Update on long USB-C cable journey: bought this 15-foot one per recommendations and it's been awesome, not too thick, charges great (only loses 3W versus a 3 ft cable when charging at 100W) https://mastodon.social/@christianselig/112378065694461950
CNN just ran a report with their crew getting super rare access to a 33-hour B-52 mission. I want to say something about the B-52. The first one was delivered in 1955. The last one in 1962. It featured prominently in "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). Not only are they still flying today, but the Air Force currently plans to fly them through 2050! Obviously they've had upgrades of all sorts (especially instrumentation, avionics, etc.), but it's still the same air frame. When all is said and done, they may have been flying for nearly a full century.
Now, here's the punch line. Who manufactured the B-52? Boeing.
@harrymccracken So very, very many things that technology companies do right now should be entirely illegal. And forcing updates with contractual terms embedded onto hardware consumers own is pretty high on that list.
@pluralistic
"... to how white
nationalists who were radicalized in Vietnam formed an armored-car robbery gang to finance modems and Apple ][+s to link up neo-Nazis across the USA."
@immibis@pluralistic@funcrunch@kcoyle no. Real currencies have value because they are enforced by governments that have judicial systems, police forces and armies. You need US dollars for example in the USA because they're the only way to pay US taxes, and you can be at the last resort, physically arrested for refusing to pay.
@JorgeStolfi@immibis@pluralistic@funcrunch@kcoyle Sorry, but no. Worldwide trust of the USD is a second-order effect. At the bottom of it is the stability of the US government, and its ability to enforce the use of its currency in its borders. Your saying "people trust the USD because they trust the Fed" leads to the question, "why do people trust the Fed can do what it intends?" Which leads to "because the US govt and all its apparatus of state backs it up." Which leads to my point above.
@JorgeStolfi@immibis@pluralistic@funcrunch@kcoyle this is the opposite of what happens though. When a US govt shutdown looms due to Congress' refusal to raise the debt ceiling (print money), the dollar typically loses 1-2% of its value. If "printing money" was a concern in the currency markets, it would gain value when this happens.
@shiri@pluralistic@funcrunch@JorgeStolfi@kcoyle@immibis "Taking on more debt" by issuing bonds is how governments create money. It's one of only two ways money is created: the other is by banks lending (under licence from governments).
@pluralistic@shiri@funcrunch@JorgeStolfi@kcoyle@immibis they can - but do they? I'm not aware of a modern example but would be interested to hear of one. Perhaps I should say that money is created by governments spending on their central bank current account: which is usually converted into bond issues.
I feel like nobody wants to hear me on this, but for VR to really work we need massive advices in basic physics & biology, like, being able to project images/video/sound directly into the brain and eye so they are literally indistinguishable from "reality". I do think Apple's device is an important and useful step forward -- the first one actually worth trying -- but a baby step nonetheless.
@codinghorror in that case, can you say it about full-on brain-interface VR? What problem does that solve?
But what VR is for, or really XR in general, is to allow us to interface spatially with spatial data. It's a UI, nothing more or less. And because we live in a 3D world, that's a useful thing. It's not there to replace reality and if you expect it to, yes, you'll struggle.