• 2 Posts
  • 343 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 19th, 2023

help-circle

  • There is this interesting push and pull with algorithms, they need to show content users will engage with, but, their main value to the companies is that it allows them to easily manipulate what is seen.

    They push people to hard they stop using the algorithm, but if they just let the algorithm act purely one what people engage with, then they can’t monetize it.

    There is a third access of preventing people from going down self destructive rabbit holes, but they don’t care about that until people start talking about regulating them or start moving away.






  • Previously there was an obvious cap on the value proposition to scaling data centers, mainly, that they needed population centers nearby who would need storage or processing for thin film devices. Latency is important for these kinds of things, so they need to be near to the demands

    Now they think they can make value regardless of demand from local population, through training weights for models, or running models and sending the output to population centers. So suddenly the cost of power to run the systems is what matters, and the most profitable (not the cheapest or most efficient) is fossil fuel.

    They see dollar signs with the opportunity to turn power directly in to value without the need for people nearby.

    It’ll be really embarrassing for them as the consumer market continues to fail to show interest in the outputs they’re making.


  • There definitely has been some scalping, but also, just, not a huge amount of inventory available (like sub 100 units available across cities with populations in the millions). A bit of a paper launch TBH.

    TSMC only has so much throughput available and NVIDIA has other products they’re selling that they can make better margins on than consumer GPUs. I’m a little surprised they launched at all given how few they’re shipping.

    I wonder how much of launching now was to generate buzz to get studios to adopt methods of rendering that work best with with software, make it harder for competitors to compete on hardware.






  • So, thing is, photos don’t prove anything about the relative movement of the aircraft, and people are notoriously bad about judging such things from the ground.

    Now let’s apply Occam’s razor, it’s 1990, what secret diamond shaped objects might have been flying along side a RAF harrier? Perhaps, say, an F-117 night hawk from the USAF doing joint training? A highly secretive aircraft that only flew its first combat sortie in 1989 and wouldn’t be widely publicized till the 1991 gulf war. An aircraft that likely would have been flying along side the RAF in the case of a hot war with the Soviet Union, and thus would have had reasons to have joint exercises with a harrier.



  • I can’t imagine they’d release a new chassis unless it was something radically different to their existing form factors, and even then, it would have to be a fairly big market sector, since they’re not really big enough to target anything niche.

    Replacing an existing chassis would require that they continue developing and releasing new upgrades for the existing chassis in addition to the new one, or make all the internal parts interchangeable with one of the existing chassis, both options seems like an R&D nightmare for such a relatively small company. If they just dropped upgrading the existing chassis… well… that would kind of be counter to their ethos.





  • For them to be prosecuted as a monopoly, or be considered one legally, it would have to be shown that they achieved or maintain their dominant market position by preventing or undermining competition. Say by having a bunch of exclusivity deals to keep big name titles only on their storefront, or by buying out any competitor that gained traction.

    Monopoly isn’t about being the biggest seller in a market, it’s about being the biggest player in the market by undermining competition and restricting commerce.

    Edit: want to clarify there is a distinction between the legal meaning of monopoly (see the Sherman anti trust act and other subsequent laws and rulings) and the colloquial usage (Only seller in the market). Steam is nether.


  • It’s not an efficiency drive, it’s an eliminate programs that they don’t like or don’t care about drive, efficiency is just a dog whistle in this context.

    They want to free up budget and positions for the sake of paying off people they need the support of. Budget for “special projects” and budget for tax cuts so wealthy people not in on the con don’t complain to much.

    It has the side benefit of making it easier to subjugate federal workers, instill terror with in them so they will just play along for fear of being fired.

    From their perspective it seems like an efficient strategy to get what they want, but they’re being a bit myopic about what is important and don’t realize how many problems they are causing that can now directly be blamed on them come the next election cycle.