f_devd's comments

On: SpaceX Is Basically a Huge Meme Stock

[f_devd]

Except there is little cooling or power in space, depending on your position in orbit you could only have one of those at a time.

[tim333 → f_devd]

I saw Musk discussing that and his main argument in favour is there's unlimited solar power whereas on earth there are a lot of power constraints.

[crote → tim333]

Sure, in the same way that there is unlimited solar power on earth.

There are orbits with 24/7 or near-24/7 sunlight - but those are very undesirable if you want a low-latency data link back to Earth. Just like you can get 24/7 sunlight on the North / South Pole - but they are still pretty bad locations for a data center.

LEO orbits like those used by Starlink have far better connectivity, but about the same sunlight exposure as the surface as the planet will be between you and the sun about half the time.

Also, power is the easy part. Cooling is far harder.

[metalman → f_devd]

military/industrial customers want this for tactical operations fully discreet low latency compute that integrates with there existing space hardware so the ability to run drones, and meatbots from space, with low hardware requirements on the ground, but with lets say 1000~2000 users max, power users, but not that many. so batteries, heat sinks,he refrigeration radiators, on a sattelite fleet. they have been trialing this for years and are pitching putting ALL of the military compute in space, no more dirty civilian hands on there toys

On: Cyber.mil serving file downloads using TLS certificate which expired 3 days ago

[f_devd]

I think they mean that a non-observant visitor cannot tell the difference between both situations

On: HP trialed mandatory 15-minute support call wait times (2025)

[f_devd]

Wouldn't be surprised if they have their own internal PBX system with a SIP trunk

[ryukoposting → f_devd]

Sigh. VoIP makes everything less interesting.

On: Baochip-1x: A Mostly-Open, 22nm SoC for High Assurance Applications

[f_devd]

That sucks, but also probably the best vindication for their strategy; any other mcu and you just wouldn't know.

On: Libre Solar – Open Hardware for Renewable Energy

[f_devd]

Always a bit jarring to see a devboard stacked on an otherwise neat board. Looks promising though.

[viernullvier → f_devd]

I've seen commercial products that use socketed devboards inside. If anything, it's just an indication that the hobbyist and professional spaces are slowly converging.

On: Libre Solar – Open Hardware for Renewable Energy

[f_devd]

A UPS-style grid connected inverter (with phase balancing) would be significantly more complicated by also significantly more useful. More in the critical/specialized part category, rather than near-commodity (like MPPT/BMS)

On: CBS didn't air Rep. James Talarico interview out of fear of FCC

[f_devd]

There is no "who", once stabilizing institutions 'fall' the only remaining option is social pressure (which can come in various forms) but that does require a critical mass as it's very much reliant on network effects.

On: SMLL: Using 200MB of Neural Network to Save 400 Bytes

[f_devd]

Having worked on compression algos, any NN is just way to slow for (de-)compression. A potential usage of them is for coarse prior estimation in something like rANS, but even then the overhead cost would need to carefully weighted against something like Markov chains since the relative cost is just so large.

On: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

[f_devd]

> Isn't it the employees' responsibility pay for their union membership?

No, contributions are handled by the employer/company

[bgnn → f_devd]

Individuals pay like 25-30 Euronth contribution, which is tax deductible. Employers can pay a lot, like 10% or more, which is often going to a social security fund.

On: ICE is using facial-recognition technology to quickly arrest people

[f_devd]

One likely source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/17/sam-altmans-worldcoin-beco...