Laurens County will see nearly 500 new jobs come to the area after an international automotive parts company opens their new manufacturing facility.

More than 450 jobs are coming to Laurens County as auto parts company opens facility

Daniel is a MarketWatch Guides team writer and has written for numerous automotive news sites and marketing firms across the U.S., U.K., and Australia, specializing in auto finance and ... your insurance company will likely cover the costs to get you ...

Why Don’t Virginia and New Hampshire Require Car Insurance?

Get expert advice on improvements to your home, including design tips, how much you'd expect to pay for a pro and what to ask when hiring experts.

What Is MaxCare By CarMax, And Is It Worth It?

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — CarParts.com, Inc. (PRTS) on Monday reported a loss of $2.5 million in its third quarter. On a per-share basis, the Torrance, California-based company said it had a loss of 4 cents. The online auto parts retailer posted revenue of $166.9 million in the period.

CarParts.com: Q3 Earnings Snapshot

On the flip side, TVS Motor Company was the top gainer in the Nifty Auto index. The stock jumped more than 2 percent on October 9 after the two-wheeler maker announced rolling out 150,000 units of ...

Nifty Auto falls 1%, Hero Motocorp top loser; Maruti Suzuki down as company announces festive discounts

Edmunds.com offers streamlined car buying and selling services with help from its parent company, CarMax. Some sell-my-car offers from Edmunds may be lower than offers from other providers. Customers like the wide range of new and used cars available to ...

Edmunds Review

Catalytic converter thefts appear to be on the decline, according to new data from State Farm.    The auto insurer said the number of claims filed to report catalytic converter thefts are significantly down in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Catalytic converter thefts on the decline, insurance data suggests

Catalytic converter thefts appear to be on the decline, according to new data from State Farm. The auto insurer said the number of claims filed to report catalytic converter thefts are

There’s a lot to be optimistic about in the NA sector as 2 analysts just weighed in on CarMax (KMX – Research Report) and PUMA SE NPV

Analysts Are Bullish on Top NA Stocks: CarMax (KMX), PUMA SE NPV (PMMAF)

Carmax Inc (NYSE: KMX) has experienced a rise in its stock price by 0.19 compared to its previous closing price of 61.88. However, the company has seen a fall of -9.45% in its stock price over the last five trading days.

Carmax Inc (KMX) Shares Soar Above 1-Year High

CarMax

carmax

This is the fifth article documenting what I’ve learned from a series of . In these articles, we’re focusing on how to combine with to build an “eCars” app — a sales and service application for a fictitious electric car company (“Pulsar”) that allows users to customize and buy cars, service techs to view live diagnostic info from the car, and more. In case you missed my last article, you can . 10 Trailhead Live video sessions on Modern App Development on Salesforce and Heroku Salesforce Heroku find it here : I’ve been following this Trailhead Live video series to brush up and stay current on the latest app development trends on these platforms that are key for my career and business. I’ll be sharing each step for building the app, what I’ve learned, and my thoughts from each session. These series reviews are both for my own edification as well as for others who might benefit from this content. Just as a quick reminder The Trailhead Live sessions and schedule can be found . here The Trailhead Live sessions I’m writing about can also be found at the links below: Modern App Development On Salesforce YouTube Modern App Development on Salesforce Series Previously… In the last session, we covered some no-code, point-and-click ways to control and customize the UI/UX experience on the Salesforce platform when building apps. This time, we are looking at tools for building completely custom front-end experiences using code and will apply those tools to our eCars app to create a custom UI. Looking at the range of possibilities for customization, you could put creating the eCars UI on a scale from no-code to all-code. C and D only come into play about 20% of the time In my experience building Salesforce apps for my clients, I’ve found that Salesforce’s point-and-click tools usually satisfy 80% or more of the project’s requirements. In the other 20% of cases, some kind of custom Visualforce page or Lightning Component is needed for a particular use case. This is especially true when looking at internal-facing apps. On the other hand, when building a public-facing customer app, or a partner-community portal on Salesforce Community Cloud, it’s about a 50/50 split. This is usually due to a company’s branding needs for their public-facing experience. I expect this ratio to shift even more in the direction of low-code or no-code in the future since Salesforce is always releasing new ways to empower the point-and-click methodologies of the platform. Finally, in certain cases, it actually makes sense to build parts of the app on Heroku when you get to very large scale B2C applications (greater than 50 million active users) with the added benefit of being able to choose the UI framework of your choice in Heroku. Customization Considerations Since implementing, updating, or undoing the point-and-click customizations, it became so fast that I’ve found it’s typically best to build out the minimally viable product (or MVP) for the application using point-and-click methods. Then, I extend certain parts of the application with custom code where needed. In my experience, beginning with an entirely custom build has only led to pain and suffering, as well as a much larger project budget. Every now and then, a use case is overwhelmingly compelling for some kind of customization, or the client or project stakeholders insist on some kind of customized experience. With the latter case, I always try to talk them out of it and also warn them of the added costs of building, maintaining, and updating the custom code. If we don’t carefully control and document the code (and rarely do projects leave room for this), things can quickly go south as changes on top of “enhancements” pile up on the legacy code. This happens surprisingly often To try and avoid this situation, it’s always good to put the customization use case through its paces via a framework to see if it’s truly necessary. In the video series, Mohith, our Salesforce Developer Advocate, gives us a nice three-point checklist to go through to see if customization is necessary. Checkpoint 2.5: See if a third-party Lightning Component on the AppExchange might work SLDS and Design Tools Let’s suppose we’ve gone through the process and found a compelling and proper use case to use custom code to create a custom experience for the app. We don’t just start putting pencil to paper and start coding. Oftentimes, the app feedback I get from stakeholders is neither specific nor detailed enough to be actionable. It’s usually something more ambiguous, like “this page doesn’t show enough information” or “the UI is too clunky for my users to perform X process.” At that point, the real fun begins. We have to tease out what the users really need to be built out for them through a process of sketching, prototyping, and iterating – all before actually committing to code. Luckily, there are a number of tools that can help with this process and make sure that we hit the sweet spot when it comes to working up a custom design. It’s surprisingly easy to let these things get totally disconnected Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS) I’d describe the , or SLDS for short, as a cheat-sheet of all the UI components that comprise Salesforce Lightning Experience. Similar to Bootstrap — which some web developers may be familiar with — it’s an entire library of design guidelines, component blueprints, utilities, and design tokens, along with code samples. All the HTML and CSS have been provided so a developer can simply go through the SLDS library and pick out components to piece together for the build. Salesforce Lightning Design System An example modal component with HTML sample and CSS classes already provided SLDS Plugin for Sketch There is also an SLDS plugin for Sketch that allows Sketch users to get access to all the components in SLDS. As a result, designers can quickly prototype something with SLDS components using the drag-and-drop design tools in Sketch. The only caveat here is that this plugin is currently only available for macOS. UI Toolkits for Sketch, Figma, and Framer Fortunately, those who have something other than MacOS, or use something other than Sketch, can download the SLDS UI Toolkits to get the same components. Figma also happens to be a very popular design tool that I’ve come across several times while working with designers. SLDS Validator for VS Code Finally, the SLDS Validator is an extension of VS Code. It makes sure that if one gets deep into custom-code land, the code produced remains SLDS compliant and compatible with Salesforce Lightning Experience. All of the aforementioned tools and more can be found on the Tools section of the Salesforce Lightning Design System site. Improving the eCars App’s Inventory List View In the context of Pulsar’s eCars app, we have an example use case for a bespoke front-end experience that requires some custom development. We’re presented with the following user story: “Pulsar uses eCars Sample gallery apps. The current inventory page uses a standard list view to display inventory items. “Agents using the app have expressed that it would be visually helpful to them if they can see the car images for each inventory. The status field is not obvious and agents have asked to make it visually appealing.” This gets the job done, but is certainly not visually compelling I find that many clients and stakeholders are “show me” people. I need to put something visual in front of them to start collecting substantive feedback. If you go to the approximate halfway mark of the video, you get to see, first-hand, how we use Sketch and the SLDS plugin together to create our improved eCars wireframe after about 15 minutes of point-and-click work! And with the code samples already provided by the SLDS library, the developers will be happy that the designers didn’t go way off into left field with their designs. Put simply: a win-win. Fifteen minutes of wireframing, hours of meetings, and discussions saved Concluding Thoughts and Other Helpful Resources The session concluded with an interview with a real-life product designer, Brian Winterhoff from Carmax. I came away with two learnings from the interview: There is often a learning curve for designers when transitioning from traditional web app development to Salesforce. With web app design, there is more of an empty canvas, whereas Salesforce provides some of the base UI. However, this apparent constraint actually allows for better collaboration between designers and developers when working in the shared context of the Salesforce Platform. Even after going down the route of prototyping and iterating with designers, more often than not, they are able to find a non-code solution that works for the use case. This just goes to show that just because you’ve committed to wireframing a custom design, it doesn’t mean that custom code will be necessary to implement it. After watching this session, is definitely something I’m going to start using more, now that I’ve seen how simple it is to use in conjunction with SLDS. I’m thinking this is going to save me (and a lot of other people) time when it comes to nailing down a custom front-end experience design. the sketch tool For more information and specific practice on some of the topics covered, check out the links to the resources below: UX Research Basics UX Personas for Salesforce App Design and Prototypes Developer Quick Takes: Explaining Shadow DOMBuild Flows with Flow Builder Developer Quick Takes: Custom Elements and HTML Templates SLDS Best Practices Lightning Web Component Specialist Super Badge In the next article, we’re going to continue on with Lightning Web Components and focus on a specific topic: communicating between separate LWCs using Events. If you haven’t already joined the for this series, I certainly recommend you do so. That way, you can get the full value of the experience and also pose questions, and start discussions with the group. Oftentimes, there are valuable discussions and additional references available there, such as the slides from the presentation and links to other resources and references. official Chatter group About The Author I’m an 11x certified Salesforce professional who’s been running my own Salesforce consultancy for several years. If you’re curious about my backstory on accidentally turning into a developer and even competing on stage on a quiz show at one of the Salesforce conventions, you can read I wrote for the Salesforce blog a few years ago. this article Also published at https://dzone.com/articles/custom-app-experiences-with-lightning-web-componen

