Things you don't need to know…

Do you now have a shorter bucket list?

No, yet I did punish myself by forcing an in-depth study on the actor that stymied me. Twelve minutes of me life I'll never regain. -p

This winter the cost of electric power has been extraordinarily steep, some times more than 5 times higher than normal prices. Several factors contribute, some of them unreasonable in Norwegian eyes, but I won't goi into that.

Since this happens during winter, the cost of living will be problematic for many (I'm doing fine). Households get to some degree compensated by the autghorities which anyhow earn a lot of money from high price power supply (from taxes, and the fact that they indirectly own many of the power plants). Not everyone gets compensation however, and especially farmers and small companies suffer. I feel for them.

Recently, I saw that bitcoin-mining companies complain, the cost of producing said coinage now tends to exceed the income. For some reason I can live with that.

pibbuR who is (admittedly not much) ashamed to aknowledge that he actually likes that.

PS. On the other hand: "Intel Is Apparently Making a Bitcoin-Mining Chip to Save GPUs for Gamers" (https://gizmodo.com/intel-is-apparen…sav-1848378634). DS.

Originally Posted by pibbuR
PS. On the other hand: "Intel Is Apparently Making a Bitcoin-Mining Chip to Save GPUs for Gamers" (https://gizmodo.com/intel-is-apparen…sav-1848378634). DS.

That's both good and bad. Good because it hopefully frees up more graphics cards for us gamers and brings prices back to Earth. Bad because it might be an incentive for even more people to start crypto-mining.

What you need Pibs is solar power like I have, where the gov't actually pays me for putting some of my excess power back into general use for those who don't have solar. I guess it helps that we have 365 days of sunlight a year!!

Two men take corpse into Irish post office to claim dead man's pension

That's taking a valid ID to a whole new level!

Originally Posted by Carnifex
That's taking a valid ID to a whole new level!

"Dead, is he? Well that's a terrible shame… Now then, Paddy, if that's the situation, an idea occurs to me…"

I just hope those blokes aren't anyone I know! -p

Originally Posted by JDR13
That's both good and bad. Good because it hopefully frees up more graphics cards for us gamers and brings prices back to Earth. Bad because it might be an incentive for even more people to start crypto-mining.

My thoughts exactly. But it would be hard for Intel to resist the temptation with the pressure from AMD and potentially ARM. Competition is not always a good thing.

My hope is that they find more efficient algorithms (or that it's simply banned but there's little chance there). There's a good chance they keep improving it if blockchain applications continue to grow.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Two men take corpse into Irish post office to claim dead man's pension

Biometrics at its finest

Looking forward to the singularity?

Hah! This is what you can experct: Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-…shire-60084347)

I quote: "They normally sense the lip at the entrance [to the hotel] and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it."

pibbuR who from now on will make sure to keep all doors shut when turing on his version of said device.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I just hope those blokes aren't anyone I know! -p

So you have aquaintances likely to do such a thing?

pibbuR assumes (hopes) the carnifex is not one of them.

Originally Posted by Corwin
What you need Pibs is solar power like I have, where the gov't actually pays me for putting some of my excess power back into general use for those who don't have solar. I guess it helps that we have 365 days of sunlight a year!!

Well, we do have things like that here as well. Parts of the country (the east) actually has more than enough sunny days.

pibbuR who of course won't live in places like that.

"The rain in Bergen stays mainly on the plain" (after spending some time bouncing up and down.

Originally Posted by JDR13
That's both good and bad. Good because it hopefully frees up more graphics cards for us gamers and brings prices back to Earth. Bad because it might be an incentive for even more people to start crypto-mining.

I have until now been fairly critical when it comes to cryptocurrency mining. Turns out it's quite useful. Some places in Norway they use the heat generated to dry wood for buring in fireplaces.

pibbuR who now is a fan.

PS. For those of you incompetent regarding said use of wood, it is important to only use dried wood in fireplaces. "New" wood provide little heat, and may easily cause (unwanted) fire in chimneys. Drying wood traditionnaly (stored outside) takes half a year. Bitcoin mining will no doubt reduce the time required considerably. Easily worth the slightly increased prices of GPUs. So there!!!! DS.

EDIT: "pibbuR who now is a fan." NOT!

Originally Posted by pibbuR
Looking forward to the singularity?

Hah! This is what you can experct: Robot vacuum cleaner escapes from Cambridge Travelodge (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-…shire-60084347)

I quote: "They normally sense the lip at the entrance [to the hotel] and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it."

pibbuR who from now on will make sure to keep all doors shut when turing on his version of said device.

"While some joked about the robot's adventures, one feared for its safety in the great outdoors, pointing out that "nature abhors a vacuum".

No, I've no mates that I know personally that would do such an awful thing, though I do know a fair amount of people in that area. Hence the concern.

Wow, the NVIDIA-ARM deal was cancelled 3 days ago. Incredible.

Nvidia Deal to Buy Arm From SoftBank Is Off After Setbacks

The deal, which was initially valued at $40 billion, encountered regulatory scrutiny, including an F.T.C. lawsuit.

[..]
But Qualcomm, Microsoft and others that license Arm technology argued that the deal could harm their businesses. That resonated with some regulators.

In its lawsuit to block the deal, the F.T.C. asserted that Nvidia, which also licenses Arm technology, would be able to restrict access to that technology or manipulate the price that other chip companies paid for the technology. Nvidia also could misuse confidential information those companies shared with Arm, the agency said.

Nvidia and Arm rejected those arguments. Mr. Huang has repeatedly insisted that Nvidia would keep Arm’s business model. He also said the deal would bolster innovation, as Nvidia’s financial resources would allow Arm to develop more technology more quickly.

Nvidia also proposed remedies to allay regulator concerns. Those included setting up a wholly separate licensing entity, as well as licensing Arm-based intellectual property developed by Nvidia to all companies on a nondiscriminatory basis.
[..]

Not surprised given the modern market only has a few key competitors, and the current FTC administration under Biden in the US doesn't like monopolies of any type.

I can somewhat agree about how a few companies control certain sectors of businesses nowadays. That allows price setting and other negative consumer effects.

Look at current GPU prices.I doubt they will ever go back to normal when the supply issue is fixed. AS both AMD nad NVIDIA are making record profits in the pandemic.

I really do wonder what happens with all those "old" graphics cards when bitcoin miners buy newer ones ?
There must be *heaps* of graphics cards suddenly "appearing" *somewhere* , then …