tmay

lewk said:

What about Harris raising over $1 Billion for her election campaign.  Have you looked into how much came from Soros and other foreigners?  It is very seldom questioned when the money goes to Democrats, but if a Republican gets big donations, it is suddenly bad and the world is ending.  And as was pointed out in other comments, donations to inaugural celebrations and parties aren't something covered by the FEC.

Politicians from both parties accept all sorts of donations.  When I get concerned is when the donations are from people who aren't citizens, e.g. Soros and his son and many others.  Heck, the Labour Party in Great Britain sent 100 Labour Pary employees over to the USA to help Harris - and then they have the nerve to complain about Musk saying something about their party?  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

avon b7 said:

It's all basically nonsense and definitely has nothing to do with the blanket claim of 'national security'.

Even the Pentagon still relies on waivers to skirt 'obligations'. 

https://fortune.com/asia/2024/07/03/pentagon-huawei-ban-national-defense-authorization-act/

Much of the internet ends up running over vast networks of fibreoptic cables and Huawei has laid (and manages) thousands of km of underwater lines. 

The so called 'clean networks' that the US tries to promote (while trying to keep a straight face) are also nonsense.

Huawei offered to licence its entire 5G stack to a US consortium (just to allow it to have something of 'its own' to control) but the US refused.

The reality is (and always was) that the US sees China as being able to overtake it in key areas and instead of trying to compete with better products and technologies it chooses to try and bludgeon any rival out of the game. 

That includes 'allies' who used Chinese technology (5G for example) and who refused to play along. Just ask Boris. 

https://www.ft.com/content/a70f9506-48f1-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d

https://frontierindia.com/cias-black-ops-led-the-uk-to-drop-huawei-5g-book-reveals/?srsltid=AfmBOopICiosJ_OrLJshH8Hvh5XsjrMdXnaWYFfPhtMlbJg6G-7Q_XcV&utm_content=cmp-true

The UK was a prime example, seeing its 5G capacity and performance crumple into one of the worst in the EU and costing billions in the process. 

As a result China has become more self sufficient and is on an accelerated path to further self sufficiency. 

Erradicating TP-Link from US systems will do nothing to enhance national security and using Cisco might even make things riskier! Maybe that's tongue in cheek.

The internet is what it is, and has to be, for what we expect of it even if the US (and China too) would like to see it split apart in order to gain more 'control'. 

I believe Trump once put forward the idea of an 'American 5G' and had to be 'informed' of reality. If that is true (and I believe he suggested Apple create it) I'm sure it wasn't tongue in cheek. 

The Chinese embassy has told the UK to "stop creating trouble", after a businessman accused of being a spy for China was banned from the country.

The revelations about Yang Tengbo, who denies wrongdoing, and his links to Prince Andrew, have sparked renewed calls for the UK to designate China a threat to national security. 

The issue poses a dilemma for the government, which is hoping to strengthen ties with China to help boost economic growth and tackle shared issues like climate change. 

In the House of Commons on Monday a number of senior Conservatives called for tougher measures to protect the UK against covert Chinese influence.

BERLIN 

Labor supply in the German auto industry is expected to fall 6.3% by 2035, according to a recent study by the research institute Prognos commissioned by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).

The fall is expected to stem from the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and an unspecified amount of decline in demand for workers.

In the 2019-2023 period, a decline of 46,000 jobs in Germany was attributed to the transition to EVs, and if this downward trend continues, the study estimates that the number of jobs in the auto sector could decline by 190,000 by 2035 as Germany has lost its competitiveness due to high tax rates and rising energy prices.

“A competitive location with the right political framework is needed so that as much added value and employment as possible stays here and new jobs are created in Germany,” the study said.

The VDA reported on the study after automaker Volkswagen announced Monday that it plans to shut at least three factories in Germany in addition to massive layoffs, sending shockwaves through the German auto sector.

Inflationary pressures, high energy costs, slow economic growth in Europe, the rise of the far right and competition by China and Tesla plagued German carmakers, whose exports reach $302.6 billion annually, as they make up a large portion of German exports. The sector was put under severe pressure to cut costs to remain competitive while demand was low.

melgross said:

mpantone said:

melgross said:

I keep telling people to not listen to the negative analysts. Three predicted disappointing iPhone sales this quarter, while two reported very good iPhone sales.

This is like any other judgment from a panel, you toss the high and low scores out and average out the rest. This isn't specific to financial analysts, they do this during figure skating at the Olympics, surfing contests, etc.

No one analyst is always right all the time so it's best to take the middle chunk. It's okay to lean one direction or another if you see a particularly reliable analyst on one side of the fence.

For a while, amateur analysts (bloggers) were beating the pros on a regular basis.

Many analysts are rated by Starmine which tracks their accuracy over time. Any longtime follower of Apple's business will remember some horrifically inaccurate analysts that many Apple media sites LOVED to quote (*cough* Munster *cough*). Some were so consistently wrong that it was easier to best on the opposite of their take. Some were longtime bears who always came up short (Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley was like this for years before she finally came around and saw the light).

Since the start of the pandemic Apple stopped providing their own guidance so it has forced analysts to actually use their brains instead of just picking up the Magic 8-Ball.

The era of Apple routinely smashing expectations is over. Apple is more of a value stock rather than a growth stock here in 2024. It's not 2009 anymore.

As I've said for a very long time, AppleInsider (and other tech media sites) really need to track the accuracy of the analysts they quote. Market researchers like CIPR are mostly pulling their numbers out of a body orifice (I'll give you three guesses but you'll only need one).

I’ve been following that for a long time as well. I’ve seen a lot of things over my time, but Apple is pulled down by a few of the same people every year.

roundaboutnow said:

I was hoping the height would stay under 1.75" for 1RU rack mounting. At 5" wide, I'd be able to get three in a row on a 1RU rack shelf, but now I'd need 2RU, wasting a fair amount of space...

I wonder if they can be mounted sideways, so up to 8 would fit in 3RU. (Obviously rack would have to have proper air circulation). That would be a lot of horsepower and a lot more I/O in less rack space than the 5RU Mac Pro!

avon b7 said:

Unfortunately, the US has gone off the rails with regards to foreign policy, and technology related foreign policy is an important part of that. Along with agriculture which is also in line for a BRICS related shock.

Both main parties have little to no clue about the intricacies of the technology world and I am yet to see anyone with a coherent stance on policy decisions. It's just doubling down on more of the same. 

You would have thought the tariffs ideology would have been abandoned after the billions that had to be ploughed into US agriculture under Trump but here we are with Chinese EV tariffs. 

It's all very 'old school' and causing a huge amount of self harm to US interests at home (and abroad). 

A certain independence for semi-conductor production and associated subsidies to make that happen are common goals around the world. The EU has been following a similar goal for years now. So is China. 

However, TSMC made it clear from the outset that chips manufactured on US soil would cost a lot more than the same chips produced elsewhere. That's assuming qualified staff can be found to get the plants up and running. There is no way that any iPhone produced on US soil will be competitive and imposing import tariffs will just slow down the industry as a whole. 

Apple can only do so much. No doubt there have been abuses along the way but you implement protocols to weed out problem cases within the sourcing, refining, manufacturing and assembly industries. You audit and present the results. That is how it is.