laxtonto
| Favorite team: | Toledo  |
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| Number of Posts: | 2811 |
| Registered on: | 3/3/2011 |
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re: SpaceX and Intel to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in TX. Bye-bye Taiwan?
Posted by laxtonto on 8/7/26 at 9:16 am to prplhze2000
Taiwan will never fall because the rest of the world (including many high end things in China) needs them to stay operational.
20 years from now, if this pattern continues, Taiwan would be vulnerable due to the erosion of their chip fad monopoly, but by then China will have its own problems as well..:
20 years from now, if this pattern continues, Taiwan would be vulnerable due to the erosion of their chip fad monopoly, but by then China will have its own problems as well..:
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re: SpaceX and Intel to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in TX. Bye-bye Taiwan?
Posted by laxtonto on 8/7/26 at 9:13 am to trinidadtiger
I think people are forgetting that Musk has already spent billions on sourcing articulating servos for Optimus and now is setting up long term chip fabs to go with it.
In essence, he knows he has the initial design of Optimus figures out and now is investing in fabs that will provide the chips to make them move.
Funny enough, the issue for most of these robots is autonomous thinking, which musk wants to not solve by building a massive brain in Optimus, but instead use a 2 part system with basic stuff onboard and complex processing down via xAI and grok, through always on connectivity of starlink….
A chip fab is a great hedge. Best case he can source all needed chips at cost from the US and jump the line regarding production schedules for Optimus. Worst case he is a chip fab producing the same generic chips in mass for Intel.
In essence, he knows he has the initial design of Optimus figures out and now is investing in fabs that will provide the chips to make them move.
Funny enough, the issue for most of these robots is autonomous thinking, which musk wants to not solve by building a massive brain in Optimus, but instead use a 2 part system with basic stuff onboard and complex processing down via xAI and grok, through always on connectivity of starlink….
A chip fab is a great hedge. Best case he can source all needed chips at cost from the US and jump the line regarding production schedules for Optimus. Worst case he is a chip fab producing the same generic chips in mass for Intel.
As overrated as Manning was at the beginning of last season as a first-year starter, I am starting to think he is being underrated now by people just wanting to hate on Texas or the Mannings in general.
We make fun of him being a "generational" recruit and Texas losing 3 games last year as his first year as a starter as an easy point to poke Longhorn fans, but for some reason we forget that Texas was tied for 21st in the nation in drops, their LG position had a 25% whiff rate for the season (how was that even possible!?!), PFF had them 125th in the nation in pass protection efficiency, were in the bottom of the conference in rushing yards before contact and related advanced metrics and Manning was pressured on 35.6% of his dropbacks. That is just unfathomably bad, looking back at their OL performance.
And yet through all of this, Manning improved throughout the season, and it was obvious he wasn't what was holding Texas back by the end of the season. If I were told those were going to be Texas' stats before last season, I would not have believed you when you told me they only lost 3 games.
His talent isn't going to define his performance this season beyond what what he showed at the end of last year. If Texas can actually block anything in the passing game or in the running game, it will define Manning's season.
We make fun of him being a "generational" recruit and Texas losing 3 games last year as his first year as a starter as an easy point to poke Longhorn fans, but for some reason we forget that Texas was tied for 21st in the nation in drops, their LG position had a 25% whiff rate for the season (how was that even possible!?!), PFF had them 125th in the nation in pass protection efficiency, were in the bottom of the conference in rushing yards before contact and related advanced metrics and Manning was pressured on 35.6% of his dropbacks. That is just unfathomably bad, looking back at their OL performance.
And yet through all of this, Manning improved throughout the season, and it was obvious he wasn't what was holding Texas back by the end of the season. If I were told those were going to be Texas' stats before last season, I would not have believed you when you told me they only lost 3 games.
His talent isn't going to define his performance this season beyond what what he showed at the end of last year. If Texas can actually block anything in the passing game or in the running game, it will define Manning's season.
re: Fauci Hearing Live;
Posted by laxtonto on 7/29/26 at 11:20 am to Godfather1
quote:
Potential state prosecutions.
So the argument is that if he answers a question, a state will prosecute him for what? The problem with all of this so far is that there is no compelling argument that state charges would ever stick because his "crimes" would end up being something done under his federal duties. While the theoretical possibility of state charges survives the federal pardon, the reasonable likelihood that any state prosecution would actually stick for acts performed under federal official authority is low. Courts evaluating a Fifth Amendment claim look for a realistic fear of prosecution, not a purely speculative one.
