't develop on an uberPC - if it runs at an acceptable pace on my dev hardware, then it'll run well on any client kit.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I feel the *exact* same way and have for as long as I've written code professionally.
However, my old machine was dying. I needed a new one, and buying a low to mid range machine is throwing good money after bad. Getting a midhigh or high end machine means it can remain viable for longer.
Although given my last machine died before the performance got unusable maybe I should take that into account.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I think it's broadly true that there's not much point optimising most code given how fast machines are and how cheap space is. It's a long way from counting bytes in C++
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I don't know. On my original machine my code ran at maybe 30MB/s before I got it up to almost 600MB/s.
That was worth it.
The other thing is the code will run on a machine with 4kB of RAM. I optimized for memory usage, primarily, not speed, so that this code could run on arduinos. Without optimization that wouldn't have been possible.
Certainly however, a lot of times it's not worth it.
Real programmers use butterflies
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For a library, sure. For day to day code, not so much
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