The author isn't saying there has been no progress, his main complaint is around the PR hype machine, companies cutting away from their livestreams of launches for their CFO to talk about investor confidence, promises of hotels on the moon. That sort of thing. There were a couple good points specifically about Space X in TFA:

"SpaceX’s Starship saga is another emblem of this phenomenon. Yes, progress requires trial and error. But we must stop measuring success by launch views and splashy animation reels. When the same core systems fail in similar ways, time after time, we must ask whether this is aggressive iteration or just poorly managed ambition. Failure alone isn’t innovation. Only failure followed by measurable, demonstrable improvement is."

"It was a baffling shift, almost as if the financial narrative mattered more than the flight outcome. The same disconnect can be seen in SpaceX’s messaging. While the company routinely frames each Starship explosion as a necessary step in rapid iteration, two consecutive full-stack flights, Flight 7 and Flight 8, failed during stage separation. That’s not fast learning. That’s failing to fix a known issue but the saying they will spend their investor’s money on a more ambitious attempt. At some point, calling repeated, preventable failures “progress” ceases to be engineering — and starts to look like marketing."

Spaceballs sits nicely between cannon built around elders coming back in shimmering blue and parody based on over-commercialization removing the soul of entertainment. I sincerely hope they are getting their AI version of Mel Brooks ready because finishing his movie in the event he dies by "recasting" a crappy AI version of him for the scenes he couldn't film sounds like parody gold to me.

I really appreciate your post and stand with what you are saying. I volunteer with a local environmental nonprofit and they created a design for a trash catcher called the Trash Trout that floats on top of the water that can be installed on the streams and creeks that feed major rivers to trap the trash upstream of the major river. There was some push-back about releasing the design publicly and foregoing any licensing fees but ultimately they told the naysayers to pound sand and published a design PDF on their website because their goal is to clean up trash, not make money.

Just wanted to share an example of a group making the right call and also it's a cool, cheap design that nerds might appreciate. Link to the design doc below or you can google it if you prefer since the link is generic.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic1.squarespace.co...

I would suggest checking out mini-split heat pumps. You can get the best of both worlds without having to duct your whole house. I will be needing a new system in the next 5 years and was pleased to see mini-split heat pumps are available and work very efficiently. This is on the word of the people I've talked to for quotes as I'm not an HVAC tech but was curious about what options are out there.

TFS left out a few interesting details that make the story noteworthy. The salvaged RAM and SSDs absolutely do not hold up to 3-5 year newer tech but these components are new enough to used in CXE controllers for backwards compatibility and then paired with more powerful and efficient AMD Bergamo processors to keep them relevant. They are essentially making a B-team of server capacity and have created a software layer in their cloud infrastructure that will assign tasks to it that won't suffer from the sub-optimal performance.

I agree they haven't done anything groundbreaking but they have taken enough small steps in coordination towards Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to help their bottom line and the planet that I'm impressed.

A company this year unveiled a circular recycling process to break down the turbine blades, returning them to their previous materials so new blade can be made out of the same materials. It even works for blades that are already in landfills. Neat stuff!

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vestas.com%2Fen%2Fmedi...

I will not rule out that some came to this conclusion through earnest research but I would bet most of the people self-prescribing it, heard the idea from someone with a platform whom they trusted and went for it. A lot of people are in desperate situations and willing to take a risk they wouldn't otherwise.

This connects into your point about Trump in that he has a responsibility to pursue every avenue of research into combating covid. I would argue he also has a responsibility not to list out unproven treatments for fear that someone might take it upon themselves to try it out. I listened to several of his press conferences live and was able to tell from the context that he was just spit-balling, trying to give people hope that there were options out there being looked at.

Unfortunately no amount of context is going to stop mentally compromised (for whatever reason) people from misinterpreting a suggestion as an endorsement. Especially when it comes to such an emotionally-driven topic such as a global pandemic, we need to exercise caution in our messaging.

Yes, Q Anon has literally killed people. One of their followers murdered a mob boss to further the cause of Q.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F1...

âoeYou guys all have credit, right?â Please accept this one-liner as my apology for this glaring oversight.

You are correct that this offering isnâ(TM)t targeted at existing Xbox users, itâ(TM)s more about growing the user base and attracting more people to Xbox. The very people this is targeting are probably not on slash dot in great numbers if I had to guess.

The target audience is unable or unwilling to pay for a console up front. Subscriptions services are nice for playing multiplayer with friends because everyone has the same games library. Especially if you are interested in competitive multiplayer, a game is only viable as long as thereâ(TM)s a decent user base so older games based around multiplayer donâ(TM)t hold their value compared to single player/ coop games over a long enough time.

They are driving down the barriers to entry to get as many people locked into their service as possible. They are afraid of how accessible gaming on smartphones is since the hardware is already in the hands of so many people. I realize mobile gaming wasnâ(TM)t the big deal everyone made it out to be years ago but the industry is shifting to a friendlier atmosphere for mobile with gains in hardware, better gaming subscriptions, etc. I think they are gearing up for the fight ahead thatâ(TM)s beyond the console wars as weâ(TM)ve known them.

the name of the game is lowering the barriers of entry to get the largest userbase. Ads are a way to lower the sticker price of a console and get you in the door to spend more money once you're invested. I see them following cellphone plans where you can sign up for xbox game pass and get a free* xbox if you buy a year subscription of xbox game pass for only $35 a month. I think growth in smartphones, internet connectivity and cloud offerings is going to make the upfront investment of PCs and gaming consoles harder to stomach. the once unthought of idea of "giving away" gaming equipment will be packaged into a neat monthly subscription fee with ads on top just to combat how accessible mobile gaming is/will be to any smartphone user.

Wikipedia says we were drawing dicks in pairs on cave walls even before that. Regardless of where it all started, there's ample examples throughout history showing this isn't a recent phenomenon by any definition.

Agreed, humans just do the best job record-keeping, giving us a better historical perspective.

History has plenty of examples of people expressing their sexuality in these ways, like in Ancient Greece for starters. The fact that these forms of sexual expression have persisted in humans despite the negative pressures of reproductive potential would seem to point to something fundamental about our societies in a broad sense or us as humans that has caused these to survive despite being a small fraction of the total population.