On Aug 17, 2022, at 3:25 AM, David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
I don’t know what you’re referring to exactly about the economy
crashing, other than the typical doom-and-gloom nonsense that the
right-wing propaganda machinery floods the airwaves with whenever
Democrats are in charge of things. The truth is, things are always
shifting, slowly but surely.
As for technology, I’d make this simple observation:
At some point, the world leader in CPU chips — Intel — was
following along the same path they had been taking for years and was
working on a 5 GHz CPU when they realized that as they kept trying
to speed-up CPUs, the amount of effort needed to extract the heat
from the chips would make the hardware far too expensive and
cumbersome to remain viable. So they decided that multiple CPUs on
the chip where the CPU speed was around 2-3 GHz would be better in
the long-run.
I’m guessing that the folks at a world leader in computer
engineering — Apple Computer — also figured this out. Intel
sells chips; Apple sells computer systems. Dell buys Intel chips and
integrates video cards from another vendor that use Intel’s GPUs.
Apple doesn’t really care who makes what; they just want to
maximize their profits.
Coincidentally, video cards have been hard to come by because the
GPUs have been getting hijacked for use by crytocurrency miners. A
large portion of these have Intel GPUs on them.
Apple decided it might make more sense to simply put a bunch of CPUs
and GPUs on one substrate and then tune their software to run on
this sort of architecture, alleviating the dependency on separate
CPU and GPU chips and cards. There’s a side-effect in that nobody
is going to be hijacking their GPUs for other purposes.
Intel apparently didn’t want to lose the revenues they’ve been
earning from their GPU chip sales to crypto miners and, well, Apple
is no longer using either Intel’s CPUs or GPUs.
So while some say the economy is “crashing”, the 10 largest
corporations in the world are all reporting record profits and
growth. The stuff politicians are doing to continue long-term
policies that enable corporations to siphon off more and more money
from consumers is appalling, and may well lead to a lot more
discomfort and pain for consumers, but certainly not from corporate
shareholders and execs. If you want to profit from that shift, then
buy stocks in these large and growing companies. Warren Buffet has
large holdings in them, as well as Apple. He also owns a large
utility company in Nevada.
Speaking of utility companies, one thing that is surely going to
help “crash” the economy (for consumers) over the coming decade
is the increasing growth of EVs and their need to get their fuel
from the power grid. The same power grid that’s going to be used
to power computers and crypto miners. Some with
politically-motivated arguments might see it as convenient that
states like Arizona have passed laws that give utility companies the
power to punish consumers who want to install their own renewable
energy sources and batteries to become independent of the power
grid. Yes, we’re talking about those folks who’d like to unhook
from the inevitable increases we’re going to see in the cost of
electricity, especially since the cost of fuel to power generators
is also skyrocketing — and the profits from those price increases
is nearly all flowing into the bank accounts of the monarchy of
Saudi Arabia (with the help of elected officials in Congress, both
past and present, members of both political parties).
The tea leaves are pretty clear to many readers: there’s a big
shift towards more and more things in our life that require
electricity to run, and it’s inevitable that the cost of said
power is going to go up. But the price of gas is also going up,
which is contributing to the increase in power costs. Buying a bunch
of old computers that consume 3x the power of the newest computers
does not seem like a smart way to avoid increases in the cost of
electricity.
Make your home more thermally efficient so you don’t need to run
your A/C as much. Replace electronic equipment with newer
lower-power stuff. Reduce your overall carbon footprint by 10%. Grow
your own fruits and veggies. Set up a wind turbine or solar panels
to charge batteries that power your electronic equipment at home,
but do not connect them to the grid. Buy an inexpensive EV to get
around town, because in the long-run it’ll be far cheaper than a
gas-powered vehicle. (I recommend a Bolt or a Leaf as they’re the
cheapest EVs on the market today and will remain so for 2-3 years
due to factors like the global chip shortage. I got a 2019 Leaf SL
Plus, and I *LOVE* it! It only costs me 4¢/mile in electricity to
drive.)
While you’re at it, figure out how to generate $100-$200 per day
online to supplement your income.
-David Schwartz
On Aug 15, 2022, at 9:31 AM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
About 24 years ago I worked for a guy who used to say "There is
opportunity in chaos.".
Given the chip shortage and other things taking place in the
global space, present and future, I am wondering what do you see
as opportunity in this present/coming chaos?
FWIW I am an old guy who has started to realize that being forward
thinking is VERY important.
To keep things relevant I see that hardware is finally powerful
enough that 10 year old hardware can run Linux rather well. If
the economy really is going to crash it might be worth acquiring
some old iron, SSD drives, and RAM for future projects.
Your thoughts?
Thanks!!
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