• 0 Posts
  • 181 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 8th, 2023

help-circle


  • There’s no technical reason an iPad can’t run full-blown MacOS or even Linux & Windows; Apple just locks down the hardware to prevent it. I dream of one day having strong enough right-to-repair protections that companies won’t do that anymore and we’ll be able to install whatever we want on the equipment we’ve purchased, but I’m also not holding my breath for it.









  • Plenty of free apps get monetized just fine. They just have to offer something people want to use that they can slather ads all over. The AI doo-dads haven’t shown they’re useful. I’m guessing the dedicated hardware strategy got them more upfront funding from stupid venture capital than an app would have, but they still haven’t answered why anybody should buy these. Just postponing the inevitable.


  • Reviewer opinions on both Humane and Fisker are pretty consistently negative so this isn’t some mean YouTuber with an axe to grind situation.

    The products are bad and people shouldn’t waste their hard earned money and time on them. Venture Capital firms may lose money, but that comes with the territory. Not every venture is a win.


  • If you’re meeting the cycler in its orbit, you’re already on a free return trajectory back to Earth by definition. You need another burn if you want to stop at Mars and another burn after that to leave and get back on a trajectory to Earth. In any event, you need to bring all of that propellant one way or another through some combination of independent launches. I’m still not seeing what a rendezvous with the cycler craft is doing for an unmanned mission. Any delta-v you take from the cycler has to be put back via refueling or reboosting at some point or another.


  • I’m assuming that’s what OP means. An Aldrin cycler is a cool idea and I’d love to see one developed some day, but I don’t see how it helps unmanned missions significantly. You still need to independently launch and accelerate whatever you want to send to the same orbit for the rendezvous.

    Makes sense for creature comforts (like life support and radiation shielding) for the long cruise but why bother for a robotic mission?