Thanks for using metric. I don't know why they're talking about temperature and heating when the units are clearly referring to charge. Anyway, 9.1 Coulombs isn't that much charge over an area that large, and they should look into using better wire insulation. Or conductors with a higher work function.

The halting problem is undecidable.

Hey, I'm agreeing with you. I'm completely flabbergasted that all of the experts working in this field think they're accomplishing something and haven't sought the superior knowledge that you and Peter Gutmann posess. It's disappointing that all of these companies and smart people are wasting so much time and so many resources as a result.

This is very true. gweihir is 100% correct: quantum computing isn't computing and is never going to work.

The real tragedy is all the companies and scientists spending so much time and money researching this technology and improving the state of the art. They could all save themselves a whole lot of wasted effort by listening to gweihir and not bothering. A shame.

In other news, that newfangled device Bardeen and Brattain just cooked up is a mere laboratory curiosity and has abysmal gain. Call me when it has a gain of over 100, is smaller than 10 mm^3, and I can buy one for less than a nickel.

I'm thinking big picture here. If you're trying to stop the spread of an airborne illness, following evidence-based guidelines like getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and social distancing is going to help. And these things work better when more people do them. An educated populace in a country where this issue has not been politicized will follow the guidelines because they understand what's going on and want to help.

The US was one of the few places where this issue was politicized, unfortunately.

There are instances where it could help. When companies become so large they can buy any startups that look like they might eventually compete, that's a problem. Think facebook and instagram or facebook and whatsapp.

Forcing microsoft to properly support open document formats would be another win. Or doing something about Apple's stranglehold on in-app purchasing methods. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples where companies with monopolies are abusing their power.

I've never bought anything like the smart home stuff or hardware tied to a particular service that you mention.

The internet is completely unusable without an ad blocker. I have not idea how you put up with all of it. Please try one of the extensions / plugins suggested by the other posters replying to you. I use uBlock Origin on Firefox, and it's fantastic.

Mostly, I'm hoping battery tech becomes a lot more economical by the time I need a new car.

Which bad faith garbage specifically?

I read Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town a long time ago on the recommendation of a friend and thought it wasn't very good.

This might be explained by a good education system. It's possible that most of their citizens understand the germ theory of disease.

You know, that's an excellent point. Better antitrust enforcement would help with enshittification.

As long as I can get a reasonably priced car after my current car bites the dust... hope it lasts a while.

It's really refreshing to see backlash to enshittification hitting a company right in the share price. Didn't expect to read such good news today.

That makes sense. The confusing wording in the article doesn't help.

I'm guessing they meant to say 1.9GW total power composed of 1.4GW from wind, 200MW from solar, and 300MW from the battery. All of these are likely peak power figures, and there is no indication of how much the datacenter draws. They typically oversize renewable energy sources so that the supplied load can still run even if the wind isn't blowing at full strength, etc.

Looks like a simple mistake. The very nex paragraph in the article gets it the right way 'round: