As much as everyone loves to shit on Facebook, it was an incredible service. When I was in the military I was able to keep up with my old friends and their lives. When I got out I was able to simply keep in touch with my old military buddies. Now it’s just dead. I’m genuinely sad that this has happened :(

I was a nuclear operator in the Navy. Here are the actual reasons:

1. The designs are classified US military assets
2. They are not refuleable
3. They only come in 2 “sizes”: aircraft carrier and submarine
4. They are not scaleable. You can just make a reactor 2x as big
5. They require as much down time as up time
6. They are outdated
7. The military won’t let you interrupt their supply chain to make civilian reactors
8. New designs over promise and underdeliver
9. They are optimized for erratic operations (combat) not steady state (normal power loads)
10. They are engineered assuming they have infinite sea water available for everything

There’s more but that’s just off the top of my head

Yeah it’s more like, hey you just bought stabilizing jacks and a water hose for a travel trailer. You must have just bought a new camper. Let’s bombard you with add for stick-up-hooks, rv-mattress sized sheets, cheap plastic dishes, etc.

If you figure each engineer costs apple $250,000 a year, that’s the equivalent of 250 engineers. Could you imagine what apple could accomplish with 5 extra engineering departments? In what world is this one guy worth that much?

Don’t worry office creeps who make unwanted advances towards coworkers, LinkedIn has your back. A new harassment platform for a new age.

But we do though. Maybe not exactly test every possible scenario. Typically when we make a design decision we plan for the worst theoretical condition the part will be exposed to. Then we plan for 5-10 times that. Think about the cost and effort added to everything with that level scrutiny. We design for fringe cases. That’s the point I’m trying to make. It’s insane to me that because it’s software, companies get a free pass on that level of scrutiny. As software takes over more car functions that becomes more concerning. It’s bullshit that I’m part of their beta test.

I understand this but still think it’s bullshit. A car isn’t like some shitty little app. They cost tens of thousands of dollars, weigh tons, move at insane speeds inches away from one another, and are expected to last decades with daily use and minimal maintenance. I’m a mechanical engineer in product development. Pushing broken shit to production will destroy a company. Just because software updates are easier and cheaper than mechanical recalls shouldn’t excuse releasing broken shit out into the world.

The thing that kills me about this sort of thing is the complete lack of accountability. Working class people at assembly plants, dealers, suppliers will all feel the sting from the drop in sales. There’s some dipshit MBA at GM who made and pushed this decision. Any rational person could see that GM is not is a position to push their own infotainment system. Car play and android auto are beloved. Not having one or both is a deal breaker for new car purchasers. We will never know who this person is. Making such an outrageously bad business decision should result thing this person being blackballed from any kind of business role. But that will never happen.