Building Custom App Experiences With Salesforce Lightning Design System & Heroku

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The electric vehicle (EV) market is heating up in the global arena with the US and China gearing up for yet another price war. While US car giants are slashing prices, China is negotiating hard to set up shop in Europe. In fact, the pending EV competition in Europe could mean job losses in the future. According to the International Energy Agency, environmentally speaking, 2030 will be a substantial year, because the world fossil fuel demand will peak by then as a larger number of EVs hit the road and the Chinese economy leans towards cleaner energy. Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be still continues. Last year, US automaker General Motors launched its luxury electric Cadillac Lyriq in France, an expansion of its market in Europe after returning last year and a test of whether online-only sales will attract wealthy car buyers. In the US, last year, Tesla slashed prices on its two most expensive EVs, after Tesla Chairman and CEO, Elon Musk realized that price cuts on other models had upped demand. The price cuts, one of many adjustments last year, ranged from 4% to 9%. In December, Musk unveiled Tesla’s new electric Semi truck, looking to reduce highway emissions with a battery power three times that of its diesel counterparts. Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies And it’s not just car makers who are into EVs. Foxconn, the largest electronics manufacturer and the supplier of Apple, took to producing EVs last year. Chip giant NVIDIA is helping them in their pursuit, alongside developing automated and autonomous vehicle platforms. Big tech is yet to fully enter this arena though. In February though, Apple canceled work on its electric car, according to Reuters, a decade after the tech giant started the project. Powerful partnerships are forming too. Honda and General Motors are planning to jointly develop affordable EVs. Hybrids & More Car companies are trying to sell more than just EVs as an environment-friendly solution by targeting tougher emissions standards. For example, in May, Toyota showcased next-generation engines for use in cars like hybrids and those running on biofuel. Volkswagen announced plans to cut down spend on combustion engines from 2025. It is working toward a target of 50% EV sales globally by 2030. Hybrid car models are likely to flood the market in the coming year. Fiat owner Stellantis is likely to announce a hybrid version of its 500e small electric car to be produced at its Mirafiori plant in Italy. In May, China’s Geely talked about launching a series of hybrid models in the first half of next year, which will boast of its next-generation, more fuel-efficient engine. Chinese are Gearing Up with EV China has been buckling down to make it even bigger than it is in the global EV market. Last June, China introduced a 520 billion yuan ($72.3 billion) package to increase EV sales and other green cars in the coming four years. Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Chinese EV makers have been concentrating on competing with the US. Chinese EV maker Nio has made a deal with Chinese EV giant BYD as a source for its batteries. According to reports, Nio aims to compete with Tesla. A made-in-China EV is also expected to enter the US market this summer offering power and efficiency similar to the Tesla Model Y, but for about US$8,000 less. US carmakers could face stiff competition from China, looking at the EX30 from Volvo, the Swedish luxury brand owned by China’s Geely. Volvo Cars announced in February that it’s getting ready to convert to electric all its mainstay models, i.e., three SUVs and two sedans. The auto giant is also set to unveil a luxury electric van to improve sales in Asia. In March, BYD launched a new version of its Destroyer 07 hybrid car at a starting price that’s 11.3% lower than its predecessor, according to Reuters. Europe, a Veritable EV Playground Many events are coming into play on the European EV playground, and China is moving fast. The country is getting ready to make a deal with Europe as EV tariffs loom. In September, Beijing criticized a probe launched by the European Commission into China’s electric car subsidies as protectionist and warned it would damage relations. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission announced the investigation saying markets were getting flooded with EVs that had artificially low prices because of state subsidies. In fact, Stellantis is ready for a competition with Chinese rivals in the European market for EVs, which can be a harbinger of consequences for jobs and production according to the group’s Chief Executive Carlos Tavares as reported by Reuters. Already, last February, Ford announced axing one in nine jobs in product development and administration across Europe as it competes in the EV market. The US automaker announced plans to invest US$3.5 billion to build an EV battery plant in Michigan with Chinese partner CATL. Will This Price War Benefit the Consumer? Part of the charm of owning an EV is not just the environmental friendliness but also style and luxury, one of the prime reasons for EV adoption. Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies. This war of the EV makers could bring EV prices down globally. But it also means job cuts. The semiconductor chip war has already caused tumult. It remains to be seen how far it goes this time. Navanwita Bora Sachdev, Editor, The Tech Panda The electric vehicle (EV) market is heating up in the global arena with the US and China gearing up for yet another price war. While US car giants are slashing prices, China is negotiating hard to set up shop in Europe. In fact, the pending EV competition in Europe could mean job losses in the future. The electric vehicle (EV) According to the International Energy Agency , environmentally speaking, 2030 will be a substantial year, because the world fossil fuel demand will peak by then as a larger number of EVs hit the road and the Chinese economy leans towards cleaner energy. Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be still continues. International Energy Agency fossil fuel demand will peak Last year, US automaker General Motors launched its luxury electric Cadillac Lyriq in France, an expansion of its market in Europe after returning last year and a test of whether online-only sales will attract wealthy car buyers . General Motors launched online-only sales will attract wealthy car buyers In the US, last year, Tesla slashed prices on its two most expensive EVs, after Tesla Chairman and CEO, Elon Musk realized that price cuts on other models had upped demand. The price cuts, one of many adjustments last year, ranged from 4% to 9%. In December, Musk unveiled Tesla’s new electric Semi truck, looking to reduce highway emissions with a battery power three times that of its diesel counterparts. Tesla slashed prices unveiled Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies And it’s not just car makers who are into EVs. Foxconn , the largest electronics manufacturer and the supplier of Apple , took to producing EVs last year. Chip giant NVIDIA is helping them in their pursuit, alongside developing automated and autonomous vehicle platforms. Big tech is yet to fully enter this arena though. In February though, Apple canceled work on its electric car , according to Reuters, a decade after the tech giant started the project. Foxconn Apple took to producing NVIDIA Apple canceled work on its electric car Powerful partnerships are forming too. Honda and General Motors are planning to jointly develop affordable EVs. planning to jointly develop Hybrids & More Hybrids & More Hybrids & More Car companies are trying to sell more than just EVs as an environment-friendly solution by targeting tougher emissions standards. For example, in May, Toyota showcased next-generation engines for use in cars like hybrids and those running on biofuel. Volkswagen announced plans to cut down spend on combustion engines from 2025. It is working toward a target of 50% EV sales globally by 2030. Toyota showcased next-generation engines Volkswagen announced plans Hybrid car models are likely to flood the market in the coming year. Fiat owner Stellantis is likely to announce a hybrid version of its 500e small electric car to be produced at its Mirafiori plant in Italy. In May, China’s Geely talked about launch ing a series of hybrid models in the first half of next year, which will boast of its next-generation, more fuel-efficient engine. Fiat Stellantis hybrid version of its 500e small electric car China’s Geely talked about launch Chinese are Gearing Up with EV Chinese are Gearing Up with EV Chinese are Gearing Up with EV China has been buckling down to make it even bigger than it is in the global EV market. Last June, China introduced a 520 billion yuan ($72.3 billion) package to increase EV sales and other green cars in the coming four years. introduced Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Meanwhile, the debate about how effective EVs will actually be, still continues Chinese EV makers have been concentrating on competing with the US. Chinese EV maker Nio has made a deal with Chinese EV giant BYD as a source for its batteries. According to reports, Nio aims to compete with Tesla. A made-in-China EV is also expected to enter the US market this summer offering power and efficiency similar to the Tesla Model Y, but for about US$8,000 less. US carmakers could face stiff competition from China, looking at the EX30 from Volvo, the Swedish luxury brand owned by China’s Geely. Nio made a deal also expected Volvo Cars announced in February that it’s getting ready to convert to electric all its mainstay models, i.e., three SUVs and two sedans. The auto giant is also set to unveil a luxury electric van to improve sales in Asia. In March, BYD launched a new version of its Destroyer 07 hybrid car at a starting price that’s 11.3% lower than its predecessor, according to Reuters. announced in February BYD launched Europe, a Veritable EV Playground Europe, a Veritable EV Playground Europe, a Veritable EV Playground Many events are coming into play on the European EV playground, and China is moving fast. The country is getting ready to make a deal with Europe as EV tariffs loom. In September, Beijing criticized a probe launched by the European Commission into China’s electric car subsidies as protectionist and warned it would damage relations. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission announced the investigation saying markets were getting flooded with EVs that had artificially low prices because of state subsidies. make a deal In fact, Stellantis is ready for a competition with Chinese rivals in the European market for EVs, which can be a harbinger of consequences for jobs and production according to the group’s Chief Executive Carlos Tavares as reported by Reuters . Already, last February, Ford announced axing one in nine jobs in product development and administration across Europe as it competes in the EV market. The US automaker announced plans to invest US$3.5 billion to build an EV battery plant in Michigan with Chinese partner CATL. competition with Chinese rivals Reuters Ford announced Will This Price War Benefit the Consumer? Will This Price War Benefit the Consumer? Will This Price War Benefit the Consumer? Part of the charm of owning an EV is not just the environmental friendliness but also style and luxury, one of the prime reasons for EV adoption. Car companies are exploring all fronts to catch the consumer’s attention, leading to another price war between two super economies. This war of the EV makers could bring EV prices down globally. But it also means job cuts. The semiconductor chip war has already caused tumult. It remains to be seen how far it goes this time. semiconductor chip war Navanwita Bora Sachdev, Editor, The Tech Panda Navanwita Bora Sachdev, Editor, The Tech Panda Navanwita Bora Sachdev , Editor, The Tech Panda Navanwita Bora Sachdev

