thehnguy's comments

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple's follow-up to M1 chip goes into mass production for Mac

We're in a brave new world. The early prognosticators thought the M1 was more a proof of concept (shove it into existing designs to get it out there).

But now we know that it was always intended to be a real player (it's in the iMac and iPad Pro).

So this news is interesting to me because now it seems to cut back the other way that maybe the M1 was designed for a short shelf life.

In a world where Apple is controlling so much of its silo, "normal" design and building deadlines will be upended.

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

This is perhaps the real genius of the M1. It's a great chip and all. But when you make it the only choice, people are finding the only choice is more than sufficient. And now Apple only has to produce one piece of silicon for their iMacs, iPad Pro, and Laptops. What a boon for logistics.

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

I think that's a bit dramatic. I'm using a 16GB M1 Macbook Pro as my daily driver doing standard, boring professional work (lots of email, tabs open, PDF manipulation, Word, Excel, etc). It performs as well if not better than the 2018 Macbook Pro it replaced with 32 GB of RAM and an i7. And it cost less than that one.

The iMac will perform comparably (probably a bit better due to better thermals). My point is that these are not bad machines and I don't see why you'd steer someone away from them. However, the price is still quite high compared to other manufacturers and options. But that's always been the case.

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

The M1 isn't what kills x86 (if it ever does completely). ARM kills x86.

Microsoft is working on the ARM transition. ARM has good control of mobile hardware. And Apple will be only selling ARM hardware (in the form of Apple Silicon) in another 12-18 months.

M1 and Apple Silicon are just part of the trend.

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

Exactly. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. 8GB of M1 RAM is very different than 32GB of standard DIMM-like RAM.

Sort of like when people compare nm of processes on the chips. You can't just say "oh, their number is smaller, it must be better."

To be sure a device with 16GB of M1 RAM should be more competent than 8GB of M1 RAM, but now that's apples to apples.

thehnguy | 4 years ago | on: Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model

I think the issue with the comment is that it comes off as biased or distracting (regardless of the intent). The conversation is about Apple Silicon vs Intel, and then it veers off topic with discussion of Ryzen.

Also, saying that people are "lapping up" the Apple marketing suggests that it's more sizzle than steak. But it's completely undeniable that the A chips, and by extension, the M1 is a beast.

thehnguy | 7 years ago | on: Why I'm Switching from Mac to Windows (2009-2018)

Author switched in 2009, then switched back in 2018.

Author believes Apple is becoming evil because they intentionally slow their devices to force upgrades—not true, or, at the very least, not that simple.

The only thing “evil” about Apple is the pricing. No way around it, it’s getting expensive. But you also get a transparency and simplicity for your money (no telemetry, no ads, just dongles :) ).

thehnguy | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?

Agreed with the bogleheads suggestion. I’m a lawyer who does some consulting to people in similar situations, and the mistake that everyone makes is thinking that because it’s a lot of money somehow it has to be treated differently. This is just plain wrong.

Resist the urge to hire a fancy money manager or do anything different beyond a celebratory dinner with your family.

Don’t tell anyone beyond your wife and very trustworthy family about this. Otherwise,you will quickly have lots of “friends” and family members who “love” you.

Going forward with work is a personal decision. Obviously, you don’t need to. A tried-and-true conservative investment approach will pay you sufficient income for the rest of your life (and our kids through college, and everything else). But it’s tough to stop working. Anecdotally, I’m about half retired (on a lot less money) and it’s a big challenge.

I’m getting long winded. For now, resist the urge to do anything special, anything too different.

thehnguy | 7 years ago | on: Why I don't talk about where I work and why its important to me (2015)

+1. Regardless of the intent, and i genuinely feel for this person’s struggle, the post comes off a little narcissistic —- “let me publicly announce why I’m not publicly announcing where I work. I’d like to tell everyone why I want you to respect my privacy and leave me alone.”

Again, not saying that was the author’s intent, but it’s how it came off.

thehnguy | 7 years ago | on: Probiotics labelled 'quite useless'

Sums up my feelings. At this point, I firmly believe that the negative physiological consequences from the stress about nutrition outweigh any benefits.

Eat intelligently (I think we can agree that processed foods and sugar is less good than fresh veggies), and lower the stress.

thehnguy | 7 years ago | on: What Can Small Tech Companies Do About Patent Trolls?

Another lawyer here. I think Octane Fitness was what really did in most parent trolls. Before the trolls were extorting small companies and playing the lottery with big companies (might win and get a huge settlement/judgement). With the risk of fees being assessed the price of entry is getting higher.

We’re seeing the same thing now with disability accessibility suits. There’s a push to allow fee shifting in an effort to mitigate those exploitive cases.

The trolls are in it for money. Unsurprisingly then, when there’s the risk that THEY might lose money they’re quicker to back down.

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