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From: The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: GIMP 3.0.0-RC1
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 07:27:06 +0000
Organization: A little, after lunch
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On 09/01/2025 20:38, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:
> 
>> On 09/01/2025 16:18, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
>>> 186282@ud0s4.net wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:
>>>
>>>> <snip>
>>>>
>>>>      As I've said many times before - we need to use EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT now
>>>>      (except coal if we can possibly help it).
>>>>
>>>>      TRICK is to thwart the zealots - use energy sources where MOST
>>>>      APPROPRIATE. If solar fits the bill for certain projects, then use solar.
>>>>      If in a windy place then windmills might do it. If oil-burning powerplants
>>>>      are the best fit, use them. If nuke plants are to be had, use them for big
>>>>      Grid stuff.
>>>>
>>>>      It's zealotry and fanaticism that's causing most of the problems these
>>>>      days. Every faction sees THEIR fix as the One And Only and will fight
>>>>      everybody else.  Logic, evidence, economics, all go Bye Bye.
>>>>
>>>>      And even coal, the techniques/chemistry to convert it into methanol and
>>>>      ethanol are now pretty good. The nasty sulfur and heavy metals are left
>>>>      behind. Some can be re-sold for various industrial applications.
>>>
>>> I agree with this post!
>>>
>>> Put your energy eggs in many baskets.
>>>
>> Bollocks. Lets have diversity in car wheels,. Sqauare one, eggs shaped
>> ones. Why have them all round?
> 
> That's a really lame rebuttal.
> 
>> We had a more reliable grid when it was 90$% coal.
>> France gets by at 75% nuclear.
>> In mots cases 'diversity' just makes things worse, a single standard
>> design that works well is far far cheaper.
> 
> That almost *never* happens.
> 
It almost *always* happens.

You just do not notice it.

The natural tendency in a free market is that the best technology rises 
to the top, becomes ubiquitous, and everybody uses it. Diversity in 
technology is not desirable,. Diversity in its application is, somewhat.

So e.g,. its probably better to have 10 small modular reactors spread 
around a city than have one huge reactor and its grid connection  as as 
single point of failure.

What *you* call diversity is like  having  bike pedals in your car in 
case the engine fails.

Why do all airliners basically look extremely similar?
Because that shape ahas evolved to be the most cost effective.

Why do cargo ships all look the same?
Because that shape ahas evolved to be the most cost effective.

Why do all bicycles look similar?
Because that shape ahas evolved to be the most cost effective.

Why , despite its drawbacks, do we persist with keyboard layouts that 
exist because of the limitations of mechanical typewriters?
Because we have got used to that STANDARD and it would be a pain to 
retrain all those touch typists.

Why aren't we still using CRT monitors?
Because LCDS, once the trillion dollar investment in manufacturing plant 
has been made, are simply better, smaller, lighter and more efficient.

Everything that is manufactured, benifits from large scale robotized 
mass production of identical items, that people understand how to use 
and how to fix. So that service personnel do not have to be trained in a 
million different types and spares suppliers do not need to carry 
inventory for a million different products.

Diversity is a technical term that was taken by non technical people and 
utterly misunderstood to justify wasting money on things that didn't 
work, simply because they were 'different'.

Diversity -  when its a good thing -  means multiple copies of the same 
technology, not multiple different technologies.

-- 
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established 
authorities are wrong.”

― Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV