41–50 of 84 posts
Perhaps chip shortage will finally put an end to the planned obsolesce of the smartphone industry, and bring some kind of stability to the whole thing.
> one large industrial conglomerate had resorted to buying washing machines just to scavenge the chips inside them for its products Is this really more efficient than say, contacting the washing machine manufacturer and buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). I usually applaud hacky solutions, but this just feels like a ton of unnecessary waste. I would prefer scrapping features (like…
> buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). Industries often act illogically in cases like this. You see it with many types of goods ordered a long time in advance. If there is a sudden shortage, the people who have ordered their raw materials a long time in advance (who have effectively purchased a future for that commodity) think they made a good move and see it as a business advantage…
But what about washing machine futures?
Or more realistically, how much is shutting down the factory going to cost the washing machine manufacturer in terms of employee compensation, lost employees (more hiring and training), washing machine brand losses in the market, failure to deliver on existing contracts, and similar? They can't claim force majeure when they shut down the factory merely because they see a way to make slightly more profit than normal.
So many smartphones are thrown away in the trash each year. How many chips can be scavenged from them? Perhaps chip shortage will finally put an end to the planned obsolesce of the smartphone industry, and bring some kind of stability to the whole thing.
The hard part I see is the issue with finding usable drivers for them
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?
I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea…
For context for other readers: the cost of one of these machines is about $800. That's a very small amount of money, often less than a single month's insurance premium. And for that the insurance companies turn medical treatment devices into anxiety-inducing spy machines. It's hideous.
So many smartphones are thrown away in the trash each year. How many chips can be scavenged from them? Perhaps chip shortage will finally put an end to the planned obsolesce of the smartphone industry, and bring some kind of stability to the whole thing.
As I moved on to companies where supply chain quality was important, we didn't do that anymore, but I'd be surprised if that marketplace has gone away. Especially for hard to find parts. I know of companies where 6-figure orders were being held up because of the inability to find a few $5 components.
It's less likely to happen for consumer products that are price-sensitive, though. There's a big difference between doing that with low-integration DIP parts vs fine-pitch SMT devices that have orders of magnitude higher transistor count.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea…
As someone who couldn't hit compliance either, any other sleep apnea solutions that have worked for you (or others?) (apologies about derailing into subthread)
Before I got my CPAP set up the one thing I found that really helped me was sleeping on an inclined pillow, up about 20 degrees. Not comfortable but helped me breathe. There are other treatments for sleep apnea if CPAP isn't working for you; some surgical options, oral appliances, fancier breathing machines. Worth talking to a sleep specialist doctor about.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea…
As someone who couldn't hit compliance either, any other sleep apnea solutions that have worked for you (or others?) (apologies about derailing into subthread)
Other good ideas are to try one of the mouth guards or a new pillow that keeps your head/throat area sort of tight.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?
I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea…
> one large industrial conglomerate had resorted to buying washing machines just to scavenge the chips inside them for its products Is this really more efficient than say, contacting the washing machine manufacturer and buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). I usually applaud hacky solutions, but this just feels like a ton of unnecessary waste. I would prefer scrapping features (like…
I posted earlier about orders being held up because parts were unavailable. If you have a customer for your $700,000 machine that can't be shipped because a $50 module is off the market, then you bet it makes sense to buy a washing machine to extract that part. The only other alternative is to hope that there's enough margin to redesign around another, available part.
We had a client pre-COVID that found themselves in exactly this predicament. If we could have found the part they needed embedded in another machine, that's exactly the recommendation we'd have made.
[edited]
The legendary OP-1 was recently discontinued. Prices are going through the roof. Multiple popular modular synth companies have closed up shop recently due to the chip shortage.
What can I say, it sucks!