Global EV Price War Looms as US and China Compete for Market Dominance 

A simple system may or may not work. A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. This assertion is known as Gall’s law. It implicitly defines a “simple system” to mean “a system that may or may not work.” A good example of such a system is a biological cell that senses light. Can the cells on your fingernails detect light? Nope. Broken, doesn’t work. How about the cells at the back of your eyes? Yes! …hopefully. If they work at all, then we can stack complexity on top - sink the cells below a pinhole for angular resolution, make the pinhole diameter adjustable for dynamic range, cover the pinhole with a flexible membrane for near or far focus, wrap that in a cover for protection, put glass and polycarbonate over that for more protection and more focus. Gall’s law implies that time operates only on complex systems. If you have a system that works, then you can apply some time to it, and if you ensure that it still works at every step along the way, then you have followed the only recipe that can produce a complex system that works. If it ever stops working, there’s no amount of time you can use to get it working again unless you revert back to the last working checkpoint. But, of course, time operates on simple systems too - because the complex systems that originate novel systems are evolving. A good example here is the Wright Flyer - people had tried to make flying machines far more complex than the Wrights’ for a long time, but they hadn’t had high-precision machine shops for very long, and no one had ever had a high-precision machine shop and a wind tunnel before. And so, as we refine and accumulate the capacities of our existing complex systems, we find that the space of "simple” working systems - those that simply, magically work - is growing. The problem with novel simple systems is that they almost never happen. All our heuristics are tuned for coevolving with other relatively ancient and complex systems that we have already adapted to. So, we apply the classic heuristic “it’s like a stochas-” WRONG. STOP STOP STOP. NOTHING IS LIKE ANYTHING ELSE. You have to take a novel system on its own terms, not in terms of some other thing. But Gall’s Law brings good news! If it’s novel and it works, it’s probably still simple! It hasn’t had enough time to become complex, so it’s not too late to draw it out on a single sheet of paper! For yourself — looking at a blog post on someone else’s sheet of paper doesn’t count. Yours is the hand that must draw the boxes. What pieces does the system have? How are they connected? Once you’ve stopped trying to pretend that the necessarily simple novel system isn’t actually simple enough for you to draw, you have a chance to see what it does. Again, on its own terms. Does it perform better or worse than - STOP! STOP STOP STOP! Don’t try to find out if it does better or worse. Just see what it does. If you contemplated the system well enough to draw it, then you already noticed some places where you wanted to poke it. Poke! Empty yourself of all concern for utility, soak yourself in the jiggles of the poke, and let the jiggles evaporate slowly enough for their residue to crystallize undeformed by your preconceptions. In general, we developers get old and crusty. If you spend thirty years analogizing to what it was like when you were twenty, your world model seizes up. John Carmack was inventing new programming techniques before you were born, and he can still touch his elbows to his toes without bending his knees. I don’t know the exact cause of your rigor mortis or of his flexibility, but it’s notable how frequently he checks in on even the simplest aspects of reality. Oh, but you’re too busy making cutting-edge webpages to burn time on frivolities like weighing things with a postage scale? THAT IS WHY you ended up in the position of frantically updating derelict webpages. Because you don’t know what anything is! John Carmack keeps inventing the future because he keeps finding out what’s here in the present. And more than ever, I think what’s going to be here in the present are brand new, simple systems. Thinkpieces and explainers keep trying to tell us what ChatGPT is like, while Andrej Karpathy is on YouTube begging us to just take a couple of hours and literally make one. If you’re not gonna do that, at least let Nishant Aklecha show you the actual concrete steps that the LLM is taking. The problem for our heuristics is that this wave of generative AI systems is so powerful, we assume it must also be complex. The most powerful web browser in the world is an evolution of the last browser. Chrome’s version number has passed a hundred because it has a lineage measured in decades, not years. Its power came from tackling complexity, and complex systems always have some antecedent we can analogize from. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. That law still holds, but the sweet aftertaste of the bitter lesson is that it has never been easier to start over and discover something simple that works. If you enjoyed obsessing over semantic versioning and git branching conventions, I hope you got that all out of your system. It’s true that a 10-year-old SaaS website that works is inevitably found to have evolved from a 9-year-old SaaS website that also worked. But pretty soon you might find that every category leader is inevitably found to be a novel arrangement of novel categories of intelligence. The good news is that they’ll be simple. The bad news is that the process that creates them is going to involve way more abject, unsalvageable failure than most “engineers” signed up for. A simple system may or may not work. A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. A simple system may or may not work. A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. This assertion is known as Gall’s law. It implicitly defines a “simple system” to mean “a system that may or may not work.” A good example of such a system is a biological cell that senses light. Can the cells on your fingernails detect light? Nope. Broken, doesn’t work. How about the cells at the back of your eyes? Yes! …hopefully. If they work at all, then we can stack complexity on top - sink the cells below a pinhole for angular resolution, make the pinhole diameter adjustable for dynamic range, cover the pinhole with a flexible membrane for near or far focus, wrap that in a cover for protection, put glass and polycarbonate over that for more protection and more focus. Gall’s law implies that time operates only on complex systems. If you have a system that works, then you can apply some time to it, and if you ensure that it still works at every step along the way, then you have followed the only recipe that can produce a complex system that works. If it ever stops working, there’s no amount of time you can use to get it working again unless you revert back to the last working checkpoint. But, of course, time operates on simple systems too - because the complex systems that originate novel systems are evolving . A good example here is the Wright Flyer - people had tried to make flying machines far more complex than the Wrights’ for a long time, but they hadn’t had high-precision machine shops for very long, and no one had ever had a high-precision machine shop and a wind tunnel before. the complex systems that originate novel systems are evolving far more complex and And so, as we refine and accumulate the capacities of our existing complex systems, we find that the space of "simple” working systems - those that simply, magically work - is growing. The problem with novel simple systems is that they almost never happen. All our heuristics are tuned for coevolving with other relatively ancient and complex systems that we have already adapted to. So, we apply the classic heuristic “it’s like a stochas-” WRONG. STOP STOP STOP. NOTHING IS LIKE ANYTHING ELSE. You have to take a novel system on its own terms, not in terms of some other thing. But Gall’s Law brings good news! If it’s novel and it works, it’s probably still simple! It hasn’t had enough time to become complex, so it’s not too late to draw it out on a single sheet of paper! For yourself — looking at a blog post on someone else’s sheet of paper doesn’t count. Yours is the hand that must draw the boxes. What pieces does the system have? How are they connected? You have to take a novel system on its own terms, on its own terms, not in terms of some other thing. But Gall’s Law brings good news! If it’s novel and it works, it’s probably still simple! Yours is the hand that must draw the boxes. Once you’ve stopped trying to pretend that the necessarily simple novel system isn’t actually simple enough for you to draw, you have a chance to see what it does . Again, on its own terms. Does it perform better or worse than - STOP! STOP STOP STOP! Don’t try to find out if it does better or worse. Just see what it does. does Just see what it does. see If you contemplated the system well enough to draw it, then you already noticed some places where you wanted to poke it. Poke! Empty yourself of all concern for utility, soak yourself in the jiggles of the poke, and let the jiggles evaporate slowly enough for their residue to crystallize undeformed by your preconceptions. In general, we developers get old and crusty. If you spend thirty years analogizing to what it was like when you were twenty, your world model seizes up. John Carmack was inventing new programming techniques before you were born, and he can still touch his elbows to his toes without bending his knees. I don’t know the exact cause of your rigor mortis or of his flexibility, but it’s notable how frequently he checks in on even the simplest aspects of reality . new programming techniques simplest aspects of reality Oh, but you’re too busy making cutting-edge webpages to burn time on frivolities like weighing things with a postage scale? THAT IS WHY you ended up in the position of frantically updating derelict webpages. Because you don’t know what anything is! John Carmack keeps inventing the future because he keeps finding out what’s here in the present. And more than ever, I think what’s going to be here in the present are brand new, simple systems. Thinkpieces and explainers keep trying to tell us what ChatGPT is like , while Andrej Karpathy is on YouTube begging us to just take a couple of hours and literally make one . If you’re not gonna do that, at least let Nishant Aklecha show you the actual concrete steps that the LLM is taking. simple like just take a couple of hours and literally make literally make one the actual concrete steps The problem for our heuristics is that this wave of generative AI systems is so powerful , we assume it must also be complex . The most powerful web browser in the world is an evolution of the last browser. Chrome’s version number has passed a hundred because it has a lineage measured in decades, not years. Its power came from tackling complexity, and complex systems always have some antecedent we can analogize from. powerful complex A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. That law still holds, but the sweet aftertaste of the bitter lesson is that it has never been easier to start over and discover something simple that works. If you enjoyed obsessing over semantic versioning and git branching conventions , I hope you got that all out of your system. It’s true that a 10-year-old SaaS website that works is inevitably found to have evolved from a 9-year-old SaaS website that also worked. the bitter lesson semantic versioning git branching conventions But pretty soon you might find that every category leader is inevitably found to be a novel arrangement of novel categories of intelligence. The good news is that they’ll be simple. The bad news is that the process that creates them is going to involve way more abject, unsalvageable failure than most “engineers” signed up for.

