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Comment Re:Not all orbits (Score 1) 228

Data centres are (comparatively) point sources of heat; they can't be "spread out" or laid out flat in 2d.

Yes you can if latency isn't an issue which it isn't if you are crunching data to train models.

Also,Sstarlink antennas are their own radiators. They get very hot and correspondingly radiate quickly (waste heat from the thrusters is also quite high temp).

As I understood it, they are basing the satellites on the coming Starlink Gen 3 and they are adding a large radiator sticking out on the back of it for added cooling and thermal management is a solved problem. Your reasoning here seems to be based on the idea that the satellites are running full tilt the whole time which isn't necessary how they will be operated.

This is an economics question, datacentres on Earth vs. datacentres in space.

Yes, which I actually talked about in my closing paragraph.

And you can't talk about the power advantages without also talking about the disadvantages like thermal management.

It's not about the power advantage, it's about the cost of the power which is 0 in space (disregarding initial fixed cost). The gen 3 satellites PV's are supposed to generate ~25 kW which needs a total radiator area of ~40 sqm if the temperature being radiated is in the ~80C range (assuming a low emissivity of 0.8, a 10% efficiency loss in the cooling system and that I calculated P=sigma*epsilon*A×T^4 right).

Regardless of the technical details and feasibility, we can both agree on that it comes down to economics in the end. Musk certainly have money to burn which may be the deciding factor for this to actually work in the end.

Comment Re:Not all orbits (Score 4, Interesting) 228

The waste heat problem has been solved for a very long time, but not if the satellites are always facing the sun and are used all the time which means you shut them down when they reach a certain temperature so they can cool down before being used again. Starlink satellites do this today except they aren't always in the sun which provides an increased efficiency in cooling. Shutting down a satellite to expediate cooling only works if you don't need 24/7 operation or if you have a constellation of satellites (like Starlink, Iridium etc) were other satellites provides redundancy.

In short, the engineering challenges are known and solved but this boondoggle hinges on building out production and launch capabilities at scale based on the idea that AI will make sense and function like the evangelists proclaim it will all the while attracting paying customers that can provide a ROI anchored in reality.

Comment Re:Not all orbits (Score 4, Funny) 228

They plan to put the satellites in a polar orbit that are slowly rotates around the Earth-axis about 1 degree/day to track the sun.

The no 1 problem is the amount of satellites in the same orbit and if there's a collision we will likely see a Kessler syndrome.
The no 2 problem is the service life of the satellites which mean tens of thousands of them will be de-orbited to burn up in the atmosphere each year when it runs out, each one weighing about 2 tonnes, but perhaps all that material burning up and spreading particles in the upper atmosphere will be an unintended solution to global warming.

Comment Re: Too bad... (Score 3, Insightful) 28

Why is it that if you look at Sankey energy flow diagrams for each state (on llnl.gov), you ses that each state produces around the same amount of rejected electrical energy (about 60%) no matter if it is primarily hydro- or fossil-fuel-generated, which is far less efficient than hydropower or natural gas plants should be?

It's not actually rejected electrical energy, it's rejected heat energy which is why the diagrams uses BTU as an unit. Also, all states mainly uses fossil fuel generation (coal, LNG or oil) for their base-load services.

Is it wrong to interpret that data as representing a pervasive energy surplus, everywhere?

Yes, because rejected heat energy isn't a surplus - it's a measure of loss due to the inescapable second law of thermodynamics which plays the biggest role in conversion and transmission.

When you hear power lines humming, is it misinformation to say demand is less than supply and the electricity is trying to escape the wire into the air?

Yes, power lines always humm when in use but also because demand and supply must be balanced and when they aren't balanced you get things like voltage and frequency changes which introduces unnecessary wear and tear or even brown/black outs.

Comment Re: Major potential loss for science (Score 1) 284

Idiocy is making an argument based solely on a headline or title. To top that off, you seem to think socioeconomic issues has nothing to do with race which flies in the face of everything we know about socioeconomic issues among heterogeneous populations.

Add to that, the sheer stupidity in digging up a paper as proof for your argument and then not reading it is just mindboggling.

It always amazes me when people willingly reduce themselves to idiots to avoid factual reality.

Comment Re:god damn it (Score 1) 284

For example, all of this Epstein nonsense, why the fuck wasn't this released when the Democrats were in power?

