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Cake day: October 6th, 2023

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  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.worldtoxkcd@lemmy.worldxkcd #3197: Cost Savings
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    6 hours ago

    Meeting with the House Committee on Space…

    This sounds like a workable plan, but the first stage of the shed needs to be built in Houston. Also the shed door is an issue, doors are traditionally handled here at Goddard.

    But… this proposal completely ignores my constituents from California, they will need to be included somehow! If you want this proposal to go through at all, find something for JPL and AMES to do.



  • Yeah sure, the os gets regular updates, banking apps get updates.

    But when it comes to digital devices, convenience and security are in a constant tug of war, ultimately we have to make a choice. And when I make that choice I remember that this isn’t a company phone, there’s no customer data at risk, no important info to be breached. And still the number of times I’ve been hacked: 0





  • Lol

    “Our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world. We’re just doing it through different channels. […] What’s going on right now is that the TAM [ed: Total Addressable Market] and data center is growing just absolutely tremendously. And we want to make sure that, as a company, we help fulfill that TAM as well.”

    Let me translate that for you:

    Yes we definitely want to support the consumers, but hey look, the thing is, these data centers want to buy a lot of memory, and guess what, they’re willing to buy it in bulk even at a huge mark up! Like just think about that… We’re gonna make so much money!

    But uh, yeah uh, I feel you, that sucks bro and I appreciate you. But, dude, seriously, look at all this money! So yeah, stay strong guys, tweet about us! And don’t forget, if you want to be informed about the best memory deals, definitely sign up for our newsletter! Just put your email right in this field…


  • As someone who’s worked in IT for years, it’s my opinion that different is worse.

    I don’t really mind supporting multiple operating systems, it is a little more of a hassle, but it’s far better than supporting users on systems they’re not familiar with. As much of a nice idea it is to “streamline” an organization by putting every machine on the same os, in my experience it actually works better to put everyone in whatever os they’re most comfortable with. For a lot of people computers are hard, period. And needing to learn new systems just to do their job is the kind of thing they have nightmares about.

    When it comes right down to, any modern operating system will do just fine, they’re shockingly similar in the end. Plus, in many industries upwards of 80% of a user’s work may be in a browser anyway. So that’s where I stand, people should use whatever they want, and making people change isn’t a great idea.









  • I don’t know, it sounds like a pretty convincing argument to me.

    It’s a strange take to say “you’re wasting your time trying to get legislation passed” I mean, that’s one of the primary ways you change anything in a country…

    And it’s plain stupid to say the only solution to a problem is the “complete abolition of capitalism” and then the next moment, suggest someone else is asking the impossible by trying to get some minor policy changed… That’s just bonkers. I mean, that simply destroys your credibility for the rest of the conversation, it’s gone.



  • This is true, the waste issue is different with these two technologies, but I don’t think it’s all that significant in either case.

    Fission produces some awful waste, but what I like to point out is just how little it produces. My favorite example is nuclear submarines. Nuke subs have to come to port every so often for food, equipment, supplies, etc, but not because they’re low on fuel. They don’t carry a lot, about 500kg (half ton) and that lasts them a very long time. So how often do they need to be refueled? Once, most subs are refueled just once in their ~30 year lifetime. Some subs will be decommissioned before ever refuelling, using just one set of uranium fuel rods for their whole life.

    Edit: I wanted to visualize how much 500kg is, and I know uranium is heavy but I really didn’t have any idea what a half ton would look like. Turns out, it’s about 26 liters, 1 cubic foot. (Though, ideally your uranium wouldn’t be measured in either of those units, you really don’t want liters of liquid uranium, and that’s exactly where a solid cube is headed too…)

    Given the tiny volume of waste produced over such a long time… We can figure out the storage. Even if the solution is costly, there’s really not much to store, this is very manageable.

    So yeah, I’m not saying waste isn’t an issue for nuclear power, it is. But I think it’s not the biggest drawback, it seems like the overall cost is still the bigger problem in operating a plant.


  • I gotta be honest, as amazing as the promise of limitless fusion energy is, I’m really not optimistic that it’ll be a major or even an important technology for the energy sector, at least for the next 200 or so years.

    The thing is, we already have fission power and we’re struggling to use it right now. The biggest hurdle for fission is the upfront costs of building a plant, the time needed to build a plant (construction can take up to a decade), and ongoing costs. While nuclear power is probably one of man’s greatest achievements, it’s also generally pretty expensive. And fusion has almost all the same strengths and drawbacks, but bigger. I do believe we will achieve sustainable fusion, probably soon. But I’m certain that while it will “work”, it will also prove to be the most expensive form of power generation with the largest upfront costs that the world has ever seen. And I don’t expect those prices to come down for a very long time.

    Personally, I think anyone who expects fusion to be some kind of miracle technology is kidding themselves. And if people really want a miracle technology in the energy sector, keep your eyes geothermal, that’s the only tech I see that has any potential to become cheap, limitless, and constant.

    I do think fusion will have good applications, but it will likely remain niche for a while. I definitely look forward to seeing spacecraft propelled by ion drives and powered by fusion, it would be amazing to be able to get to Jupiter and back on one tank of (xenon) gas.