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Most retailers have announced price hikes across the globe. I had hoped EU would actually get cheaper electronics and whatnot because of dumping. Oh well. Guess this 7 year old pc is going to have to sing it out for a few years longer at this rate.
I'm just glad that as I get older I'm more content with simple things. I'd be ok giving up most tech things and I say that while working in IT myself.
Amen. I also work in IT and I find the longer I do, the more I loathe new tech stacks and developments. I used to be passionate about new tech and its applications. Now I just want to be left alone where possible.
It's not necessarily you getting older; there is a fundamental difference in goals, aims and quality of software now. 99% of major software is either funded by VC or incumbent monopolists who are interested in extractions primarily and establishing moats, barriers to free and fair use, and any way possible to monetize an interaction. This is why those of us who lived through the actual innovation stages aren't excited anymore as it's clear this is not "progress" and the warning flags are there from the first marketing pitch.
This entire timeline though was part of the plan, it was never going to be free/cheap, functional and easily accessible forever. We are in the frog boiling phase now that doesn't end until we take back some of what has been lost.
When the end times are here and you find yourself bored you can come by my cave and check my collection of cool rocks and sticks.
no one hates new tech like IT guys
I'm just trying to see my kid through college and then I'm ready for something simpler. Goatops.com (well a copy/paste from before the site existed) made me chuckle and planted the seed, now I'm in the actual consideration stage of it.
I'm running the same desktop for nearky 14 years and I have two laptops that are over 8. Still daily use.
Makes sense.
Geopoliticts shifts, good idea to just stop, wait and see who's ready to be on friendly terms.
Particularly in Europe, the result is like a few election cycles out. Could go in like 5 different directions and is impossible to predict.
As opposed to what the headline could make you think, it’s not a complete ban on all REE exports. A total ban wouldn’t make much sense.
The REE business is big, and China can’t keep stockpiling these metals for long. Also, REE production is integrated to the rest of the industry, so you can’t just switch those factories off and expect everything else to keep on chugging along as usual.
China can afford to sit on these minerals for years or even decades. EU, US and Russia don't have that luxury.
Well what if you need to keep on producing more common metals in the meantime, and REEs are a byproduct. You would need to keep the REE factories running too.
If you end up with 100 tons of terbium and yttrium oxide sitting in bags out in the rain, it’s going to lead to some serious quality issues further down the line. Well, just shove them in a warehouse then?
You’ll need a big warehouse, and you need to keep building more of them every year as the stockpiles grow. Needless to say, there are some serious logistical problems with a total export ban. A partial restriction is more viable, because it gives China some time to figure out how to adapt.
In any case, the rest of the world needs these metals, and they are willing to bend to knee long before China runs out of mitigation strategies. It’s going to be a problem in China as well, but at least they’re not totally screwed.
The US manages to store 1.5B pounds of cheese it doesn't do anything with, I think China can handle constructing some warehouse to hold what it digs up from the ground.
especially since china has multiple vacant metropolitan complexes.
If China never wants to export REE again because other countries have built their own refineries sure, they can.
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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