If you have to ask this question you haven't looked at the timeline and what happened when. I do hope you are familiar with the concept of linear time and how events can't happen before they actually happen.

Comment Re:This is very surprising... (Score 3, Insightful) 195

The whole thing is about perception, it wont really stop people who planned to shop-lift but the number of spur of the moment shop-lifters will drop like a rock because of the perceived risk of getting caught will be much higher. It's a cheap solution with a measurable positive economical effect for the store.

Comment Re:The difference (Score 1) 37

i'm not really impressed.

Of course, because it's obvious you don't understand that what you want isn't the same what everyone else wants.

why do you type shit? don't do that!

Defensive much?

i stand corrected, i didn't know they have a business option. well, i hope it is considerably more nuanced than "à la carte click-click"

You would have known that if you actually bothered to find things out, but you went full "not invented here" and started assuming stupid things to invent strawmen why it must horrible.

no, that is your strawman. "verified every source" is not the same as "install random executable without even knowing what version it is form a source that isn't an official distribution". it seems your argument is that if you don't perform full audits everywhere you might aswell ignore security altogether and install whatever you're offered à la carte click-click. well, good for you, and good luck.

It wasn't my argument, it was yours since you specifically said "without my control or supervision", that implies you are on top of everything you install.

and, yes, i check sources often, depending on the situation and the level of trust. on a professional level that's just mandatory, or you have specialized people doing it for you. and no, i do not install random software from random sources, so i have no use for ninite. but by all means, knock yourself out ...

Funny then how inconsistent you are when doing your checking since it seems to be built on familiarity and visual cues rather than actually looking up facts.

i do not install random software from random sources, so i have no use for ninite. but by all means, knock yourself out ...

He said while using package managers that install random software from random sources.

Learn how the world and people work, because assuming everyone has the same needs and wants is just plain stupid and lazy. You imply you are big on due diligence but your responses here shows something entirely different, because making shit up and assuming things about something you didn't even bother to look into, that is a fucking professional disgrace.

Comment Re:The difference (Score 1) 37

windows has tools out of the box to do this. winget with some scripting, backup and restore or sysprep and there are a ton of opensource solutions like clonezilla, chocolatey or scoop where at least you know what exactly you are installing, not to mention alternatives like docker or professional/enterprise tools.

And I guess all these tools makes it so you can pick 5 apps from an a la carte menu and have them installed in minutes with a few clicks without resorting to typing and running shit in an administrator console? And who uses Clonezilla to install software on Windows? Docker I can get, but Clonezilla...

Btw, in regards to professional tools - why do you think Ninite isn't one? It's not like they have a version specifically geared towards businesses.. Oh, wait! They do!

that you know of. and ofc you know there will never be.

Just like you wouldn't know of any problems with any of the applications you use, right?

it had nothing to do with the website, everything to do with the proposition of someone offering to install some collection of software from undisclosed sources without my control or supervision.

When was the last time you verified every source you got your software from? Because that is the basis for your argument here, and I hope that you actually do that because otherwise you are just being a hypocrite for the simple reason of not being familiar with a piece of software that hundred of thousands of people use.

it's something so unnecessary and trivial that it is immediately suspicious, even gross: this is like someone offering you to carry your wallet across the street to save you the burden. ok, it might be not a bad person, just helplessly naive. take your chances if you want, i'll carry that "burden".

So Ninite as a package-manager is now suspicious and totally unnecessary and trivial? But Chocolatey who do exactly the same thing isn't? And Scoop? The very first thing it says you should do is to open a powershell and change the execution policy so you can download and run an unknown script to install it. Funny how that isn't suspicious at all for you.

Your reaction is typical of people who instead of actually looking shit up starts throwing it on the wall for no other reason than being unfamiliar with something.

Comment Re:The difference (Score 1) 37

if you need bulk installs and images there are many sane options to do that.

Which I guess comes from random third parties that provide tools that installs software using admin privileges.

Ninite has been around 16-17 years now and if you haven't heard of it it's because of two things: 1. There has never been any issues with it security-wise, 2. No one expect you to know about every tool available.

And I have to ask, what was it about their website that made you dismiss the tool? Was it the absence of ads and fake download links, or its simple and clean design presenting everything you need at a glance?

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