taffronaut (u/taffronaut)

taffronaut commented on Bricklink suspends Marketplace operations in 35 countries jaysbrickblog.com/news/br... · Posted by u/makeitdouble

retSava · 16 days ago

IIRC lego had two actual patents: the basic brick, and the classic figure. The brick is expired while the figure isn't. Hence you can find "alternate" bricks, but not figures. They do own a shitload of trademarks, and aren't afraid to enforce them (which they legally must or they risk losing the TM).

Fun story: my wife ordered a couple of those "alternate" sets, and none inflicted on Legos patent nor TM (no lego branding, not a copy of a lego set, etc). The Swedish customs acted on their own (baffling to me) and stopped the package, sent her a letter in stark wording to accept forfeit. She challenged this, then Lego's lawyers got in contact with us and, using the figure patent, claimed this was a copy and we should forfeit or they would sue her. Very harsh letter, very stark wording.

Left a very bad taste in my mouth, haven't bought any Lego (or alternatives either) since.

taffronaut · 16 days ago

There is jazz improvisation handbook "Harmony with Lego Bricks" written in the 1980's by Conrad Cork in the UK. It's pretty niche. Conrad approached Lego at the time and they gave him permission to use the Lego name. It's written "LEGO(R)" on the cover. Those were more innocent times I guess. (edited for a typo)

taffronaut commented on State of Embedded: Q4 2025 Overview sbcwiki.com/news/articles... · Posted by u/HeyMeco

taffronaut · 2 months ago

I'm not sure that the RK3688 and a big chunk of the article spent on its specs belongs in a "State of Embedded: Q4 2025 Overview" given that it's due sometime in 2026. I'm sure it's going to be great but I suggest it belongs to a future state.

On the other hand, CIX have been putting actual Arm v9 hardware in developers' hands for some time.

taffronaut commented on Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/stalfosknight

201984 · 2 months ago

Not that dissimilar to Wirecutter's advice on appliances: either buy the cheapest of the cheap because it'll have the fewest parts that can break, or the most expensive since it'll be built with high quality components and hopefully be repairable.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/modern-appliances...

taffronaut · 2 months ago

The cheapest appliance is definitely cheap, whereas you generally have to take on trust the quality of the most expensive. The rule of thumb I use is "you don't get what you don't pay for", which is not the same as "you get what you pay for".

taffronaut commented on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? theguardian.com/technolog... · Posted by u/sandebert

Hendrikto · 2 months ago

> Germany has a bunch of alternative online shops that are better.

Such as?

I never ran into such problems with Amazon, but I would like to know the alternatives.

taffronaut · 2 months ago

Thomann - for musical instrument stuff

taffronaut commented on NSA and IETF: Can an attacker purchase standardization of weakened cryptography? blog.cr.yp.to/20251004-we... · Posted by u/zdw

commandersaki · 2 months ago

Ah FIPS, the bastion of security standards.

taffronaut · 2 months ago

I misread that as "the bassoon of security standards" and it sent my brain in a whole other direction

taffronaut commented on Take something you don’t like and try to like it dynomight.net/liking/... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

tomjen3 · 3 months ago

I would have said no on Rap before Hamilton. I would like to know your goto for Jazz.

taffronaut · 3 months ago

Most posts here seem to be offering easy on-ramp listening for jazz, but they seem at odds with the spirit of the original post. For jazz that is off-putting at first listening but rewards deeper study, consider Thelonious Monk (Blue Note sessions 1 & 2) or if you are really up for it, Coltrane's Interstellar Space.

taffronaut commented on Arm to launch its own chip in move that could upend semiconductor industry ft.com/content/95367b2b-2... · Posted by u/fork-bomber

uticus · 10 months ago

> The move...could also upend the balance of power...putting Arm into competition with some of its biggest customers.

This is what I don't understand. Why is this even being considered by Arm exec team?

taffronaut · 10 months ago

Arm isn't competing with its biggest customers here. This doesn't affect their relationship with e.g. AWS or Azure (Cobalt) as those folks are not selling CPU chips on the open market. Nvidia probably couldn't care less as commodity Arm IP isn't anything they make their margins on. It affects anyone selling Neoverse server chips which is ... Ampere, but Ampere is bankrolled by Oracle and Oracle could take them in-house.

taffronaut commented on How AI is unlocking ancient texts nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/Marceltan

taffronaut · a year ago

From TFA "decoding rare and lost languages of which hardly any traces survive". Assuming that's not hype, let's see it have a go at Rongorongo[1] then.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo

taffronaut commented on Jaguar Land Rover electric car whistleblower sacked bbc.com/news/articles/c20... · Posted by u/speckx

dagw · a year ago

All of its senior executive leadership is still British

Obviously not true.

One of them is German.

taffronaut · a year ago

As British as the British Royal Family then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Windsor