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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

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Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#981

Post by indeedmug »

cdnthrownawy39 wrote: post #763
mrtksn wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very interesting anecdote because it resonates with something that a friend of mine said when I pressured him to explain which regulations exactly are causing him problems in EU. As it turns out, he also complained about excessive documentation he needs to get public funds for his project. So both of you are actually complaining about accessing public funds and not actually doing private investment or startin…

Sort of. Accessing private Canadian financing is a lot harder for the most part, our financial sector is notoriously risk averse for any sort of personal or business loans unless there's a path of guaranteed returns and you have a track record of getting those returns. Last time one of my bosses tried to get something like $2 million in raising funds with Canadian investors, they said that we needed to show I think a…

> Sort of. Accessing private Canadian financing is a lot harder for the most part, our financial sector is notoriously risk averse for any sort of personal or business loans unless there's a path of guaranteed returns and you have a track record of getting those returns. Last time one of my bosses tried to get something like $2 million in raising funds with Canadian investors, they said that we needed to show I think at least $2 million in net profits for 4 or 5 years at least.

If someone's businesses is already working, then why would they go and get investment money?

It seems like the investors don't realize that if someone does have that much net profit, they actually don't have that much leverage over them to get good equity deals. So they are essentially just paying high and selling low later.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#982

Post by mjburgess »

lordnacho wrote: post #475
mjburgess wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The job of secondary financial markets is to redirect areas of surplus unproductive wealth (that makes no return), to productive areas. By the magic of markets, sustained profitability = productive use of resources. The problem with labourers who work in these secondary markets however, is the same as the guards who watch the gate: they can extract large tolls for being in the right place at the right time. People in…

> The system functions very well to take unproductive surplus and allocate it effectively. How do you quantify this?

feels^2

But also, profit margins of major industries; amount of wealth held liquid; and so on.

You might have a moral idea of 'effective' in mind, which may not be realised. I mean only that one does not find cash lying around the vautls of the ritch -- as in pre-modern times. People do not bury gold as jesus advised. Rather they dont keep gold, it is a line item held by a business doing something with it.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#983

Post by fuzzfactor »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #952
fuzzfactor wrote: post #890

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Examples of wasted potential: > Sarah: Built a fusion reactor at 16. Now? Debugging fintech payment systems. > James: 3D-printed prosthetic limbs for A-levels. Today? Writing credit risk reports. > Alex: Developed AI drone swarms for disaster relief at 18. Graduated with top honours from Imperial. His job? Tweaking a single button's ergonomics on home appliances. >These aren't outliers. They're a generation of engin…

Inflation in the 70s was caused by oil price shocks. Much of the physical economy relies on oil in an unhealthy way. If you're looking for a culprit, I'd suggest a closer look at that. Meanwhile industrialisation has been off-shored to China, which is now the tech and industrial powerhouse the US was in the 50s and 60s. The former industrial centres in the US and UK were largely left to rot, because the people doing…

>relies on oil in an unhealthy way

You've got me there.

That's what I started doing in the late 1970's :)

>I'd suggest a closer look at that.

That's one thing I have been doing in real-time since the 1960's, you should have seen how bad it already was before the oil shock.

Oil shock was just the nail in the coffin.

I made sure I could do a lot of unique things with oil & gas ever since.

Would never have done that if things hadn't gotten so bad, I was into alternative energy.

Still spent most of my time with chemicals anyway, for one thing they aren't cheap enough to burn for fuel and that makes a big difference, even if many of them are more toxic than petroleum itself.

There's always been more money in oil though, because there's so god damned much of it :\

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#984

Post by rUsHeYaFuBu »

cpursley wrote: post #279
samastur wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a myth they tell themselves. USSR won by incredible amounts of American supplied material.

You’ve watched too many Hollywood movies. Yes, Lend-Lease was very helpful - but only about 5% of Soviet GDP. For example, the Soviets produced more tanks than all other allies combined, and that was while under massive active attack and invasion - even moved entire factories. The real myth is that the Soviets just threw meat waves and would have lost without Uncle Sam. Most of that was anti communist propaganda and…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_Wor...

Tanks & SPGs

British Empire - 47862

USA and territories - 108410

USSR - 119769

Other vehicles

British Empire - 1475521

USA and territories - 2382311

USSR - 265000

Bombers

British Empire - 38158

USA and territories - 96872

USSR - 21116

Total large ships

British Empire - 558

USA and territories - 2020

USSR - 63

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#985

Post by emchammer »

rbanffy wrote: post #740
llm_trw wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd go one further and say you have to be at least a journeyman in whatever tools your process is using. The difference between someone designing a part in cad and someone designing the tool paths for the machine that makes the part in cam is night and day.