The New Stuff Is Always Simple: Here's Why

United States v. Apple INC Court Filing, retrieved on March 21, 2024 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 9 of 25. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here C. Apple’s “moat” around its smartphone monopoly is wide and deep: it uses a similar playbook to maintain its monopoly through many other products and services 119. The exclusionary and anticompetitive acts described above are part of Apple’s ongoing course of conduct to build and maintain its smartphone monopoly. They are hardly exhaustive. Rather, they exemplify the innovation Apple has stifled and Apple’s overall strategy of using its power over app distribution and app creation to selectively block threatening innovations. 120. Apple has deployed a similar playbook for a much broader range of third-party apps and services as well, many of which present technologies that function as middleware, facilitate switching, reduce the need for expensive hardware, or disintermediate Apple’s iPhone by enabling the development of cross-platform technologies. For instance, Apple has undermined third-party location trackable devices that fully function across platforms. Apple has impaired third-party, cross-platform video communications apps while steering users to its own video communication app, FaceTime. Apple has limited the capabilities of third-party iOS web browsers, including by requiring that they use Apple’s browser engine, WebKit. Protocols that Apple has placed around new “eSIM” technology may introduce additional frictions for any user who seeks to transition from an iPhone to a different phone while maintaining the same phone number. Apple has impeded cross-platform cloud storage apps in order to steer iPhone users into iCloud, making data transfer between different devices more difficult. Apple uses restrictions in sales channels to impede the sale and distribution of rival smartphones. And Apple has worsened its users’ experience by making it difficult for iPhone users to use superior voice and AI assistants and steering users to use Siri as a voice assistant. 121. Ultimately, the strategies Apple has employed to date are not the only ones Apple can use to achieve its anticompetitive and lucrative ends. As technology evolves, Apple continues to evolve and shift its anticompetitive behavior to protect its monopoly power. For example, in recent years, Apple has increasingly moved into offering its own subscription services, including news, games, video, music, cloud storage, and fitness subscriptions that could be used to keep users tethered to the platform. These subscription services and other ancillary fees are a significant part of Apple’s net revenue. These subscriptions services can also increase switching costs among iPhone users. If an Apple user can only access their subscription service on an iPhone, they may experience significant costs, time, lost content, and other frictions if they attempt to switch to a non-Apple smartphone or subscription service. 122. These subscription services can also increase Apple’s power over content creators and newspapers, among others, by exerting control over how audiences access their work, decreasing traffic to their websites and apps, and positioning Apple as the middleman or tollbooth operator in the relationship between creators and users. In so doing, Apple takes on outsize importance and control in the creative economy, which may diminish incentives to fund, make, and distribute artistic expression. 123. In addition, when one road is closed to Apple, Apple has demonstrated its ability to find new roads to the same or worse ends. For example, Apple was recently ordered to stop blocking link-outs by third parties to their websites where users could buy the third party’s product cheaper. In response, Apple reportedly allowed link-outs to websites but now charges for purchases made on the web even if they are not an immediate result of a click from a link in a native iPhone app. 124. Apple has also attempted to undermine cross-platform technologies like digital car keys in ways that benefit Apple but harm consumers. For example, Apple has required developers to add digital keys developed for their own apps to Apple Wallet as well. The default status of Apple Wallet steers users to the Apple Wallet rather than allowing third parties to present digital car keys only in their own cross-platform app, increasing dependence on Apple and the iPhone whenever they use their car. At the same time, it decreases the incentives of automakers to innovate because automakers are forced to share data with Apple and prevented from differentiating themselves as they could absent Apple’s conduct. 125. Apple’s threatened dominance over the automotive industry goes well beyond the Apple Wallet and Apple’s demands on car makers to allow innovative products and services on the iPhone. Apple’s smartphone dominance extends to CarPlay, an Apple infotainment system that enables a car’s central display to serve as a display for the iPhone and enables the driver to use the iPhone to control maps and entertainment in the car. Like the smartphone market, infotainment systems are increasingly considered must-have capabilities in newer vehicles. After leveraging its smartphone dominance to car infotainment systems, Apple has told automakers that the next generation of Apple CarPlay will take over all of the screens, sensors, and gauges in a car, forcing users to experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience if they want to use any of the features provided by CarPlay. Here too, Apple leverages its iPhone user base to exert more power over its trading partners, including American carmakers, in future innovation. By applying the same playbook of restrictions to CarPlay, Apple further locks-in the power of the iPhone by preventing the development of other disintermediating technologies that interoperate with the phone but reside off device. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on March 21, 2024, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. justice.gov

Apple's Monopoly Tactics: How the Tech Giant Maintains Its Grip Across Products and Services

