nwiswell

26 ms·

301.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Well, as the counterfactual, you can't invent a buyer who will value your Clojure shop at the last funding round.
302.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> I do believe the top machines now cost over a billion dollars, each. This isn't accurate, the top end is no more than $200M (and large customers will negotiate down from there). > The machines are so sensitive that a truck driv
303.
by nwiswell 4y ago
That's adjusted dynamically during operation by interferometer controls, not in manufacturing. You'd get more than 10nm of misalignment just due to a couple degrees of temperature change.
304.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Not really any harder than making an airplane. For older generations of tools, there are a lot of bootleg replacement parts floating around on secondary markets. When tools reach their end of life at leading-edge fabs, or when those fabs ar
305.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Yes, the design of those proprietary parts is very technical, but the manufacturing not so much. That's part of what makes the IP situation so tenuous and is a big part of why the FBI has aggressively prosecuted individuals for corpo
306.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Partly orchestration, but mostly in the design of those proprietary parts. There's decades of institutional knowledge and engineering iterations involved here. IP is a huge concern because if a Chinese competitor got their hands on the
307.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Sorry :) I should not really say too much, but the software tends to be kind of a trainwreck. WFE companies are definitely engineering-first organizations, but software is a second-order concern in general since it is a check-the-box requir
308.
by nwiswell 4y ago
They're complimentary products because lithography isn't useful if you don't have Etch, CVD, PVD, ALD, CMP, Implant, etc.
309.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Mostly these machines are assembled from a combination of proprietary parts manufactured using regular machine tools by contract manufacturers, and from sub-units purchased from specialist suppliers. For example: proprietary parts including
310.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Related: Lam Research (another very large WFE company, #4 by revenue after AMAT, ASML, and TEL) announced a 7% layoff today.
311.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> admittedly a decade ago In 2011 Google had 32,467 employees. In 2021 Google had 156,500 employees. It is simply not the same organization as it was when you worked there. The 2011 employees account for at most 10% of the workforce toda
312.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> fingertips smelling of it for days It's even more insidious than that -- it is not only your fingertips that smell, since it penetrates the skin so readily. Pure DMSO itself is odorless, but it is metabolized into DMS, which stink
313.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Square peg, round hole. Has nothing to do with credit bureaus.
314.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Alright, that's a little bit different, but doesn't that just imply that Bitcoin or Monero become "cash" in case you need to Do Some Crimes?
315.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something about the point you're making, but in 2023 the third party creditor already must approve any transactions where credit is extended (e.g. credit card) Credit bureaus remain uninvolved with cas
316.
by nwiswell 4y ago
The economic incentive for stealing a car is a lot more obvious and mundane than attacking the power grid. It's not unreasonable to second guess (or is it first guess?) the motive in that context. It's pretty obvious when you comp
317.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Moreover the more modern approach is share repurchases, which are largely not subject to the tax drag and use the same money that was used historically for dividends.
318.
by nwiswell 4y ago
I think that's just a microwave or dishwasher with a computer glued on. The computer needs to be actually integral to the operation of the appliance, and in general it needs to be involved with motion control. So e.g. a self driving ca
319.
by nwiswell 4y ago
I disagree, it simply would've taken longer. The West is democratic, and attitudes changed. In the mid-to-late 1800s, the prevailing philosophy justifying colonialism was rooted in racism, e.g. Kipling's "The White Man's
320.
by nwiswell 4y ago
I don't think microwaves or dishwashers can accurately be called robots. They're just regular old machines. A computer is not meaningfully involved with their operation. You could certainly make an argument that a printer is a rob
321.
by nwiswell 4y ago
I'm pretty sure that's just objectively untrue. Some nations are subject to public opinion and the ethical sensibility of their electorates, and some are not. That comes into stark relief when some nations chop up journalists insi
322.
by nwiswell 4y ago
So you're suggesting we should apply mid-1800s ethical standards to a global superpower in 2023? Colonial attitudes have changed. Western powers gave up their territorial maximalist doctrine a long time ago. Basically all former coloni
323.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> Do most in the US start their PhD from a Bachelors degree? Yes, it's almost always in the student's interest to go direct, for two reasons: 1) Master's degrees are frequently unfunded. PhDs in STEM are fully funded basic
324.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> which assumes that it is not possible to exceed the speed of light. That's... No, that's not what General Relativity says at all. The speed of light as universal speed limit is not a postulate, it is a result. The reason is b
325.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Anything that travels faster than light is a violation of causality and would be perceived to move backward in time.
326.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> but pragmatically that would mean nothing Well except the part where you could use gravity waves to send messages to the past, I imagine that would have some pragmatic implications.
327.
by nwiswell 4y ago
This is how humanity would respond to something new, not necessarily an alien race.
328.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> One can request a passport and receive it the next day from a machine without ever seeing a real person for more than 5 seconds… This seems more like properly functioning government than advanced digitalization. I have no idea what tak
329.
by nwiswell 4y ago
> whereas music is a lot more linear -- the average musician is a lot closer to elite musicians. Gosh, I don't know. This is quite a claim. First off is the obvious question: who is a musician? High school band? Play Friday nights a
330.
by nwiswell 4y ago
Credit unions exist and that hasn't stopped the overdraft charges and fees, has it? Why would crypto?

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