= = = Tesla bought its factory super cheap: $42 million. That price is so cheap that essentially Toyota was investing in Tesla. That factory is in California, not Michigan. = = =
At the time Tesla bought the NUMMI plant there were five fully equipped auto assembly plants for sale in Missouri alone. All are now empty fields of rubble and the scrap yards are still working through what is left of the equipment. The value of a full-sized assembly plant in a world that needs fewer of them is negative.
= = = LOL. "250 cars a day" was achieved over 100 years ago without automation or crazy networks of conveyors.
For example: [history.com] By 1914, the moving assembly line made it possible to produce thousands of [Ford Model T] cars every week = = =
There were many conveyors and material movement systems in Ford's 1910s era plants - I used to work for one of the companies that made them [1]. They aren't as easy to see because (a) the photographers focused on the more dramatic areas of the line (b) since the plants were multi-story much of the conveying systems (such as spiral conveyors) were hidden by the structure.
[1] Still in business, and happy to sell you robots! Of course, they were happy to sell their customers robots in 1950, 1970, and 1990 also: high profits and a guaranteed 2nd sale of a conventional system 5 years later
Somewhat amusing in that General Motors learned the same lesson between 1985 and 1995, and among the places where the unsuccessful and not-cost-effective robots were installed was the GM plant that that Tesla now occupies.
= = = While I agree that it is asinine, prison time is a bit over the top. = = =
If you as an individual Citizen are found to be participating in a scheme to file false invoices with Big Corp you most certainly can be criminally prosecuted and jailed - we have had two publicized cases along those lines in our metro area this year alone and one resulted in a 20-year sentence for the perp. But when Big Corp knowingly and deliberately changes customers' accounts without the customers' permission and bills them for products or services they did not order the corporate officers responsible for those actions should not face jail time because...? If the answer is "because corporation" then I'm sure you can see the moral hazard that arises. Generally C-level executives are very very concerned about moral hazard in circumstances where it might apply to their minimum wage workers but themselves... not so much?
= = = This is hardly the first time someone has tried a shell game, and I have no idea why their attorneys would even imagine the court would long entertain such an argument. = = =
The National Transportation Safety Board usually takes a minimum of a year to complete an investigation with as many complexities and contributing factors as this one; they must have put in unbelievable effort to get the investigation done and the report written in less than 36 hours.
We'll see. Or probably we won't, since violations of US election law are no longer prosecuted, but in any case it looks a bit darker:
- - https://www.wired.com/story/ca... In a series of undercover videos filmed over the last year, Britain's Channel 4 News caught executives at Cambridge Analytica appear to say they could extort politicians, send women to entrap them, and help proliferate propaganda to help their clients. The sting operation was conducted as part of an ongoing investigation into Cambridge Analytica, a data consulting firm that worked for President Trump's 2016 campaign. - -
A couple of points: (1) did Cambridge Analytical or a partner/contractor use a degree-of-network harvesting license that had been provided for academic research only, then transfer the data collected to a for-profit political consulting firm/division? A lot of conflicting information on this question and key parties including Cambridge University have now clammed up (2) if Facebook user A accepts an app Facebook argues she/he has accepted harvesting of their personal data as consideration for the use of the app. We'll take that as given, even though it took me, a person with considerable computer security experience, 20 minutes to track down the fine print and figure that out the first time FB offered me an app (and why I have never accepted one). Please show me where User A accepting the app gives Facebook or its clients the right to harvest personal data from User A-Friend, who did not accept the app or its offer?
= = = Something overlooked in the description, Tesla is making many if not most of the parts there in the factory right next to the assembly line. Having also been to Ford and GM assembly lines, and seen many others on TV (How it's Made!), Tesla's approach is radically different! = = =
I appreciate the innovation and marketing skills that Tesla is bringing to the electric car market, but there does seem to be a lack of knowledge of the history of the auto industry as well. E.g. electric cars were available on the market as early as 1895, General Electric had electric vehicle charging stations in its catalog in the 1910s, and Henry Ford's River Rouge plant took vertical integration to levels that would be impossible to achieve today. Ford even bought plantations in South America and the Pacific to internally provide fibers and rubber for seating, tires, etc.
- - - - - After I've had my phone for say 3 years why can't I try and fix it? It's not a warranty problem, that's expired. Important point is the phone is mine, not the selling company.- - - - -
What is preventing you from trying to fix your 3-year-old phone?
