Just as a reminder, it isn’t wood only. It’s a composite material. Essentially plasticized wood.
They strip or decolor the lignen, then pump in one resin or another (depending in what company is doing the development experiments), and the result is translucent.
However, it is a great material! Extremely strong, enough to be used structurally. A great insulator. It has incredible potential in construction.
The flaw in that is that the material is basically a hunk of plastic, which means it’s not biodegradable the way natural wood is. It’s also way too early in development by any of the companies trying to be recyclable at all. It may well end up not being recyclable, ever. So you’re looking at an incredible material that may possibly have properties that make it more trouble than it’s worth in the long run.
Like, my opinion after reading about this stuff a decent bit after this news hit, I don’t see it replacing glass or wood any time soon. It’ll be more expensive, harder to work with, and be essentially single use because you can’t reuse it very well unless you just happen to need things the exact same sizes. It still relies on the same sources we get wood from so there’s no ecological benefit to it.
So, it’s cool as hell, but my gut says it won’t amount to much
While interesting, the article keeps mentioning display screens on phones as a potential application area. I feel like tensile strength is not a key issue in display materials, so much as resistance to scratching, whick is why we use glass lined composites today.
The thermal insulation on a translucent, load bearing material is certainly interesting as well as the developments in making the material environmentally friendly to produce.
Every time a story like this comes up, I just hope that Valve never falls into this category. I like to think while Gabe is in charge we’re safe from it, but nothing is set in stone, ultimately…
Interesting. As with most microsoft products, it remains to be seen how effective this will actually be. Still, it's indicative of what the technology is capable of.
There really need to be restrictions put in place mining and sharing of customer data by automakers with emphasis on the principle of data minimisation. Automakers should go back to being hardware manufacturers than wannabe tech companies.
There really need to be restrictions put in place mining and sharing of customer data
Full stop.
In a twisted way, I'm glad the problem has become blatant enough that politicians are starting to realize how it affects them. Companies have proven time and again that they shouldn't be trusted with our data, but it's hard to do anything without having to agree to let them collect and resell your info.
Apple clearly doesn't care, why should you? Why are you still buying their products? I hope this doesn't come across as harsh, because it is an honest question.
I've never bought an apple product but I've worked at multiple jobs that provided me with a mac so I still want to see improvements in the mac ecosystem.
Also, I'm not a screenreader user but I am a web developer and screenreader users deserve the same experience as typical screen/keyboard/mouse users. Developing for screenreaders sometimes feels like developing for browsers use to be with inconsistencies and unimplemented standards. For browsers, it was Chromes launch that really spurred competition in the space that drove vendors to implement standards and interoperability so it seems reasonable that a new screenreader could provide the same outcome for screenreaders.
I feel like this would have been a hard sell even three years ago, but now, with Elon being as polarizing as he is, it’s going to be an even harder sell. I don’t know what demographic that thing is even for, other than hardcore Musk stans.
Most of it is dumb. The push button doors, the motorized tonneau cover, the rearview mirror replaced with a camera on the dash screen, the shift selector being where the rearview mirror should be, ugly ass hubcaps, the stainless steel body panels, the uneven body panels gaps, the sharp corners, the stupid steering wheel, and the last of a spare wheel. All for $100k!
I wonder if they might pull it off. Two of the things that people talk about most often, looks and the mismatch between “EV buyers” and “truck buyers”, were already known and ignored by the people who made preorders.
It doesn’t matter if you or I think the Cybertruck is ugly. The people who put down money either disagree or are willing to tolerate it.
The other major factor is cost, and there’s no way to put a positive spin on that. The Cybertruck is more expensive than people were told it would be. Right now, I see that as the biggest problem, at least as far as preorders are concerned.
Those weren't "preoders"; that was another Telsa lie that everyone repeated uncritically. People paid $100 dollars for reservations. That does not represent a firm commitment, nor the wherewithal, to purchase a 6-figure vehicle.
It will be a huge cause of accidents killing children based on what I’ve seen. Field of view seems more limited than on other SUVs and they all suck in that aspect.
And as well as killing everyone in the family van, it’ll snap every neck inside the tin bucket. With all the lights and right angles, its a struggle to make it look good, but wow, seeing it drive on the road, it just looks like a dusty lump of scrap.
technology
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.