I’ve seen this called “jaw dropping” and “eye popping”. Just a good old fashioned consumer ripoff, but a huge one. And nobody in charge is making the slightest move to do anything about it. I’m dreading this winter already. From the San Antonio Express News.
Author: Steven Guccione
Solar Testbed Update
Still using two small incandescent shop lights to play around with the Solar / Battery testbed. Two small data points. The first is the nice curve of power output across the day from the Victron software. The panels aren’t at a good angle and are shaded by the house in the late afternoon, hence the sharp drop off. The second is the high output of over 150W. This is with no load, just charging batteries and not even in bright sun. Also at an angle. I was starting to expect a max of 120W or so even though the panels are rated at a combined 200W. Perhaps in bright direct overhead sun it will get close to 200W.
Batteries Replace Power Lines
A story from the New York Times about a small power company in Vermont that is hoping to install batteries in customers houses. This is the equivalent of putting in a water tank instead of bigger pipes. Makes lots of sense, unless you are in the pipe business. It is hard to imagine an electricity future that doesn’t rely heavily on batteries.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Substack
I am a regular reader of Kareem Abdul-Jabbars Substack. If I have any criticism it’s probably that I tend to agree with him a bit too often. I hesitated to read his piece on the recent Mideast conflict, though. But again he seems to be informed and reasonable. First his plea is for peace. Check. Then he mentions the thing nobody mentions. The recent realignment in the region, IMO driven by the coming end of the fossil fuel era. The Saudis, always seemingly ahead of everyone else, have begun talks with the far right government of Israel. This seems to be the match to the tinder. What happens next is really anyone’s guess.
“In this case, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon (with Iran’s help) chose the timing to derail talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel that would have undermined Iran’s economic and political influence in the region.”
Always fearless, Kareem also gives us his take on Taylor Swift and the NFL.
My Thoughts on Israel, Hamas, and a Deeper Look at Taylor Swift
The Great Zelle Pool Scam
An entertaining read on a cyber crime incident. From Business Insider.
The Great Zelle Pool Scam
An oil price reversal
I get the daily New York Times Dealbook email. Nothing that I would usually post here, but today there was a short piece about oil prices turning due to slowing demand. This is after big production cuts intended to drive the price above $100 a barrel. Oddly I went to the web site version of the mailer to find a link to the story and there was none. It’s short so I will just have to cut and paste it here.
An abrupt turnaround in oil prices has quieted a chorus of predictions that crude would soon top $100 a barrel. The apparent culprit: slowing global demand. Brent crude, the global benchmark, is trading at around $84 a barrel this morning, and is on pace for its worst weekly decline since March, Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in an investor note this morning. Brent is down roughly 13 percent since surpassing $96 a barrel on Sept. 27.
New York Times Dealbook October 6, 2023
FPGA Companies
I spent much of my career in tech working with FPGAs. It was no big surprise almost a decade ago when Intel bought Altera. Altera makes very (physically) large chips that are also very regular in structure and very good for testing out semiconductor processes. Intel has some of the biggest most expensive semiconductor fabs in the world, so it made sense. As a bonus, the Altera parts were very high margin. Seemed like a no-brainer, really.
Of course Intel could have bought Xilinx or even a smaller semiconductor start-up. But the final deal was with Altera. Many year later, AMD bought Xilinx, for reasons that are less clear. AMD doesn’t have fabs anymore, but I suppose the CPU + FPGA combination made sense to someone at AMD. Now it seems that less than a decade later, the Intel FPGA group will be spun out. I wonder if they will go retro and call it “Altera”. From EE Journal.
Intel plans to spin off FPGA group as an independent company nine years after buying Altera
New Orleans residents brace for salt water intrusion
I was in New Orleans this weekend and everyone is freaking out over this. With a massive drought in the middle of the country and rising sea levels, salt water is moving up the Mississippi river and is about to hit the water intakes for the city of New Orleans. I can’t help but add that this was predicted a long time back, perhaps decades ago. I will say it again, we aren’t prepared for what is coming.
New Orleans residents brace for salt water intrusion as Biden declares national emergency
Raspberry Pi 5
After a wait of several years, a new Raspberry Pi is here. I’ve been using a Raspberry Pi 4 as my primary desktop machine for a few years now and will almost certainly switch to the 5. A review from Tom’s Hardware.
Raspberry Pi 5 Live Blog: Whole New Board, Whole New Ecosystem
When The Klan Murdered My Protector
From former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Steven A. Guccione 