Zigurd

19 ms·

511.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
It won't be possible to keep the solar panels in full sunlight 100% of the time, so you need batteries too. The math don't math. Too many young dudes watched too much space opera with big heavy armored spaceships that rumble when
512.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
> They seem to have constructed a rocket with 10x the payload to LEO of the one they used to put those 10k satellites in orbit They seem to have constructed a rocket that consistently gets heavier and more complex and more expensive an
513.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Circa 2032: "Remember when everybody was going to launch constellations of thousands of satellites?" "Yeah, just like the data centers, only about 10% of that got built."
514.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
America is pretty good at creating an underclass they can force into less desirable jobs using the prison industrial complex.
515.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Stuff is made in response to demand. That can feel like an inevitability especially if you look at the failure of interdiction of drug trafficking. But that's no excuse to give up on harm reduction and demand shaping. Cigarette smoking
516.
Poll: Will there be a mega-IPO fail this year?
2 points by Zigurd 6mo ago|0 comments
517.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Both fail
518.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
SpaceX fails
519.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
OpenAI fails
520.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Both succeed
521.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
They have a strong reputation as hard-working. After the liberation of Eastern Europe, Polish crews were all over Eastern Europe doing everything from restoring historic town centers to quickly and reliably putting a fresh coat of paint on
522.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
This outcome, of continued slow progress in what is supposed to be quick iterations, was predictable years ago. That's not in hindsight. I've been criticizing the idea of agile rocket development as bullshit since I became aware o
523.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Japan, China, and South Korea are all very densely populated. Not long ago this was seen as an overpopulation crisis that would cause them to be impoverished. Now the headlines are of a population crash. Neither of these trends is sustainab
524.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
This is why people are supposed to outgrow Ayn Rand, Pournelle, and unironic readings of Heinlein. Once congressional investigations dig into the kind of corruption that appeared on the front page of HN today, with people gaming prediction
525.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
That's a feature not a bug. It doesn't make benchmarking any more meaningful or simple, but being trained to recall patterns is a legitimate goal for a coding agent.
526.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
My father was an engineer at Zenith when they were developing the Space Command TV remote control. This was a couple years before I was born, so by the time I got interested in hacking, Zenith TVs with this remote were commonplace. When vis
527.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
All of the German car makers, plus Hyundai, are very serious about making really good mainstream electric vehicles because they all believe that will be their core of their business sooner rather than later.
528.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Russia is a bit different in that Russia is in a land war in Europe and is the aggressor. That's just not done. At least that used to be the norm before Putin had compromat on the president. China, so far, hasn't invaded anyone.
529.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Law enforcement that isn't solving 50% of murders also isn't looking for exotic crimes unless there's a lot of money in it for them.
530.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Is there something about Newark? The most frightening experience I've had on a commercial flight is breaking out of the clouds on approach to Newark and finding ourselves at an absurdly low altitude over a warehouse roof. Throttle up,
531.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
The assertion that something like starship is required for a moon base is wild. Why would anyone want to have to rely on a rocket that needs multiple refueling missions before it can even start to go to the moon? The whole starship project
532.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Starship is going for a fully reusable upper stage. Google "second system syndrome." This is engineering by fiat. It could easily take another 10 years for upper stage reusability to be demonstrated, and another 10 to make it reli
533.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Wouldn't it be great if residential rate payers didn't end up holding the bag for botched nuclear plant construction and cost over runs.
534.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
That's not true everywhere. Qualified immunity can be removed at the state level, and has been in some places. Nothing the cop union can do about that.
535.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Your question is too unspecific. We're talking about cop tech and surveillance, which has a very specific business ecosystem.
536.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Colorado and New Mexico do not have qualified immunity for law-enforcement. It's not carved in stone and it's not inevitable. If your state has ballot questions, it's time to get that on the ballot at the next possible opport
537.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Except that's not an excuse. What it really means is that potential matches have extremely low confidence, and shouldn't be reported as matches.
538.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Look over here! Not over there at grid infrastructure and generating capacity, or noise and pollution from on-site generators. The scale of electricity use in data centers is much more likely to cause disruption and the shifting of costs on
539.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
Nations also have debt to income ratios. We should be comparing those instead of debt to GDP. If you've ever seen one of those UK is poor than Alabama memes, you know that GDP is a poor and tendentious measure of well-being because UK
540.
by Zigurd 6mo ago
A quarterly debt to revenue ratio would be a lot more illuminating. There are very good reasons not to care if that ratio goes out of whack for one or two quarters. But any bro divergence that persists is bad. This ratio isn't just bet

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