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$50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

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Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#171

Post by jdc »

SEJeff wrote: post #50
jdc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is tanks in general have little use in the vast majority of modern American battles.

I’d say this is false, even as I myself am a US Army veteran who spent a year in Iraq 2003-2004. Tanks are still useful, but aren’t as useful against non-conventional forces. The pentagon has spent the past 4-5 years retooling for what they call “near peer” threats which is to say China in the Pacific and Russia in Europe. Tanks, and really good ones in specific, would be required to push back a Russian incursion int…

You're talking about threat assessment while I'm talking about something slightly different, which is the usefulness of tanks in past (modern) and active conflicts.

Anyway I'm not sold on tomatotomato37's claim that recent levels of American tank investment are unwise, but also don't have enough information to know otherwise.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#172

Post by LyndsySimon »

hellisothers wrote: post #46
tomatotomato37 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me how the US continually produces tanks despite the armies recommendations, to the point where we have enough tanks to essentially fight WW3 with purely tanks and still have some left over, just so some congressmen can keep jobs in their constituency. At least that was the situation in the 2000s, no idea if that wackiness is still continuing

Too bad we can’t field them all at once without depleting the entire national reserve of gasoline in 30 minutes :)

That’s OK - they can burn kerosene, diesel, jet fuel... I’m not 100% sure of it, but I bet they would run just fine off used McDonald’s fry oil if push came to shove.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#173

Post by Nasrudith »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #91
bluedino wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've bought "surplus" Dell and HP servers from different government entities that were two generations old, basically brand new in the box. I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons.

"I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons." the same happens in big companies. W have budget cycles so we buy test equipment when the money is in the budget even at the risk of it never being used. Otherwise you can't buy stuff when you actually need it because at that time the budget isn't there. Same with hiring people. We are letting good interns go because there is a hiring freeze. 8 weeks late…

Why not just give them a savings "buffer account" for the budget? Let them build up the remnants so that the available funds can build up some. Obviously you need to watch it still and be sure "underbudgets okay with surplus" don't deplete it entirely or too much builds up (as in multiples of the budget).

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#174

Post by Nasrudith »

wpietri wrote: post #78
searine wrote: post #5

This seems like kind of a 'gotcha' article. "One out of every $6 spent on machinery for the Tesla factory is now unused." I'd imagine most healthy large companies operate this way. Utilizing the majority of their equipment and having some reserve capacity in parts and equipment stored.

You imagine healthy companies just having 17% of total investment sitting around in warehouses because they might need it someday? I encourage you to read up on Lean Manufacturing and just-in-time delivery, which swept the US in the 1980s. Even to an MBA, over-ordering gear by $50 million is pretty obvious waste.

To be fair the healthy percentage depends on other variables. If there is enough of a "bulk discount" and it doesn't depriciate or obsolete the 17% may be smart compared to the alternatives.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#175

Post by Nasrudith »

danans wrote: post #84
lobotryas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely is a hot piece. Look how they went out of their way to mention that Musk is a billionaire (is that even true?). Hating on billionaires - so hot right now.

> Hating on billionaires - so hot right now People don't hate the billionaires, they disapprove of a system structured to allow some people to acquire vast wealth on the order of billions while large numbers struggle with the basics like healthcare, childcare, education, and housing, while that system pays lip service to their struggles while doing little to change it. Western European countries, Japan, South Korea,…

Rational people may do that. There is a sadly sizable contingent which absolutely does hate on billionaires though and let it become a distraction from /actually doing something about the system/. Hell often they violently oppose change to the same system which actually helps because of their own spite and selfishness. And it shows up in so many different ways and contexts.

From the racists on food stamps and welfare who want it cut and then are /shocked/ when they lose it after their canidates are elected. Everyone with a rent controlled apartment who opposes building more housing while blaming billionares simutaniously for gentrification jobs and lack of jobs causing the area to go to hell. Those complaints about traffic while opposing public transit expansion, or the sorry state of roads while angrily rejecting gas taxes to fund it.

Blaming billionares or any other helps them deny that the source of all of their life problems can be found in the mirror.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#176

Post by jfengel »

ng12 wrote: post #158
jfengel wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it's more likely overzealous GDPR paranoia. Not that that's any better.

Or more likely a simple cost-benefit analysis.

What provides the cost of allowing Europeans to see it? The server costs?

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#177

Post by SEJeff »

virtue3 wrote: post #141
SEJeff wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, ICBMs are strategic weapons exclusively. The tactical version of ICMBs are just tomahawk cruise missiles, and they're in nuclear submarines all around the world just waiting for the signal.

I donno, the "fingers of god" are also loaded in submarines ready to go whenever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(missile)#/media/File:...

Oh of course. Missile submarines carry both however. They're more likely to use the tomahawks however. The Navy loooooves to use them.

During the very first 48 hours (sustained) in the war in Afghanistan, a tomahawk missile was launched, on average, every 12 seconds night or day. The amount of boom those things made is unbelievable.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#178

Post by ng12 »

jfengel wrote: post #176
ng12 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or more likely a simple cost-benefit analysis.

What provides the cost of allowing Europeans to see it? The server costs?

At the minimum a lawyer and a technical audit. GDPR compliance is not free and for a local news station in Buffalo it's probably just not worth it.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#179

Post by jfengel »

ng12 wrote: post #178
jfengel wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What provides the cost of allowing Europeans to see it? The server costs?

At the minimum a lawyer and a technical audit. GDPR compliance is not free and for a local news station in Buffalo it's probably just not worth it.

Ah, I see, you were disagreeing with the "overzealous/paranoid" part rather than the "GDPR" part. I get it now. Thank you.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#180

Post by golergka »

csours wrote: post #115
gowld wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Solar City was a Musk (nee Rive) family business from the start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity#History > SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who is the chairman and helped start the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive > Rive is a cousin of SolarCity investor and entrepreneur Elon Mu…

> (That means that Rive and Musk are genetically half-siblings.) Apropos of nothing, I'm now imagining a world with forms of address based on the natural logarithm of shared genetic material.

I come from an old Jewish family that's supposed to come King David, and I recently met a girl who comes from another family like that (rabbinical sources describe a dozen or so families with reasonable claims to Davidic lineage). We used to joke that we're longest removed siblings ever, and now I'm curious about what that natural logarithm would actually look like.
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