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drumhead

2,158 karma · joined December 14, 2012

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drumhead··on I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk
Dont forget Nvidia technology was condsidered too sensitive to be exported to China....until the Trump administration decided they could export it if they paid a 10% export tax.
drumhead··on I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk
Under normal circumstances this would end up in court, but when this administration ignores court orders it doesnt like Anthropic would effectively have no legal recourse.
drumhead··on Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros. Bidding, Paramount Set to Win
Netflix win this by losing. Paramount has massively overpaid for Warner Brothers, and taken on a crippling amount of debt. It was existential for them, they had a failing studio and streaming service which they hope Warners IP and HBO can compensate for.

Let's not forget that Warner Brothers has been a bit of an albatross and never made money for anyone, that's why it's passed through so many different hands. Time, AoL Discovery to name a few.

Now Paramount are going to be sitting there with a mountain of debt, while Netflix and Disney are relatively debt free and very profitable and cash generative.

drumhead··on Lennart Poettering, Christian Brauner founded a new company
This feels like something that's being created for a Microsoft edition of Linux.
drumhead··on How Debt Bankrupted the British Empire, and Why America Is Walking the Same Path
Because everyone has a lot of dollars and they need to earn a return, so its either the Eurodollar market or US debt. US debt is safer. But its true to say that people are more and more reluctant to buy longer dated bonds and are turning to shorter and shorter maturities which is another problem for the US government.
drumhead··on How Debt Bankrupted the British Empire, and Why America Is Walking the Same Path
The US will be able to keep issuing as much debt as they like as long as the Dollar is the global reserve currency. Its when that stops being the case they'll be in trouble with hyperinflation being the most likely outcome.
drumhead··on Repatriate the gold': German economists advise withdrawal from US vaults
Or move it to Canada. One of the advantages of the US was that it was far from Europe and safe in case of invasion or war. The US clearly cant be trusted anymore , but Canada can, and it also across the atlantic.
drumhead··on Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops
Install Gentoo.....
drumhead··on De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance? (2025)
It's not going to be replaced any time soon, there's no realistic replacement at the moment, but there is a slow movement away from it. We've already seen a stampede into gold from central banks. And pimco have said they're going to relocate funds out of dollar debt.

After the nonsense with Greenland no one really wants to give anymore financial power to the US so we'll see more assets kept in local currency or different reserves currencies like the Euro, Yen, Sterling, or ChF.

drumhead··on Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes
Who decides when a leader is illegitimate or not?
drumhead··on Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes
Invading and kidnapping the leader of a sovreign nation sounds rather illegal to me.
drumhead··on Debian adds LoongArch as officially supported architecture
Are Loongson powered machines available in the west? Are they only available from Chinese manufacturers?
drumhead··on Independent review of UK national security law warns of overreach
Labour have dropped to 17% because their left wing has moved to the greens, Libdems and nationalists. Reform support has stopped growing at 25% and that's mainly Tories moving across. The only people that harp on about "two tier Keir" are the extreme right wing loonies.
drumhead··on Independent review of UK national security law warns of overreach
It's always been like this. From the official secrets act where they could jail you just for revealing the date of the office Christmas party to D notices suppressing newspapers from publish stories the government thought were to sensitive. MI5 and MI6 acting totally without accountability, with the government not even acknowledging their existence. If anything, things have started to get more transparent now, with a freedom of information act, actual oversight and accountability for the intelligence services and less government. But the default position of the UK government has always been secrecy and the right to do what they want to protect the country.
drumhead··on Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix
It's the best deal for both companies. Netflix gets the WB back catalogue and studios to provide high quality content and potentially premium streaming services with HBO. WB gets stable cashflows and a place where their content is needed and their production expertise will help improve the current product. I can easily see a new premium Netflix+ channel with that includes HBO bundled with it.

A win for both companies, Netflix with IP and WB with stability.

drumhead··on Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas
Too much money being spent on a technology that isnt ready to do what they're saying it can do. It feels like the 3G era all over again. Billion spent on 3G licences which didnt deliver what they expected it would.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
Yes, but whether they will remains to be seen. They needed a reason to sell out without it looking like they were selling out at the top.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
Berkshire is sitting on nearly $350 billion in cash. One of the ratio's that Buffet uses to measure overvaluation, Wilshire 2000 Market Cap as a % of GDP is at an all time, 220%. Its usually a good indicator of a market top. He's making a few small investments, but he's just waiting until there's more of sell off before heading back in. He's under no pressure to buy anything.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
It'll come from the other bubble in financial markets, Private Credit. There have been quite a few bankruptcies and problems emerging there, and they're stepping up to be major funders for the AI capex boom.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
APPL is the best bet as it doesnt have any exposure to AI. MSFT has spent a truckload of money on datacentres, if AI doesnt deliver they're going to face a huge drag on earnings because of the overinvestment.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
If there is a bubble then the hyperscalers with dominant market shares and big cashflows are most likely to survive if it bursts. Google, MSFT and Amazon. Oracle are on very shaky ground. Their bonds are selling at a discount to par, even though interest rates are dropping, and their debt to equity ratio is nearing 400%. AI is an existential bet for them, but not so much for the others.
drumhead··on Peter Thiel sells off all Nvidia stock, stirring bubble fears
First it was Softbank and now its Thiel. Major sales coming from two of the ultimate tech insiders is probably a very good sell signal. Whether or not its the top is another question. Markets as we know can go higher longer than we think, Michael Burry shut down his hedge fund because he may have started shorting too soon.

One of the funds that Meta were working with to finance their spending on AI, Blue Owl, had to stop redemptions on of their private credit funds merging it with another one of their bigger funds, leaving holders facing a 20% haircut. There also seem to be emerging liquidity issues with banks. The money for the AI gravy train might be running out.

drumhead··on YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs
If you're a finance professional then there's no alternative to Excel. But otherwise Libre office calc is perfectly fine.
drumhead··on A Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway
Sometimes it feels like Google are so far ahead in AI but all we get to see are mediocre LLMs from Open AI. Like they're not sharing the really good stuff with everyone.
drumhead··on Why more SaaS companies are hiring chief trust officers
Remember "Do no evil"?

This sounds like another bogus role they'll ditch once they get their Nasdaq listing and need to make profits for their shareholders.

I'd probably trust any organisation with a role like this even less. It sounds like an organisation that doesnt think it can be trusted.

drumhead··on New York Times, AP, Newsmax and others say they won't sign new Pentagon rules
They're trying to wreck as much of the current governmental set us as they can do it'll almost impossible or very difficult to rebuild it. It's almost scorched earth, they think they're killing the "deep state"
drumhead··on Microsoft only lets you opt out of AI photo scanning 3x a year
We created this oligopoly because they were convenient, free, powerful, and now its time for us to pay the price.

Or find services that may not be as easy to use, may cost something and may not have all the features you want, but which wont make unreasonable demands for your data.

In light of the way the US government is carrying on, I'd rather not give Microsoft any of my images.

drumhead··on A new experimental Google app for Windows
Is this just Google Desktop again?
drumhead··on The treasury is expanding the Patriot Act to attack Bitcoin self custody
Considering how they're clamping down on anonymity wherever they can, crypto wasnt going to escape their clutches for very long. How long before its seperated from it original aim and just turned into a gambling token.
drumhead··on Apple Debuts iPhone 17
I've got a Pixel, this new iPhone hasnt got anything that convinces me to move to Apple. There's nothing compelling there, not technologically or aesthetically. Yes its more powerful, but what do they do with that power but play games? Until some new application emerges where that much power is needed I'll stick to the cheaper phones.
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