Schweigi (u/Schweigi)

Schweigi commented on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus apple.com/newsroom/2023/0... · Posted by u/mikece

bombcar · 2 years ago

I've been using mostly wireless charging with my current phones; and watch (you have to there) mainly because the lightning port would usually be the first thing to die.

I wonder if they'll sell cases alone for existing AirPods.

Schweigi · 2 years ago

I keep my iPhones for many years before buying a new one and never had the lighting port die. What happens though is that the port gets dirt inside and stops working. There are tiny brushes (available on Amazon) which solve it and the port starts working again.

Nevertheless still good that now only one cable is required - especially since the iPad and iMac use USB-C as-well.

Not sure what to do with the AirPods - hopefully the wireless charging directly from iPhone 15 will make it unnecessary to have to carry the cable for the pods.

Schweigi commented on Southern Europe in extreme heat, with Greece seeing temperatures of 40C or more bbc.co.uk/news/world-euro... · Posted by u/vanilla-almond

tomp · 2 years ago

Switzerland is literally the worst.

Homes and hospitals are forbidden from having A/C.

Shopping centers are allowed.

Schweigi · 2 years ago

I worked several years designing and installing commercial hvac systems in Switzerland. Plenty of offices, banks, museums etc. have ACs. It’s definitely allowed. But you will need a permit to install a fixed system if it affect/changes the building facade.

The reason why most homes don’t have one is that it’s too expensive for the 3-5 days a year you need it. Especially the new minergy houses can keep cool very well even during summer without an AC.

Schweigi commented on Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs spectrum.ieee.org/heat-pu... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

itzworm · 2 years ago

There are ceiling cassettes for mini-split systems that aren't nearly as much of an eyesore as the wall mount ones are.

Schweigi · 2 years ago

Mini split systems can be used with ducts. All big venders sell heads which are specifically made to be connected to ducts. That way you get the best of both worlds and its also easy to retrofit to an existing (ducted) house.

Schweigi commented on Where our gasoline comes from eia.gov/energyexplained/g... · Posted by u/avonmach

willyt · 3 years ago

If this is also true in the EU, which I expect it is, does that mean there's absolutely no difference between supermarket diesel at £1.60/l and BP diesel at £1.80/l apart from a little bit of stuff, extra detergent or whatever, that BP squirt into it as it's pumped? I wonder if there's some kind of submarine marketing company that spends loads of time on car enthusiasts forums trying to plant the idea that there is a difference.

Schweigi · 3 years ago

At least in Switzerland for example a lot of the Miniprix, BP[1] and Shell gas stations have all the same gas as it comes via the same supplier which is Oel-Pool AG and its subsidiaries. Oel Pool is also selling their surplus gas via their own low cost gas station networks which has the symbol of an elephant trunk.

[1] https://www.oel-pool.com/info-center/neuigkeiten/detail/uebe...

Schweigi commented on Heat pumps of the 1800s are becoming the technology of the future knowablemagazine.org/arti... · Posted by u/adrian_mrd

fifteenforty · 3 years ago

It’s a ‘mini split’ in US lingo. There are thin, highly insulated refrigerant lines going between the outside unit and the inside unit. The inside unit exchanges heat with the air. https://www.daikin.com.au/our-product-range/split-system-air...

Schweigi · 3 years ago

Though mini split heads can be ducted too. There are several choices, wall heads, ceiling heads, ducted heads etc. The wall head is just the cheapest solution since it’s very easy to install.

Schweigi commented on ChatGPT is a ‘code red’ for Google’s search business nytimes.com/2022/12/21/te... · Posted by u/gnicholas

constantcrying · 3 years ago

>I'm interested in hearing from people in the know of how Google could use its very sizable and knowledgeable resources to compete with ChatGPT.

Google is already building a rival product. IIRC last year they showcased it during their hardware event. It is doing what ChatGPT does, but is targetted explicitly at answering questions and giving advice, instead of trying to converse. They said it wasn't ready at that point and likely they are facing exactly the same trouble ChatGPT does, e.g. the model confidently making stuff up.

I have no idea about the internals at google, but that seems to me a very likely direction to go. I could imagine AI generated answers as a first result in Google searches, with a promp for further user interactivity.

To be honest I am actually surprised that they got caught of guard by this. They have AI technology with similar capabilities to ChatGPT and I suspected they knew that people aren't interested in a wall of links to terrible websites, but actually want an answer to their question.

Schweigi · 3 years ago

The wall of links is what pays Google ad money. Website owners pay a lot of money to be presented on top of the search results because of that.

I would assume it’s quite difficult to keep making the same amount of ad money by having a ChatGPT competitor. If the AI can already answer most user questions, then no one will click on the ad. Maybe there could be a clever way to include an ad into the reply text but that will make it hard to include multiple ads - so overall there will be less money.

