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What use case?

I got mine to make a backup copy of the remote controls that I'm worried about losing, which happen to be sub-GHz and infrared.


> Imagine an AI engine like a block of swiss cheese. New, original content that fills one of the holes in the AI engine’s block of cheese is more valuable than repetitive, low-value content that unfortunately dominates much of the web today.

Great statement in theory - but in practice, the whole people-as-a-service industry for AI data generation is IMO more damaging to the knowledge ecosystem than open data. e.g. companies like pareto.ai

"Proprietary data for pennies on the dollar" is the late-stage capitalism equivalent of the postdoctoral research trap.


"No user ratings and reviews" - that just means you rank last in app store search, right?

Apple will do whatever they can to ensure that developers that don't pay will suffer the costs.


Tier 1 has only exact match search.

That's fine with me. All of my empirical evidence over the years suggests that my customers are coming mostly from the outside, and Apple is not bringing me many customers from inside the App Store.


With the web becoming more fuzzy it has become acceptable to other products when you're searching for a specific brand.

But when I want to buy Grey Poupon Mustard, I don't want to see Heinz etc. If you don't have Grey Poupon, I don't want to see anything.


That's exactly how it is. Outside of a few viral apps, most of the rest are word of mouth or blog post/reddit/YouTube recommandations. Apple has very little to do with an app success which is why it is egregious they ask so much for the "privilege" of using their App Store (you don't have any other choice anyway).


Ratings and reviews cost money to maintain. Anti-spam, compute, distribution, security concerns, etc. Apple should do whatever they can to ensure that developers who aren't paying don't degrade the service for everyone else.


The App Store is already replete with terrible promoted software. Apple made an entire business around degrading the top search results so competitors can bid on less relevant suggestions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_search_ads


That would be a great argument if you could actually install apps from outside the Apple App Store.


This sounds kinda like what they did when they were forced to allow outside payments in the US. It could only be one link, with a big scary warning, and a 27% cut. They "comply" with the ruling by making another alternative deal that nobody would ever take. Fortunately this backfired in the US and they were actually forced to get rid of all the restrictions in May.


I swear there must be somebody properly petty in higher management of apple to keep coming with these childish moves that harm image of the company as some sort of serious reliable manufacturer.

I guess to each their own


Yep, I have been a Mac user since 2007 and iPhone user since 2009. But all the malicious compliance and pettiness has me looking at alternatives (at least for iPhone, since it has good alternatives).

I don't recognize the fun, playful Apple of the 00s and early 10s anymore. Its soul has been replaced.


“Cook chose poorly.” https://www.theverge.com/apple/659296/apple-failed-complianc...

I think Cook’s time as CEO will be remembered both by enabling massive scale for the most successful consumer product in history—the iPhone—while sacrificing the company’s soul on the alter of efficiency.


That was a worldwide change after they figured out long acting beta agonists were basically killing people because they don’t treat the underlying inflammation like inhaled corticosteroids do.


Yeah that doesn’t surprise me - I just don’t have enough knowledge of outside the UK to know if it was advised elsewhere. Anecdotally, my breathing is so much better since I’ve adjusted to the correct dose and never missing one, I’ve gone from needing a reliever with me at all times to not using it once in a year.


Shit I should talk to my doctor again. Although probably for exercises induced things might be a little different.


Very possibly, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the advice has changed. Asthma is an inflammation of the lungs and the learnings seem to be that any inflammation is bad, so we want to prevent inflammation rather than respond to it.

Definitely worth a conversation!


I have 3 kids, all around the same age (K/1). They all got laptops about 18 months ago for christmas. I installed mint linux on all of them, and installed a few free/libre games for them to play, and I self-host the game server at home.

One game they play is luanti (formerly minetest). I gave them instructions on how to clone the git repository for the game, run the build script, and then start the game. They've probably forgotten the build instructions, but they know to play, they have to type `cd code/minetest` and then `bin/luanti`. Occasionally they have to run `git pull` to update the code on their computers. I handle all the game server administration.

I initially blocked all internet access with a kill switch, but this quickly became an issue because you need to be able to run `apt update` and a few other commands to keep the system up to date. So now I run a proxy server called e2guardian that lets them access sites that I choose.

