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Comment Re:Impossible (Score 1) 56

> laws are mutually exclusive

Yeah, that's the play here.

Make sure the US companies know that if they comply more than locally that they will be in violation of US law.

They ought to slow roll it and let the foreign government sue, like in the 4Chan case.

Under the US Constitution when a foreign state is a party to the suit SCOTUS has Original Jurisdiction.

They'll be far less accommodating than a District Court judge.

Comment Re:Chomsky (Score 1) 60

> an innate ability for language

His theory is pretty good descriptively but there's a South American tribe that speaks in a way differently than what his insistence on specific biological structure supports.

The precept that language is innate vs. how language works being innate are probably different claims.

Academic linguists of the Expert Class type get super mad when people bring up that tribe.

IMO it's better to be a scientist than an acclaimed Expert.

Comment Re:Not a Great Idea (Score 1) 92

That's an interesting comparison I had missed. Good call.

Presumably the military needs decent chips fabbed on US soil. Doesn't have to compete with AMD or Samsung in the PC CPU market.

GF bought IBM fabs, TI isn't relevant, TSMC is just coming online but is still controlled by Taiwan. Is Motorola/Freescale around anymore?

With an engineer in charge maybe Intel stands a chance of a rebound. Competition is good so let's hope so.

I haven't bought an Intel desktop or server chip since 2018 but plenty of their low-power SoC's , Atom/n1xx. They still make good stuff in certain markets.

Selling railcar loads of Xeons for a 20x markup to buy Marketing people McMansions is likely never coming back.

Submission + - 3 decades of satellite data confirm predictions of early sea level rise models (wiley.com)

Mr. Dollar Ton writes: Three decades of satellite-based measurements of global sea-level change enable a comparison of models and reality and show that early IPCC climate projections were remarkably accurate. Predictions of glacier mass loss and thermal expansion of seawater were comparatively successful, but the ice-sheet contributions were underestimated. The findings provide confidence in model-based climate projections.

Key findings:

* IPCC projections in the mid-1990s of global sea-level change over the next 30 years were remarkably robust

* The largest disparities between projections and observations were due to underestimated dynamic mass loss of ice sheets

* Comparison of past projections with subsequent observations gives confidence in future climate projections

Comment IRS (Score 1) 373

Stop having Venmo narc every non-trivial txn to the IRS if you want people to unload their stuff.

They already paid taxes on the income and first sale.

OK, wait ... don't tell Trump that would help EV adoption.

Screw it, just promote Monero in your community. It's actually fungible.

FWIW I've installed several 220 outlets outside my house (generator, pressure washer, etc.). Not difficult and high voltage actually makes it easier becauae you need less copper.

The metal box I used has a cover that protects the outlet in all but driving rain. Only 50A for mine; it looks like this is high-end for home use with 80A being commercial, typically, based on one guide that came up on search.

Comment Targeting Data (Score 2) 29

There's some evidence that Meta provided Israel with targeting data from WhatsApp used to flatten civilian apartment buildings in Tehran.

The IRGC put out an urgent plea to its citizens to uninstall WhatsApp within a day or two.

But people will say, "yeah, but there's no good alternative," so actually providing one is smart military strategy, if they've actually built a viable competitor.

If Americans think In-Q-Tel funded Facebook but don't have access to its data ... yeah, well they slept through the Snowden drops.

Comment Re:Interesting (Score 3, Insightful) 56

> It definitely takes a certain personality type to be able to do sales for a living.

Short-term gains, sure, but good sales people generate relationships that result in repeat sales.

When they started pushing batteries hard when I ran in for a relay I knew the end was near.

Comment Re:Didn't the US do this already? (Score 1) 134

> Like, over 200 years ago, sort out that individual state issues coinage was bad?

Sure, but the Constitution also says that States shall make no thing but gold or silver good for the payment of taxes.

And it says that all government spending must recorded on a public ledger available to the People.

We're in nobody-cares anything-goes territory now.

Submission + - Recreating a Rare Mutation Could Grant Almost Universal Virus Immunity For Days (sciencealert.com)

alternative_right writes: The mutation, a deficiency in interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), causes a mild yet persistent inflammation across the body. Examining patients' immune cells revealed they'd had the usual run of encounters with flu, measles, chickenpox, and mumps, yet they'd never reported feeling particularly ill as a result.

Further investigation revealed their body's virus-fighting proteins were constantly on a low level alert, never really put away for later like in most people.

Comment Freemium Slide (Score 5, Interesting) 91

There must be a name for this phenomenon, but it goes like this:

Offer a decent free-to-join platform with ads to build a large network effect.
(cool)
Add additional functionality for paid subscribers.
(sure, no problem)
Move almost all features from the free tier to the paid tier making all the free users leave the platform with only ghost accounts still there.

At that point the bean counters see that their revenues are still OK but they haven't seen that their network effect has vanished.

Soon no more free users will convert to the premium tier.

Then revenues start to dip due to natural attrition (e.g. retirement)

Then they raise prices to balance the books.

More users bail on premium and the cycles gridlock. Advertisers no longer see value due to few users.

"Then suddenly."

(sounds like "just add AI" is the new Hail Mary pass)

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