ebruchez (u/ebruchez)

ebruchez commented on A 1961 Relay Computer Running in the Browser minivac.greg.technology/... · Posted by u/vaibhavsagar

analog31 · a month ago

And discrete transistors. Now that my curiosity is piqued, I found this nice timeline:

https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/

It looks like transistorized computers were dominant at the point when integrated circuits were introduced.

ebruchez · a month ago

In particular, the IBM 1401 (two of them actually) that you can see demonstrated at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View are transistor-based and were very successful computers.

https://computerhistory.org/exhibits/ibm1401/

ebruchez commented on The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia cnn.com/2025/11/12/busine... · Posted by u/andrewl

afavour · a month ago

> The United States is the only country that prints all denominations of currency in the same size. The US and Switzerland are the only two countries that use the same colors for all of their various bills. Needless to say, this sameness of size and color make it impossible for a blind person to locate the correct bills to make a purchase without some sort of assistance, or confirm that he or she has been given the correct change by the sales clerk. Even people with partial sight may have trouble distinguishing a $1 bill from a $10, especially if the bill is old and worn.

https://afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/ac...

ebruchez · a month ago

> The US and Switzerland are the only two countries that use the same colors for all of their various bills.

Factually absolutely incorrect for Switzerland, and easy to verify. Swiss bank notes are and have been some of the most colorful (and pretty, I should say) around, and all have different sizes.

ebruchez commented on Altair at 50: Remembering the first Personal Computer goto10retro.com/p/altair-... · Posted by u/rbanffy

SoftTalker · 8 months ago

I remember S-100 from when I was a kid. Never was hands-on with that hardware but there were all kinds of ads for cards in Byte magazine and others. Seemed like you could get a card for almost anything in S-100 protocol.

ebruchez · 8 months ago

That's right. There are still S-100 enthusiasts who are maintaining and developing S-100 cards, see http://www.s100computers.com/ (does not seem to respond correctly to HTTPS right now).

ebruchez commented on Altair at 50: Remembering the first Personal Computer goto10retro.com/p/altair-... · Posted by u/rbanffy

SoftTalker · 8 months ago

Did it not have a serial port? Would have assumed that connecting it to a terminal or teletype was the standard thing.

ebruchez · 8 months ago

One of the interesting aspects of the Altair was that it was based on a bus called the S-100 bus. You would have a CPU card and a memory card at least, but everything else was optional. The serial board was separate, and strictly not absolutely necessary to play with the computer, since you could enter simple programs directly from the front panel.

ebruchez commented on Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week cnbc.com/2025/04/29/port-... · Posted by u/perihelions

perihelions · 8 months ago

But, China itself is automating away most of those jobs. It's a stark difference between Chinese and Western—just look at the phraseology we're using, without thinking about it: "out of jobs"; in China's zeitgeist they wouldn't say they lost jobs to technology, they say they "saved 80 percent of manpower" [0].

[0] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202312/1304443.shtml ("China’s first self-built fully automated dock enters operation in Qingdao, Shandong Province" (2023))

ebruchez · 8 months ago

True or not, be aware that "The Global Times is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the People's Daily, commenting on international issues from a Chinese nationalistic perspective." (Wikipedia)

ebruchez commented on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia? twitter.com/dieworkwear/s... · Posted by u/taubek

overfeed · 8 months ago

This is a fair assessment. However, I think there is propaganda or self-delusion in the west that leads some people to believe that free markets and/or democracy are preconditions for any number of desirable outcomes like creativity, economic success, product innovation, etc. That may have empirically been true against the Eastern Bloc/Soviet Union during the cold war, but is not obvious to me regarding China today. AFAICT, China has produced companies that can go to to toe with the best in the west - occasionally winning outright[1]. We can argue whether that's because of subsidies, espionage, innovation or fundamental research

1. DJI, CATL, BYD, ByteDance, HighFlyer/DeepSeek

ebruchez · 8 months ago

Future might tell. But while it's tempting, I wouldn't bet against democracy and freedom just yet.

ebruchez commented on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia? twitter.com/dieworkwear/s... · Posted by u/taubek

overfeed · 8 months ago

> This sounds like official Chinese propaganda

Go to any top-N American University, pick a random STEM faculty and count the number of Chinese (nationality) post-grads, post-docs and faculty. Alternatively, look at the trajectory of science publications coming out of Chinese universities vs the US. Underestimating China's brain-trust is doing oneself a disservice.

ebruchez · 8 months ago

I don't need to be convinced that China has lots of bright, hard-working individuals. I just want to point out that China faces immense challenges and that we should see beyond, and push back against, the propaganda. There is a massive asymmetry between China and democratic nations in this regards.

ebruchez commented on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia? twitter.com/dieworkwear/s... · Posted by u/taubek

thfuran · 8 months ago

That was before the US decided to shoot itself in the face with economic policy.

ebruchez · 8 months ago

Yes, but this will likely hurt China as well. You can't assume only the US will be hurt by this.

ebruchez commented on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia? twitter.com/dieworkwear/s... · Posted by u/taubek

throw310822 · 8 months ago

> Yeah, it's real easy when you employ an army of nation-state hackers

No it's not, even if it were true. Is it really that hard to admit that the Chinese people are industrious, smart, ambitious and have extremely high education level? And that the state has directed the development of the country wisely in the past 40 years?

ebruchez · 8 months ago

This sounds like official Chinese propaganda. This was truer at some point, but things have started turning bad for China with the advent of Xi Jinping. 20-25 years ago, the country was hopeful, developing fast, opening up. Foreigners started moving there, seeing it as a new land of opportunity. Much of that is gone. The economy is in bad shape, youth unemployment is massive, the country is a dictatorship, nobody wants to move there (and China doesn't want you to anyway). I'll quote the Economist: "When Mr Xi took over in 2012, China was changing fast. The middle class was growing, private firms were booming and citizens were connecting on social media. A different leader might have seen these as opportunities. Mr Xi saw only threats."

ebruchez commented on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia? twitter.com/dieworkwear/s... · Posted by u/taubek

Sonnigeszeug · 8 months ago

'declining' on which level?

China will surpass USA from a GDP Point of view in 2035.

China surpassed Germany as industry machines export in 2018.

ebruchez · 8 months ago

> China will surpass USA from a GDP Point of view in 2035.

Don't be so sure, this has become much less clear. For example, in this article: "The Centre for Economics and Business Research, which in 2020 predicted that China would overtake the U.S. by 2028, revised the crossover point two years later, to 2036. This month, the British consultancy said it will not happen in the next 15 years."

https://www.newsweek.com/2025/01/31/china-us-compete-biggest...