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Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

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Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#141

Post by bagels »

CobaltFire wrote: post #15
georgemcbay wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone whose funding is cut/questioned says it's wrong Everyone who made billions off the internet is too busy smelling their own farts to recognize that none of this waves hand in the general direction of basically all modern technology would exist without the sustained government funding that built ARPAnet and NSFNET.

I think you miss a critical fact: They absolutely understand that. They also see money/power as a finite resource and absolutely do not want any new competition to emerge via anything that could be created or funded by anything they do not control.

It's shortsighted because they are asking China to take over.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#142

Post by n8henrie »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #17
tomrod wrote: post #7

What a horrible outcome! NIST is, for most of its services, a self-funded agency and they define the acceptable standards for new tech. This makes no sense. Edit: Too much time on screen today. My apologies for muddying the waters!

Who said anything about NIST?

https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-services/semiconductor-ad...

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#143

Post by digitaltrees »

late2part wrote: post #114
thrfedsci022425 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal scientist here. The situation is dire, and this is only the beginning. We've lost all employees with < 1 year of service, which has halted the new projects they were hired to work on. Leaders of 100 employee offices were booted since they had less than 1 year of federal service--back to another interim director. Those of us left are hamstrung since all travel has been canceled, and our credit cards will have…

[flagged]

Micromanaging is not sensible oversight. It’s bad management. A $1 cap is an ignorant, arbitrary cap that seems designed to be punitive and consolidate power not save money. It will cost FAR more money in damage, late fees, early termination fees and other costs.

And your trite inclusion of “orange man” to every post as a method to diminish the op argument betrays your clear bias.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#144

Post by scarface_74 »

setikites wrote: post #108
carterschonwald wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fear as well. I’m not sure if even a magic wish to rearrange stuff back to the before January state of affairs is possible at this point. Write to your representatives. I fear that if they don’t pull off something the only ethical and responsible thing is civil war. This shit is insane and will destroy everything I like about our government. Also to quote every true patriot: the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. I’m…

Calling your elected representatives daily is more effective. The app 5 calls makes it easy.

Unless you are in a swing district that isn’t gerrymandered to death, your representative could care less about what you think. Their first objective is not to get primaried.

The biggest check on the administration is the Senate which confirms executive nominees. The Senate is definitely not “representative” of anything when Wyoming gets two Senators just like California.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#145

Post by fundad »

koolba wrote: post #83
abirch wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to these scientists, I heard from my friends in academia that they will be taking fewer PhD students because they're unsure of the funding. We may be looking at a lost decade.

[flagged]

More likely we’ll let others fund the research and when the discoveries are made into technologies, help our oligarchs pirate the technology.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#146

Post by Aurornis »

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #126
Kindra wrote: post #32

Notwithstanding the other awful aspects of all of this, there’s a certain vibe of, “people who don’t understand how a system works attempting to act like they know how the system works and are too cowardly to admit they are breaking everything.” This just reads like “Character Limit” except replace Twitter with the federal government.

Sometimes the only way to know something is important is to shut it off and see if anyone complains. For example, lots of stories in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9629714 . Now certainly the Trump administration could have been more careful, but they only have 4 years so the Facebook motto of "move fast and break things" applies.

> Sometimes the only way to know something is important is to shut it off and see if anyone complains.

These government programs aren't stray servers in a closet.

Even if you believe that these programs should be stopped, it's entirely wasteful to abruptly end them and let their work in progress just crash out and burn.

But it's still a very bad idea to operate this way. There is no rapid feedback loop. The negative effects can be subtle and take years to ripple through the economy and science world.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#147

Post by MyOutfitIsVague »

dragonwriter wrote: post #130
MyOutfitIsVague wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dictator is still in the oven, but it's nearly ready. Just needs a topping of constitutional crisis and a suspension of elections and it'll be done.

You don't need to suspend elections you just need to subvert them. For-show elections make good dictatorial theater.

Yeah, I was going to say that the most likely thing is "making the voting process more secure and reliable to make sure elections are fair" by setting up voting machines and counting processes run entirely by loyalists, but that's less punchy and didn't fit the metaphor.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#148

Post by xyzzy123 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #112
timewizard wrote: post #49

Why shouldn't the three monopoly cellular players in the US do this work themselves? Is there some reason the NSF is doing industry research for them? Are we /honestly/ afraid of "falling behind" in cellular technology if the government doesn't do basic research?

How is it saving money if the cost is just shifted elsewhere? Why does it matter where the work is done except for empty ideological signaling?

The cost would be borne by the consumers of Telcos / wireless services rather than by all taxpayers.

The Telcos would allocate funding / resources based on their financial position and their needs.

I dunno, tbh maybe the government can do a better job at right-sizing the service and running it efficiently than the private sector could? Maybe! But it feels like most arguments along these lines would also apply to the Telcos themselves, i.e, if government can do a better job why not nationalise the Telcos?

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#149

Post by 20after4 »

devmunchies wrote: post #90
dqv wrote: post #59

Interesting approach to competing with China on wireless technology. I would have thought the US having a competitive edge over China in terms of research and development would be important to Republicans.

The federal govt can’t be the majority of technological innovation. If we’re lucky this vacuum will be filled by an even larger private sector innovation hub like Xerox park and bell labs.

Not sure how you have such optimism. It will take a lot more than luck to rebuild what's being destroyed and we don't have what it takes.

[edit: Found a less condescending way to make my point.]

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#150

Post by jbaber »

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #126
Kindra wrote: post #32

Notwithstanding the other awful aspects of all of this, there’s a certain vibe of, “people who don’t understand how a system works attempting to act like they know how the system works and are too cowardly to admit they are breaking everything.” This just reads like “Character Limit” except replace Twitter with the federal government.

Sometimes the only way to know something is important is to shut it off and see if anyone complains. For example, lots of stories in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9629714 . Now certainly the Trump administration could have been more careful, but they only have 4 years so the Facebook motto of "move fast and break things" applies.

I wouldn't do this if there were lives at stake. e.g. turning off circuits in a hospital to see which ones are really necessary.

It's a very strong claim to say no lives depend on any federal funding.

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