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@dcoderlt missing here: how did *latency* of hardware improve?

I’m asking because latency — not throughput — is what we feel when we interact with a computer, and negating the latency improvements is far easier than negating the throughput improvements.

See for example access memory times not getting much faster:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency#Memory_timing_examples

(though L1 cache did, but you’re fare away of that if you have to react to keyboard input)

@ArneBab
That’s a good point, but the overall situation — hardware is beating its chest about more and more performance, and interacting with software is unapologetically getting slower and slower — still sucks.

@dcoderlt Yes, software does seem to get ever slower.

Similar to the network getting ever faster but websites getting slower. Because internet latency is lightspeed bound. And physics does not budge. So websites must take that as hard constraint — but most seem to not do it.

Point about that: slow, simple tools make you dumber:
https://www.draketo.de/software/slow-simple-tools.html

@jonn
The first computer I used ran MS-DOS, and I still have fond memories of a game called Supaplex that was my only entertainment on that thing.
The first computer I had at home had 32 MB of RAM and Red Alert 2 was a slug. I was so happy when I bought an extra 128 MB stick I also remember buying some computer magazine with a BeOS live CD, that was a cool and very snappy thing to play around with :)

@dcoderlt supapleeeeeeeeex.

Also, yess, also 2nd computer with 32MB (Celeron 433MhZ) and also upgraded to 128. #TiberianSun was the sluggish game of choice for me.

Also, omg, did you also put in 128MB along with 32 and only years later learned that it was a mistake?

@jonn
Oh yeah, Tiberian Sun still has a very special place in my heart. Such a great vibe.