About the last thing we need is tabs in Windows Explorer. How about Microsoft pay ZTree one beeeelion dollars for a non-exclusive license to ZTree (XTree(tm) implemented for Windows) and include that with their OSs
- - - - - If you don't have other assets, and few other sources of income, and you have bills you must pay, it can be perfectly good math. - - - - -
For a few months I could see that working. Over the last 20 years there has been at least a 2 order of magnitude improvement in the reliability of automobiles. I suspect the vast majority of Uber drivers are not doing the math or even driving out of desperation but are simply burning up that reliability in search of cash with no understanding of what the true total cost of operating a taxicab is and why.
- - - - - And acknowledging when they may have a legitimate point, and re-doing your work to adjust for it.
Instead we mostly have people shouting at each other, refusing to listen to or even to interact with each other simply because they have different viewpoints. - - - - -
Uber's entire business model is based on (a) outright breaking laws duly passed by democratically elected legislatures (b) violating regulations enacted by regulatory agencies duly constituted by legislators and put in place by elected executive branches. Uber supporters can go on all they like about "disruption" and "breaking old tired monopolies" but they did not have the legal right to do what they did. That's not a different viewpoint, that'ls lawbreaking. Unless your viewpoint is anarchy but very few organized societies allow true anarchists to exist in their midst because when they do there is very shortly no organized society followed by a brutal dictatorship.
And hey, guess what! Maybe those crusty hidebound taxi regulators weren't quite a stupid as the tech world (or the tech world's boosters) like to think. Because another key to Uber's business model was convincing its drivers to ignore how freaking expensive it is to operate a vehicle as a taxi for any length of time, and to accept remuneration below the (total depreciation of the vehicle + hourly wage). But never fear: I just saw an ad for a service that lets you put your personal car out on the daily and weekly rental market. Like Airbnb except for mobile assets like to experience instant destruction and/or be used in a bank robbery. That'll work well.
Yes, a heavy-handed prosecution for an unintentional hardware problem would be a big win for corporate responsibility here. Likely outcome:
"We sincerely and deeply apologize for the unintended 911 calls. Here is a check for the fine. Can you please provide some additional traffic control at our facility this Saturday? We are moving the repair center and its 500 jobs to Mexico and the moving trucks may cause a bit of a traffic jam. Thanks."
That $42 million didn't just evaporate - it was spent on things. Probably including a lot of engineering, performed by mechanical engineers with salaries in the 60-80k USD range, and machinists with pay rates in the (yearly equivalent) 30-120k range. Also construction workers, similarly in the 30-120k range. And restaurant workers, truck drivers, titanium refiners, etc. All of whom are going to spend that money or invest it in relatively short-term family investments. All in all not a bad way of expanding the economy by some multiple of $42 million (eeeek! fractional reserves! call for the Bitcoin(tm)!) by merely using some otherwise useless markers out of Bezos' account.
= = = And then there's the bomb. Until one is detonated, you never really know if it'll work as designed. And one hasn't been detonated....= = =
The Soviet Union conducted an atmospheric test of a weaponized device with a nominal 100 MT yield. Actual yield was around 65 MT - sufficient for the pressure pulse to cause damage hundreds of kilometers away - reputedly because a non-fissionable metal was substituted for uranium in the jacket of the final stage. Google "Tsar Bomba" for details.
In other words, Apple introduced a major step change in its model line in 2017 with the X and when it introduces the next version of the X in 2018 it may not keep the previous version on sale as it has done for some less extensive model changes in the past.
The problem, as Target Corporation learned the hard way, is that control systems and their supervisory PCs are often the attack gateway into corporate financial systems. Yes, I'm sure your entity's control systems are never connected to the Internet and are invulnerable - just as Target's HVAC controllers were standalone, not connected to the Internet, and would never be allowed to communicate with the credit card processing system. Problem is they weren't, they were, and they did. If the control system is based on/is managed by a large scale commercial operating system (Windows, Linux, or Mac) and is within 100 km of an Internet connection is needs security patches.
The other half of the walnut is: what protections is Apple putting in place to ensure that once the PRC's intelligence agencies have penetrated the data center and systems located in the PRC (because they will) that this foot in the door will not give them leverage to penetrate the rest of the system located in the US and EU?