One of the marks of a good senior developer is that they have lots of interesting opinions. After years of working on different software projects, they'll be able to passionately explain why they think is ass, paired programming is no fun, and the GitHub CLI changed their workflow. MongoDB I have anecdotally found 2 things to be true: Senior developers without opinions tend to not be very good Junior developers with many opinions tend to not get good quickly (and are annoying AF) Let the gatekeeping begin As a new developer, it's smart to consume developer content. However, when you listen to Prime, Dax, Theo, or myself give opinions, you need to remember that they're opinions, not . our yours Don't misunderstand: I publish my opinions to convince you to join my cult ( is based) but taking my word at face value does a disservice to yourself. If you simply regurgitate another developer's opinions, not only will you stunt your learning, but it will look bad in interviews and on the job. Go It's obvious when your opinions haven't been forged in the fires of your own experience. Context-specific opinions There are kinds of developers out there: many Frontend Backend Mobile Embedded, etc. But we don't just discriminate on tech stack! There are also many kinds of : companies Venture-backed startups Indie hackers Established tech incumbents Non-tech companies with internal software Consultancies, etc. No matter what advice you're hearing about technology, you need to remember that the speaker comes from a specific background. coming from people with can both be great takes. Opposing hot takes different backgrounds Do you need to scale computing power across a cluster of machines? good. Kubernetes Are you building a personal site for your dog? Kubernetes bad. I work mostly on Backend HTTP servers in Go and think debuggers are a waste of time (the state of the program is easy to reproduce) John Carmack does a lot with game engines and loves debuggers (the state of the program is hard to reproduce) Theo works on a startup where product requirements are constantly in flux and performance isn't the #1 problem. He likes TypeScript. The Primeagen works at btw and works on performance issues where product direction is relatively static. He likes Rust. Netflix Now, the best opinions tend to carry the infamous "it depends" as you keep digging for exactly this reason. However, if you're a Xitter enjoyer like myself, you need to appreciate that the context is contained in the tweet. You'll only begin to understand the context surrounding a hot take once you're familiar with the author. never The point? If you're new to coding, understand that this stuff is nuanced, but adding nuance to titles, thumbnails, and tweets gets clicks. never So what's this about TDD? Test-driven development is a somewhat controversial development methodology. Some developers love it, some hate it. MBA's love it because it makes them feel safe. TDD falls into the same category as a few other hot-button topics: always Pair programming Agile & Scrum SOLID principles Micro-services vs Monoliths FP vs OOP NoSQL vs SQL, etc. These are things that you'll hear about often, and most developers tend to form strong opinions about them. Here's my advice: If you haven't used it in a real project, don't hate it (yet) That's why it's to hate Haskell. No one has tried it in production yet. literally impossible Be a humble junior dev (I wasn't) One of the biggest mistakes I made early was simply assuming I knew more than I did. I would push for refactors that made no sense to get away from technologies that I thought were "old" or "bad". I wanted to rewrite perfectly stable parts of the code because I thought the new hotness was more maintainable. By all means, consume coding content online, but try to understand the reasoning behind the opinions you're hearing. Try to think about the context that influences the speaker. Then, when you have a chance, try the thing out for yourself before making your own bold claims. PS: The only exception to all of this is scrum. , you can just trust me on that one. It sucks regardless of your company, religion, political beliefs or sexual orientation. Scrum always sucks Also published here.