I think the more he does this, the more likely either a contempt of Congress prosecution can move forward, or it becomes a major SC question.
What I find the most interesting is that, in the long run, his pleading the Fifth is probably going to force a constitutional question regarding both the viability of blanket pardons and whether you can plead the Fifth on content covered under a blanket pardon, and how the argument of when a witness has a reasonable fear that the answer could lead to criminal prosecution.
Since he accepted the pardon, he is free and clear of "any federal offenses (“offenses against the United States”) he may have committed or taken part in between January 1, 2014 to January 19, 2025 that arose from or related in any manner to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President.
So the question is, what is he pleading the Fifth to avoid incriminating himself for? His prior testimonies all fall under the pardon window (now you can argue that his mistruths were not done under the guise of his official capacity but for his own benefit outside the scope of the pardon, but that a hard thing to prove legally), so is he attempting to shield himself from future potential perjury charges, ie he has intent to lie to congress but pleading the 5th is a better option as it places the blame on his legal council?
Since he accepted the pardon, he is free and clear of "any federal offenses (“offenses against the United States”) he may have committed or taken part in between January 1, 2014 to January 19, 2025 that arose from or related in any manner to his service as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force or White House COVID-19 Response Team, or as Chief Medical Advisor to the President.
So the question is, what is he pleading the Fifth to avoid incriminating himself for? His prior testimonies all fall under the pardon window (now you can argue that his mistruths were not done under the guise of his official capacity but for his own benefit outside the scope of the pardon, but that a hard thing to prove legally), so is he attempting to shield himself from future potential perjury charges, ie he has intent to lie to congress but pleading the 5th is a better option as it places the blame on his legal council?
This is going to leads to a rash of breaking, vandalism, and squatters trying to take over residences that are “uninhabited”and lead to that many more high income earners leaving NYac.
re: Ranking the 5 most overrated quarterbacks in college football entering the 2026 season
Posted by laxtonto on 7/27/26 at 9:31 am to ColoradoAg
Leavitt is a hard one to judge because of his Lisfranc injury/surgery, and what does that do to his mobility and play style?
Combine that with a very solid supporting cast, a consistent OL at ASU, and weak B12, and it is justified to have questions.
I don't think he is in my top 5, but there is enough to have concerns if you look at him as a "glass half empty" scenario.
Combine that with a very solid supporting cast, a consistent OL at ASU, and weak B12, and it is justified to have questions.
I don't think he is in my top 5, but there is enough to have concerns if you look at him as a "glass half empty" scenario.
You wouldn't believe the level of bullshite most STEM labs still run. The number of labs that run experiments and perform analysis using only junk tech is staggering. Remember, there are a lot of labs being run on equip that are older than the students running the experiments.
The problem is twofold. You have the original lab that was set up sometimes 20 or 30 years ago, and so VBA was considered OK then. Worse, these lab tech-ecosystems are all a hodgepodge of what the various postdocs, professors, and grad students knew at the time (many with little or no formal training), so easy Excel-native concepts are extremely prevalent.
Second, even though it's a mess and there are many better options, it currently works. Updating/changing things costs money, and unless it is in the grant, most schools aren't going to pay to now fix what isn't broken. It may be super inefficient, but it works.
Would I love to see the entire world of Higher Ed STEM move out of their tech stone age? Yes. But we still live in a world where COBOL runs a huge part of many government and banking systems, so expecting updates in STEM might be hoping for too much.
Higher Ed is a tech black hole of dumbassery. As much as we like to laud the cool things we do with AI and the various weird advances we see through a lot of these areas, the vast majority of STEM is just a lot of faculty who aren't really very technologically adept latching onto systems they either learned in grad school or at a conference and left to their own devices to manage. There is no rhyme or reason what exists or persists. There are no real plans at an institutional level for any of it. It is truly a sight to behold...
The problem is twofold. You have the original lab that was set up sometimes 20 or 30 years ago, and so VBA was considered OK then. Worse, these lab tech-ecosystems are all a hodgepodge of what the various postdocs, professors, and grad students knew at the time (many with little or no formal training), so easy Excel-native concepts are extremely prevalent.
Second, even though it's a mess and there are many better options, it currently works. Updating/changing things costs money, and unless it is in the grant, most schools aren't going to pay to now fix what isn't broken. It may be super inefficient, but it works.
Would I love to see the entire world of Higher Ed STEM move out of their tech stone age? Yes. But we still live in a world where COBOL runs a huge part of many government and banking systems, so expecting updates in STEM might be hoping for too much.
