Thing people who think it'll be a bubble don't seem to be understanding is that before China and India weren't big players in tech bubbles. Part of the reason for the enormous capital investment in US AI is fear of both nations. At the end of the day the elites see AI infrastructure as something that can always be pivoted towards the military thru tax outlays/deficit spending (and given their confidence that they control Western politics with their wealth, why would they doubt?). AI is an arms race, not a speculative service.

The problem is that all this AI infrastructure is not like the fiber from the dot com bubble, which became really useful for the speed improvements that came later. These nVidia chips have an estimate lifetime of 3 to 5 years, after that they have to be replaced with new ones either because of end-of-life or obsolescence, and considering they are the most expensive part of the whole thing it should be very costly to keep things running, especially if they're not making any profit and hardware prices keep increasing.

All this is assuming most of these data centers are actually built, which I very much doubt given how people are reacting and the complete bullshit claims of tech bros such as "data centers in space".

When people say this is a bubble, they mean this technology is wildly overvalued, not that it's useless. I'm not very impressed by it, but I recognize it has its uses, however none of them justify the ridiculous investment. Heck, it's even uncertain that any of these AI companies will ever be able to make any consistent profit. What I agree with is that I just don't see the bubble popping any time soon, the big tech companies (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) can easily keep burning money for a while as they have very effective sources of revenue (cloud, ads, etc.), the AI grift must continue!

lti wrote on Yesterday, 00:46:

How old can a laptop get before it isn't worth upgrading because the battery is old and no replacements are available?

The laptop can always be used with AC power even if a new battery is not available or manufactured. The real problem is how hard is that laptop to take apart and put back together after its CMOS battery dies. Some are nearly impossible to dismantel and put back together again, just to replace a small lithium 2016 or 2032 or pin batery.

18650 Li-ion and some battery holders. I have two old laptops that use 1.44V & 14.8V. That's 4 in series, and probably 2 sets in parallel. 19V might be harder because 5 cells = 18V nominal, 6 cells = 21.6 nominal. Does anyone know what 19V nominal for laptops really means? I suppose you'd need one that's in good working order to test under load.

Case it up and connect using the power plug if need be.

Personally, I don't take these old things out anyway.

zyzzle wrote on Today, 06:39:

lti wrote on Yesterday, 00:46:

How old can a laptop get before it isn't worth upgrading because the battery is old and no replacements are available?

The laptop can always be used with AC power even if a new battery is not available or manufactured. The real problem is how hard is that laptop to take apart and put back together after its CMOS battery dies. Some are nearly impossible to dismantel and put back together again, just to replace a small lithium 2016 or 2032 or pin batery.

I've not run into any laptop that was "almost impossible" to disassemble and put back together.

And if you are replacing the coin cell battery, you can usually extend the leads and/or replace the tac welded to leads with a battery holder if there is even a little bit of space.

I've even done that on a NAS before that used a tiny battery. Removed the original battar and added leads and a cr2032 holder in an easy to reach place.

Just because the original design is stupid, doesn't mean it can't be fixed fairly easily.

It depends.

Things like MS Surface tablets are notoriously hard to open safely.

Observe.
https://youtu.be/xaJXQ3d0neQ?is=DvrIWtRDgF0l3IGM

wierd_w wrote on Today, 15:38:

It depends. […]
Show full quote

It depends.

Things like MS Surface tablets are notoriously hard to open safely.

Observe.
https://youtu.be/xaJXQ3d0neQ?is=DvrIWtRDgF0l3IGM

That is a tablet, not a regular laptop as was specified in the previous post.

Some laptops are built similarly, with sticky tape and glue being what holds it together.

I'm not a fan.

wierd_w wrote on Today, 16:05:

Some laptops are built similarly, with sticky tape and glue being what holds it together.

I'm not a fan.

Such as Apple and a some super lowe end ones from other manufacturers.

Those are also the ones that tend to have soldered in RAM and SSDs. They are basically throw away machines once they have issues outside of warranty.

I've not run into any that I would bother owning that have the base glued together.