The Tesla truck is the most interesting product announcement I have seen in many years.
The specs far outcompete any existing pickup truck. There is onboard 110V and 220V AC output. Onboard compressor. The tailgate lets you roll your gear on. It is much cheaper than a comparable F150; only 10% more expensive than the cheapest F150, and then the tax credits and savings (see next para) kick in. It can carry 1.5 tonnes, tow a lot more. The F150 maxes out at 1.05T, don't even ask me how much it costs and how much fuel it guzzles at that capacity.
EVs are currently doing 300,000 miles when ICE vehicles die out at 150,000 miles. Understand what this means - humanity will need half the vehicles it currently produces in order to meet its transportation needs, once we migrate from ICE to EV. Moreover, the key component in an EV - the battery - just lives on as a solar/inverter battery even after its vehicle is dead.
Maintenance savings over 300,000 miles are adding up to $4,000. Fuel savings, $20,000 at current prices. Body is dent and rust proof, windows are nick and scratch proof.
Idiots are tittering over a half smashed window, when they've never built or demoed a product before and don't realise how ridiculously heavy and hard a steel ball is. The auto industry just had the ground cut from under their feet. If every auto major isn't wholesale throwing away their entire ICE roadmap, they're just driving fast into their sunset.
And now it comes with solar charging.
This is a world where people who have never driven a truck, never hauled even half a ton of gear, camped in the wilderness, lived off the grid for more than a day, or used just their hands and their brains to fix something, have opinions about how a truck looks. The only good looking truck is a truck loaded with gear, covered in mud and driving off road. Anything else is a toy for yuppies.
Not a fan of Elon because I detest his attitude, but I know vision, mission and execution when I see it. And I can tell when someone launches a product I could put to good use.
I wish I could deny most of the allegations in this article. I can't. IITM does stick out as a sore thumb in the social justice landscape of TN. In any other state in India, except TN and Kerala, it would have fit like a glove with its casteism and elitism.
Oooo. Can we please interview our politicians like this. I'd actually watch TV then. Don't be nice to your elected representatives. They're doing a job. Just ask them how they're doing it.
Our presswalah's son comes every evening to deliver our ironed clothes. He is about the same age as my boys. Like them, he attends a private school.
By working in his family business, the child is picking up work ethics and skills that will be useful to him throughout his life. Meanwhile, my kids spend their evenings honing their skills on Google Sheets or reading a science book.
Eventually these two sets of kids will compete on #merit for the same college seats and jobs, even though my kids have access to a better school, better tools, better nutrition, more leisure.
If my kids can't make it through the competitive college admissions, we will blame reservation/affirmative action, then buy them a seat in a private university.
When they eventually become successful in life (which I am confident they will), society will credit their #hardwork, #intelligence and #genes for their success. No one will talk of their #privilege. No one ever taught me about my privilege (Okay, maybe they did, but I wasn't listening).
In college I noticed how much harder it was for students who came from a poor background. Banks wouldn't give them educational loans, even though they were IIT students with a bright future, simply because their parents were incapable of guaranteeing their loans (IIT was willing to guarantee the loans but the banks didn't care).
Meanwhile, college costs will continue to rise faster than wages, putting even publicly funded universities out of the reach of students who need that education the most.
I have received flak from friends for not informing them, asking them, taking them along when I leave for our caravan trips. So here is an advance announcement of our next destination.
You can read all about Satya Jyoti Farm on their website http://www.satya-jyoti.com/visit-the-farm.html. They have rooms, tents, and I can just park my caravan in their campus and crash in that. If you're interested then message me on WhatsApp. I will make the obligatory noisy WhatsApp group, where we decide which Saturday night we will go harass the unsuspecting farmers.
I haven't talked to them yet. I need to know headcount and date before I call.
The place is about an hour's drive from Sohna Road.
One of those days when a dream that you have cherished for a very long time gets fulfilled. I am so happy that @[564198067:2048:Balaji] and the AID team have accomplished this. It has taken twenty years - half my life - to see this happen.
All known supercomputers in the entire known universe exclusively run Linux.
[maniacal laughter plays in the background]
If there ever was a world domination plan that worked, this is it.
Also, China has a cluster in the Top3 that is based on their own 260-core processor, made with their own microarchitecture.
Back in 2002, India knew that supercomputing would be one of the core technological assets of the new century, apart from the usual stuff like economic, nuclear and space power. We did... nothing.
China also had the most number of rocket launches this year. Time to welcome our new technological overlords? Heck, who remembers Su Lee from Mind Your Language. Who knew she was right all along?
