Where do you think TSMC buys the concrete for their facilities comes from? The copper wiring? What about the rare earth minerals that are used in the production process to make chips? Where do they source their steel from? There are thousands and thousands of components that go into building the capital that makes chips, or just into making the buildings that make up their facilities, or even just the materials for the dormitories for their workers. There is inevitably a ton of Chinese products being used at different points in the TSMC supply chain. The most advanced components are from the US, Europe, and Japan, but numerous other components will be made in China.

Listen, I literally lived there for years, I have family there, and I visit all the time. People buy and use Chinese goods every day. Xiaomi smart phones and gadgets are super popular. Chinese phone brands like realme and oppo outcompete local brands. People buy Chinese groceries all the time, especially flavorings and hot sauces. People import Chinese books, watch Tencent TV, and listen to Chinese music. They speak the same language so of course people will buy goods and media content from China.

Even though virtually everyone hates the Chinese government, most people still interact with Chinese people, media, or goods on a daily basis. And this isn’t even getting into business supply chains; Taiwan’s dirty secret is that most Taiwanese businesses are very pro-China, even though your average person is worried about China having too much influence.

I lived in Taiwan for over 5 years, most people use Chinese products every day. China is their largest trade partner.

There are huge differences between China and countries like Vietnam and Mexico.

Vietnam is significantly poorer with poor infrastructure. They don’t have the capacity to move enough finished products onto modern container ships today. Their electricity infrastructure is unreliable, their local freight rail is poor, and their roads are awful. Chinese wages are much higher than Vietnam now, but because of economies of scale, China can invest in the best industrial infrastructure in the world to help keep prices down for manufactures in every other part of the business process. Vietnam could catch up one day, but they are far behind. India is also in this same position.

Mexico has wages that are just as high as China, but also has terrible infrastructure and and a failing government. No one in China is worried their products will be held hostage by drug gangs, or that their engineers inspecting their factories will get kidnapped.

China is doing so well because they have planned ahead. They created world class manufacturing infrastructure around Shanghai and Shenzhen that have laid the groundwork for modernizing the entire country. They have done a very good job building their “moat” to discourage manufacturers from moving elsewhere, there are just too many potential savings to keep manufacturing in China rather than take a risk moving elsewhere. Despite the US pushing “derisking” so hard, it will have only a slow impact on pushing companies to leave, because the US cannot actually offer them a better deal to move somewhere else.

The components in those Taiwanese and South Korean products come from China. You can’t avoid the world’s second largest economy in a globalized world.

Isn’t the DSI younger than the PS3?

It’s shocking how much faster Linux runs compared to a modern windows installation. I do worry however that as more and more programmers focus on web apps that we will eventually see the same problem on Linux as well. Developing desktop applications for Linux is already a pain and the ease of making modern web apps will amplify the problem. At least Linux won’t have all of the awful bloat that Microsoft runs in the background on windows these days, but I don’t think we will be able to escape from web app hell on Linux.

The Chinese word for red panda is literally Firefox, 火狐, that’s where the web browsers name comes from.

Diablo 2 is amazing. The remaster is fantastic, it does not feel like a 20 year old game.

Diablo 2 is amazing. The remaster is fantastic, it does not feel like a 20 year old game.

I just tried wefwef, thanks for the recommendation. It’s better than Jerboa so far.

I commute by train everyday and having a tablet I can carry in my pocket is really convenient. I only recently got a Samsung Z Fold 4 but am loving it so far.

The LDP has never had opposition leaders arrested. Just because they are popular doesn’t mean that they aren’t anti-democratic. Democracy requires free elections, which cannot exist if a significant minority is being actively suppressed.

I was looking for it on here. GIMP is way too difficult for most people. Krita feels like it can do just about everything an amateur would want to do with Photoshop and makes it painless.

It’s really worth it. I finally got around to playing Ace Attorney 5 after buying it almost 10 years ago. Somehow I still remember everything from the first 4 even though I hadn’t played them in a decade. Great story, and incredibly memorable characters.

It’s interesting how car centric it feels when their previous games focused entirely on building public transportation. In a lot of ways Cities in Motion 1 is more fun for me than Cities Skylines, building a better transit system in a static city almost feels like solving a puzzle in away rather than pursuing mindless growth. I hope they can capture that feeling again.

After getting burned by the Oblivion AI “trailer” I won’t ever trust Bethesda advertising again. Straight lies.