jhallenworld

Well there are grants, sales maybe if you deliver on the request..

https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/topic/current

Pick science or health instead of defense from the list on the left.. but you would be missing out on "MDA23-T002: AI-Informed Algorithms Combined with Differential Game Theory to Support Swarm-on-Swarm Engagements".. Basically to help them build Skynet.

An eye opener is the list of top contractors to the US government:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_100_Contractors_of_the_U.S...

Caltech, MIT, Stanford... SpaceX is 53.

The coolest one is Atlantic Diving Supply (No. 24): it started as a small dive shop that just happened to be located in Virginia Beach.. some Navy Seals kept ordering things from them.. then 9/11 happened..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Diving_Supply

It's even worse than that... USENET was one of the places that Google used to seed its search engine. Links from USENET were high quality links.

It's like reddit as the source for LLMs today.

So Google neglecting USENET could be about preventing competitors.

I watched a video just yesterday about wood ties vs. concrete ties. One of the arguments in favor of wooden ties in the US is that they are less brittle and thus more able to handle the frequent derailments we get. The nightmare scenario with concrete ties is that a loose wheel goes unnoticed for miles and cracks every single tie.

They mentioned a previous test experience with older concrete ties held together with naked angle-irons. A derailment severed all of the irons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtyTTijswwg

Interesting! One argument I see against hyperloop is the need for expensive vacuum bellows to deal with thermal expansion. I wonder if there is a locked in place solution like this that could eliminate the need for them.

Yes, here is how to do it:

https://airborn.com.au/layout/vddtest.html

A 16-bit DOS application using DirectX..

In the case of OrCAD this was very easy because it already had plug-in architecture for graphics. It had this because even the mouse was not standardized in the early days.

Passive voice, "mistakes were made" (Itanium), etc.

>Legacy systems and architectures can’t be around forever.

Why not? The bits don't decay.. Yes, this leads to an architectural mess, but I'm talking about a competitive business advantage.

This makes no sense to me. Backward compatibility is a huge competitive advantage for Intel, and IMHO, it's royally messed up that vm86 mode doesn't work in 64-bit mode.

One DOS application I use was hurt by this: "old DOS OrCAD". It works well in Windows-XP on a 32-bit machine, but does not work at all in 64-bit Windows. (It's actually a 32-bit DPMI program and has drivers to use Windows GDI so you don't have to mess around with drivers).

More evidence: IBM 360 mainframe software still works in Z/OS.

It might be worth it for non-generic computing devices like cell phones, but Intel missed the boat there already.

I've not read it (yet), but I've been watching "Quinn's Ideas" videos about The Three Body Problem. Basically all the aliens kill your planet due to game theory, so best stay hidden.

Then there is All Tomorrows... is it even a novel? Let me just say that you don't want the Qu to find you:

https://web.archive.org/web/20061124141617/http://www.nemora...

It seems to match the 1966 novel and 1970 movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(novel)

It's a fun movie to watch, here is a taste ("The Google Project"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LQFXfnhrI

If it's pollution, which pollution?

This study lists the likely suspects (scroll down for the table), but is not quantitative enough to show which have the highest impact.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7807371/

My guess: it's lead from gasoline- we've contaminated all top-soil with it. The effects are going to be around for a long time.

I still use these protocols for embedded systems. There is almost always a CLI on a UART, so one should be able to transfer files.

Ymodem is simpler and smaller than Zmodem, but we've used both. I've used Zmodem at 921600 baud, but it needs fairly large buffers (for a UART) to work.

One of the big advantages is that TeraTerm for Windows exists, and supports xyzmodem. It means that I often don't have to write any host-side software for things like firmware update, and more important, don't have to touch Windows.

It depends on the situation: some people may be able to move back in with their parents. Better off doing this than ruining their credit rating- in three years they might be employed and trying to get a loan.

Something should be said about living off credit cards. Don't borrow, or if you must, do it with care:

- Don't cash advance from your credit card. If you must, do it with one credit card, then balance transfer to another. Interest for cash advance is usually very high. But you need a balance transfer card, I doubt you will be offered one if unemployed.

As far as credit rating: the most important bills are loan payments (credit cards, car loans and mortgage). Forget about rent:

Maybe you need to break a lease- it's a good idea to talk to your landlord. You are better off telling them, than not paying. They might let you break it without dinging your credit. Really once they find out that you can't pay, they want you gone as fast as possible so that they can rent to someone else. If you miss payments, they are missing income, in theory a much worse situation for them.

