Disqus - Latest Comments for cshotton

Re: Simple Artillery Shells (Space Age) 45/s

Chuck Shotton — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:11:20 -0000

There is a flaw in this blueprint. The radar assembler dumps its output onto the same side of the belt as the explosives, and this fails. Needs an inserter to move radars onto the far side of the belt.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:41:24 -0000

Well, plenty of countries have already set deadlines for ending the sales of ICE automobiles within 20 years or less. Guess you missed that.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:39:57 -0000

I suppose that by expressing that opinion, you feel that you are more experienced? Otherwise, how could you gauge my personal experience relative to the rest of the world, given that you are a complete stranger? So I should be thanking you for taking time away from your duties as the REAL "most experienced person in the world" to mention me in a useless Disqus comment. I'm honored!

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:24:33 -0000

News flash! Countries outside the US supply a LOT of things we can't make here. Like flat screen TVs, cell phones, and Armani suits, just to sarcastically name a few.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:19:19 -0000

You've never ridden in a Tesla or Subaru or BMW or GMC car with autonomy features, have you? Maybe you should before you make a fool of yourself in a public forum again. They don't work the way you mistakenly assume they do.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:03:22 -0000

Yes, back to the original discussion. I see that you conveniently sidestepped acknowledging any of the other subsidies that I listed that I am sure you benefit from. But it suits your argument to cherry-pick only those subsidies that you don't find immediately beneficial, rather than admit to benefiting from government largess, yourself, right?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:59:39 -0000

What do you think "engine-related" means? Windshield wipers are not "engine-related". But an ICE needs water pumps and fuel pumps and several other electric motor components that are irrelevant in an electric vehicle. That's the point I was making by excluding "engine-related" electric motors, your desperate hair-splitting aside. An ICE car has far more electric motors using your precious "REE"s than an electric car does. So, try again, Alec. Your current line of "logic" has failed to make your point.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:51:49 -0000

Your reading for comprehension needs work. You said "when a car drives itself" and the proceeded to point out the pointlessness of owning an autonomous car. I re-cast your "argument" in terms of autonomous aircraft, of which there are hundreds of thousands in commercial operation all over the planet, and you tell me my logic needs work. The point is that autonomous vehicle operation is a thing that you, yourself, benefit from when you fly in any commercial aircraft. Yet you seem to draw some sort of distinction that says when a car does it, it becomes worthless. Why is it OK for an airplane to fly itself with you as a passenger, but not OK for a car to do the same thing? I understand that you probably don't realize that 90% of the time you are aboard a commercial airliner, a computer is flying the plane. I'm guessing you've never ridden in a Tesla, or Subaru, or any other car with the same level of autonomy and must not really understand that there is a driver behind the wheel, just like there is a pilot behind the wheel, and neither of them is required to operate the controls while you are a passenger if things are operating as expected. But given that tidbit of knowledge, do you see why your comment is silly? Nope, didn't think you would.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:01:00 -0000

Name-calling surely enhances your debating skills. I'm in awe. And since you didn't bother to read the entire article, here is a critical paragraph that may help with your understanding of what a subsidy is:

"Subsidies are handed out in all kinds of industries, with U.S. corporations collecting tens of billions of dollars each year, according to Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that tracks government subsidies. And the incentives for solar panels and electric cars are available to all companies that sell them."

If you are unhappy with your government providing economic incentives to particular industries, you should stop consuming dairy products, quit using electricity, don't eat any corn, forget cigarettes, give up on gasoline in most of the country (mixed with ethanol), and don't fly any domestic airlines or drive any domestic automobiles. Oh, and stay off those highways that federal tax dollars constructed in your state, avoid any public airports, and don't drink any water from those reservoirs that might have been subsidized by the government.

Your selective concern about subsidies that benefitted Tesla and SpaceX is a bit hypocritical, wouldn't you say?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:40:59 -0000

LOL! How many electric motors are in the typical ICE car? Hmm. Fuel pump, water pump, transmission circulator, washer fluid pump, electric windows, power steering pump, power brakes pump, air conditioning compressor, power trunk latch, air compressor for adjustable suspension, windshield wipers, etc. You can strike all of those engine-related ones from an electric car and replace them with the single drive engine. I think you better pick a different argument to try and make, Alec.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:35:02 -0000

That's a lot of subsidies. You do know what a subsidy is, right? And did you happen to read in the article who was the recipient of them?

(BTW, do you drink milk? Do you get mail via the USPS? Do you drive a domestically manufactured car? Have you flown in an aircraft manufactured by a US company? Did you eat anything made out of corn this week? Did you drive a car that had ethanol in its fuel? Did you happen to turn on a light that was powered by a coal fired or nuclear power plant? Did you use the Internet today? Every single one of those things benefits from "subsidies".)