> The difference between someone designing a part in cad and someone designing the tool paths for the machine that makes the part in cam is night and day. I remember, in a CNC programming class, the instructor calling out one of the students on a lathe program: "One millimeter increments?! What material do you think you are using? Styrofoam?!". That class is where I feel in love with the ASR-33 teletype and its caden…

Did the instructor's comment mean that 1 mm increments are very large, and he expected the student to be doing much finer work?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#986

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

8338550bff96 wrote: post #906
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a metric, or not?

Do you have any sources that you would recommend? So far, you're throwing out "got a source for that?" left and right and when you get a source you've nothing to say. Just curious if you have knowledge about this subject or if you're just trying to block the conversation from going in directions you don't like

My response was to a post that did not provide a source, and at the time it was made, no source had been provided.

[EDIT: Having now reviewed the source that was provided, it certainly supports a drop in industrial production, but I'd be skeptical that it indicates "de-industrialization" ]

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#987

Post by shermantanktop »

dukeyukey wrote: post #942
shermantanktop wrote: post #923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad to hear it’s working out for you. I’ve talked to too many UK devs who feel handcuffed when they get even 50% of the US equivalent, because it’s a pay cut to go elsewhere. But, as you say, it’s all relative.

Can't beat yourself up for not getting a salary commensurate with an entirely different economy and strict visa rules. That's just torturing yourself.

If you work for an American company, then your teammate back in NYC might be a daily reminder.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#988

Post by rangestransform »

coopierez wrote: post #251
bboygravity wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the UK should look at what Singapore did and maybe learn from that. There's really no excuse for a country like the UK other than ordinary plain and simple mis-management from the top. Singapore did not depend on neighboring countries to climb out of 3rd world poverty. To name an example.

The UK cannot just "be Singapore". What happened in Singapore was a specific, unrepeatable combination of its geography, the needs of the region, the size of the country, and the culture. To maintain its wealth today, Singapore relies on a large underclass of underpaid non-citizens. Around 40% of the country are non-citizens. In addition, London sort of has its own Singapore(s) in the form of the City and Canary Whar…

> Singapore relies on a large underclass of underpaid non-citizens. Around 40% of the country are non-citizens.

There is nothing stopping other wealthy countries from doing this besides egalitarian values, it could take the place of illegal immigrants in agriculture in the US for example

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#989

Post by tomhoward »

DrScientist wrote: post #948
tomhoward wrote: post #921

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen it work once, but it was hard over the long term: LIFX (smart light globes) [1], which was launched on Kickstarter in 2012 by people working from the same co-working space and accelerator I was involved with then (so I kinda had a backstage view on it). Products like that work if there's natural consumer appeal built into the product, that you can convey in a video that gets people excited imagining how muc…

Thanks - there is no doubt software startups, with typically limited capital requirements are easier than almost anything else. > Products like that work if there's natural consumer appeal built into the product, I see customers as a wider pool than end consumers - they can also include businesses - quite a few large businesses also have investment arms. For example you mentioned Philips - they have one - https://www…

The worry is not so much that they’ll steal your IP (good legal protection can prevent that), but those kinds of corporate VC funds are generally looking to invest in things that fit in with their own corporate strategy and plan. The investment is a bit of a “try before you buy” before eventually acquiring the company and making the product part of their own offering.

That can be a good path if you’re making something that one of these companies would want to acquire and an acquisition by such a company is an appealing outcome for you.

But it’s not going to help you if you want to be an independent company and brand that can do things the way you want long term.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#990

Post by GasVeteran »

ben_w wrote: post #976
GasVeteran wrote: post #940

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be better if we just change the immigration policy. Last time I checked there was 400,000 leaving the country each year and somewhere between a million and 1.4 million entering. I live in the countryside (I live in a small flat btw so I don't care about property prices) and I don't want everywhere in the country built over, which seems to be something here everyone wants for some bonkers reason. If you want…

> I don't want everywhere in the country built over, which seems to be something here everyone wants for some bonkers reason. If you want to live in a concrete jungle that is fine, I and many others don't. I moved out of Manchester because I hated it there. Scale issue here: if "everywhere in the country" were build up to the population density of Manchester city, the UK would house 1.2 billion people. I'm fairly con…

Apparently you don't understand the concept of hyperbole.
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