FlowingRiver

While others have made good points, your view is also valid. The messaging nowadays is more toward sovereignty even if the core direction hasn't fundamentally changed significantly.

I do find it funny how the harder some folks push for an outcome, the more they bring about the opposite effect.

I mean the US had this sense of confidence that they were at the top of the power structure, it was widely accepted and overall that position and deal seemed to benefit many others even if not to the same scale. For example with Europe, the US got favorable trade terms in exchange for defense.

Then the Trump administration came in and started pushing the narrative of MAGA, to almost be professional victims. Winner of the world lottery and yet still not happy. And so instead of making America Great again, they are on the fast track of being cut out of favorable global trade. They over played their hand. And once others end up being self sufficient again, it is very difficult to get back in the good books.

In trying to avoid being pushed around, they are now starting to see they could be pushed around.

I did find it funny recently when Huawei when talking about its folded logic say the Vertical Bonding Pitch's are every 15,000 angstroms. It is a very fancy way of saying an interconnect every 1.5 microns.

The lowest spec machine I have been able to get 60fps 720p video out of Youtube is a 2nd Gen i5 2.4Ghz. Anything lower and the frames start dropping.

It is funny that during that time period, Intel's media decoders got significantly faster in a very short period of time. My 4th gen 2Ghz i5 decodes video better than my 2nd Gen 3.8Ghz i7.

It think we are now heading towards the final long term ISA setup. x86 and ARM at the top, ARM in the middle and RISC-V for smaller embedded machines that don't need the ARM toolchain.

These things feel like, if they have any video output, it would be a single VGA port for if you REALLY need to get a signal from it.

About 25 years back here in Australia they were advertising Fujitsu air-conditioners, they had the promise of some like "They will get the air down to 17c in all conditions."

About a month later there was a summer heat wave and I went to a friends house who had just bought one. It was wild walking in from a 45c day into, as advertised, a 17c house. Had to give it to them, they lived up to the claim.

That they come from the telecom/server space, it makes sense they had a good eye for aircon engineering.

Yep, I have said it for a good 20 years now.

POWER/PowerPC is what happens when you take a brilliant design to execute it poorly. x86 is when you take a poor design and execute is brilliantly.

POWER is still holding on just barely but I do suspect that IBM are looking to sunset it in the next few years.

It was funny looking over this just waiting to see what ISA it was. No surprise that it was ARM but you never know.

Nowadays if you have the source code the ISA is practically irrelevant.

Carney saying 'middle powers' really is the most polite way of saying this.

It is said that if you are resource rich it is best to sell your resources to others than to hoard them even if you sell them basically at cost.

It is better to have an economic alliance than a potential enemy.

Thank you for this, that would explain why difference field are talking different numbers.

Funnily enough, I guess the more you cycle them, the bigger they get until they just collapse. So you have a lot of potential storage just before you have none.

It is funny seeing how the estimates of the lower end stability vary drastically. Have seen numbers between 70 and 150 million barrels. I have just called it half way between that and think 110 million barrels is probably the lowest they should go.

Very true. If everyone on the planet was allowed to walk over the great pyramids of Egypt, they would be pounded into dust. Sometimes it is better just to observe and move on.

A wild take I have seen was "Japan is the white mans Wakanda". It is a rough way of saying something important.

There are many parts of Japanese culture that is seen as desirable and aspirational to others. The sense of social cohesion and politeness that is projected is seen as a good thing. Yes, the reality is more rough than is projected, Japan has its issues just like everywhere else. But when looking in from the outside, there are a lot of things that can be seen as goals for others to achieve.

This is the same reason why we are seeing a lot more positive takes on China nowadays. The image of a society that is progressing in a way considered desirable. It grabs folks attention, there is also the novelty of it all as it these of nations that look similar but different.

It is an interesting position we are in here, I suspect we will do the usual thing and walk the middle road. Australia, is part of the Commonwealth, huge trade partner with Asia and allies with the US. Why not throw Canada into the mix some more.

This setup is why I call this place an equal opportunist whore. If we can do business with you, we will. I also call it the worlds largest Mining town, but that just acknowledging the reality of the place a little.

As much as many are going against the US, I don't think there is much constitution at the top here to make such a bold move. We will just be pottering around down here hoping all the bad stuff passes us by as nobody notices us.

The Monkey trap is a very powerful analogy.

It is looking like we are venturing into harder times these new few years for various reasons, as such one has to wonder what things you are still clinging to that can be let go and what is still worth handing on to. Hopefully we don't have to make those choices but it is always handy to keep in mind.

Will add Chapter 46.

"When the Tao is present in the universe, The horses haul manure. When the Tao is absent from the universe, War horses are bred outside the city."

I would consider surveillance weapons against the people. I think this reflects all manners of international governance nowadays.

Also Chapter 17.

" When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one who is despised."

If you don’t trust the people, you make them untrustworthy."

VRchat is what Zuckerberg wanted out of Meta. It is impressive but still suffers from the barrier to entry problem.

I think VR is in the same position the PC/Mac was in the mid 80's. It is finally technically capable enough to do some neat and useful things, it just struggles because of hardware costs. But I also said this about a decade back and progress has been neat but limited.

Every single time I use VR, it is a brilliant experience and then a day later I completely forget about it. The object permanence and product stickiness just isn't there yet. It is like the Apple Vision, I only remember it is a thing when it is brought up by someone else.

I said it when it came out, Alyx was the single best chance VR had to prove itself. It was going to be either the launching pad of the future or the high tide mark. 6 years on, it is looking like the high tide mark.

Unfortunately, it is a technical and artistic marvel but the relatively high cost to entry (decent PC and headset) meant that it was simply out of reach for most people. A high price takes it from an impulse purchase to try, and makes it a dedicated purchase and investment in the ecosystem. That killed any momentum.

We are in a silent recession, have been for a long while.

Long term I worry what happens when you absolutely gut out the mental capabilities of a generation or two.

We are only just now seeing the first stages of this, we are at the Facebook in 2008 stage trying to warn people about the societal fluctuations coming but many aren't listening because it is too useful.

Apparently Rupert Murdoch absolutely loves when they rip into Fox and associated assets. Married with Children used to do the same thing.

I know a few people who have met and worked with Murdoch and all have said he is perfectly pleasant to be with and has a great sense of humor, just a shame about absolutely everything else he does.