Posts by confused and dazed 94 posts • joined 27 Nov 2012
Seems a bit like my fantastic British Gas wifi enabled thermostat. Instead of having a dial on my wall that was linked to my boiler I have a battery powered monstrosity that has to link to my router and then to the connected boiler controller..... Not once did the old thermostat give me an error code or complained about connectivity. Not once did I need to download an app ....
That's an interesting point - cheapness of quality science and engineering graduates links to technological leadership ..... maybe. I suppose it depends on whether there is a direct correlation between quantity of those graduates and your dominance.
As for losing the 21st century - we still have a long way to go
The problem with our versions of democracy (or at least the UK version) is that we select parties. This means that get to choose between set of policies A or set of policies B every 5 years .... that's it. Even if the parties are different on the issue that your care about ....
A thoughtful response. But I think Apple are big enough to just say not.
They will not scrutinise what it on your phone, (whatever the method). Have the debate with legislatures out in the open.
Today it's pedos and terrorists, tomorrow it's activists.
It's easy to agree that fixing a $2K Mac or a $20K car is worth-while , but when a gadget costs $100, fixes are going to have to be very quick and very simple before they're un-economic and become land-fill.
The issue is that we consume too much, me included. I'm just looking at my wireless phone charger. What was I thinking ? ... it's another totally unnecessary thing, consumes more power that it needs, but saves we the "onerous" task of plugging a cable in...I'm now looking at two 24 inch monitors that I am hoping will break so that I can order bigger ones .....
Anyone for a consumption tax ?
I understand your concern, but sometimes the software might be there to protect the device. Maybe over-riding the software should negate your warranty ? Dunno - you might be back on shore with a goosed engine.
While I appreciate the legitimate cynicism on corporate behaviour and motivations ....
Guys,
lots of moaning here, but most stuff is dramatically cheaper than it was and dramatically ore reliable. My Dad used to carry s socket set and a bunch of spares wherever he drove. A lot of the extra stuff helps make things more reliable.
The real issue is that stuff is too cheap. 200 quid for a washing machine .... of course it's not going to last 20 years. Try making one that does, and nobody will buy it because it's just too expensive. and that's before feature creep.
Maybe we should have to pay more tax on new stuff ?
I don't think this will help much I'm afraid. As far as I understand the M1 memory is already TSV 4 Hi (8Gb or 16Gb) and this is then package-over-package onto the M1 itself. ie 2 packages of 4Hi stacks - albeit DDR4 interface.
I guess they could move it to 8-Hi 16Gb like this to give 32GB, but I suspect costs might become prohibitive in terms of 8 stack yields ?
I bought an Apple Watch about a year ago. I only bought the 200 quid one, but for me it more than paid for itself when my watch started ringing when I was putting the bins out with the phone in the house, and I ended chatting to my wrist, (not an euphemism) ! Just seemed silly and very space 1999
Maybe lock-down is getting to me ..
Seems to me that the US have lost Si process leadership. 2nd place is a terrible place to be, as you need to spend almost as much on R&D and lose all the price gouging opportunities. Re-gaining #1 is going to be a hideously expensive proposition, and how long for ? ..... can we really go much beyond 3nm ?? I know we've said this for a long time but really there are fundamental limits nor far away now.
Maybe advanced packaging techniques and interconnect would generate more bang for buck .....
The move to other RAM is ongoing - look at the slew of storage class memories and PMEM coming. The reality is that as a first off-cpu memory where you have to balance latency, density, cost, bandwidth, power and reliability there is nothing superior yet. Not saying that won't change, but even the much trumpeted 3d x-point has not made a dent.
I just bought a 2020 Samsung SMART TV - forget model (£600 55" thing). The UI is dreadful. Gone are the days of just turning on the telly - instead you have to navigate rows of slow icons and avoid "Rakuten TV". I'd never had to give my telly my email address before, or reboot it.
I know all of these "apps" will stop being supported in a year or so, so really all I want is something to display my desktop box. Perhaps "Smart TV executives" may realise folk don't want this extra complexity in their lives. If I can avoid, then I'd pay more for a dumb one in future.
Having just replaced the fusion drive on my 2015 27 iMac - it's not exactly easy anyway. Why they can't figure a way of opening it without all that glue and spudgers is a mystery to me. This is a step too far for me - perhaps I'll go for a mini next time, or just wave a white flag and give up ....
I agree, it's mm2 of Silicon per versus performance, not there marketing fluff that is now "node bragging rights".
The real danger here is that the West appears to have lost leadership in process technology, and it's a hard thing to regain ..... It going to be grim when TSMC become a monopoly for CPU fab
I think the sour grapes are because of the way he has made his money. There is no doubt that Amazon provide a fine service. It would also appear that their workers are employed to local legal minimum standards.
However, this guys wealth has been made off the backs of his employees. Their fulfilment centres appear to be horrific places to work and are staffed by people with little other choice. Perhaps making their lives slightly more pleasant and only being worth 50 Billion would encourage people to see this generous gesture in a better light
I'm sure they'll make money on it. The volumes will be relatively low, but their margins are high when you look at the price they're charging for the base machine, and how much more they charge for upgrades.
On top of that they offer a much needed sop, to their "pro" customers
People with a lot of money may need those specs or may not. It could be that they just like their Apple devices and are prepared to pay for that. It's strange to me that nobody seems to bat an eyelid at someone who spends a lot on a car when a Dacia Duster or equivalent would also just get you there .... I spend more time on computers (PC's, Macs, Linux) than I do in the car ...
my 2p
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