Higher Ed is a tech black hole of dumbassery. As much as we like to laud the cool things we do with AI and the various weird advances we see through a lot of these areas, the vast majority of STEM is just a lot of faculty who aren't really very technologically adept latching onto systems they either learned in grad school or at a conference and left to their own devices to manage. There is no rhyme or reason what exists or persists. There are no real plans at an institutional level for any of it. It is truly a sight to behold...
Students can experiment with Kubernetes and all sorts of other fun toys but as undergraduates outside of true Computer Science or Data Science programs they are unlikely to use them regularly in most STEM fields. Meanwhile the number of common PC-only STEM software packages at the university level is staggering. If you want to go into programming go for it and in truth you will probably need multiple machines for the variety of tools and architectures involved but a Mac has a significant disadvantage as a sole platform in the vast majority of STEM fields. That should not even be a point of contention.
Having a Mac in STEM means you will not be able to natively run SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, current versions of CATIA, Origin, and OriginPro, most modules of ANSYS, Abaqus, and many specialized instrument or data-acquisition control packages used in chemistry, physics, and biology. This is especially true for interfaces to most universities' older instrumentation that many labs refuse to get rid of. Even Microsoft Excel, which is available on Mac, often falls short, as many labs depend on old and complex VBA macros, specialized add-ins, and plugins common in engineering lab data analysis and operations research that either do not work at all or run with reduced functionality compared to the native Windows version.
On top of that, even the macOS versions of many heavily used STEM platforms are more limited than their Windows counterparts. AutoCAD for Mac lacks specialized toolsets, full 3D rendering, Express Tools, and broad third-party plugin support. LabVIEW has a Mac version yet many hardware drivers toolkits and advanced modules remain limited or unavailable. ArcGIS Pro is Windows-only on the desktop, though web versions work. Certain optics and photonic design tools such as some configurations of Zemax OpticStudio also provide incomplete Mac support and various niche laboratory or instrument packages often ship with basic Mac ports that lag behind their Windows counterparts in features and driver support.
On the flip side, you can run Kubernetes on a PC without major issues using Docker Desktop, Minikube, Kind, k3s, or MicroK8s, all of which work on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
There is no way I would buy a generic STEM undergrad a Mac. You are viewing STEM as limited to Computer Science, Data Science, and Software Engineering when that is at best 10 percent of all STEM students. Most students (especially at the undergrad level) in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering (outside of pure software tracks), and a vast number of other STEM fields will never be exposed to kubes. There are always some areas that might run into it, such as computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, computational astronomy, or climate modeling, but these are very specific applications, and in truth, the lab they are working in will have their own hardware anyway.
The risk is not worth it in STEM as a sole platform. If they decide as a sophomore or junior they want to dive into a Mac-specific field, so be it and make the investment, but for the time being (and until many of the old dinosaurs retire and their lab equipment gets upgraded), you are better off getting a PC.
That is just how the world in Higher Ed STEM is set up. It is what it is.
Having a Mac in STEM means you will not be able to natively run SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, PTC Creo, Siemens NX, current versions of CATIA, Origin, and OriginPro, most modules of ANSYS, Abaqus, and many specialized instrument or data-acquisition control packages used in chemistry, physics, and biology. This is especially true for interfaces to most universities' older instrumentation that many labs refuse to get rid of. Even Microsoft Excel, which is available on Mac, often falls short, as many labs depend on old and complex VBA macros, specialized add-ins, and plugins common in engineering lab data analysis and operations research that either do not work at all or run with reduced functionality compared to the native Windows version.
On top of that, even the macOS versions of many heavily used STEM platforms are more limited than their Windows counterparts. AutoCAD for Mac lacks specialized toolsets, full 3D rendering, Express Tools, and broad third-party plugin support. LabVIEW has a Mac version yet many hardware drivers toolkits and advanced modules remain limited or unavailable. ArcGIS Pro is Windows-only on the desktop, though web versions work. Certain optics and photonic design tools such as some configurations of Zemax OpticStudio also provide incomplete Mac support and various niche laboratory or instrument packages often ship with basic Mac ports that lag behind their Windows counterparts in features and driver support.
On the flip side, you can run Kubernetes on a PC without major issues using Docker Desktop, Minikube, Kind, k3s, or MicroK8s, all of which work on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
There is no way I would buy a generic STEM undergrad a Mac. You are viewing STEM as limited to Computer Science, Data Science, and Software Engineering when that is at best 10 percent of all STEM students. Most students (especially at the undergrad level) in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering (outside of pure software tracks), and a vast number of other STEM fields will never be exposed to kubes. There are always some areas that might run into it, such as computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, computational astronomy, or climate modeling, but these are very specific applications, and in truth, the lab they are working in will have their own hardware anyway.
