SSDs work for backup with a level of redundancy. Like the tires on a car, they can get worn. They also can degrade just with time. Copy, verify the copy, store the copies separately. I think the tests done confirm that they wear.

I trust capacitors over spinning rust because I'm better at limiting electrical damage than mechanical. It is unrealistic to assume you can eliminate failures- you can only reduce their likelihood.

Flash and DRAM are both ways of storing/reading back charge on a capacitor. If you don't read and rewrite, the charge dissipates. DRAM can be written more often, Flash lasts a longer time. If you don't periodically read and rewrite, the data stored on either goes away.

Have you tried to read any of those old CDRs back? I tried reading some 20 year old CDRs and got a 100% failure rate. Not premium CDRs, not stored in a sealed environment, but reasonably environmentally controlled (60-95 deg F, humidity 20-50%- no rapid changes in either).

Go back and get them to do this 8 years ago? Just looked it up- in Texas at least, you need 4000 hours of experience as an apprentice to get a tradesman license, 8000 additional hours to get a journeyman's license, and 8000 more hours to get a master plumber's license. You can become a physician in that time. Yeah, as an apprentice, you do get paid, but you're also doing the carpiest jobs available.

Still, the hours are actual work hours- in the trades, few are actually employed 2000 hr/year. It is all hourly.

Over on reddit, I saw another post that mentioned to become a journeyman plumber, it takes 10,000 work hours, and 1000 classroom hours.

An SQL query is only as good as the data. A huge amount of the data is still not in a form that can be queried.

Many of the records involved easily go back 40 years. The solution is not to say "it's broken" - the solution has to both do what is necessary now (for those applying for entitlements [the things they EARNED]) while also fixing it for those that retire in the future.

Like the reforms to the FAA: we need to fix a running engine, not just stop it with no clear plans to restart it immediately.

There is a limited weather window (October or April) for the straits of Taiwan. Statements from China point toward a goal of "unification" before the end of 2028. Do this in October of 2028 and the added confusion of the US presidential election- scary.

It is a plan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... This particular video is about the signs- but he definitely believes it is going to happen. Couldn't find the exact video, but this guy is well sourced and admits when he makes mistakes

(Purely technical perspective, don't really know much about the business side.)

I may have some good insight here- worked for a major computer manufacturer in networking. For at least 20+ years (30?), their strategy has been to pull as much computing back in to the CPU as possible. There are some good reasons- high bandwidth, low latency. (and problems, heat and analog performance). They kinda did a "pshaw" with all the video stuff, and maybe a half-hearted attempt, but when the algorithms broke out into the GPU, they were in trouble.

Overall, I expected that the concentration on the CPU itself was the downfall. Yes, Intel is active in many other technology areas, but their focus on all these areas is that they are peripherals of the CPU, connected as close as possible to the CPU. When the peripheral does not push its work to the CPU, it wasn't prioritized.

I don't have much hope for McIntosh. The business model of Bose is to take cheap components and make something that sounds OK. They cost-reduce EVERYTHING.

Government contracts of the size that Boeing gets (~30% of annual revenue) do NOT in any way reward mediocrity- they reward predictability of performance, and try to make costs predictable, but performance is paramount. No company in the production stage gets a contract that is not already well reviewed for the costs involved (except, perhaps when bribery is involved) and that it can be done at that level, though not everything is so predictable. I worked in government contracting, and we had 2 types "firm fixed price" and "cost plus" - it was far more difficult to get a cost plus contract, as they were more open ended.

As to "Government Insiders" and pet projects, IME those were all elected officials or served at the whim of elected officials.

Expensive, yes (Platinum, mostly). Rare earth, No. From the Congo? No (AFAICT).

Very hard to use an ICE forklift in an air conditioned area. Guidelines I've read suggest an air exchange of 5,000 cubic feet per minute per propane forklift, 8,000 per gasoline forklift. Considering the carp that Amazon has gone through with reports of high temperatures in their facilities, It would be pretty hard to have "climate controlled" facilities (their words) and combustion forklifts (and these forklifts are fuel cell).

TIL hydrogen prevents (slows) methane from degrading. Still, hydrogen doesn't stick around in the atmosphere long- about 2 years (typ) before it eventually gets stripped from the atmosphere by the sun's radiation. Methane sticks around until broken down- which takes (typ) 12 years.

The article is not accurate when it mentions "combustion" - these are fuel cell forklifts. Hydrogen and Oxygen from the air in, water + electricity (and some heat) out.

Fuel cells are a pretty decent option (when you're not generating the Hydrogen from fossil fuels), since the working temperatures are far lower than combustion. When you burn a fuel in air, the high temperatures lead to reactions with the Nitrogen, producing NOX gasses.

It isn't ignition- the article is not accurate when it mentions "combustion" - these are fuel cell forklifts. Hydrogen and oxygen from the air in, water + electricity (and some heat) out.

To the point of flammability, Hydrogen is way less dense than those other flammable gasses, and dissipates (goes up) far faster. It is easy to ignite, but it does not sink and pool.