- - - - - Whether Intel knew about it before Google told them is an interesting point, and almost certainly one that will come up when (not if!) this sees the inside of a courtroom. If they knew, or even suspected, there was a potential exploit they could have silently fixed it in future CPU designs and hoped for the best - - - - -
Potentially Intel were aware of the situation through the side-effects of the actions of the various national intelligence agencies but were prohibited from saying anything or fixing the problem by secret national security orders. If so that would make life very unpleasant for Intel executives in the courtroom.
= = = Protectionism is bad, m'kay? Even when it's (and often, especially when it's) domestic = = =
That is a political philosophy (one popular in the tech world, which counts about 5% of the polity) and debatable. When the answers to the debate are embodied in laws then the appropriate forum of debate is the legislature, not the unilateral decision to break the law.
= = = TFA says the accuser "walked back" some of his allegations, which is a euphemism for "admitted he was lying". = = =
It can be. It can also be a euphemism for "realized he just admitted on tape to several indictable felonies". Given that Uber's entire business model is based on breaking the law this instance could either.
Slashdot Mirror
At the time Tesla bought the NUMMI plant there were five fully equipped auto assembly plants for sale in Missouri alone. All are now empty fields of rubble and the scrap yards are still working through what is left of the equipment. The value of a full-sized assembly plant in a world that needs fewer of them is negative.
There were many conveyors and material movement systems in Ford's 1910s era plants - I used to work for one of the companies that made them [1]. They aren't as easy to see because (a) the photographers focused on the more dramatic areas of the line (b) since the plants were multi-story much of the conveying systems (such as spiral conveyors) were hidden by the structure.
[1] Still in business, and happy to sell you robots! Of course, they were happy to sell their customers robots in 1950, 1970, and 1990 also: high profits and a guaranteed 2nd sale of a conventional system 5 years later
Somewhat amusing in that General Motors learned the same lesson between 1985 and 1995, and among the places where the unsuccessful and not-cost-effective robots were installed was the GM plant that that Tesla now occupies.
If you as an individual Citizen are found to be participating in a scheme to file false invoices with Big Corp you most certainly can be criminally prosecuted and jailed - we have had two publicized cases along those lines in our metro area this year alone and one resulted in a 20-year sentence for the perp. But when Big Corp knowingly and deliberately changes customers' accounts without the customers' permission and bills them for products or services they did not order the corporate officers responsible for those actions should not face jail time because...? If the answer is "because corporation" then I'm sure you can see the moral hazard that arises. Generally C-level executives are very very concerned about moral hazard in circumstances where it might apply to their minimum wage workers but themselves... not so much?
John Roberts
The National Transportation Safety Board usually takes a minimum of a year to complete an investigation with as many complexities and contributing factors as this one; they must have put in unbelievable effort to get the investigation done and the report written in less than 36 hours.
We'll see. Or probably we won't, since violations of US election law are no longer prosecuted, but in any case it looks a bit darker:
A couple of points: (1) did Cambridge Analytical or a partner/contractor use a degree-of-network harvesting license that had been provided for academic research only, then transfer the data collected to a for-profit political consulting firm/division? A lot of conflicting information on this question and key parties including Cambridge University have now clammed up (2) if Facebook user A accepts an app Facebook argues she/he has accepted harvesting of their personal data as consideration for the use of the app. We'll take that as given, even though it took me, a person with considerable computer security experience, 20 minutes to track down the fine print and figure that out the first time FB offered me an app (and why I have never accepted one). Please show me where User A accepting the app gives Facebook or its clients the right to harvest personal data from User A-Friend, who did not accept the app or its offer?
I appreciate the innovation and marketing skills that Tesla is bringing to the electric car market, but there does seem to be a lack of knowledge of the history of the auto industry as well. E.g. electric cars were available on the market as early as 1895, General Electric had electric vehicle charging stations in its catalog in the 1910s, and Henry Ford's River Rouge plant took vertical integration to levels that would be impossible to achieve today. Ford even bought plantations in South America and the Pacific to internally provide fibers and rubber for seating, tires, etc.
What is preventing you from trying to fix your 3-year-old phone?
About the last thing we need is tabs in Windows Explorer. How about Microsoft pay ZTree one beeeelion dollars for a non-exclusive license to ZTree (XTree(tm) implemented for Windows) and include that with their OSs
sPh
For a few months I could see that working. Over the last 20 years there has been at least a 2 order of magnitude improvement in the reliability of automobiles. I suspect the vast majority of Uber drivers are not doing the math or even driving out of desperation but are simply burning up that reliability in search of cash with no understanding of what the true total cost of operating a taxicab is and why.