Perhaps you should seek your boogeymen elsewhere? Subsidies are the way the government incentivizes consumers and industries to do things that may not appear to be in their best interests, but that the government thinks is the right thing to do. Perhaps your issue should be with an overreaching government that attempts to manipulate the economy through artificial means? But then that'd mean paying $15 for a gallon of milk and $2000 for a plane ticket from Chicago to Des Moines. Would you like that? Probably best to dial down the hypocrisy if not.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:28:47 -0000

I'm thinking you don't really understand what a subsidy is, or who benefits from them. But it's a great, emotionally stimulating headline. Got you going, didn't it?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:26:46 -0000

Thanks for the ad hominem attacks, Joe. It shows the depth of your intellect. I offered three facts that you apparently skipped over in your rush to "educate" me. First, I offered that *manufacturers* require the return of the battery packs. In almost all cases, you don't own them (if you have ever had the opportunity to read your sales agreement, you'd know). I said nothing about the government requiring it, so the absence of a fact on that point is purely your own construct.

I also offered two statistics on the efficiency of internal combustion engines in converting fuel to motive force, and a comparable statistic for electric generation facilities. Did you see those? Were those not factual enough for you? Google is often a hard tool to use, so might I suggest the following two searches in case you are unable to successfully construct the search terms yourself: "internal combustion engine efficiency" and "electric power plant efficiency". Both searches return numerous reference documents and statistics that will help alleviate some of the illusions you are currently operating with. I think you should stay away from the basketball analogies in the meantime, as they have little relation to the facts at hand. It's also OK if you want to just drop the subject. Science is hard and you might pull a muscle.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:14:47 -0000

Teslas cost exactly what they are worth to the people who buy them. That's how capitalism works. If they didn't have value, they wouldn't exist in the market. And for the record, Tesla agrees to buy back your car for at least 50% of its sticker price within 5 years of purchase. Do you know of another auto manufacturer that makes a similar offer?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:12:58 -0000

People like Devin cannot be bothered with facts. They have a Fox News-like narrative that they've been fed without bothering to critically analyze it, and they repeat the litany to gather approval from their like minded friends. Facts just confuse their narrative. Stop offering them.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:11:10 -0000

He's just got a PR person that gets him the occasional blurb in the hometown paper. He doesn't do anything real in the tech industry and hasn't since the early 80s. Woz is a nice man, but some of the stuff he says is embarrassingly naive from a technology perspective. That he is even quoted at all is a testament to the mythos created by Apple's PR long ago.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:08:20 -0000

Infallible logic. So when a plane flies itself (as most commercial airliners do for about 90% of the flight), we should.... what? Call a taxi?

"Better stock up on those buggy whips! Those new-fangled gas-o-line cars aren't gonna take off. Nothing beats a good horse!"

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:05:37 -0000

I don't know who feeds you the mental pablum you are sucking on, but I'd challenge you to show me an appropriation bill from the US Congress that allocated tax money to Elon Musk. You have some echo chamber factoid that you heard some other ill-informed person spew, you like the sound of it, so you spew it yourself. But it's not a fact borne of reality. If it is, kindly post a link to the appropriations bill here with an appropriate reference to Elon Musk or any of his business interests.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:03:17 -0000

How did they steal it? Break into Fort Knox? Rob the Federal Reserve? You should probably tell the FBI!

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:01:26 -0000

Well, I guess we'd better get rid of autopilots on aircraft, because you wouldn't want to be an idiot and trust your life to one, eh? Or perhaps any number of lifesaving medical devices that monitor your vitals and do things like adjust heart rhythms, stop epileptic episodes, adjust blood sugar, handle breathing for you, or any other sort of autonomous system that does something that you should be doing yourself, right? I guess you shouldn't try making a cell phone call or using that Internet thing, because there's lots of smart software between you and me that is doing the job you should be doing. And by the way, if you think "artificial intelligence" is a thing, you're a victim of sensationalized media. Anyone who is actually in the industry knows that AI (strong AI) isn't a thing. Autonomous operation of a mechanical system is not "AI". There's nothing "intelligent" about it. It's just software doing the job it was programmed to do. By a human. So who's the lazy idiot again?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:59:52 -0000

Your ignorance is astounding. There is nothing in Lithium Ion batteries that is radioactive. And lithium is not a "REE". Maybe you are due for some "reasearch", yourself?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:51:10 -0000

I'm sorry I hurt your snowflake sensibilities. Let's hold hands and sing a song to make up, OK?

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:50:12 -0000

I guess I'm just supposed to take your word for that, since you cite no sources? (Good luck finding anything that details government grants to Musk totaling $4.9B, by the way. I think you are a victim of some fake news...)

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:47:09 -0000

Can you cite a source for your $3 billion number? Because I think you're just making that up.

Re: Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’

Chuck Shotton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:46:06 -0000

Robert, are you just a troll, or are you really that oblivious to the facts? Pre-orders for the Model 3 started less than 2 years ago and the deposits are 100% refundable. The cars are shipping now, in case you missed that.