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Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

reuters.com

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Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#321

Post by deltaonefour »

yumraj wrote: post #143
deltaonefour wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, I think the above statement is irrational. Why does being a dictator automatically make you more irrational? Absolute power has no direct causal bearing on human intelligence. It does not make you more irrational or more rational. There are plenty of examples of good kings, bad kings, good emperors and bad emperors throughout history both for ancient china and plenty of other civilizations. Modern China,…

> Why does being a dictator automatically make you more irrational? People, including leaders, are influenced by those around them. A sane leader has advisors, which they trust to provide rational arguments, which sometimes may differ from their own. A dictator on the other hand is only surrounded by yes-men since anyone else would be thrown to the lions. So, there is no one to provide a counter argument to the dicta…

>A dictator on the other hand is only surrounded by yes-men since anyone else would be thrown to the lions

You say this asa if it's axiomatically true. It's not. This can happen. But it can also not happen.

>Pick any dictator/supreme leader and you'll see the trends.

In another thread, I have cited multiple historical and modern examples of where what you described did not happen. See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30459281

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#323

Post by contingencies »

jcadam wrote: post #48

I'm more concerned about Ukraine's wheat exports, personally. Likely to become a critical issue much more quickly than neon gas.

Well given the UN FAO already reported massive world food price growth driven by agricultural commodities, and the US, UK, Europe and China have all reported massive food price growth, this isn't going to help. The winners will be the large-scale agricultural commodities trading houses such as Cargill. They see this stuff coming and hedge appropriately before it happens.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#324

Post by jopsen »

fosk wrote: post #277
k0k0r0 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Putin is very rational and predictive. To be honest this war does make me doubt my assption that Putin is very rational and predictive. What is the rationale behind such a full-scale invasion? I don't see benefits that outweight the costs. I am happy to hear them, if they are any.

If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia won’t be able to defend it’s border from a conventional attack. By looking at a map, this is quite evident.

Russia is a tiny economy compared to NATO.

With modern logistics, I don't buy the geographic argument.

To be this is just Putin playing cards the rest of the civilized world have decided you can't play.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#325

Post by mannerheim »

fragmede wrote: post #282
mannerheim wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you identify all the vital components for not just what you need to manufacture, but the components of those components? How many people here knew Ukraine was a major producer of neon prior to this, and its importance to semiconductor manufacturing? You could try to become totally autarkic, but then you have to support a national semiconductor industry along with every industry it relies upon indefinitely, whi…

Does it need full top-down control of a substantial chunk of the economy to happen? A few regulations saying 10% has to be made in-country, along with investigators and fines to back it up seems like it would work without going full centralized-and-planned economy.

10% of what? Semiconductors? Sure, that's easy, and already done; US semiconductors are 13% of the global market, so presumably they're about that share of the domestic market and probably more.

The components necessary to manufacture them? Much more difficult. And remember, any encumbrance you put on Intel provides a competitive advantage for TSMC.

The other issue is if you require 10% of semiconductors to be made in the US, and 10% of their components likewise, that only leaves you with 1% of the semiconductor capacity you need if you really need to become autarkic. And that's only considering first order dependencies; what about the components needed for the components you need?

Now, even ignoring that, consider if Intel has to make 10% of its chips using machines and components made in America. Say ASML makes the best photolithography machines in the world. Some other foreign company makes the best of another machine in the world. And so on. So Intel has to manufacture 10% of its chips using subpar equipment. Who's going to buy those chips? If electronics need better chips, can you replace them with these in a pinch?

You either need to fully commit, or else it's pointless to begin with.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#327

Post by arzeth »

darkhorn wrote: post #269
mrweasel wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WinRAR/rarlabs is a German company.

The developer and his brother are from Russia. Also WinRAR is free in Russia.

> is free in Russia. I just visited the Russian version https://www.win-rar.com/start.html?&L=4 from Russia. There is still "Buy WinRAR" button. Although anyone can get an infinite trial version (like Sublime Text), some Russian companies buy it just in case, according to some random comments in threads that joke about mythical buyers of WinRAR.

Also I found rumors that the developer (Eugene Roshal) moved to Germany or the USA. No info found about his brother who is the WinRAR's copyright holder, which is what matters.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#328

Post by redisman »

Aeolun wrote: post #289
darkhorn wrote: post #166

Some Russian products that you would like to avoid: * Yandex * Lukoil * WinRAR * Kaspersky * Lada * Russian Standard Original Vodka * Stoli Vodka * Baltika * Lukoil * Gazprom * Kamaz * Masha and the Bear * Kalashnikov * Stolichnaya * Ural motorcycles * VK

I don’t think anyone needs any prodding to stop using Kaspersky.

What about my brand new Lada!

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#329

Post by cutemonster »

fosk wrote: post #277
k0k0r0 wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Putin is very rational and predictive. To be honest this war does make me doubt my assption that Putin is very rational and predictive. What is the rationale behind such a full-scale invasion? I don't see benefits that outweight the costs. I am happy to hear them, if they are any.

If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia won’t be able to defend it’s border from a conventional attack. By looking at a map, this is quite evident.

Putin wouldn't be rational if he thought NATO would attack. He would instead be dumb.

The things about NATO is what he says to mislead people -- and maybe that is a rational step in his restore-the-Soviet-Union dreams

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#330

Post by cutemonster »

outworlder wrote: post #311
fosk wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Ukraine becomes a NATO member, Russia won’t be able to defend it’s border from a conventional attack. By looking at a map, this is quite evident.

What's Ukraine bringing to the table that's not already accomplished by the multiple NATO members already bordering them?

Not much? Nothing? I think Putin talks about NATO to mislead people, and although the logic is a bit dumb, unfortunately some people believe him
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