Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Why it can work (Score 1) 121

This is fine if you are comfortable showing that SOME chip can be run in space at SOME cost, but it skips all the details that drive whether a data center in space is will work logistically and economically. There are many of these details, including but not limited to:
- Is it possible to use convective cooling in space? If so, how does one design it so that the convective fluid doesn't just dissipate? If not, can chips be designed that successfully evacuate heat radiatively or do the chips burn themselves up?
- What is the balance between collecting energy on the sun side of the system and protecting equipment from cold on the shaded side? Does the equipment have to survive large temperature cycles? If it can't does the data center have to use thrust to rotate itself to keep the hot side hot and the cool side cool? What would that mean for design cost, for refueling?
- How does all of this equipment (solar panels, batteries, GPUs, communication equipment, thrusters, control systems) deal with the high levels of ionizing radiation in space?
- The design and duty cycle of all these pieces of equipment implies various levels of refueling, repair, etc. Assuming all that can actually be done successfully at rocket's length, is the total cost within what the market will pay?
These details whether a data center can be made operational at all and if so whether their economics make them worth doing.

What Google is doing strikes me as a pretty sensible step - put a few chips in space and see what happens.

What Elon Musk does is claim that something will be solved next year and do some pump-and-dump crap around a company he claims will be doing that thing next year.
Where is "Full Self Driving", as in you can actually let the car drive and not monitor it? Where are the fleets of "Optimus" robots? Where is Tesla's super-awesome battery tech? And the Cybertruck that can float?
Oh right, they'll all be here at {year} + 1.

Comment Re:This is a good thing (Score 2) 51

This is pretty much a textbook case of a stopped clock being right twice a day.

Notwithstanding Hegseth's absymal record prior to and within the Department of Defense/War/Being Tough, the war in Ukraine has showed how different war can be run than the way our military is currently organized.

Even if if you don't buy the army having "Transformers" type robots punching each other out (and I don't), it's clear that there is going to be a lot of "AI"-ish and highly automated stuff fighting wars. There needs to be a unit devoted to understanding FPV drones on land, sea, and air, plus all of the infrastructure for using them, defending against them, the communications to run them, training people to manage these kinds of weapons and units.

Comment Re: Which is it? (Score 1) 128

I just wanted to let you know that you have successfully driven me off of /., after some 25 years.

Not just you, obviously, the site has been in steep decline for a long time, but you were such a huge asshole that you managed to be the last straw. So, congrats for that. I won't be back.

Comment Re:Which is it? (Score 0) 128

A few days ago there was a story about how an AI store was failing horribly. It can't do that, but at the same time will destroy us?

Not "at the same time". You're conflating what AI can do now with what it will likely be able to do in a year or five, or 20.

Amodei and others are worried about what AI that doesn't yet exist may do, not about what current-generation AI can do. AI is getting better, very quickly, and unless there's some blocking obstacle that no one has been able to identify will at some point become far, far smarter than humans, individually or collectively. So before that happens, we need to figure out how to make sure that superintelligent AI wants to help us, and wants to do it in the right way.

Comment Re:TFA has no supporting data (Score 1) 201

The rebates on the batteries you earn over time, and to do so you must export some of your stored battery power back to the grid during peak hours.

Is this actually a substantial amount of energy? I'm in Utah (Rocky Mountain Power) and RMP also pays me to use my batteries... but the amount of energy they draw is tiny. 8-10 times per week they draw on my batteries, but it's like 4 kW peak draw (my batteries can sustain 20 kW), and generally for less than 30 seconds, so in any given week I'm only contributing like 0.2 kWh. As I understand it, this is because RMP uses my batteries not really to "serve loads", per se, but just as grid stabilization; brief backfill to keep the voltage from sagging.

Obviously my batteries do serve *my* loads, which reduces the load on the grid, but that's not what RMP pays me for.

Does CA make heavier use of residential batteries to feed the grid?

Comment Re:What a moron. (Score 1) 73

Most of his donations were to Democrats, so he has no chance for that. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F6241262%2Fsam-b...

And JD Vance called him Hitler. Trump accepts changes of heart as long as they include sufficient groveling and self-humiliation. SBF's problem is he doesn't currently have any money, and doesn't have a lot of friends to put up cash for him either. If SCOTUS will overturn his fine on a technicality and he can get some or all of that money back, then he'll have the cash to buy a pardon. Obviously he needs to get it done in the next 2 years, four months.

Comment Re:Can someone please explain... (Score 1) 97

...why a company with a 4 trillion dollar market capitalization and a quarter of a trillion dollars in cash needs to borrow lass than two billion dollars from the government?

Because it's almost always better to spend someone else's money than your own. Failing that, it's almost always better to spend future money rather than current money. The "almosts" are there because the terms have to be scrutinized, but if the terms are good... you hang onto the cash and revenues you have. Having cash gives you flexibility and enables you to take better advantage of opportunities. And if you end up not needing the cash for anything, you can always invest it. This may not be the first rule of business, but it's got to be in the top ten.

It's honestly a good rule for personal finances, as well. If someone offers you a million dollar loan at 2% interest, your immediate answer should be "Can I get more"? And for more quotidian stuff, it's better to front-load income and defer expenses whenever and wherever possible. Pay bills when they're due, not when they arrive. Use a credit card and pay the balance off every month, letting you keep your money in your account for longer, interest-free. These strategies allow you to make some money by investing it, of course, but mostly it gives you flexibility if you need it. Which if you have decent savings you never should... but it's still better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Slashdot Top Deals

10.0 times 0.1 is hardly ever 1.0.

Working...