BlueLightning

Semi fabs need not only large amounts of water and electricity, but also absence of earth tremors.  Therefore, fabs should be far away from hydrocarbon fracking locations.  Some fracking areas have hundreds of small earthquakes in a matter of days, which can ruin chips in process at the time of the quakes.  

Unless operated in air conditioned spaces, most laptops, desktops and cell phones would be out of the recommended operating temperature ranges if exposed to 110-120 ℉.  For some, that temperature range may be out of the storage range (powered off).  

With all of the high temperatures lately, suspect air conditioning manufactures will be replacing a LOT of compressors under warranty.  Semi fabs have to maintain narrow temperature ranges.  Suspect some of the AC units were not designed to maintain proper indoor temperatures when outdoor temperatures exceed 110-120 ℉.  Worked within a jet aircraft engine parts manufacturing facility for 16+ years.  After power failures, the AC had to run for a LONG time to condition machinery to the proper temperature to meet exact manufacturing tolerances.  As I recall, it could take 12 hours to condition the equipment.  Expect computer chip manufacturing would require even more exact controls on temperature.  

On the plus side, looks like demand for pc chips is on the decline for now.  Also, probably lots of units available used from all the high tech. layoffs (more than 10,000 at Microsoft alone, plus lots at Dell, Meta...)  
https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/20/tech-industry-layoffs-2023/  

China is imposing export restrictions on some materials needed for more advanced chip manufacturing (notably gallium and germanium), in retaliation for our export restrictions on advanced chips to China.  

In a similar measure, some US made apps and software are banned (or in the process of being banned) in China and certain other countries.  China and Russia want use of Windows phased-out, starting with government departments and government owned enterprises.  China and Russia are likely not keen on use of Dell, HP, Apple, Cisco and other US controlled hardware.  

Seems as if wealthy firms and individuals think white collar crime (including evading tax) is good, but they hate it when they experience blue collar crime, such as shoplifting, theft from employees, or smash and grabs.  I see no difference between the two, except the former is usually MUCH larger theft.  If they don't want blue collar crime, then pay the taxes and don't cheat customers.  

patdiddy said:

Steve Jobs was a true genius. The only problem with the iMac’s early debut was that nobody had really dealt with Ethernet or WiFi at the time, in fact, the internet was just really starting to become a thing. 

Had it debuted with the iPod, Steve Jobs might have had the best way to get digital music, and saved apple completely.

Ethernet and the internet go back a long time before there was a GUI interface.  I still remember when the internet was not supposed to be used for commercial/profit purposes.  It was initially used mostly by universities and the military industrial complex, mostly on minicomputers and mainframes.  in 1969, the first four nodes on the Internet were a SDS Sigma 7 (UCLA), a SDS 940 (Stanford), an IBM 360/75 (Santa Barbara) and a DEC PDP-10 (Univ. of Utah) .  Ethernet was developed at Xerox in 1973-1974.  A NeXT computer was the first web server (at CERN in 1990).  OS/X and MacOS are derived from the NeXTStep Operating System, as are most of the other current Apple OS's.  

http://www.usna1959.com/m59/classWeb1stFour.php#:~:text=The%20sketch%20of%20ARPANET%27s%20first,and%20the%20University%20of%20Utah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_httpd  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS_Sigma_series  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-10  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY3Y8gb3jYA  

The advantage of using external floppy drives and CD/RAMs is more easy replacement.  In a business setting, it is much easier to plug in a replacement unit and have the defective unit replaced or repaired for use for the next failed drive.  

"Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It has been developed by Intel, in collaboration with Apple.[7][8] It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as part of an end-user product on 24 February 2011."  (Already 12+ years old.)  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)  

TB was originally intended to be an optical-based interface (thus the original name "Light Peak").  

"On 24 May 2017, Intel announced that Thunderbolt 3 would become a royalty-free standard to OEMs and chip manufacturers in 2018, as part of an effort to boost the adoption of the protocol.[132] The Thunderbolt 3 specification was later released to the USB-IF on 4 March 2019, making it royalty-free, to be used to form USB4.[103][133][134] Intel says it will retain control over certification of all Thunderbolt 3 devices.[135] Intel also states it employs "mandatory certification for all Thunderbolt products".[136]"  
(same link as initial wiki)  

Part of the issue may be the daughter is autistic (according to early part of story)  Some autistic children are very adept at one or more activities.  Bill Gates is said to have a very minor type of autism (Asperger's Syndrome).  Some of the high functioning autistic folks are called savants.  Common areas of savant skills include music, arts, calendar calculating, medicine, statistics...  More rarely, they may be very good at multiple things.  Some easily pick-up multiple languages with good mastery.  
https://www.ssmhealth.com/treffert-center/conditions-treatments/savant-syndrome#:~:text=Savant%20syndrome%20is%20a%20rare,childhood%2C%20or%20even%20in%20adults.  

Many feel if Al Gore had been President, 9/11 would not have happened.  Bush Admin. was advised to carefully watch threats from Middle East, which they failed to do.  What a FUBAR of an administration.  

Maybe earlier speculation on refusal of price hike was wrong (like lots of other Apple-related "news").  

TSMC (TSM) likely provided data that price hike was justified.  Switching to Samsung would have set back development.  
Out five years, others are planning 2nm and 1.4nm processes.  

Gas is about $3.25-3.65 in Ohio, up due to a refinery fire last month.  
High gas prices are hastening the switch over to electric.  
Ohio has also developed a lot of renewable energy, one of the reasons Intel is planning 7 chip fabs in Ohio.  
I'm running on Ohio river area hydroelectric at a rate 75% that of natural gas (and far less than coal).  

In the past, buying all the parts of an automobile, rather than the assembled auto, has been estimated to cost at least 10x the cost of the assembled car.  Plus the cost of paying for assembly.  Wonder if extended warranty will be discounted in the future, as an incentive, once supply exceeds demand?  

My experience with 3rd party insurers has been they frequently go bankrupt, and often have major exclusions on what they cover.  Historically, this has often been true of firms that insure automobiles.  If the firm goes bankrupt, the policy is not worth the paper on which it is printed.  Sometimes, there are limits on payments from the policy, and you may be limited in which firms will accept the insurance (or which repair firms the insurance company will accept).  You may be limited by what the insurance firm considers the fair market value of the device.  For automobiles, frequent exclusions include batteries, tires, brakes and other wear items.  

Apple and Microsoft should cross-license their inventions.  Better yet, they should form a joint venture Apple-Soft.  

Microsoft has a new solid state lithium-sodium battery that drastically reduces need for lithium.  
Combine patent in this article with the lithium-sodium battery, and they can corner the battery market.  
Bye-bye Duracell, Rayovac, Panasonic, LG, Tesla, Johnson Controls...