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Comment Colbert nailed in in 2006, nineteen years ago (Score 1) 193

Reality keeps reinforcing Stephen Colbert’s observation that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Conservatives hate that, and think that by insisting that such liberal bias be countered with their viewpoints, even though they are not of the reality-based community.

Comment Re:Return it (Score 1) 108

I replaced my NetGear readyNAS with a Synology server a couple years back. ReadyNAS is no more. It looks like Synology isn’t to be trusted any more, either. Fewer and fewer choices.
And there are good reasons to buy a specialized device, rather than rolling your own. Power consumption, noise, and heat; a dedicated appliance is better on all three than building it yourself.

Comment Re:Is it going to be a real OS, though? (Score 1) 57

The mac always has a mouse and a mouse pointer; iOS has a touch-screen, and for those with a Magic Keyboard, also a cursor. So a Mac app on iOS with keyboard could be fully functional, but frustrating to users who are used to touch input. iOS apps on a Mac, though, won't have access to features that rely on touch input. I can see Mac laptops getting a touch screen, and then maybe have the touch screen detach from the keyboard, and become a convertible. But only if Apple sees the market for such a device (which could happen if Windows convertibles achieve a sizeable market share).

Comment Re:Is it going to be a real OS, though? (Score 1) 57

I bought an M3 MacBook Air last year after I got frustrated that I couldn't run an IDE on an iPad Pro. My iPad is aging, and has a cosmetic crack in the screen (now underneath a screen protector, but that trapped a visible mote of dust that's another annoyance). So a 13" M5 iPad Pro and Keyboard might be good enough that I could sell the MacBook Air, and travel with one device rather than two.

Comment Re:Are you sure? (Score 1) 188

According to https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fustr.gov%2Fissue-areas%2Fr...

The elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs, phi, is 0.25.

I.e the US consumer will pay 25% of the tariff and the foreign supplier will pay 75%.

That is not what price elasticity means. Price elasticity is the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price. So if you are selling 100 units a day at $100, and phi is 0.25, then for a four dollar increase in price you would lose one sale per day. It is also not a fixed value; it will change based on the state of the economy, the level of price, and available competition.

If price elasticity is 0, then customers will pay whatever the asking prices is (think cancer drugs; how much would you pay if you had cancer and this drug cured it? Nearly everything, right?), to infinity, e.g. for a basic commodity, where you can sell all you have at the market price, but if you try and charge above the market price, customers all go to your competitors and you sell nothing.

 

Once again, the people in this administration demonstrate they have no idea what they are doing.

Comment Frequency? (Score 1) 69

Brands are struggling to grow profits as people buy new TVs less frequently.

Let's see, I bought a 27" tube TV with stereo sound in 1989 (with S-Video as well as NTSC inputs!), and then a 43" 4K set in 2015 to finally upgrade, and my newest one, another 43" 4K, in 2017 for the guest room, trying to beat tariffs the first time. And there was a 43" 4K computer monitor sometime in there, too. Does that count? I will only buy new TVs/monitors when the old ones die or turn 25, I guess.

Comment Re:That's cool and all but (Score 1) 85

There's an obvious economic driver for shifting demand from when a resources is expensive to when the resource is inexpensive. If a building's owners have a contract with the utility provider for time-of-day billing, and electricity is cheap at night and expensive during the day, then there's incentive for shifting the electric load from day (A/C) to night (power the freezers, and thaw the ice during the day to avoid daytime electric charges).
If the local utility gets enough electricity from solar, and the duck curve means electricity is cheapest in the afternoon, and more expensive at night, then the building owner should just go ahead and run the A/C during the day, and maybe the freezers, too. The capital costs to build the ice electricity time-shifter may or may not still be low enough to fit within the savings the system offers.

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