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Comment Re: Or, hear me out... (Score 4, Informative) 98

William Shatner is a classically trained Shakespearean actor who appeared in festivals and on Broadway prior to switching from stage to television. His TOS enunciation and emphasis is due mostly to his experience with radio performances (which were over the top verbally) combined with directors on TOS constantly telling him to increase the astonishment. And in reality, wasn't anywhere near as pervasive or dramatic as the pop culture version that pokes fun at Kirk.

Comment National security (Score -1, Troll) 91

What are the national security implications for the USA if Canadians regularly cross the border in to the US while driving their Sino-EV?

The US is paranoid enough to have banned DJI drones (in fact *all* foreign drones) on the grounds of "national security" because they could photograph sensitive locations -- but then again, couldn't a Sino-EV with its plethora of onboard cameras. Given that these Sino-EVs are going to be "chatting" back to their Chinese manufacturers, how are we to know that they won't be dumping screeds of sensitive image data right into the hands of the CCP?

Inquiring minds wish to know.

Comment Re:Great start! (Score 2) 51

I agree... I would really love to have a system setting that said "No shorts, ever, anywhere on the platform" but we must be grateful for the fact that it's only taken how many years for YT to finally listen to those of us who've been screaming for today's enhancement?

As others have said... now it's time for a "No AI" filter but unfortunately YT doesn't ask uploaders whether their video is AI generated or not -- it asks far more vague questions that also require anyone who uses VFX (such as almost any modern feature or indie movie) to tag their uploads as "altered content". Why is that?

Comment Re:For the auto industry, it's even worse (Score 1) 118

... they just want BIG vehicles for a really stupid reason, all the other stupid people around them that insist on having a large vehicle.

My sister-in-law just traded in her Fiat 500 for a Hyundai Tucson. Because she and my brother were in an accident (not their fault) in my brother's bigger car, and is still recovering from her injuries. I fully understand. But I'll be driving my 2200 lb convertible as soon as the snow and salt is gone.

Comment Re:For the auto industry, it's even worse (Score 1) 118

"High Speed Rail" has been defined as 85 MPH, and it's regulatory, more than practical. If you run your trains at more than 85 MPH, you have to update all your grade crossings so that they put the gates down a constant time from the train arriving at the crossing, rather than a constant distance. Steam trains would exceed 85 MPH at times in the 19th century. I believe the record is above 100 mph.

Comment Re:Good Riddance (Score 1) 35

Who says I didn't have the money to do so? I didn't go into that at all. But since you're curious I'll explain: Yes I had the money to buy one outright, but an interest-free loan was available and I took advantage of it. Had I purchased it outright, then had an expense outside of that like a car-repair, THAT would have had to come out of my interest-charging credit card and ... while I didn't actually check on it, I'm pretty sure Apple/Goldman would not have given me a similar payment plan for the car repair.

Comment Good Riddance (Score 3, Interesting) 35

I went to an Apple Store purchase an iPad with an Apple Card last year, I wanted to take advantage of paying it off within a year no interest. At the moment of checkout Goldman declined me and wouldn't tell me why. After two days and several scattered phone calls they claimed that it was unusual activity on my account. I pointed out to them that I had successfully purchased and paid off 3 other items on the same payment plan, and that their assertion that my activity was unusual was absurd.

I'll spare you the blow by blow because I know it's boring, but ultimately Goldman Sachs held to their position that they did the right thing, and Apple had to come to the rescue. They talked to each other a bit and I finally got my device on the payment plan I wanted.

I'm greatly looking forward to Goldman getting out of the picture. They really did try to spin it to me like the inconvenience they caused me was somehow something I should be happy about. "This happens because we're diligent about catching fraud!" "But, you didn't."

Comment Re:Software interfaces matter too. (Score 1) 25

But do NPUs lock you into doing AI? After the AI bubble bursts, your CUDA/Nvidia hardware can be used for other things. While I prefer more open solutions such as OpenCL on AMD, the same OpenCL code will also run on Nvidia hardware.

I don't know about the details of NPUs, but I've got the impression that efficient AI uses very low precision arithmetic, such as 8-bit and even lower. So while it could be possible to use NPUs for general vector/matrix math, the low precision would be a deal breaker for a lot of applications.

Comment This is fantastic! (Score 4, Interesting) 99

As a long term Linux user I am delighted by this move on the part of Microsoft.

I suspect that at some point, even the most die-hard Windows user will tire of AI being shoved down their throat and decide to try out this "Linux thing" they've heard so much about. Given that so many Linux distros are now as easy to use as Windows (or even easier -- to the extent that my 71 year old wife uses Linux now), this will only boost the market share of the Penguin.

The other benefit is that the more people we have using Linux, the less ability big-tech will have to shift us to "hardware as a service" due to the massive costs of high-performance desktop computing systems now. NVIDIA's GeForce NOW is the perfect example of how we're increasingly being pushed to simply rent hardware rather than buy it. Today GPUs, tomorrow - entire systems because nobody can afford DRAM or a GPU that's up to the task.

I've got Linux running very happily on 3rd and 4th gen Intel i5 processors here with as little as 4GB of RAM and even my most powerful system is just an AMD 5600G with 32GB that serves perfectly well for everything but video editing.

Just keep drilling holes in the bottom of your boat Microsoft, we don't care.

Comment Did the Space Station put Pepper in the Radiator? (Score 1) 39

I'm reminded of all the BMW cars I've previously owned where it was often said "If there's no oil under it, there's no oil in it"...

Ahh, yes... German cars. If every decent car company does something with 6 parts, the Germans will find a way to make it require 27 parts. All of which are horribly expensive and require specialized tools to install. Or they'll put the timing system at the back of the engine so that a routine service item becomes an engine-out procedure. Garbage cars driven by people who don't know any better.

The space station leak reminds me of an old trick for a leaky cooling system in a car: put pepper into the radiator.

The little flecks of ground pepper get washed around the cooling system and eventually block tiny cracks in the radiator or other places. Putting a raw egg into a *cold* radiator will do the same thing; when the engine gets warm it cooks and blocks the leak. Both of these tricks have saved me on the road, they do work. But they are temporary and you need to thoroughly flush the cooling system after the repair.

I wonder if the Space Station has had the same sort of thing happen - airborne dust blocking a leak?

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