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The benchmarks of a model that hasn't been released yet are definitely suspicious.

I also think Google should stop "releasing" models that aren't actually available. For their own sake, because by the time Gemini 4 Carbon becomes available, nobody will notice. There won't be a new press release or much excitement around it.

The fact is that there are only two real potential competitors to Starlink:

- Amazon LEO (US)

- Qianfan (China)

The European (IRIS) and Canadian (Telesat) satellite systems are relatively small and more specialized.

Telesat is a different product than StarLink. My understanding is that Telestat is for telecom operators and large network providers which cannot run fibre cables to their cell towers.

I wonder what the potential applications of this technology could be for emergency vehicles (fire trucks, rescue vehicles, police cars, ambulance, etc.). And, of course … for the military.

Can somebody tell me which organizations used their services? I would like to independently verify whether any of these organizations are actually promoting violence as a way to advance their agenda.

Here is what I have gathered so far, but none of this has been independently verified:

- There are reports alleging that the burning of 15 Portland police vehicles in May 2024 was organized, coordinated, or promoted through their servers.

- There are also claims that calls to attack ICE personnel, including at their homes, were distributed through their servers (Rose City Antifa / Rose City Counter-Info).

- Some reports also claim that the 2022 firebombing in Madison, Wisconsin, was organized through their servers.

Again, these are allegations, and I have not been able to independently verify them. Does anybody have credible sources who was using their servers? And who is behind this organization?

The San Francisco Bay Area has about 2 million more people than the entire country of Norway.

So, in my opinion, we cannot reasonably extrapolate from policies implemented in Norway to predict whether they would work in California or the U.S.

And AI.

It is an open secret that consulting companies (Tata, Infosys, Capgemini, etc.) are abusing the employee sponsored green cards.

But I'm surprised that Microsoft is accused doing it. I was under the impression that Microsoft will sponsor your green card but is still very strict about whom they hire and retain, regardless of immigration status. But maybe that has changed?

Tata, Infosys, HCL, and similar body shops are definitely a different story.

Where in US and where in Europe?

I think that that Berlin is 100x better than Atlanta. But on the other hand, San Francisco is a million times better than Milan.

The EU has only one company among the world's top 50 companies: ASML, ranked 21st.

In the top 100, there are only 8: ASML, Siemens, SAP, L'Oréal, LVMH, TotalEnergies, Santander, and Seagate Technology.

In 2005, the EU (excluding the UK) had 19 companies in the top 100.

So something is going on.

I do not live in Europe, but I have a lot of friends living there, mostly in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. We recently met in Croatia, and after a few beers this topic came up. We came to the conclusion that the following crises caused Europe to start lagging behind the rest of the world:

- 2008 financial crisis. Somehow, the U.S. was able to spend its way out of the crisis, while Europe's strict austerity measures made things quite bad. That was followed by the 2010-2012 debt crisis, the 2013 Cyprus banking crisis, and another Greek debt and banking crisis in 2015.

- COVID: Most European countries, at least those with strong economies, had very strict restrictions and closures. The restrictions were as strict as they were in California. They did not really have any Texas or Florida style "rebellion" states. Sweden was the main exception. But borders and travel restrictions still existed.

- Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Europe was much more economically integrated with and dependent on Russia (especially for energy), than the U.S. or many other parts of the world.

So basically, the world has gone through three major crises in the last 15-20 years, and in each case the U.S. was either less directly affected or somehow managed the economic consequences better than Europe.

What is a common use case for these kind of phones?

May I ask why this is “most depressing thing I have read today”.

Concerns about misinformation? Compute/energy use? Creative work Replaced by AI?

The biggest problem with Europe is the lack of innovation. But that was not an issue before.

Before the 2000s, Europe was very very strong in telecom (Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Alcatel), industrial technology, the auto industry, mobile phones, semiconductors, and enterprise software (SAP, Baan, Business Objects, Dassault Systèmes, sage). Europe was definitely much less dependent on U.S. technology back then. In some area I would say it was the other way around.

But Europe's dependence on U.S. technology has accelerated dramatically over the last 10-15 years.

I'm really not sure why. Regulation and bureaucracy did not get worse. And Europe even created the EU, which provided a better "single market" (better than before the 2000s).

I would love to hear some opinions on what changed.

