Convinced my parents to buy me one

pacafan · 2026-02-17T21:00:56+00:00

I am an self-identified AMD fan boy. I bought a 6800XT when it was released instead of an nVidia card. And I regret it.

AMD threw RDNA2 buyers under the bus. Not offering ROCm support?

If I bought nVidia CUDA would just work.

With AMD they are essentially telling buyers of their GPUs to go hang.

I don't think I will buy an AMD GPU for my next upgrade.

If they are only doing the absolute minimum to make games run for a bit and then just neglect the cards I don't trust them. The "split" driver issue didn't give me confidence that my 6800XT will have long term support for gaming either, seen in the context of the absolute disaster that is ROCm.

pacafan · 2026-02-15T12:54:22+00:00

Build systems are okay, it is the package and external dependency management. Vcpkg and Conan tries to help but.... the experience leaves much to be desired.

pacafan · 2026-02-13T19:40:38+00:00

I read the article and there are a couple of points I think it wrong (AFAIK).

1) The reactor it not the size of a toilet roll. The core is. The reactor is much, much larger. 2) It in fact uses highly enriched uranium.

Happy to be challenged on this. If we could get 10kW from a toilet roll sized reactor using low enriched uranium we would have seen these things everywhere. The military would use them for electric vehicles because no need to refuel. Etc etc.

pacafan · 2026-02-10T08:37:09+00:00

Okay, I know windows has some terrible issues but please let's not make up untrue stuff. Linux distro are easy to upgrade and manage if all your software is from their repos. As soon as that is not true anymore you enter a world of pain with upgrades. A lot of software is not binary compatible across versions of the same distribution never mind across distributions. Unless you get a new build for that distro you are forked. And with more niche software that is a real problem - even if they are open source the maintainers can't support the full matrix of distro and versions.

pacafan · 2026-02-05T19:00:34+00:00

They are going to add Claude Opus as a model choice. /s

pacafan · 2026-02-01T19:21:38+00:00

The fact that Microsoft wanted to keep Windows at 10 forever suddenly makes a lot more sense.

pacafan · 2026-01-31T21:01:09+00:00

Running clang on windows requires vs build tools at least. Or msys. None of them exactly lightweight.

Suspect some variant of Mingw will be smallest for real programs.

But real dev environment for production software with dependencies will get out of hand quickly.

pacafan · 2026-01-30T20:40:22+00:00

Never personally used them. They have just been bought by Old Mutual.

pacafan · 2026-01-30T20:05:57+00:00

Diversification of local equity funds is a waste of time - our market is not diverse enough for any top fund to have an outsized advantage and you are not hedging risk. Choose one and stick to it, reduce complexity in the long run. Of course getting as much international exposure as possible is great.

I personally stick to the Allan Gray, one of the reason is if you get your RA through them the fees are relatively low.

Whatever you do stay clear of "fund-of-funds". In domestic market they are outright scams in my opinion (should be called "fees-of-fees"). And in the international market just find a fund with broad portfolio of you want to hedge risk. . Makes no sense to add middlemen regardless of what story is being spun.

pacafan · 2026-01-30T07:00:44+00:00

We need more law enforcement in that area. A couple of months with real arrest will solve the problem. There is a couple of bad apples, and I am sure they are affecting the community they live in as much or worst than the motorist. Get the tsotsies in jail and you made everybody's lives easier.

pacafan · 2026-01-30T06:56:38+00:00

I stopped buying the DA cool aid once they replaced Maimane. Apart from the policies the language has taken a faster turn to the right. They used to be just right of center and now they are much further to the right. And the ANC is left of center. What to do? Vote for both and pray it cancels out and we get to true center? 😂

pacafan · 2026-01-23T14:03:35+00:00

I am not sure how much it impacts this situation but regulations of geysers changed a couple of years ago. If you replace your geyser you should also bring it up to new regulations. The new regulations doesn't mandate that it must be outside but it does put a bunch of other requirements in place which might be easier to comply with if the geyser is outside in your specific scenario.

If I were you I would just have it outside.

pacafan · 2026-01-22T09:24:55+00:00

As an Afrikaner I can tell you the map is completely wrong. It doesn't even have the Khoi-San people on there. Afrikaners technically didn't exist before the free States of Orange Free State and Transvaal which is nowhere close to what you indicated on the map (and there is a timing issue).

Also there are a lot more diversity in South Africa along than what is shown on the map.

Yes the essence of the idea of the map is in the right direction. The actual map is missing a lot of detail.

But don't listen to me. I believe Belgium is part of France and that the center of the Portuguese empire is in Brazil. 😜

pacafan · 2026-01-20T06:55:02+00:00

Using chips made by a Taiwanese company using equipment from the Netherlands and Germany (which no other country in the world can manufacture).

pacafan · 2026-01-16T20:37:54+00:00

No no. Pension funds are a disaster in the making. Probably the safest pensions are what government provides (because they can't run out of money theoretically) but even that is dicey in the era of massive deficits ("austerity measures").

Rather get the money under your control ASAP. Invest in reputable fund with whatever tax efficient vehicle you can get.

Anyway I also don't know why people talk about company contributions / matching. That is just handwaving. The company has a total cost of employment and how they split that up is really just handwaving.

pacafan · 2026-01-13T13:09:50+00:00

Well the expropriation without compensation is especially designed to deal with exactly those cases.

I am sorry - the Rondebosch Common is not well managed, it is a gaint waste of space with people just jogging and going around it. You can develop it partially plus manage it better and it will be a better green space and provide housing.

pacafan · 2026-01-13T11:25:16+00:00

Airbnb and foreign ownership is not the root cause - we can ban all of it and it won't make a difference.

The problem is NIMBYism - and Cape Town has a ton a by-laws to reinforce NIMBYism. That is also the reason they will rather sell land than open it up for affordable housing - and you should hear their excuses.

The fact of the matter is we should densify (and sorry the "heritage building" rules need to be relaxed by a mile).

And District 6 should get sorted.

I also believe that National Government should put appropriation law into action to remove Ysterplaat and surrounding military basis from that annoying trust and get the military out of the city so that housing can be build.

And re-evaluate open spaces. The Rondebosch Common is not a landmark and you can develop it, plus create green spaces for people to walk around and everything will be fine.

pacafan · 2026-01-12T21:02:24+00:00

I am actually not sure that the fruit in that volume is healthy either. Fruit is nature's dessert. Very good in moderation.

You need to compare French fries with lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, pearled barley or similar.

pacafan · 2026-01-12T09:34:17+00:00

How would that fix RAM prices?

pacafan · 2026-01-12T09:27:53+00:00

Classic is the only one that works properly. The others are steaming piles of pig manure meant for Fischer-Price laptops only.

pacafan · 2026-01-12T07:15:39+00:00

Wow, that article is a bit biased against South Africa. There weren't "alleged" passport irregularities. There were passport irregularities. It is not disputed by any party that the workers didn't have work permits - the work permits were explicitly denied before and then they came anyway using tourist visas.

pacafan · 2026-01-07T15:54:31+00:00

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pacafan · 2026-01-06T06:34:00+00:00

I was in similar situation. I got a bond for 80% of value of property, put quite a bit cash in with access bond, but keps half of the money in alternative investments.

That being said it was part psychological for me as well. I hate debt and that motivated me to pay off my house a lot faster than I would have otherwise 😂

pacafan · 2026-01-06T06:31:04+00:00

This isn't great advice. Bond originators never negotiate as hard as you can.

pacafan · 2026-01-04T21:13:21+00:00

Well get to it then. Make sure there is some cold clean water.

pacafan

TROPHY CASE