Uber's entire business model is based on (a) outright breaking laws duly passed by democratically elected legislatures (b) violating regulations enacted by regulatory agencies duly constituted by legislators and put in place by elected executive branches. Uber supporters can go on all they like about "disruption" and "breaking old tired monopolies" but they did not have the legal right to do what they did. That's not a different viewpoint, that'ls lawbreaking. Unless your viewpoint is anarchy but very few organized societies allow true anarchists to exist in their midst because when they do there is very shortly no organized society followed by a brutal dictatorship.
And hey, guess what! Maybe those crusty hidebound taxi regulators weren't quite a stupid as the tech world (or the tech world's boosters) like to think. Because another key to Uber's business model was convincing its drivers to ignore how freaking expensive it is to operate a vehicle as a taxi for any length of time, and to accept remuneration below the (total depreciation of the vehicle + hourly wage). But never fear: I just saw an ad for a service that lets you put your personal car out on the daily and weekly rental market. Like Airbnb except for mobile assets like to experience instant destruction and/or be used in a bank robbery. That'll work well.
Very good summary. Thanks.
Yes, a heavy-handed prosecution for an unintentional hardware problem would be a big win for corporate responsibility here. Likely outcome:
"We sincerely and deeply apologize for the unintended 911 calls. Here is a check for the fine.
Can you please provide some additional traffic control at our facility this Saturday? We are moving the repair center and its 500 jobs to Mexico and the moving trucks may cause a bit of a traffic jam. Thanks."
That $42 million didn't just evaporate - it was spent on things. Probably including a lot of engineering, performed by mechanical engineers with salaries in the 60-80k USD range, and machinists with pay rates in the (yearly equivalent) 30-120k range. Also construction workers, similarly in the 30-120k range. And restaurant workers, truck drivers, titanium refiners, etc. All of whom are going to spend that money or invest it in relatively short-term family investments. All in all not a bad way of expanding the economy by some multiple of $42 million (eeeek! fractional reserves! call for the Bitcoin(tm)!) by merely using some otherwise useless markers out of Bezos' account.
Nice euphemism for breaks the law.
The Soviet Union conducted an atmospheric test of a weaponized device with a nominal 100 MT yield. Actual yield was around 65 MT - sufficient for the pressure pulse to cause damage hundreds of kilometers away - reputedly because a non-fissionable metal was substituted for uranium in the jacket of the final stage. Google "Tsar Bomba" for details.
In other words, Apple introduced a major step change in its model line in 2017 with the X and when it introduces the next version of the X in 2018 it may not keep the previous version on sale as it has done for some less extensive model changes in the past.
Conclusion: Apple is DOOOOOOOOMED!
The problem, as Target Corporation learned the hard way, is that control systems and their supervisory PCs are often the attack gateway into corporate financial systems. Yes, I'm sure your entity's control systems are never connected to the Internet and are invulnerable - just as Target's HVAC controllers were standalone, not connected to the Internet, and would never be allowed to communicate with the credit card processing system. Problem is they weren't, they were, and they did. If the control system is based on/is managed by a large scale commercial operating system (Windows, Linux, or Mac) and is within 100 km of an Internet connection is needs security patches.
The other half of the walnut is: what protections is Apple putting in place to ensure that once the PRC's intelligence agencies have penetrated the data center and systems located in the PRC (because they will) that this foot in the door will not give them leverage to penetrate the rest of the system located in the US and EU?
Potentially Intel were aware of the situation through the side-effects of the actions of the various national intelligence agencies but were prohibited from saying anything or fixing the problem by secret national security orders. If so that would make life very unpleasant for Intel executives in the courtroom.
Expect to receive a coupon worth $0.99 off a shiny new Intel Inside(tm) computer in the US mail sometime around 2028
That is a political philosophy (one popular in the tech world, which counts about 5% of the polity) and debatable. When the answers to the debate are embodied in laws then the appropriate forum of debate is the legislature, not the unilateral decision to break the law.
It can be. It can also be a euphemism for "realized he just admitted on tape to several indictable felonies". Given that Uber's entire business model is based on breaking the law this instance could either.