1. 美國憲法第一修正案關於言論自由(freedom of speach)的保障根據憲法原理原則,是規範人民與政府之間的權利義務關係。既然Twitter並非美國政府機關,此私人公司針對川普總統的言論限制措施就不構成憲法第一修正案的違反問題。即便可能因各種政府公務人員退休基金等金融操作關係而間接持有Twitter股票,但這依然不構成「政府行為」。
Intel still makes 80% of CPUs for personal computers and 94% of them for servers. Its estimated revenue of 2020 maybe about $75 billion USD, and its net income $20.7B.
Its major rivalry, AMD, has the estimated revenue of $9.47B, up from $6.73B a year earlier(40.7% growth, YoY) and estimated net income of $1.5B, up from $756M (98% growth,YoY).
It means that every dollar growth in revenue can bring 2.4 dollars growth in net income, which reflects the feature of high-rent-value business. The economic scale decides the gross profit margin.
And this is the reason why Intel enjoys higher marginal rent value than AMD.
Besides Intel’s dominant area, it had failed in RF and mobile device industry such as its doomed WiMax chipsets and mobile phone SoCs. Now it is facing two major problems: 1) its manufacturing skill has been left behind of TSMC for one or two generations; and 2) its lack of machine-learning products.
In the history, Intel had lost its competition against then Japanese companies in the RAM industry. Intel waived its white flag and turned into the CPU industry in 1980s. However, such successful turning point has never shown again since the launch of its wifi chipset. I do not have enough confidence in its new M&A strategy in the AI field.
On the other hand, the TSMC’s 2 nm manufacturing advance is not unreachable for Intel. I think the nature physical barriers, like the quantum tunnelling effect, will delay the progress of IC manufacturing after 2nm. Although I’ve heard and read many issues in its manufacturing team. I still believe Intel’s outstanding engineers can get things done after all. It only takes time and money. Nonetheless, this is another big problem. After TSMC having enjoyed monopoly profits for quite a long time, even Intel could catch up with TSMC after spending about couple years and billions dollars, the remaining rent value will be limited for Intel. I am not sure whether the necessary costs of competition would be covered or not, especially considering that Intel has lost its big client, Apple. Of course, the intense competition would erode TSMC’s rent value, too. It’s not a good news for TSMC’s investors who recently got on the board at such high stock prices.
WSJ:「Broadband Internet Promises Are Left Unfulfilled in Many Rural Areas」一文指出雖然現任紐約州州長 Andrew Cuomo在幾年前承諾該州將在2018年達成「家家戶戶有網路」的目標,但2020年快過去了,現實離目標根本差得遠。
除去聯邦政府已經補助的網路建設經費高達數十億美元,紐約州州政府本身額外再加碼$5億美元增進本州居民的寬頻網路建設。甚至在Charter Communication Inc. 併購時代華納寬頻公司的案件中,州政府介入要求Charter必須在2018年之前新增14萬5千個網路連接點。然根據該公司通報州議會,截至2020年10月,僅達成109000點。第三方非政府組織的調查則指出數字並沒有這麼樂觀。
University of St. Andrews的生物學教授Elena Miu與Luke Rendell研究Mathworks Software 舉辦的程式編碼競賽,從1998~2012年,共14年19場公開競賽,近2000位參賽者提供超過45000份原始碼。比賽雖是解決科學問題,但並不存在單一正確的解答。評審依據程式碼的簡潔性與可用性來評分。
「既然中國掌握全世界70%的鋰供應,與83%的電池陽極供應,或許拜燈可以用美國對台灣的控制權交換鋰供應(China controls 70% of the world’s lithium supply and 83% of the anodes used in batteries. Maybe Joe Biden can trade control of Taiwan for lithium.)」
1782年,西方世界終於由Antonie Beauvilliers設立第一家現代意義的餐廳 — 「La Grande Taverne de Londres」,基本上就是複製法國宮廷的菜色與服務方式。很類似民國初年北京市有的「仿膳飯莊」。這也是為什麼在19世紀以前,西方語言中"restaurant"這個詞專指「販賣法國大菜的高級場所」而非一般餐館。