MangoCats

Back when I was in Uni poor grades were considered a lifelong sentence to poverty...

Next up: AI adapts to evade detection by last week's researchers' detectors.

Yeah, Framework is a bit over a barrel on cost - never going to be able to compete until they get volumes up. It's an impossible thing: can't lower prices because volume is too low, can't increase volume because prices are too high.

There's 18650s and similar standard cells. Many laptop batteries used to be collections of standard cells back in the day - they could be again.

My complaint about laptop batteries isn't their ease of replacement (which has been declining over the decades), but rather their cost. That cost is driven in large part by their specific application - they've got it, you want it, and there's little or no supplier competition...

My MacBookPro from 2006 (and those of several colleagues) turned their batteries into spicy pillows in under a year. Glad to hear that the "you're holding it wrong" 5 bars signal strength everywhere you go phone company also has great (self reported) battery health, these days.

There's the raw cost of the batteries, then there's the hassle and downtime. If you just love hanging out at the genius bar then having your MacBook serviced is a positive experience for you - enjoy. I'd rather just grab a spare off the shelf and slap it in when I've finally had enough of my existing battery being anemic.

I seem to have notebooks thrown at me for free every so often, so often that I haven't bought one for myself in 20+ years, so what Framework does or doesn't do is a bit academic for me, but... if Framework makes their batteries generic enough that anybody (competent) with a 3D printer and a soldering iron could make them, you would think that would keep the batteries cheap and readily available.

I'd say we had more meatslop two years ago than we have clankerslop today, though the clankers are gaining share...

They value a laptop that excels at providing value for money, a compact design, battery life, and brand familiarity.

Value for money on what timescale? Most seem to only think about the price vs the functionality a few days after purchase. Longer term, the ability to upgrade and repair components instead of pitching the whole thing would be higher value for money, but that's not how most consumers think.

A compact design is nice, but not the be-all-end-all if Framework can get in a reasonable size/weight range.

Battery life is an oxymoron here... the main issue I have with laptop battery life is after a few years of use it dwindles, eventually to zero. When the battery isn't replaceable, or is a proprietary form factor which costs nearly as much as a new laptop - that results in horrible battery life and value for money performance, but does generate new unit sales for non-repairable laptops.

All the bad ones. This answer doesn't change whether you are using an llm or not.

Depends on the mineral content of the available water. If I hosed off solar panels with my readily available household water they'd be under a hard white (calcium carbonate) crust within a couple of dozen hosings.

Probably because they decided that the cost didn’t make sense anymore in the face of renewables.

The political costs of nuclear power are astronomical. Safety regulation is A) a very good idea, but B) grossly overblown and C) outrageously costly to implement to the levels NIMBYs demand. Satisfying them that a windmill isn't going to fall over and kill them is a lot easier.

A thermal control loop seems like it might be helpful, but the cost would have to be weighed against the remaining efficiency of a simpler setup.