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Comment Re:$1.3 BILLION product sales = failure for Apple? (Score 4, Interesting) 57

Experience only matters if you make a new version. Otherwise the experience has no value. The patents are only useful if enforcable, and if they provide defensive value against companies they don't already have defense against, orif the category becomes big enough to leverage against others who do succeed. Seeing as they shut down production, it's unlikely they will create a new version anytime soon. There's not enough demand. They have an extensive patent portfolio, so the defensive value is questionable. The offensive value is also negligible, as they're unlikely to get much out of it given the lack of success in the category. So no, not a good return.

Comment Re:Woah (Score 4, Insightful) 57

Its useless. It doesn't do anything anyone needs or wants. Which is why VR headsets have failed in the market repeatedly, and at much cheaper pricepoints. That's why it's not a fantastic value- it's no better than existing tech, it doesn't solve a problem, nobody wants the category, and it's priced at nearly 10x the competition. On every front it's the exact opposite of value.

Comment Re:$1.3 BILLION product sales = failure for Apple? (Score 4, Insightful) 57

WHat were there expectations? If they were much higher, then it's a disappointment. If it was inline, then it isn't. How much did they spend in R&D on the device? Again, if it was a net loss, it's a disappointment. If it was a profit, it might not be. (A loss might also be ok if it launches a category that becomes successful, but this doesn't seem to be the case here).

Given that they shut down manufacturing, it seems very likely they sold way under expectation and overbuilt capacity. It also seems likely in that case they lost money. Which would make this a disappointment.

Comment How liberals hamstrung effective government ... (Score -1) 265

... detailed in a book with many citations written "by liberals, for liberals": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
        "Abundance is a nonfiction book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson published by Avid Reader Press in March 2025. The book examines the reasons behind the lack of progress on ambitious projects in the United States, including those related to affordable housing, infrastructure, and climate change. It became a New York Times Bestseller.
        Klein and Thompson argue that the regulatory environment in many liberal cities, while well intentioned, stymies development. They write that American liberals have been more concerned with blocking bad economic development than promoting good development since the 1970s. They say that Democrats have focused on the process rather than results and favored stasis over growth by backing zoning regulations, developing strict environmental laws, and tying expensive requirements to public infrastructure spending.
        Klein and Thompson propose an "abundance agenda" that they say better manages the tradeoffs between regulations and social advancement and lament that America is stuck between a progressive movement that is too afraid of growth and a conservative movement that is allergic to government intervention. They present the abundance agenda as a way to initiate new economic conditions that will diminish the appeal of the "socialist left" and the "populist-authoritarian right". ..."

Comment Ironically in 1999 I proposed NASA *add* a library (Score 1) 36

https://kurtz-fernhout.com/osc...
"The project's ultimate long-term goal will be to generate a repository of knowledge that will support the design and creation of space settlements. Three forces -- individual creativity, social collaboration, and technological tools -- will join to create a synergistic effort stronger than any of these forces could produce alone. We hope to use the internet to produce an effect somewhat like that described in "The Skills of Xanadu" by Theodore Sturgeon (available in his book The Golden Helix).
        We will develop software tools to enable the creation of this knowledge repository: to collect, organize, and present information in a way that encourages collaboration and provides immediate benefit. Manufacturing "recipes" will form the core elements of the repository. We will also seed the repository, interact with participants, and oversee the evolution of the repository.
        You can read a paper we presented on this project in the Proceedings of the Thirteenth SSI/Princeton Conference on Space Manufacturing May 7-9, 2001, which we have made available on the web. ...
        In a long-term space mission or a space settlement, a self-sustaining economy must be created and supported. Therefore, addressing the problem of technological fragility on earth is an essential step in the development of the development of human settlement in space.
        The heart of any community is its library, which stores a wide variety of technological processes, only some of which are used at any one time in any specific environment. If an independent community is like a cell, its library is like its DNA. A library has many functions: the education of new community members; the support of important activities such as farming and material extraction; historical recording of events; support for planning and design. And the library grows and evolves with the community.
        The earth's library of technological knowledge is fragmented and obscure, and some important knowledge has been lost already. How can we create a library strong enough to foster the growth of new communities in space? How can we today use what we know to improve human life? ..."

Instead the USA ceded most of its technological know-how to China over the past quarter century. Given that, perhaps I should hope China at least will eventually work on such a library and someday make it available to the rest of the world under a free and open licence?

A recent related comment by me on "On DOGS (Design of Great Settlements)" as an answer to "What's the Best Ways for Humans to Explore Space?": https://slashdot.org/comments....

Of course, Bucky Fuller was there first with his "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science" idea.
https://www.bfi.org/about-full...
"In 1950, Buckminster Fuller set up an outline for a course in Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science. Taught at MIT in 1956 as part of the Creative Engineering Laboratory, this course by Fuller probably served as one of their more unusual offerings. The students who took the course, all engineers, industrial designers, materials scientists and chemists, represented research and development corporations across America."

Comment Re: They'll get 0 in the end (Score 2) 24

They probably can't. There's limitations on the ability to sell pre-IPO options. Both legal limitations with SEC regs, and limitations by the terms of the agreement that gives them the options. Not being allowed to sell them at all pre-IPO unless given explicit permission by the company is pretty much universal. The company doesn't want to risk a hostile takeover via random entities buying stock options.

Comment The cancer-causing risk is acetaldehyde (Score -1) 94

acetaldehyde is a Class A carcinogen, which means it does nothing but mutate cells.

If you drink, support ALDH enzyme activity. The enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) converts acetaldehyde into harmless acetate. Nutrients help your liver metabolize the harmful alcohol. Vitamin B1. Alcohol depletes thiamine, which supports liver function. Take a B-complex vitamin before drinking.

Zinc and Magnesium: These minerals support ALDH activity. Eat zinc-rich foods (e.g., oysters, nuts) or take 15-30 mg zinc, 200-400 mg magnesium.

Comment They'll get 0 in the end (Score 3, Insightful) 24

They can't sell those stock options on the open market. It's unlikely they are allowed to sell them at all right now. Even if they go IPO, they will likely be locked in for a significant period. And given the rate the company is burning money, it's highly unlikely to fetch anything near it's last valuation when it does go public. It's likely to fetch a fraction of that (and just going bankrupt is a distinct possibility). So yeah, when you're paying monopoly money you can give really high numbers. In the end, they will likely have made more working at any non-startup big tech company.

Comment Re:Wow (Score -1, Offtopic) 162

602 Palestinians, over 400 of which were kids died from Jan 1 to October 6, 2023. Thats to say nothing of having lost their land, their villages, their farms, their freedom to an inexcusable degree for 75 years. Let's not pretend the Middle East conflict started on Oct 7, 2023. It started when Palestinians accepted Jews coming from Germany, rather than make them settle an Israel in the Rhineland where it should have been.

Even if Hamas was the bad guy, Israel is the insane bad buy with a badge who kills the family the bad guy hides behind with no care for innocent life at all. Fuck them. I hope their country gets pushed into the mediterranean.

Comment Re:Global Warming isn't real (Score 5, Insightful) 81

Can we all, please, for the love of humanity, just agree that mosquitoes are a pest that are not worth whatever environmental benefit they *might* have, and just get rid of the entire species with genetic engineering etc? They bring so many diseases (new ones like west nile, etc), and are a nightmare for enjoying the outdoors, which more people will care about if they dont end up with 20 bug bites. Let's just globally get rid of this one fucking species.

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