I am trying to say that they cannot claim that this deal will “threaten our journalistic independence”. It is just kinda funny (and sad) that they claim that while only 32% of U.S. adults said they trust The New York Times as a source of news.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/feature/news-media-tr...

And that's the problem with current journalism. They use terms like "facts" and "proven" way too loosely. Everything is way too biased.

The only thing I know is that journalism stopped being independent and unbiased a long, long time ago.

I do not know if xcancel is going to survive this :(

As far as I understand, people use XCancel because they do not like X (and Elon) so do not want to give money or traffic to X. But they still want to read and share content posted there.

The added value of XCancel is they are not owned by Elon Musk.

Am I correct here?

So it might be that life started inside rocks (with tiny amounts of water) deep underground and not in the water on the surface.

Let’s do other way. If it is true that energy efficient tiers will save money then there will no need to have a law. We could do just some marketing campaign and people will be: aha I love money so let’s save money.

But it is not about saving but it is about environment. And this where I get a little weary about: if they are willing to stretch truths here where else are they doing that. Requiring ID to browse internet? Flock cameras?

Of course they will use left vs right argument but I doubt this is all about saving environment.

The energy efficient tires have much longer wet braking distance. And they last less (for similar priced tires).

Anyway, saying how it will save money is not right way how to promote this (it is really hard to predict all 2nd order effects this might cause - including increase of accidents, noise pollution, market forces (less choice), and similar).

The main problem and challenge with all these regulations is enforcement. How are they actually going to enforce them?

The U.S. already has very strict rules against unsolicited calls, yet I still get around 20 spam calls a day saying things like "press 2 to be connected" or offering some "$64K loan."

At the same time, I have not received a single unsolicited call from a reputable company.

The same is true for text messages. In 2023, the U.S. introduced stricter regulations, and companies like Twilio responded with very strict anti-spam rules. The rules are now so restrictive that we are forced to stopped using Twilio for text important notification to our my own team.

Yet I still receive dozens of spam text messages every week.

So the question is whether the regulations can actually be enforced against the people who are already ignoring them.

I have one broader point.

Unfortunately, some people have started calling everyone they disagree with a fascist. Elon Musk is a fascist. Peter Thiel is a fascist. Marc Andreessen is a fascist. And list goes on..

But these people (and many other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs), are better described as libertarians (perhaps techno-libertarians?). I am not saying that ideology is good or bad, but it is not the same as fascism.

Using the word “fascist” so loosely weakens the argument and makes the entire discussion intellectually dishonest. It also trivialize the historical horrors of the Holocaust.

My biggest problem with “tax the rich” is: then what? Build another “high-speed train”? Spend the money on some fake nonprofit run by the same rich people?

It might actually be a better idea to require a short, in-person civic knowledge test every two years as a condition for voting. If you fail, you can take it again, but you cannot vote until you pass.

I’m only half joking.

I guess he just failed the test. Maybe the bar should be 55.

I would strongly discourage anyone from making things up. I have participated in these exercises, and many people simply said, “I really have nothing to share that would interest you.” Those were the people others respected the most.

They might share personal things with close friends, but they had a clear definition of what friendship meant.

In other words, be a person of character.

It is perfectly fine not to be friends with everyone. Just be respectful and honest. Do not lie. Say, “I cannot tell you that because of this or that,” or simply remain silent.

I am not sure how old he was, but I would guess he was under 40 and relatively inexperienced.

Part of the purpose of these exercises is to train management, especially executives, to remain fully focused and make decisions solely on performance and the business, even when someone asks them to show emotion. Anyone who is in executive management position should understand that.

He failed the test.

It is a long blog post, but the controversy seems to center on DHH’s language and reasoning about Roma people.

My reading is that he used those examples deliberately to raise a broader issue: some people are tired of being told to ignore problems they can see and experience, whether that means feeling unsafe while walking through a city or attending a Pride parade (assume that are the “wolfs”), or being frustrated that nearly every item at Target is locked up (“gypsies”).

To be clear, I am not expressing an opinion on whether his argument is right or wrong.

I do the same.

Only very (awesome) good and very bad experiences are widely shared.

The problem is that creating a truly great (awesome) memorable support experience happens less than 5% of the time (as you said it is rare). And that experience is shared to 10 people in average: not really a lot.