The risk is not worth it in STEM as a sole platform. If they decide as a sophomore or junior they want to dive into a Mac-specific field, so be it and make the investment, but for the time being (and until many of the old dinosaurs retire and their lab equipment gets upgraded), you are better off getting a PC.
That is just how the world in Higher Ed STEM is set up. It is what it is.
re: Laptop for college freshman- Macbook?
Posted by laxtonto on 7/23/26 at 2:49 pm to DarthRebel
Mac are great if you are not planning on ever using it for math or need to use the higher functions of the Microsoft Suite.
If they are looking at any STEM field or Business, I would avoid Macs like the plague. Education is somewhat an easier use case, but they have some heavy writing/group work needs. I would still avoid a Mac, but not the end of the world.
As a side note, this is one of the most difficult things I deal with at the University. Too many students have Macs, and they either have to use VM or the computer labs to be able to do many of my more technical assignments.
If they are looking at any STEM field or Business, I would avoid Macs like the plague. Education is somewhat an easier use case, but they have some heavy writing/group work needs. I would still avoid a Mac, but not the end of the world.
As a side note, this is one of the most difficult things I deal with at the University. Too many students have Macs, and they either have to use VM or the computer labs to be able to do many of my more technical assignments.
re: Homelessness is an industry
Posted by laxtonto on 7/9/26 at 11:39 am to wfallstiger
It is a difficult issue to try to address, especially in the US, because it deals with people, mental disorders, addiction, and behavior, not just structural or institutional design failures.
The individual rights of each American make the current purely legislative approach impractical. Worse, it creates an opaque financial money pit, with many bad actors seeing an opportunity for almost unlimited graft.
We are allocating huge amounts of money at the federal, state, and local levels to "solve" a problem with no clear definition or metric for success, and a topic that tugs at people's heartstrings, so there will be almost limitless funding.
To begin to address the long-term homelessness epidemic would require accepting that we need to curtail the rights of the "unhoused" to force them to receive mental health and/or addiction treatment, and having the facilities available to forcibly house those who refuse treatment or are incapable of functioning in day-to-day society with assistance.
The individual rights of each American make the current purely legislative approach impractical. Worse, it creates an opaque financial money pit, with many bad actors seeing an opportunity for almost unlimited graft.
We are allocating huge amounts of money at the federal, state, and local levels to "solve" a problem with no clear definition or metric for success, and a topic that tugs at people's heartstrings, so there will be almost limitless funding.
To begin to address the long-term homelessness epidemic would require accepting that we need to curtail the rights of the "unhoused" to force them to receive mental health and/or addiction treatment, and having the facilities available to forcibly house those who refuse treatment or are incapable of functioning in day-to-day society with assistance.
re: Today is the Sentencing for Hannah Dugan
Posted by laxtonto on 7/8/26 at 2:24 pm to hogcard1964
People forget that the conviction is the punishment. Convicted felon can no longer be a judge and her law license is potentially in jeopardy. Any jail time would be an added bonus. We already got our pound of flesh here.
re: Red flags for people
Posted by laxtonto on 7/2/26 at 9:57 pm to Rip Torner
My basic red flags are people who don't put away their shopping carts, people who are rude to waitstaff, and those who are not courteous to office secretaries.
Did Carroll ever pay taxes on that 6.4M gift? Curious how this works, as it is a substantial gift by an individual and not a pro bono case of the law firm writing off the cost.
All this really tells me is that the IRGC guys and the moderates can't get on the same page, and both sides have their own media people they leak to. The new "Supreme Leader" is still pretty screwed up and does not have the power to force the IRGC guys to just sit there and take it, but also doesn't have the power to force the moderates to not negotiate in good faith.
So we keep having yes, no, yes, no.... All this really did is let all the ships stuck in Hormuz out and drive down prices for a bit. If they can't figure it out, now we have an excuse to do it for the rest of the world and charge a premium for it.
Stopping Iran from getting nukes was done for free. Keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is going to cost a premium..
Also, this comes right after the UK PM is being forced to resign, so expect a bit more US-friendly person to take the reins if Labor wants any chance of surviving the next election.
