Friday, February 04, 2022

Ice Falls


 

15 comments:

  1. Alan, good for you wearing an N95 mask to the courtroom. Insane that they allowed it to be nearly full in a pandemic! Hoping your mask saved you. I guess you'll know for sure soon.

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    1. The jury assembly room is by far the largest room in the courthouse, and normally there may be a number of juries to staff. I think there was only one jury needed that day. I think more than half the potential jurors were sent up to that court. It was on the 6th floor, which indicates it was probably a very serious matter, which would mean extensive questioning of potential jurors.

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  2. So, on Thursday I called our sales guy at the car dealership and said, "So, no truck for us in February." He began to offer the usual hush mush about how it should be here pretty soon, but I stopped him and explained that our Tracker has updated to say we should expect delivery May 14th. He hadn't heard anything about it!

    I tell you, I honestly know more about all of this than the dealership and even Ford Customer Service! Ford Central needs some serious remedial work on communication...! HOW could they update thousands of people's Tracker info without even letting the dealerships know to expect calls from concerned and probably angry customers?!!

    Anyway, I gave him some of the info I have and educated him. Then he sent me our updated Vehicle Visibility Report. Yup. It's official: "Microchip at Plant on Hold"

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    1. When demand and productivity slacked early in the pandemic, many (probably almost all) legacy auto makers discontinued their standing chip orders. The legacy auto makers use numerous chips, all of obsolete design and low profit for the chip factories. With all that productivity freed up, the chip makers started using it for other customers, particularly ones that wanted more advanced (and more profitable) ones. The current customers are not inclined to give up their contracts, and no sensible chip manufacturer is going to build a new factory to manufacture obsolete chips. Tesla uses very few--maybe only one--complicated modern chip in place of many used in legacy autos. On top of that, unlike legacy auto companies, Tesla writes their own software in-house. So they can use a variety of available modern chips, and program them as needed. Also they don't have to use up leftover parts.

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    2. I think that Tesla's rationalized electronics and their gigapress castings are each comparable in importance to Ford's adoption of spray lacquer painting after WWI.

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    3. Verrrry innnnteresting...!

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  3. Climate change: Satellites map huge methane plumes from oil and gas. [Click] “cutting methane emissions is an "easy win" in tackling climate change”

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  4. But what shall we do with the entitled imbeciles?

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    1. Give them three hots, a flop and free medical care on St. Helena?

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