Well then this is definitely going to blow your mind... I'm not American and I don't live in the US.

If, like me, you didn't know who OnePlus was.

Back in the early 2000's (before smartphones and social media) I used to work at a company where we'd go out to lunch almost every day as a group. There were people of both political persuasions (this was in the US) and we'd have real thoughtful discussions about politics face-to-face. Feelings were on display. People were a little exasperated at times. But everyone went back to work and worked together and got shit done, and were respectful to each other.

A few years ago I was back in the US on a job, and a bunch of us were going out to lunch, and I said, "is so-and-so coming?" and they said, "no, he won't come with us. He's a democrat." I guess they didn't consider Canadians democrats because I was still invited. But that's how bad it's gotten, and let's not kid ourselves... it's entirely social media that's changed how people communicate.

I was at dinner with a group of people (in Canada) a year ago. My mother and an acquaintance started arguing over some kind of politics. In my mind it was pretty mild and they did listen to each other. She apologized to me later, and I said, "No, don't apologize! I want people to spend time talking face-to-face! It's way more civil than what gets said online, and you were both listening to each other." It's not like they stopped talking to each other... they still have pleasant conversations now when they see each other.

I suggest getting to know people who disagree with you, and just spend some time together. Ideas only change when people feel listened to.

The idea of catching the rocket means you don't have to include landing legs, which is a significant weight savings. You add the weight on the part that never goes "up". It's a good idea, and the same reason that SpaceX's next generation Starship system uses catch arms to catch the booster and second stage when they return. You do spend a bit more time hovering, which is consuming fuel. I assume the engineers did the math and the fuel you need to hover for a couple seconds is lighter than the weight (and increased drag & complexity) of the landing legs.

Problem1 : You would need conduction (from each cpu/gpu in the server toward a radiator using cooling liquid for example) from the rack to a radiator.
Otherwise if you don't those 100kW would be dumped into very small surface of the GPU/CPU and small radiator they usually have.
At 300K blackbody radiance is ~450 W.m^-2 So you r calculation of the surface of the cylinder is OK, you would only need 222 m^2 to dissipate a blackbody at 300K of 100kW of heat. The problem is that the heat is not dumped into the cylinder directly, but would need to be conducted from the cpu/gpu radiator to the cylinder . And that's where the problem starts, as you would need almost certainly a liquid for the transport, and that brings a lot of issue itself (weight, pump failure, freezing/boiling etc...). And that's not even counting servicing & obsolescence.

IMO the feasability of this is near null zero enough to be disregarded as a tech bro stupid solution in wait of a problem.

much MUCH easier solution is to have the server on earth, in zone where you have a lot of renewable like solar, wind. easier to maintain , cool, and give energy.

The peak demand comes -- right at the time we'd be getting near-peak from solar.

Why isn't the USA focusing more on having people fit solar to their houses with a battery and inverter. This would take the load off the grid during these peak-sun/peak-demand periods and sure-up the grid.

This is one of the few times that the output of renewables tracks demand so why not?

The only interesting story you can tell about Superman is bringing up the question... "If you're so powerful, why not just use it for your own purposes? Nobody can stop you. Why help people?" And the answer, which has always been part of the Superman mythos, was that he was raised by two salt-of-the-earth good people out in the middle of nowhere who taught him good old fashioned American values. He does it because it's the right thing to do. Does anyone remember "Truth, Justice (and the American Way)?" I think the recent Superman movie did a reasonable job of leaning into that, in an environment where the audience is jaded about American institutions. It's a tough sell, particularly trying to sell the movie to urban audiences to see everything rural as something to look down on, and rural audiences who see everything urban as selfish and corrupt.

Just don't buy these crappy licenses. Retro-gaming is booming for a very good reason.

And, if you're looking for another reason not to buy -- the way hardware prices are going, retro emulators are probably all we'll be able to play soon because nobody will be able to afford the GPUs and RAM needed to play the next wave of new release games anyway.

Delivering "late" is not delivering at all.

For example -- "The Roadster 2 is going into manufacture *this year*" he said, several years ago.

For example -- "We will have humans on Mars by 2024" he said. Even if he eventually does deliver humans to Mars, he still broke that promise.

Saying you're going to do something by a certain date and then not doing so constitutes a broken promise -- even if you do it a decade later.

Of course Musk is a genius... those who say otherwise are idiots.

After all, how else would I be enjoying my FSD Roadster 2 that charges from my solar roof-tiles before the drive through a Boring Company tunnel to the Hyperloop terminal where I'm whisked off to the SpaceX launch-pad in anticipation of a Starship flight to join some of the others who set up that initial Mars base back in 2024.

Those who say that Musk is a snake-oil merchant who doesn't deliver on his promises are just deniers who simply choose not to see the reality of the world as it is today.

Or I could be wrong :-)

I think xAI is falling behind (does anyone using Cursor use xAI as a coding agent?).

Perhaps this is Musk's way of buying market-share for a product that's really failing to perform right now (xAI).

That's $60 billion today (with SpaceX stock near $170) but how much/little will it be in 2 year's time? If I was Cursor, I'd be wanting a fair amount of cold, hard cash in that deal :-)