Schweigi commented on What happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans? bigthink.com/the-future/c... · Posted by u/fbn79

banga · 3 years ago

I find the whole concept hilarious. There's an implicit assumption that someone in the future will be bothered to resurrect a frozen body, then resurrect them from death (since they already died before being popsicle-ified). And even if they could be bothered, the thawed would be a lab experiment, owned by whatever corporation pulled off the magic. And if magically they came out of the ordeal functional and free, there'd be those pesky bureaucrats to deal with (id, taxes, all the fun stuff). Hilarious.

Schweigi · 3 years ago

Ha, interesting, a while ago I was thinking about a solution to this very problem. Everyone seems to focusing on the freezing part, but not what happens with the timeframe until you are unfrozen and beyond. Because in addition to nobody wanting to unfreeze you, you also would have no money and would basically be “poor” 500 years from now. On top of that there needs to be a long term storage facility which is somehow paid & maintained to “store” a frozen person over hundred of years until technology is available to unfreeze and revive a person.

As a solution I think there should be a special “bank” like organization which sole purpose it is to survive for hundred of years. It also would need to grow the money to keep up with inflation. In addition this organization needs to be country independent since you can’t guarantee countries to survive that long. This organization would also use some of the investment proceeds to pay for the storage and even transfer frozen people to a different location in case of war or natural disasters.

Schweigi commented on Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/rpgbr

ceejayoz · 3 years ago

Donating $5.7B to save an absolute max (37% tax bracket; he's probably much lower with most income via capital gains) of about $2.1B in taxes doesn't make financial sense, unless you've got a plan to siphon off at least $3.6B tax-free out of the charity. Why do people think a $1B donation saves $1B in tax?

Schweigi · 3 years ago

He doesn’t need to shiphon anything. All the “donated” money is still in his control. In order to be effective at tax deference you need to separate the concept of who ownes the money and who controls it. As long as you still control it, it doesn’t matter who ownes it. That’s why a donner advised funds and similar concepts are used to reduce taxes or defer them.

In addition it’s also great for asset protection. For example if he gave a personal guarantee on some of the Twitter debt, then moving money into the foundation (as long as his Twitter stint was not fraud) will remove that out of his name and make it untouchable to the banks.

He can now use those funds to support trips to Mars and other projects. For those projects the charity might pay his expenses - for example a flight to attend a meeting in Hawaii. He can even use the money to hire his kids. The kids would have a much lower (w2) tax rate so effectively he reduced tax but kept the money in the family.

Schweigi commented on Twitter has fired more software engineers twitter.com/gergelyorosz/... · Posted by u/r721

petesergeant · 3 years ago

I once worked at a very high-end online fashion retailer, and as a programmer, it was a decent place to work, and I look back fondly on my time there.

However, if you were in the fashion industry, and especially if you wanted to work at a company founded by an inspiring woman, it was absolutely the place you wanted to work. HR were inundated by applications for non-tech positions by highly capable and motivated people, and HR acted like it. It was very selective, and the best people fought for jobs there and worked hard.

But for tech workers, it was simply an decent place to work, and was perpetually a little bit short-staffed. HR couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that this one segment had choices and weren't really that fussed about working there, and so it took a lot of work for engineering managers to free up basic recruitment marketing money, to streamline recruitment processes etc.

I wonder if there's some of that going on. For people who want to work on the cutting edge of space-tech, SpaceX has to be very high up on the list of places you'd want to work. For people who want to build electric cars, ditto Tesla.

But for software engineers who are good enough to do the work that needs to be done at Twitter? meh, there are choices. There are companies with much more interesting problems, companies with larger scale, companies who'll pay better. Are there that many Twitter True Believers? My understanding is the big draw beforehand for Twitter was that they had a great working environment, and that's evaporated.

I wonder if Musk will be able to get his head around that.

Schweigi · 3 years ago

There is a certain amount of people who like to work in a “Elon Musk” company no matter what. Like him or not, but he is a guy who has a certain pull which let’s people overlook a lot of stuff. So Twitter will still bee able to hire from that pool - despite all the negative firing news.

Schweigi commented on FTX used corporate funds to purchase employee homes, new filing shows cnbc.com/2022/11/17/ftx-u... · Posted by u/koolba

HDThoreaun · 3 years ago

Coinbase went through hell because their product is worse than offshore exchanges. Less tokens available, much higher fees, no leverage. Why would any serious trader use coinbase when the alternatives exist? On top of that their expenses are far higher than their competitors, it's easy to see that the politics thing was the least of their issues.

Schweigi · 3 years ago

Coinbase probably does all this because they want to be a reliable, profitable and somehow auditable business. If you don’t care what happens to customers funds, sure, yes, provide leverage and all kinds of tokens to your customers. I guess in a way you get what you pay for…