Returning moron here, missed ya guys.
Now, idk if this qualifies as politics but i guess it does have something to do with tech/privacy/hacking.
Free Julian Assange?
Surprised no one is talking about this honestly. @linuxxx any opinions?

Yep, the whole thing is purely political. We in the West talk up a good talk about free speech and freedom of the press, but dare say, write, or print something that pisses off the pols and all that talk goes out the window.

@iAmNaN eh, only some people believe in freedom of expression in the west. Most journalists sure as hell don't. But what would you expect from people like Sarah Jeong who threaten peoples lives, against every rule of journalism. Naomi Wu anyone?

Assange is a hero.

@Root no doubt about that. But there are no heroes without villains.

@fuck2code False. Look at Elon Musk.

There's no great evil he's fighting. He's just trying to make a positive difference -- and succeeding. (He also honors Harambe, and that makes him a hero twice over 🙂)

@Root you can categorize some projects that musk has as "stupid kickstarter with no engineer on the team". Teslas are awesome though. Until they break down

@Root he does seem like a good guy though.his accomplishments are also far greater than his failures but some of the stuff he does is pure marketing. Like the underground public transport with cars.

@kenogo @RantSomeWhere
You're developers.
Take ten minutes and think of everything you would have to consider to make self-driving cars that work on any crazy road, in any traffic conditions, that obey all the widely-varying traffic laws, and that predict collisions before they happen -- even if they'll happen on different roads.

But musk didn't write that himself? Fine.
He started the company and led it to what it is now.
He started SpaceX and led it to where it is now.
He wants to start colonies on Mars and beyond.
What about paypal?
etc. etc. etc.

He's as much a hero as any entrepreneur can be.

@RantSomeWhere
> Maglev train in a vacuum chamber.
> Ridiculous energy consumption.

Pick one.

Seriously, no friction means low energy loss, meaning much higher efficiency. A conventional train would take much more energy to move, especially at comparable speeds.

The primary cost is in construction. And permits/legalities.

I'm with @Root :)

@kenogo
Oh no, the evil four-letter word "profit"!

Seriously. profit isn't a bad thing. If it didn't exist, nothing would ever get accomplished. Look at every single communist country throughout history for proof. No personal benefit from working hard? Nobody will work hard. And if they do: burnout. Eventually: country burnout.

Anyway, I don't care that Musk is social and talks about everything, even things he really shouldn't. I only care about results, and he's definitely great at producing them. He's also not anti-privacy, and that's a gigantic plus.

He has the vision, drive, technical knowledge, and strength of personality to found and build those companies. Nobody else does. That is why he is absolutely deserving of credit.

You haven't seen my rant about old mate Assange then. No don't free him. Due process

@Root Musk is D. D. Harriman

@kenogo I think Musk is pretty frugal. If I'm not mistaken, he puts most of his profits back into his businesses.

@kenogo If Musk wasn't there, they wouldn't have a job. If the company didn't turn a profit, it couldn't expand or thrive.

I'm all for paying people well -- and firmly believe most deserving people aren't paid enough -- but the company needs to make money, too.

And good. The idea of communism needs to die in a fire. I'd go back in time and prevent Karl Marx from existing if I could. He's brought about more ruin and misery than anyone else in history.

@iAmNaN Yep. Aftwe all, what's more fun than building every great thing you can think of? Every day is working on side projects for him! Except they're major projects! That make money! And make the world better! Seriously, that's my dream right there.

@kenogo Lenin and Stalin didn't cause more misery than the industrial revolution and its child labor, miserable conditions, company towns, etc.? Really? Millions dead, and capitalism is still worse?

What about other communist states like Venezuela? People are starving there.

What about China? Say anything bad about the Party and you and your family suffers.

Communism still exists, people still think it's wonderful, and it is still causing misery and death. Capitalism... what? Doesn't pay people enough? It has problems, sure, but it isn't fucking ruinous. Every time someone tries communism, it fails and fails hard.

I will concede the point about workers' wages, though with unions, etc. the awful conditions wouldn't have lasted anyway.

@kenogo you’re woke af.

Elon Musk fandom is cringe. You never met the guy, so why would you believe anything about him? It’s the same marketing machine as Warren Buffet or Steve Jobs.

Anyone remember the hype train around the angel of Theranos?

@kenogo The world isn't fair.
Also, those that produce are the ones that earn. And they earn according to the value of their products.

Resources come from everywhere, particularly where they are cheapest. To address your example of Africa: African countries produce primarily raw materials. These aren't particularly useful -- especially to the average consumer -- and therefore have lower value than things made from them. If African countries produced something useful to consumers, with their own resources, and had built the distribution infrastructure, (plus marketing, etc.) they could also make great profits -- much higher profits than the US could due to substantially lower costs. The issue is that they don't and didn't.

Venezuela has loads of resources. And they don't do much with it either. Why? Who knows.

Those that can and will, do, and therefore profit.
Those that can and won't, don't.

Whalecum back 🙃

Regarding the Assange issue, it's saddening to hear that Ecuador expelled him and allowed the British authorities to capture him. From what I've read though, he kinda left his home in filth. One of my neighbors is like that too, he stinks and his apartment is disgusting.

Generally speaking though, I hope that he'll either be freed or that he'll be able to generate enough commotion to become a martyr. Once caught for high treason, realistically I'm placing my bets on the latter though. I guess it's a good example of how good things don't last long after all...

@Condor *cough*
https://enca.com/business/...

@RantSomeWhere Maglev trains ride on a cushion, and require almost no energy to continue moving due to insanely low friction. The hyperloop further reduces the friction through a vacuum tunnel, making it extremely efficient to power. Maglev propulsion also happens from the outside (or can, depending on construction) meaning a maintenance crew could move a "stuck" train manually. If the track itself is damaged, this would be a larger problem, but it would need to be a decently large section for it to incur any real risk. Remember, the train glides over the track, and very fast. Maglev is self-correcting, too, so again any damaged area probably isn't going to cause any issues. Seriously read up on it. It's pretty spiffy.

A puncture in the tunnel is a very real concern, however, as that would significantly reduce (but not kill) the propulsion efficiency. Fixing this would absolutely require maintenance and downtime to find and patch, and energy to decompress the tunnel again. A train could still use the tunnel with air inside, however; it would just take more energy to move it through.

The biggest concern of all, however, is earthquakes. If a tunnel shifts, it's going to be very difficult and expensive to fix.

Overall, the hyperloop has a high construction cost, high situational cost, and a low running cost. But hey. 500mph+ high-efficiency trains with very few moving parts? Could absolutely be worthwhile.

@M1sf3t I don't like cars, but maglev? Totally fascinating.

I know the physics of it, not the electrical part. That's just application anyway 😋 Honestly, I don't know electrical engineering very well at all. I never studied it, and found the basics kinda confusing. I really should try learning it.

@iAmNaN @Root @fuck2code @kenogo @RantSomeWhere @toriyuno
Letting you know that Musk is a massive hardliner.
Kicking staff instantly if he can work their position efficiently whilst their vacation.
That's just one example written black on white in his very signed biography.
Of course I still love him.

Now. Maybe discussion is coming back to our Lord and saviour Assange?

@scor "Kicking staff instantly if he can work their position efficiently whilst their vacation."

What does that mean?

@toriyuno
What @M1sf3t said plus a bunch of fear / exhaustment / grinding driven management.

@scor He definitely sounds terrible to work for because he expects everyone to be as driven as him -- and to require as little sleep as him, too. I can't function on three hours.