While this is, in a race, true, it is a limit that a lot of race teams have bounced against and lost. Also, while I think most people receive value from what is learned in races, but they want their daily driver to have a little more longevity. Hopefully there's still enough pep to let the thing merge in traffic.

There's the obvious low latitude (for the US) advantage to this location, but I see other advantages. Texas is relatively centrally located in the US, especially compared to Florida. This, and if they need any internationally sourced parts, their stated choice of location is relatively close to Houston, and Houston has plenty of infrastructure in place for getting stuff moved off of ships and onto rail. Houston already has a big shipping port.

For latitude, Florida always seemed like a great option, but for shipping parts and materials, it seemed like a very inefficient choice.

Well, Ron Paul has been in politics (off and on) for about 30 years, and serving in the US House of Representatives for the last 14 years or so. I mean, sometimes he sounds a little weird to me, but he has earned a reputation for doing what he says.

The rest of 'em, whatever letter is after their name, yeah, you're mostly spot on.

I get an email from my power company once a week. It charts out the total usage for the week, extrapolates what my expected bill will be, and it also indicates how much I've used from hour to hour throughout the week. It's been pretty helpful. My company just has a flat rate, so I haven't had to worry about peak usage rates, but I've been able to use the information in the email to figure out how to conserve some energy. It'd be kinda cool to be able to access the meter directly, but the email message is more than enough..

If the specification is lying, I apologize. Or you're a very subtle troll. But one fact remains.

Repeating something that is not true does not magically make it true.

From the linked CPU specs

0x10000 16 bit words is not 512 bits. I think they'll find a compiler quite useful.

9 fingers? That's crazy, who'd use a base-9 numerical system? Pffft!

On a related note, I did invent a non-decimal system for my personal use. I came up with the idea shortly after I killed a swordsmith. I believe his name was Montoya.

I originally assumed monthly, but it's starting to look like a shorter time period, especially since the average assembly line worker in China makes about $1000 USD a month. At least if this is to be believed. A weekly paycheck would put this guy about 30-40% above the average for assembly line workers, which sounds pretty believable for electronics.

I shouldn't have to pay an independent company to not have my identity stolen. I appreciate that the service exists, but shouldn't my government notice the flaws in the system and try to fix it?

Read the bit in italics again, please

I don't know what his "some money on having meals" adds up to, but before that, he's keeping over 80% of his wages. I'm assuming that either the housing fund of the accommodation fee covers putting a roof over his head (if anyone knows more, please correct me), but by most western standards, having more than 80% of your income left over after you pay for housing and retirement would be a cause for celebration, not a claim of rape.

I feel dirty for doing this for a response to one of my own posts but...

Whoosh. I thought I was obvious enough.

I can't wait until you can just buy a replacement windshield so you can get stuff done on your long commute! Or combined with your onboard GPS naviagation system with the augmented reality thing going on.

It's transparent, so it's gotta be better than texting, right?

Used to? (That's AMD's spin off).

It appears the US is still a major player in the CPU market. China's current huge advantage isn't the ability to make top-end chips. Its advantage is in rock bottom assembly prices, combined with the flexibility to make almost overnight changes to manufacturing processes. That flexibility is partly due to their reliance on cheap human labor that might even be on call 24 hours a day. If you try to change a process in a mechanized/automated plant, it takes time and very possibly some retooling. To change a process in a factory relying on cheap labor, it takes a few hours of classroom time and a trainer.

That said, the US has some major manufacturing problems. The US is no longer capable of making what they used to make. It seems that some expertise is gained/maintained by being close to or involved in the end process, and if you rely on other people to do it all, you lose the ability. I'm not wading into the rest very deeply, but I will admit that there are a lot of reasons that it costs more to manufacture things in the US that don't involve labor costs or the environment.

Jaguar currently has a rather interesting hybrid concept car with a generator hooked to a turbine. Kind of interesting as a proof of concept. See here. One problem is that the turbine engine is a lot less efficient than the diesel engine, but you kind of make up for it in weight savings. Turbines weigh very little compared to a diesel. Obviously, this is not a daily driver, but hopefully they learn some stuff from just building it and it pays off.

Goddang it, didn't close my tag properly. PIMF.