The region is contaminated. People can't stay there. (IIRC animals in the area have been tested and found to be harmed by long term exposure.) To run a nuclear power plant you'd have to have people there 24/7. PV solar farms don't need staff. All the (small) farms around here just sit quietly making electricity without a human anywhere in sight.
I don't know what the numbers are, but apparently not having to build the connection to the grid makes it worthwhile.
People have talked about building solar+wind in the Sahara, but the cost of constructing the connection to the European grid is prohibitive. You could produce a lot of electricity, but who would you sell it to? I.e. who would you sell it to at high enough prices to make an ROI that justifies doing it in the first place. It would appear that Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya aren't the answer.
Your friend's brand new MBA is interesting why? I wrote next refresh.
And your comparable light computer for the same price as a MBA is what exactly? Is it anywhere near close to the same build quality? Or is it some loss leader piece of crap? You're not bold enough to post the make and model because why, exactly?
Over the four-plus years I've compared, those specs have flipped several times. Honestly, anyone who's been in tech for more than three minutes knows there's a constant arms race. The next MBA refresh will probably have Retina and Skylake. And if history is any clue, the MBA will still be less money.
Yeah, that tired old story. Apple makes hardware. That makes them a Hardware Company. They get their margin or they don't make+sell it.
Apple also makes software. That makes them a Software Company? But I haven't paid for a iOS or Mac OS upgrade in years. Almost without exception the software on my phone and Mac is free: Xcode, GarageBand, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Maps, etc. There doesn't seem like a very high margin there. Based on that I'd say it's clear that they're not doing software for the margin.
Apple doesn't need to be just a Hardware Company. They don't need to be just a Software Company. They can be both. Or neither. Is IBM a hardware company, or a software company, or a services company? Is GE a dishwasher company, a lightbulb company, or a jet engine company?
Once upon a time, Apple was clearly a Hardware Company. Their attempts at being a Software Company, a real company with sales, revenues, and a margin, failed miserably. Think Wiggleworks and Claris. These days I'd say that Apple is clearly a Whatever Tim Cook Wants To Do Company. And obviously they're pretty good at it, and profitable too.
And you think computers don't have tight margins? Apple's ludicrous mark-ups? Somehow Apple makes ludicrous markups while managing in most cases to undercut the prices of their competitors.
And for the GP post, how much support structure did Tesla have ten years ago? Apple certainly has the cash to build a support structure.
The Climate Change deniers will continue to deny it. You can't change their minds – they know what they know, and no amount of science will change their minds. Logic? That's a shibboleth to the deniers. If you use logic on them they just dig in their heels.
When I went to junior high school in the 70s, everyone (boys) had to take a round of industrial arts. Which included wood shop, metal shop, drafting, electric/electronic shop, print shop, etc. I think girls got home ec. Then in high school it was optional, and included auto shop and home construction. Pretty much every jr. high school and high school had all this stuff on the premises of every school in the system. (Los Angeles, FWIW. I believe it has all been dismantled now, thanks to Prop 13.)
Schools now don't teach kids any of that stuff unless the kids decide to go to the voc tech high school. But where I live now, choosing the voc tech is an all or nothing deal, it's too far away to go to, if, e.g., you just wanted to take auto shop for a semester.
Slashdot Mirror
That's obviously @realDonaldTrump.
Well, think about it.
The region is contaminated. People can't stay there. (IIRC animals in the area have been tested and found to be harmed by long term exposure.) To run a nuclear power plant you'd have to have people there 24/7. PV solar farms don't need staff. All the (small) farms around here just sit quietly making electricity without a human anywhere in sight.
At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious––
I don't know what the numbers are, but apparently not having to build the connection to the grid makes it worthwhile.
People have talked about building solar+wind in the Sahara, but the cost of constructing the connection to the European grid is prohibitive. You could produce a lot of electricity, but who would you sell it to? I.e. who would you sell it to at high enough prices to make an ROI that justifies doing it in the first place. It would appear that Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya aren't the answer.
If you're not careful you'll trigger a rant about how we spell Aluminum and how we write our dates backwards.
Your friend's brand new MBA is interesting why? I wrote next refresh.
And your comparable light computer for the same price as a MBA is what exactly? Is it anywhere near close to the same build quality? Or is it some loss leader piece of crap? You're not bold enough to post the make and model because why, exactly?
Over the four-plus years I've compared, those specs have flipped several times. Honestly, anyone who's been in tech for more than three minutes knows there's a constant arms race. The next MBA refresh will probably have Retina and Skylake. And if history is any clue, the MBA will still be less money.
Yeah, that tired old story. Apple makes hardware. That makes them a Hardware Company. They get their margin or they don't make+sell it.
