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bickfordb commented on Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free   riviantrackr.com/news/riv... · Posted by u/doctoboggan
bjord · 9 days ago
is everyone designing their own silicon getting so much additional them-specific utility out of it that it's actually worth it?
bickfordb · 9 days ago
I have the same question. It makes sense that they might need bespoke software, but how could they possibly be more efficient at creating chips than an AMD/Nvidia?
bickfordb commented on Google 'Looking into' Gmail Hack Locking Users Out with No Recovery   forbes.com/sites/daveywin... · Posted by u/lawlessone
pa7ch · 14 days ago
I think its fundamentally more difficult to host communications services where spam is possible and there is no auth/contact system in place before first communication can happen.
bickfordb · 14 days ago
I'm not an expert in this area but from what I understand what was once novel content spam filtering is not at all novel now, there are easily trainable model strategies (BERT?) that get you to 99%.

A whitelist, auth/contact is ideal for messaging without spam and is more workable with a large federated group that can adopt an evolving open source protocol.

bickfordb commented on Google 'Looking into' Gmail Hack Locking Users Out with No Recovery   forbes.com/sites/daveywin... · Posted by u/lawlessone
bickfordb · 14 days ago
I think the larger question is why are we all (or most of us?) still using Gmail? Why can't an average person host their own email server with open source software with straightforward security upgrades instead of trusting BigCo or the latest SmallCo?
bickfordb commented on A new chapter begins for EV batteries with the expiry of key LFP patents   shoosmiths.com/insights/a... · Posted by u/toomuchtodo
dzhiurgis · a month ago
> LFP charging in cold has pretty much been solved by adding a heater to battery pack.

That's a hack, not a solution.

> Given CATL is scaling sodium-ion production to to GWh scale next year, it sounds like they are betting for a much shorter timeframe.

Wanna bet? LFP is ~1,000 GWh scale right now. GWh scale is 0.1%.

bickfordb · a month ago
After market electric engine heaters and remote starters are typical for ICE vehicles in cold climates (e.g. Alaska). Not sure why you consider this to be a hack for EVs if its builtin to the battery pack design.
bickfordb commented on Why is there no Uber for plumbing/HVAC? (and why there ought to be)   nikolaihlebowitsh.substac... · Posted by u/nhlebowitsh
bickfordb · a month ago
It's typical for those trades to have extensive licensing requirements. In my state (OR) plumber and HVAC licenses require four years of apprenticeship. Additionally the HVAC trade has gatekeeping around the EPA refrigerant licensing and supply distributors/manufacturers who will only sell to contractors.
bickfordb commented on Hemp ban hidden inside government shutdown bill   hightimes.com/news/politi... · Posted by u/bilsbie
whimsicalism · a month ago
The Senate is fundamentally a ridiculous way of representing 350 million people and we’re going to continue to get absurd unrepresentative outcomes for as long as it remains a relevant body. There’s no getting around this and it will structurally just get worse and worse. Simply no way something like it exists 200 years from now, it is probably the biggest flaw in the US political structure right now.
bickfordb · a month ago
Since changing the constitution is difficult, maybe a reasonable remedy to this would be to significantly increase the number of states by population. In 1776 there were 13 states with a total population of 2.5M. There are now 50 states (3.8x increase), with a total population of 340M (136x increase). If we increased the number of states proportionally to the population in 1776 that would result in ~1768 states, almost one for every two counties.
bickfordb commented on Why AC is cheap, but AC repair is a luxury   a16z.substack.com/p/why-a... · Posted by u/walterbell
s1gsegv · 2 months ago
If it was so lucrative, wouldn’t more people set up shop undercutting the current offerings? Why not become an HVAC installer and make millions, if you’re really able to make $15k profit on a job you can turn out in a day.

The truth is probably more that the various money sinks in our society are starting to add up, things like healthcare, legal protection, licensure, compliance, rent (business or personal), even just having appropriate work vehicles, fueling them, compensating people for the time spent sitting in traffic to come across town to your house. Somehow you’re paying for all of that when someone’s livelihood is installing your mini split. A lot of those costs have grown faster than wages, if you try to point to a reason why it’s different today than 20 years ago. More people looking to make a quick buck without doing any work or providing any real value, and more people succeeding.

bickfordb · 2 months ago
In my state (OR) it takes 4 years to become licensed to do the work for others but homeowners can do the work themselves.

My experience is that it’s not generally well understood how simple it is to install mini splits. The supply companies won’t sell to you directly outside of d2c web companies like hvacdirect

bickfordb commented on My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4   michael.stapelberg.ch/pos... · Posted by u/secure
lapcat · 2 months ago
The PowerBook and the first MacBook Pro were only matte.

A glossy option was introduced in 2006, but the MacBook Pro was still matte by default.

In 2008, the MacBook Pro case was redesigned, and then the display situation changed significantly.

bickfordb · 2 months ago
I don't think this is exactly accurate. The matte was a ~$80 upgrade option after they released the glossy. I definitely preferred the matte screens and still do. For coding reducing glare in uncontrolled environments is way more important to me than color fidelity, but to each their own.
bickfordb commented on Tesla is heading into multi-billion-dollar iceberg of its own making   electrek.co/2025/10/20/te... · Posted by u/ndsipa_pomu
bob1029 · 2 months ago
I feel like Tesla would have been significantly more competitive with the non-EV market if they had gone in a completely opposite direction with regard to fancy technology.

Give me a boring ass 90s control layout with the electric drive train and I'm much more interested. Make the car kind of ugly too. On purpose. I don't need a GPU farm inside my car. I'm not running a robotic taxi company. I just want to go get some groceries.

I've worked on cars long enough to realize I don't want a chip using a leading edge semiconductor node in my vehicle somewhere. I live in a pretty nasty climate. A car sitting in a Texas parking lot in July will get to temperatures that the engineers probably didn't think possible. There's always something that starts to break once you cross into that 150F temperature level. I want semiconductors that were engineered to run in the basement of hell 24/7/365. 28nm and thicker sizes. I don't want 3nm gates in my car. There's no way these chips would last 10 years.

bickfordb · 2 months ago
The problem was they needed to pretend be a technology company (with FSD, and now robots) to juice the stock price/earnings multiple. If they were simply a car maker with EV motors, the stock would have a much lower multiple.
bickfordb commented on IRS open sources its fact graph   github.com/IRS-Public/fac... · Posted by u/ronbenton
bickfordb · 2 months ago
Surprised to learn we still have an IRS

u/bickfordb

KarmaCake day600May 24, 2009View Original