Later, I introduced them to scratch, and I downloaded the entirely of griffpatch's youtube library with yt-dlp and organized it into folders on each of their computers. I've done the same thing with other tutorial style videos. They don't have access to youtube, and I don't really think it makes sense to give them access at this age.

They run scratch locally, as opposed to using scratch.mit.edu. I enabled the scratch website for a couple of days as a treat for them, and as expected, they spent most of the time exploring and playing others' games, but very little time building their own. I sort of expected this to happen, so we closed off access a few days later, and they took some of the ideas they saw online and started playing with them locally.

So my experience is:

a) linux makes a great platform for kids, since it's very easy to tweak things to stop behaviors that you don't want to reinforce. e.g. `sudo chmod 400 /usr/local/games` turns off all the games, `sudo killall kidname` will close the desktop session if your kid isn't listening when it's time for bed, you can set up time-based login policies with pam_time, you can install your own root certificates for SSL MITM, etc.

b) games reinforce that "computers are fun", and games like luanti are free, open-source, and hackable.

c) interest in games naturally spills over into interest in making your own games.

If you want to try luanti/minetest, I recently cleaned up/released a mod that I built for the kids last year called turtlebots. It's a visual programming tool that lets you program little turtle-shaped robots that can navigate in a minecraft-style world and build things as they move around. Source is here: https://github.com/jmole/turtlebots


> To facilitate this synchronisation, stable base-load power is required, which is normally provided by nuclear and other large gas and hydroelectric facilities. These sources act as a natural buffer against disturbances, helping to keep the frequency stable in the face of sudden changes in generation or demand.

In theory, it seems like you could instrument a photovoltaic array to carry some "inertia" with the right control system.

If you need to feed power, you run some power point tracking algorithm, and if you need to consume power, you just overbias the cells and heat them up.


In a system of micro-inverters, they need something to synchronize with. There needs to be a "truth" reference, so they can push their power onto the grid by slightly leading the phase of that.

If some critical mass of PV micro-inverters exceeds the traditional generators, they'll push so hard that the grid itself will change phase, and blackouts are the result.

One possible solution might be to use a better oscillator in the micro-inverter and limit the rate of phase shift. Unfortunately, the grids of the world have been moving in the opposite direction and now allow more drift than in the past, so where do you draw the line?

https://medium.com/@brandonvar/power-grid-stability-issues-a...


> they'll push so hard that the grid itself will change phase

That's a thundering herd problem: where all invertors have the same set-points and they all are synchonised to push in the same direction at once.

In networks, thundering herd problems are fixed by given each sender different random delays.

For power networks we could choose statistical methods to get individual solar generators to lead or lag so that the frequency becomes an aggregate vote.

Given that part of the blackout was due to large amounts of solar going offline at the same time, it's possible that all invertors with common software were tripped at the same set-point.

So trip conditions also need to be randomly fuzzy. E.g. if frequency drops below 49Hz +/- random spread of 0.5Hz.

Although it's difficult to match financial incentives against random variations (individual generators are incentivised to power outside of boundaries to keep getting paid, and a trip event can be expensive - due to restart costs).

Electricity market design is hard because the design needs to be resilient to perverse incentives.


Conceptually, your idea seems reasonable, but because the goal is to put the power from the solar micro-inverters onto the grid, they must lead the grid phase by a few degrees. If they lag instead of leading, they are draining power from the grid and not supplying power into the grid.

People with PV arrays want to make money by selling power into the grid. Perhaps if they were a little less greedy, they could back off the phase difference if they detect the grid phase drifting from too much "pushing." After all, they can't sell any power at all while the grid is down.


apparent vs real power is your answer.


Yep it’s called synthetic inertia. Solar and wind can both offer it. Wind can actually offer loads of it it’s just not as easy since it’s not synchronous.


Would it not be better to have power sinks at every solar/wind farm and that will stabilise everything. Big cheap batteries.


you have panels connected to grid thru inverter and that can modulate output in any way needed in few milliseconds.

same as inverter in electric car providing power to motors.

or inverter providing power to coils in your loudspeaker/ headphones.

inverter can adjust phase, voltage, frequency. it can means it is job of inverter to provide that in normal operation. that is why it is there in first place.


not really, since tokenization combines multiple characters


IDK, I think Gemini is great. Way better than bard.


That’s ridiculous, there is plenty of confidence in US manufactured goods, the problem is that US manufacturers have impossible economics for anything that isn’t boutique or super high margin.

