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Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

tomshardware.com

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Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#341

Post by tempaccount5050 »

schiffern wrote: post #282
srik wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in developing countries taught me to never plugin expensive computers without a surge protector UPS.

Commercial uses layered surge protectors (Type I, II, and III), which is also recommended for other users but rarely followed. In surge prone areas, at a minimum I would have good quality whole-house surge protector (eg Siemens 140 or Eaton 108), and a good quality surge protector strip for any computer/TV/phone charger. I also put surge protectors in front of expensive white goods like the fridge, washer/dryer, dish…

Are you in an area with a bad electrical grid or something? In 40+ years I've never had a single device get fried from a surge/storm. My "surge protector" power strips are from the 90s and probably don't even work.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#342

Post by pwarner »

sillystuff wrote: post #254

The US just finished divesting itself from its strategic helium reserve in 2024 due to the "Helium Stewardship Act of 2013"[1] But, now we have a strategic bitcoin reserve. [1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527

Big self own here

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#343

Post by Joel_Mckay »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #332
xandrius wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still loving my M1 to be honest!

It’s super annoying. I’m salivating over all the new announcements but my M1 16GB 1TB will likely last another 5 years.

The SSD don't last forever, after about 3 to 4 years of daily use the drive/system should be replaced. At >5 years, one could hit retention issues and corruption losses.

Good excuse to upgrade though, as a $1500 recovery bill would not be cool. Best regards =3

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#344

Post by hermitcrab »

erxam wrote: post #221
smackeyacky wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer isn’t less voters, it’s more. Australia’s compulsory voting system has successfully taken the edge off extremist ideology.

Not quite sure this works out as nicely as that. Argentina has both compulsory voting and a legal voting age of 16 and it managed to produce Javier Milei (who makes Trump look like Kissinger). What's the best way to have a sane system? I'm not sure. I personally lost all faith in democracy.

Kissinger was a war criminal with a huge amount of blood on his hands.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#345

Post by jmyeet »

This situation would be laughable if the consequences weren't so dire.

I have problems adequately stating just how incompetent and ill-thought out this entire misadventure was. I say this because everything that's happened has been completely foreseeable and foreseen, including the ability of Iran to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz.

This has been something many militaries around the world have planned scenarios for. Word has it any warnings from allies, the NSC and the Joint Chiefs were just completely ignored. And those estimates probably underestimated how numerous and effective Iranian SRBMs and Shahed drones are.

Beyond direct impacts on crude oil, refined oil products and natural gas, there are secondary effects such as ~30 of the world's fertilizer goes through the Strait. Helium from Qatar is an issue but at least there are other sources for Helium, being pretty much any natural gas well so equipped to capture helium.

We are the bad guys.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#347

Post by joemi »

nerdsniper wrote: post #58
bilsbie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is lifting gas? That’s pretty cool.

Technically yes, but practically no. Air is 78% nitrogen. Nitrogen is 3.3% lighter than air. Helium is 86.2% lighter than air. Hydrogen is 93% lighter than air.

How much does that matter for party balloons, though? It's still buoyant.

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#348

Post by ddtaylor »

mkoubaa wrote: post #245
FpUser wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if this nonsense was true it is absolutely normal tactic used by the US when bombing is out of question. Use economic pressure by way of tariffs and sanctions until vassals are put in their place. So what's your problem

Don't reply to breppp it's an obvious spy/operative account.

HN guidelines link

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#349

Post by justin_dash »

haunter wrote: post #237
SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silver lining: literally all Macs are a total steal right now.

Too bad I can’t play the games I want to play on them

Crossover[1] is surprisingly good for this purpose if you game occasionally and don't need FPS-level responsiveness. You also need 3rd party software like LinearMouse and Mos to make a mouse usable.

[1]: https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover?srsltid=AfmBOor-7wbD-o...

Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

#350

Post by erxam »

hermitcrab wrote: post #344
erxam wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite sure this works out as nicely as that. Argentina has both compulsory voting and a legal voting age of 16 and it managed to produce Javier Milei (who makes Trump look like Kissinger). What's the best way to have a sane system? I'm not sure. I personally lost all faith in democracy.

Kissinger was a war criminal with a huge amount of blood on his hands.

That's half of the point of the comparison (otherwise I'd have picked Einstein or some other cliche smart guy).

The other half is that Kissinger was a smart and cunning piece of shit, and Trump is an absolute imbecile.

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