John Lambert

Monday, April 29, 2002

The direct testimony of Bill Gates. I just realized what struck me about this: replace "Windows" with "Rearden Metal" and Microsoft with "Rearden Steel" and it starts to sound way too familiar...

(I just re-read Atlas Shrugged a couple of weeks ago; I'm obviously not the first person to think of this analogy. The first time I read it [on Spring Break in Key West], I just thought it was a good book. This time, I thought it was too heavy handed, could never happen, etc.)

10:42:51 PM comment []

I got moderator points on Slashdot the same day that the "Downsides to the STL" story is posted.

7:11:16 PM

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So, I spent like three hours improving the code.

Before: 24 seconds per execution comparison, ~400 mb peak and working memory, 320,000 page faults, estimated completion time: 23 hours.

Now: 0.07 seconds per execution comparison, ~20 mb peak and working memory, ~20,000 page faults, estimated competion time: 7 minutes.

It just finished executing. Sweet.

6:07:12 PM

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The good news: I have 79 executions to analyze.

The bad news: I have to generate n * (n - 1) / 2 points and each point takes ~24 seconds to generate.

In other words: it should terminate in about 20 more hours.

3:06:45 PM

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You know I have to post this link.
1:41:09 PM

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I am almost too excited to speak; I just had to run around the suite lobby to calm down.

This is why. Executions in the 3000 range are defective (the TCP connection broke, etc.). They've been assigned their own clusters (or share a cluster with another defective execution). Executions in the 2000 range are correct/no problems.

In other words: I think I have a thesis.

Addendum: that was the first try; after tweaking the settings, you can get two clusters.

4:20:21 AM

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