Need an impedance controlled 16 layer board for your fancy new military radar? No problem.

Need a basic 2 layer PCB for mass manufacture? No one in the US will make it at the price you need to be competitive.


"No problem"? It's not just that the prices are high; I can hardly get those guys to even answer the phone and give me a quote. I can get that board from China before I've gotten through to a local sales rep. Then when they do finally check their messages they want to fly out, meet me at my office, size up my operation and my budget, have a nice chat over dinner, and spend a few weeks pestering me with phone calls without ever getting down to business.


You are pretty confused about why this is.

When the only market you ever had was high touch high cost low volume production then that is your default business model.

The biggest issue is that Trump is pushing tariffs without first ramping up local manufacturing, the type of manufacturing you are looking for isn't _currently_ being catered for in the US. It may in the future depending on how things pan out, the bet Trump is making is that it can happen, time will tell whether he is true.

I don't think it will generate jobs for local US manufacturing since the only way to compete with low cost of labour markets is to automate more than the low cost of labour country.

Business is reasonably good at filling whatever niche is willing to pay. So far the evidence is that Trump is willing to over commit and then backtrack. Having a negative outlook doesn't help anyone, think positive about your country and shift with the times.


> think positive about your country and shift with the times

You know I tried to think positively about the United States; but darned if they don't keep doing negative things. Like appointing grossly incompetent people to head Federal departments. Like unlawfully and arbitrarily abducting people from the streets. Like extorting universities - ideally centres of free thought - over non-complying ideological positions. Like appearing to wreck the economy; but in ways that might just advantage himself and others in his circle. And the list goes on...

Some of us aren't "shifting with the times" because of an ethical line we won't cross. I grew up in the United States in the 1960's and had the constant drumbeat of "We're the world's melting pot," "We're the most benevolent spreader of democracy," "We're practically the only free country on the planet," "We are a country of laws." beat into us in public school. So it's a little jarring to see the wholesale abandonment of these values at the hands of someone who can barely string together a cogent sentence of more than, say, 4-5 non-repeating words and for whom "negotiating" means "win/lose", instead of "how can we meet our needs _and_ your needs, while creating more value in the process?"

Personally, I tried having a positive outlook; but saw this coming and left the U.S. just ahead of Trump 1.0.

This rant aside, it's incredibly wishful thinking to assume that one can undo in weeks or months, the complex web of international trade that has developed over decades because of the much-vaunted invisible hand of the market.


> think positive about your country

Like insisting the United States is 'rigged, crooked and evil'?

Trump insists the United States is 'rigged, crooked and evil':

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-in...

>“The Witch Hunt continues, and after 6 years and millions of pages of documents, they’ve got nothing. If I had what Hunter and Joe had, it would be the Electric Chair. Our Country is Rigged, Crooked, and Evil — We must bring it back, and FAST. Next stop, Communism!”

So do you have any shred of evidence he's backtracking on all the racism and misogyny and homophobia and transphobia and cruelty and corruption he overcommitted on?


And it's not just (or even mostly) costs. Nowhere in the world has supply chains anything like the Pearl River Delta. Need the most esoteric component imaginable? There's probably a factory down the road that can supply it, MOQ 1 or millions. It probably has a booth or distributor in Huaqiangbei where you can grab a few hundred today. The US has nothing to compare. US manufacturers can't build those sort of domestic supply chains at any cost.


I'm not sure I believe that, considering Schiit manages to do it for virtually every component of their product line other than wall warts. Are they two layer boards? Nah, I suspect they're 4 layer...but the prices aren't such that you can't survive on domestic manufacture. The prices are just higher than overseas - meaning that your profits are slightly lower, a situation current markets are not willing to accept.

Every time I've looked at local manufacturing, whether machine shops or anything else, the prices are higher than Ali but not unreasonable.


This is so cool. I modified the script so that the countries are a bit darker (#777), and I found that it helped the borders pop a lot more. It would probably be equally interesting to play this game with no borders at all.

Not to scope creep, but it would be great if users could pick from 1 or 2 themes. Or maybe just refactor it so that changing a global var from the javascript would let you change the colors.

edit: also the collective north and south poles take up about 60% of the zoomed out map. I bet you could crop most of antarctica and a significant portion of the upper northern hemisphere without degrading the experience.


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