The inherent scarcity of resources

[KL-666]

In automation resources grow every year. Faster cpu's and gpu's, larger disks, more internet bandwidth, etc... But what happens with all those resources? Do we get as much increase in functionality as the resources have grown? No, not even 10% more functionality.

So what is consuming all the resources without any clear benefits?

1) With every increase of resources, developers get more and more sloppy in watching the efficiency of their programs. They reckon: There are more than enough resources available anyway nowadays.

2) Non-developers find ways to get things done in the area of development. Unfortunately they do not know what they are doing. Just look inside databases web "developers" produce. A crying waste of resources, both in disk space and cpu efficiency.

In the end, what do we get for all the increase in resources? Not much more than we had 10 years ago. The only difference is that in order to read half a letter size of text, i now need to download and render a web page of 10's of MB's instead of a couple of KB's.

This senseless usurping of resources causes real problems. Even though we have more bandwidth on the internet than ever, "developers" manage to quickly fill it with more nonsensical data usage. They are so fast at it, that we now even need to discuss net (un)neutrality. And our computers of a few years ago are useless now, without any evident gain when we buy a new one. Just think of the hardware waste pile we produce this way, for no real reason at all.

In Flightgear a big gain in efficiency could be achieved when aircraft are split in the complete aircraft and the external view only. I have 100's of complete planes downloaded, of which i fly max 5 myself. All the rest is just to see others on mp. For that i really do not need more than the external view. I see no point in wasting disk space and cpu/gpu cycles on interiors and instruments i do not see anyway from the outside. And just think of what the person hosting the aircraft could save, when hoards of people only download the external view.

Now do not come with the silly story of using AI aircraft for this purpose.

1) You need to be slightly tech savvy to make that work. So not many people will do it.

2) It is painful for developers to know that the exterior looks of the planes they worked so hard on, are never used.

I wish all developers a lot of efficiency thinking.

Kind regards, Vincent

[IAHM-COL]

I always thought that the developing community was conspiring against us to make us buy newer hardware, keeping some sort of comsuption cycle:
Buy new software + need buy new hardware

Like when I was young, if you were moving up a version of let's say, Windows OS, your good old desktop was not going to catch the chase.