So we keep having yes, no, yes, no.... All this really did is let all the ships stuck in Hormuz out and drive down prices for a bit. If they can't figure it out, now we have an excuse to do it for the rest of the world and charge a premium for it.
Stopping Iran from getting nukes was done for free. Keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is going to cost a premium..
Also, this comes right after the UK PM is being forced to resign, so expect a bit more US-friendly person to take the reins if Labor wants any chance of surviving the next election.
The real issue for Russia is that for the first time, the SMO is finally significantly impacting the day-to-day lives of the people of Moscow.
They have done a fair job of keeping the damage Ukraine has caused away from the lives of their "civilized" segments of the population in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Now they have, for the first time, had to implement gas rationing in Moscow proper.
They have done a fair job of keeping the damage Ukraine has caused away from the lives of their "civilized" segments of the population in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Now they have, for the first time, had to implement gas rationing in Moscow proper.
re: Sentence Reached
Posted by laxtonto on 6/9/26 at 7:33 pm to SallysHuman
35 years... 15 more than I expected
re: Defense Rests in Karmelo Anthony Trial GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY
Posted by laxtonto on 6/9/26 at 2:12 pm to cajunangelle
I would be surprised if it was manslaughter, and I would have expected it as a compromise tomorrow.
re: The "He Wasn't Bothering Nobody" Defense
Posted by laxtonto on 6/6/26 at 8:28 am to GregMaddux
What blows my mind even more is that it sounds like he was ineligible due to his behavior at his own school, and therefore was not participating at the meet anyways. So he had absolutely no reason to be down on the grass instead of in the stands.
My guess is that this version will now fail in Senate..
The problem here is that the War Powers Resolutions most likely would not withstand scrutiny by the Supreme Court, and the House and Senate know this. So they ping-pong this back and forth, allowing them to keep up the charade of control.
If, for some reason, they both approved the resolution, it would instantly be appealed to the SC with a high likelihood of losing their weapon for political theater, and more importantly, would lead to a major push by the executive branch to use this new recent precedent of overreach of the legislative branch as a framework for other cases.
The problem here is that the War Powers Resolutions most likely would not withstand scrutiny by the Supreme Court, and the House and Senate know this. So they ping-pong this back and forth, allowing them to keep up the charade of control.
If, for some reason, they both approved the resolution, it would instantly be appealed to the SC with a high likelihood of losing their weapon for political theater, and more importantly, would lead to a major push by the executive branch to use this new recent precedent of overreach of the legislative branch as a framework for other cases.
re: Obviously 47 has access to all the data but does he see impending economic catastrophe?
Posted by laxtonto on 5/26/26 at 8:54 am to sidewalkside
Simply put, time is on his side and knows it.
These delays with Trump "negotiating" just mean the blockade stays in effect longer, and more and more oil tankers dock in the US. Trump knows every day he waits, the closer Iran gets to seeing their oil infrastructure implode on itself and potentially see the Iranian people rise up as the IRGC misses more and more payments to its troops.
Trump also gets to keep playing the "good" guy by not bombing Iran more and keeping waves of displaced Iranians from flooding the other Gulf States. People keep wanting to know why the other Arab nations won't let the US and Israel finish them off forget that once the bombing starts and Tehran is reduced to rubble and all the infrastructure is decimated, 60M Iranians are going to be looking for a new home.
He knows he can keep asking for the moon, and Iran will keep saying no. He is just playing out the string until Iran either gives in, gets overthrown internally or lashes out, and he can throw up his hands to the Gulf States leaders and say we tried and revert to bridge and power plant day.
The clock is ticking on Iran, and all their posturing doesn't change that.
These delays with Trump "negotiating" just mean the blockade stays in effect longer, and more and more oil tankers dock in the US. Trump knows every day he waits, the closer Iran gets to seeing their oil infrastructure implode on itself and potentially see the Iranian people rise up as the IRGC misses more and more payments to its troops.
Trump also gets to keep playing the "good" guy by not bombing Iran more and keeping waves of displaced Iranians from flooding the other Gulf States. People keep wanting to know why the other Arab nations won't let the US and Israel finish them off forget that once the bombing starts and Tehran is reduced to rubble and all the infrastructure is decimated, 60M Iranians are going to be looking for a new home.
He knows he can keep asking for the moon, and Iran will keep saying no. He is just playing out the string until Iran either gives in, gets overthrown internally or lashes out, and he can throw up his hands to the Gulf States leaders and say we tried and revert to bridge and power plant day.
The clock is ticking on Iran, and all their posturing doesn't change that.
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