Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock • Hacker News Board

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

#591

Post by jcalvinowens » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:35 PM UTC

burnt-resistor wrote: post #540

tharkun__ wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Same timeframe and I've lived through both lots of lightning storms and in areas with lots of power failures. Some of them intermittent and essentially caused by transformers blowing up. Like earlier this winter, we had multiple storms where you'd hear a transformer blow up, in many cases even seeing the sky light up as well from it, power going out, couple seconds, power coming back, next transformer blowing o…

Definitely use quality surge protectors on expensive equipment connected to generators. PSA: UPSes and GFCI/GFI extension cords won't work properly when connected to a stand-alone generator with a bonded neutral. I've tried using enterprise UPSes on such generators, but they absolutely won't work. In such scenarios, debond the generator's ground from neutral, apply a very large warning label to it being debonded, and…

That extra unbonded ground rod is the worst thing you can possibly do to make your generator vulnerable to lightning strikes.

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

#592

Post by dboreham » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #341

schiffern wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

EE living in a rural location here: transient related failures do happen in my experience. Rare but they happen. And I've known of people who had everything in their house fried. For me it's just been a couple of Ethernet ports. Power strips don't provide much protection fwiw. Always worthwhile checking that your electrical service is properly grounded.

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

#593

Post by kzrdude » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #169

pfdietz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economically I expect it wouldn't be that pure, since it doesn't have to be that pure to provide lift, and party balloons are not trying to maximize lift.

Out of curiosity I did a minor amount of research to get an idea. Turns out that you are right, some balloon gas is 80%. Specifically, the "Balloon Time" tanks you can buy at places like Target say "not less than 80%" helium. On the other hand, I went to AirGas and a few other suppliers and they seemed to have 95%-97.0% helium gas as their definition for balloon grade.

Do you know if the other 20% is oxygen (as was claimed) or if it's air? I just think the latter seems cheaper and more likely.

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

#594

Post by kzrdude » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

steven_noble wrote: post #499

"Helium production"? I'm assuming they're not running a fusion reactor...

We can try the same with "oil production"

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

#595

Post by dboreham » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #579

burnt-resistor wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely use quality surge protectors on expensive equipment connected to generators. PSA: UPSes and GFCI/GFI extension cords won't work properly when connected to a stand-alone generator with a bonded neutral. I've tried using enterprise UPSes on such generators, but they absolutely won't work. In such scenarios, debond the generator's ground from neutral, apply a very large warning label to it being debonded, and…

> In such scenarios, debond the generator's ground from neutral eeeeep. Please for the love of all that is holy, CONTACT AN ELECTRICIAN before messing around with that - or before creating a ground bond where none should be (i.e. TT grid [1]). You may end up endangering yourself if you do not exactly know what you are doing - in the case of TT, you get ground potential difference current from other parts of the grid…

I'm not sure I'd leave something like this to an electrician. Or if so at least make that electrician be experienced in this field. I think you'd want an electrical engineer to be involved with the plan to some degree.

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

#596

Post by klysm » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

znnajdla wrote: post #572

hedora wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a lot written about this in the 1990s during the rise of globalization and just in time supply chains. Basically, you build a big warehouse and keep it full when prices are below projection. This is equivalent to investing capital at a negative interest rate, so it’s not done anymore. Instead, the system is designed to pass supply shocks on to the consumer when possible. I’ve noticed the local grocery store…

> This is equivalent to investing capital at a negative interest rate, so it’s not done anymore. Stupidity of financializing everything. There’s no amount of money in the world that can quantify the safety of having critical items like food in supply. You can’t eat money. If everyone builds “just in time” supply chains the world collapses after a single shock.

Yes but think of the shareholders! And that doesn’t show up nicely on a spreadsheet does it?

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

#597

Post by SmirkingRevenge » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:50 PM UTC

tempaccount5050 wrote: post #341

schiffern wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had exactly one device fried in my life. This was when I lived in FL in 1999. Lightning took out my sweet new 56k modem. My PC was fine.

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

#598

Post by naasking » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

isodev wrote: post #498

SilverSlash wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, I think you have it reversed. A helium plant in Qatar shutting down causing problems to US chip consumers is precisely because of globalization.

So what, you expect 195 countries to develop a copy of everything just so they can hate the other 194? Connection and collaboration is always the better way forward.

Redundancy is not "hate", it's robustness against failure. Complex, interconnected supply chains are fragile. If you're building an online storage API, you would (I hope) consider it deeply irresponsible not to setup plenty of followers of the main system for redundancy and automatic fail over. The idea that supply chains should not do this, or that any such suggestions are emotionally driven decisions is extremely bizarre.

Yes, this may increase costs slightly because robustness necessarily has a cost associated with it.

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

#599

Post by naasking » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #515

SilverSlash wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, I think you have it reversed. A helium plant in Qatar shutting down causing problems to US chip consumers is precisely because of globalization.

You can have a 1960s isolated all in country production line if you're happy with the products of the 1960s.

It's a little weird that you seem to think that humans can't make technological progress without globalization.

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

#600

Post by energy123 » Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #590

manarth wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the typical inflation basket doesn't include rental income , which the upper-quartile are rather more likely to have than the lower quartile. Wonder how that might impact figures if residual/passive income were included?

Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) is about spending on consumer goods, and not about wage or investment income.

A separate index could be independently useful: The amount you gain/lose just from existing, so spending + capital gains + ...

It's not a fully baked idea, but something like this.