Apple also makes software. That makes them a Software Company? But I haven't paid for a iOS or Mac OS upgrade in years. Almost without exception the software on my phone and Mac is free: Xcode, GarageBand, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Maps, etc. There doesn't seem like a very high margin there. Based on that I'd say it's clear that they're not doing software for the margin.
Apple doesn't need to be just a Hardware Company. They don't need to be just a Software Company. They can be both. Or neither. Is IBM a hardware company, or a software company, or a services company? Is GE a dishwasher company, a lightbulb company, or a jet engine company?
Once upon a time, Apple was clearly a Hardware Company. Their attempts at being a Software Company, a real company with sales, revenues, and a margin, failed miserably. Think Wiggleworks and Claris. These days I'd say that Apple is clearly a Whatever Tim Cook Wants To Do Company. And obviously they're pretty good at it, and profitable too.
I don't think you're looking very hard then. E.g. the last time I price out a Lenovo X1 Carbon compared to an MB Air, the MBA was less expensive.
Oh look, I can finally get 16GB in the X1 Carbon. Fully decked out, $1857. 13" MB Air, fully decked out (but only 8GB RAM), $1649
Thinkpad P70, quad i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD, $3234. 15" Macbook Pro, quad i7, 16GB, 512GB SSD, $2699.
And you think computers don't have tight margins? Apple's ludicrous mark-ups? Somehow Apple makes ludicrous markups while managing in most cases to undercut the prices of their competitors.
And for the GP post, how much support structure did Tesla have ten years ago? Apple certainly has the cash to build a support structure.
Not to mention that CSAIL is Computer-blank-Science and AI Lab, not Computers Science.
Has anyone ever told you you're a dipshit? You should listen to them, they're right!
That was Spock.
It's the Vulcan salute
that it's a Real Business too.
Except that when FiOS rolled out here, Verizon didn't try to undercut Comcast's prices.
I'll keep waiting for the Googs to get here, but I'm not holding my breath.
The only way to go is to ... stop watching TV.
Got it in one.
When I was 11 I lived somewhere that didn't have TV. I read a lot of books and played outside a lot.
Not because of the price, but because of the lack of content.
https://it.slashdot.org/story/...
sheesh
Modified over tens, hundreds, or thousands of years of selective breeding for the desired traits.
Just kidding, kinda.
I do wonder a bit though when we start putting arctic fish genes into plants to make them frost tolerant[1]
Or "insecticides" into food crops[2]
I do want plenty of testing before it starts showing up grocery store shelves.
[1] http://www.public.iastate.edu/...
[2] http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista...
Meh. Before I used Adblock I'd search for something, buy it, and then see ads for it for weeks.
Which seems – to me – to be missing the target.
On older cars, the distributor cap would get damaged by submersion.
Damaged? Yes, car knowledge here is definitely not great.
You get water in the points, which are inside the distributor, and that will definitely shut you down until they dry out.
A little bit of water dispersal solvent, formula 40, sold under the brand name WD-40, usually helps get you running again.
(And BTW, WD-40 is a solvent, not a lubricant. Spraying it on things like squeaky door hinges is an example of Doing It Wrong.)
And Musk/SpaceX is not? Just wait until the relatives of those who die – en route or on Mars – lawyer up?
Then they left to get another 5-10% at a new job down the street.
And we laid off the bottom 20%, leaving us staffed at 60% to do all the work.
WTF, and management wonders why we can't get anything done.
As for me? I'd be tempted to cross GE of my list of places to work, except they weren't on it in the first place.
The Climate Change deniers will continue to deny it. You can't change their minds – they know what they know, and no amount of science will change their minds. Logic? That's a shibboleth to the deniers. If you use logic on them they just dig in their heels.
Everyone else is already awake.
Or sew.
When I went to junior high school in the 70s, everyone (boys) had to take a round of industrial arts. Which included wood shop, metal shop, drafting, electric/electronic shop, print shop, etc. I think girls got home ec. Then in high school it was optional, and included auto shop and home construction. Pretty much every jr. high school and high school had all this stuff on the premises of every school in the system. (Los Angeles, FWIW. I believe it has all been dismantled now, thanks to Prop 13.)
Schools now don't teach kids any of that stuff unless the kids decide to go to the voc tech high school. But where I live now, choosing the voc tech is an all or nothing deal, it's too far away to go to, if, e.g., you just wanted to take auto shop for a semester.
If only there was an organization that was as rabid about upholding the Fourth Amendment as the NRA is about the Second Amendment.
When is the last time you saw a new manufacturing startup in the U.S.?
Tesla!
;-)
Too easy. I hope you get a good grade on your homework now that I've given you the answer.