Yeah, but what is a high expense when you have money is food! So time to switch to cheap meals, use the time to cook. Rice + Lentils, etc.

https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/depression-era-recipes/

Some low cost alcoholic beverages:

http://bumwine.com/ (just kidding, better not to drink)

Yeah, you had to do that then also, but how do they know you really need the money? Long ago there was no on-line option, but there was an in-person option:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2RYhNhBdw

Here is one bit of advice: Unemployment used to be paid by paper check (and I read that this is still possible, but also there is debit card and direct deposit). My advice: if you get paid by check, cash or deposit it immediately after receiving each one, don't wait. The state used to gauge if you still need unemployment by how quickly you cashed that check. If you appear desperate, they keep paying. For example, if your partner is working, then maybe you are not so desperate and wait a while before you bother to deposit it, then wham, you are cut off.

I imagine it's the same with their debit card, they get to see everything. I have no idea with direct deposit.

Will we be able to populate the moon with self-reproducing machines in my lifetime? The moon should be the target since it's not already filled with competitors (unlike the earth).

AI is totally a secondary question, and not necessary for this to work.

At least it's worth listening to a variety of points of view. Yes, Cenk is annoying, but there are not so many far-left news sources available in the US these days.

Well, there is this chart:

https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/?utm_...

Who would you suggest as the voice of reason?

The latest enemies list:

(i) the People’s Republic of China, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region;

(ii) the Republic of Cuba;

(iii) the Islamic Republic of Iran;

(iv) the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

(v) the Russian Federation; and

(vi) the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros.

I'm subscribing to TYT's view on this: they want to ban TikTok because it gets young people to vote. The CCP angle is just a good excuse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQK1LAtRh7Y

Republicans hate it because they lost both the president and the senate by thin margins due to, arguably, too many young people deciding to vote.

You would think Democrats would welcome more young voters, but only a few do (AOC is one..), because they are corporate democrats and don't really want young people to vote in primaries.

Mainstream media will be on board since they don't want another competitor.

This is definitely the case. Most ancient texts were not lost in the burning of Alexandria or whatever, but simply decayed. The texts have to be actively copied to be preserved, and there was not the money to do this continuously over 2000 years. So only documents that the rich of times considered most important to be preserved were copied.

They talk about it a little, but not that much. Actually one thing Bloomberg does is fawn over CEOs a little too much.

I've been listening to Bloomberg more than NPR recently for general news. NPR often seems silly... also they have more ads than the ultra-capitalist Bloomberg.

One bright spot (but it's not NPR): Locally, WGBH has Jim and Margery of "Boston Public Radio"

https://www.wgbh.org/news/boston-public-radio

Where is the money going then? A few big suppliers according to this:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/...

The rises are due to a power dynamic: the companies raising the prices can basically get away with it ("whatever the market will bear").

Why can they do this? One reason is monopoly power- monopolies must be broken up.

But what else can be done (besides central bank driven demand destruction)? So instead of price controls, a more palatable solution is collective buying. This gives buyers more clout, allows them to bargain for lower prices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyers_club

So we need more large non-profit buyers clubs, things like that. In the US, allow medicare to bargain with drug companies- it's insane that they can not.

An example where this works: my parents live in a gated community. They pay very little for the cable + internet + cell phone because the entire community has a deal with the provider.

Large retailers have this exact role: they certainly demand and get lower prices from their suppliers. We need a non-profit version of this, why should Walmart owners only benefit from their buying power?

Another way: collective purchasing- the high quantity gives them more negotiating power. I think that was the original idea of buyer's clubs.

A good example of this is my parent's internet fee. It is way less than mine since their gated community is buying it for everyone in the community.

Is there any other way to control inflation? I guess you could try to have some kind of price controls to limit corporate profits. Break up monopolies since they have too much pricing power.

My understanding of economics is that median wage is everything- it's the basic unit of wealth. The wealth of rich people is measured as a multiple of this value. So if median wage goes up, the wealthy are less so. Thus upper classes care very much about this. What is wealth other than the power to control a bunch of workers?

Here is my solution: I get paid by the minute by anyone who calls me, I get to set the rate. The phone company may have a cut of this as an incentive to make it work. Also, I may refund your money if I decide you didn't waste my time.

You want to try to sell me something? Great, at $10 / minute I'll listen to you.