You Aren’t Qualified To Have an Opinion on Test-Driven Development Just Yet

It looks like gone are the days when a new generation of hardware actually meant a new generation of hardware. Take the recent launch of the Apple iPhone 15, for example. Despite the fanfare surrounding the launch, is it really all that much better than its predecessor? Or, Nvidia's 40 series graphic cards, which weren't necessarily the generational leap the company made it out to be. And then, of course, you have AMD's 7000 series cards, which were found to perform just as well, if not poorer, than the older generation 6000 series cards. This is a troubling pattern; yet, it hasn't stopped any of the tech majors from stepping in and bringing their house into order. With others behaving this way, can you really blame Intel for joining the list of companies that simply slap on a new code to hardware and call it a day? Yes, Team Blue launched their 14 series of processors last week, and boy, where do we even begin with this one. As Gamer Nexus jokingly called it, "The new generation-less generational improvement.. Generationally," the 14-series processors are simply a refresh of the preceding 13-series processors. Not only do they perform just the way their preceding processors did, they also cost just about the same, with one key difference: they chug a LOT of power. So what even is the point of these "new" product launches anymore? In Intel's case, it just might be its swan song for the LGA 1700 platform as it gears up for a new class of processors produced at scale using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines at its $18.5 billion plant in Ireland. Whether the 15-series processors will be good, only time will tell. Tesla, X, and Everything in Between 🚗 It was Musk season again this past week, with one or the other of the billionaire's companies in the news. Kicking off with some earnings news this past week, Tesla reported a decline in its third-quarter 2023 earnings: 66 cents per share versus the $1.05 per share it reported in the same quarter a year ago. The carmaker saw its profit decline despite generating more in sales during the three month period ending Sept. 30, 2023: $23.4 billion versus the $21.5 billion it generated in the third quarter of 2022. Tesla blamed an increase in expenses for the drop in profits. A quick glance of the company's income statement showed Tesla's operating expenses went up 43% year over year to $2.41 billion as the company ramped up costs due to the Cybertruck, AI, and other R&D projects. The Cybertruck is supposedly scheduled to begin deliveries on Nov. 30 but Musk has been a little shifty on the whole thing, telling investors that Tesla had dug its own grave with the vehicle presumably because of how soon it could ramp up production. Meanwhile, Musk's X is planning to test out a basic subscription model requiring users to pay $1 annually for basic functionalities like the ability to like, repost or quote other accounts' posts, and bookmarking posts on the web version of the platform, Reuters reported. The company also plans to launch two new tiers of premium subscriptions as it figures out ways to monetize the platform. Of the two tiers, one would be a lower cost with all features but no reduction in ads, while a more expensive version will come with no ads baked in. Tesla ranked #3 on HackerNoon's tech company rankings this week. X, formerly known as Twitter, ranked #20. 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. In Other News.. 📰 Tinder now lets mom pick your next date — via The Verge.
Crypto's role in terrorist financing — via Reuters.
OpenAI Is in Talks to Sell Shares at $86 Billion Valuation — via Bloomberg.
Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots — via TechCrunch.
Nokia says it will cut up to 14,000 jobs — via CNN.
Anthropic tests AI rules for the people, by the people — via Axios.
Okta shares fall 11% after company says client files were accessed by hackers via its support system — via CNBC. And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings page. It looks like gone are the days when a new generation of hardware actually meant a new generation of hardware. meant Take the recent launch of the Apple iPhone 15, for example. Despite the fanfare surrounding the launch, is it really all that much better than its predecessor? Or, Nvidia 's 40 series graphic cards, which weren't necessarily the generational leap the company made it out to be. Apple Apple Nvidia Nvidia generational leap generational leap And then, of course, you have AMD 's 7000 series cards , which were found to perform just as well, if not poorer , than the older generation 6000 series cards. AMD AMD 7000 series cards 7000 series cards if not poorer if not poorer This is a troubling pattern; yet, it hasn't stopped any of the tech majors from stepping in and bringing their house into order. With others behaving this way, can you really blame Intel for joining the list of companies that simply slap on a new code to hardware and call it a day? Intel Intel Yes, Team Blue launched their 14 series of processors last week, and boy, where do we even begin with this one. As Gamer Nexus jokingly called it , "The new generation-less generational improvement.. Generationally," the 14-series processors are simply a refresh of the preceding 13-series processors. jokingly called it jokingly called it Not only do they perform just the way their preceding processors did, they also cost just about the same, with one key difference: they chug a LOT of power . So what even is the point of these "new" product launches anymore? In Intel's case, it just might be its swan song for the LGA 1700 platform as it gears up for a new class of processors produced at scale using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines at its $18.5 billion plant in Ireland. LOT of power LOT of power using using Whether the 15-series processors will be good, only time will tell. Tesla, X, and Everything in Between 🚗 Tesla, X, and Everything in Between 🚗 It was Musk season again this past week, with one or the other of the billionaire's companies in the news. Kicking off with some earnings news this past week, Tesla reported a decline in its third-quarter 2023 earnings: 66 cents per share versus the $1.05 per share it reported in the same quarter a year ago. Tesla Tesla The carmaker saw its profit decline despite generating more in sales during the three month period ending Sept. 30, 2023: $23.4 billion versus the $21.5 billion it generated in the third quarter of 2022. Tesla blamed an increase in expenses for the drop in profits. A quick glance of the company's income statement showed Tesla's operating expenses went up 43% year over year to $2.41 billion as the company ramped up costs due to the Cybertruck, AI, and other R&D projects. blamed blamed The Cybertruck is supposedly scheduled to begin deliveries on Nov. 30 but Musk has been a little shifty on the whole thing, telling investors that Tesla had dug its own grave with the vehicle presumably because of how soon it could ramp up production. dug dug Meanwhile, Musk's X is planning to test out a basic subscription model requiring users to pay $1 annually for basic functionalities like the ability to like, repost or quote other accounts' posts, and bookmarking posts on the web version of the platform, Reuters reported. test test The company also plans to launch two new tiers of premium subscriptions as it figures out ways to monetize the platform. Of the two tiers, one would be a lower cost with all features but no reduction in ads, while a more expensive version will come with no ads baked in. Tesla ranked #3 on HackerNoon's tech company rankings this week. X, formerly known as Twitter, ranked #20. Tesla Tesla 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. 👋 You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. You’re reading part 2 of HackerNoon's Tech Company News Brief, a weekly collection of tech goodness that combines HackerNoon's proprietary data with internet trends to determine which companies are rising and falling in the public consciousness. Part 1 went live yesterday. Prefer reading the whole thing a day early AND in one go? No problemo! Just subscribe here to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday. part 2 Part 1 Part 1 here complete In Other News.. 📰 In Other News.. 📰 Tinder now lets mom pick your next date — via The Verge. Crypto's role in terrorist financing — via Reuters. OpenAI Is in Talks to Sell Shares at $86 Billion Valuation — via Bloomberg. Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots — via TechCrunch. Nokia says it will cut up to 14,000 jobs — via CNN. Anthropic tests AI rules for the people, by the people — via Axios. Okta shares fall 11% after company says client files were accessed by hackers via its support system — via CNBC. Tinder now lets mom pick your next date — via The Verge . The Verge The Verge Crypto's role in terrorist financing — via Reuters . Reuters Reuters OpenAI Is in Talks to Sell Shares at $86 Billion Valuation — via Bloomberg . Bloomberg Bloomberg Humanoid robots face a major test with Amazon’s Digit pilots — via TechCrunch . TechCrunch TechCrunch Nokia says it will cut up to 14,000 jobs — via CNN . CNN CNN Anthropic tests AI rules for the people, by the people — via Axios . Axios Axios Okta shares fall 11% after company says client files were accessed by hackers via its support system — via CNBC . CNBC CNBC And that's a wrap! Don't forget to share this newsletter with your family and friends! See y'all next week. PEACE! ☮️ — Sheharyar Khan, Editor, Business Tech @ HackerNoon *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings page. *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings page. *All rankings are current as of Monday. To see how the rankings have changed, please visit HackerNoon's Tech Company Rankings page. Tech Company Rankings Tech Company Rankings

With New Product Launch, Intel Takes a Page from the Nvidia Playbook 🐒

নতুন পণ্য লঞ্চের সাথে, ইন্টেল এনভিডিয়া প্লেবুক থেকে একটি পৃষ্ঠা নেয় 🐒

Mit der Einführung neuer Produkte orientiert sich Intel am Nvidia-Playbook 🐒

Con el lanzamiento de un nuevo producto, Intel toma una página del Nvidia Playbook 🐒

Avec le lancement d'un nouveau produit, Intel s'inspire du Playbook de Nvidia 🐒

नए उत्पाद लॉन्च के साथ, इंटेल ने एनवीडिया प्लेबुक से एक पेज लिया

新製品の発表で、インテルが Nvidia ハンドブックの 1 ページを取り上げます 🐒

신제품 출시로 인텔은 Nvidia 플레이북에서 한 페이지를 차지합니다 🐒

Com o lançamento de um novo produto, a Intel tira uma página do manual da Nvidia 🐒

Выпуская новый продукт, Intel берет пример с Nvidia Playbook 🐒

Yeni Ürün Lansmanıyla Intel, Nvidia Playbook'tan Bir Sayfa Alıyor 🐒

Với việc ra mắt sản phẩm mới, Intel đã kế thừa một trang từ Nvidia Playbook 🐒

随着新产品的发布，英特尔效仿 Nvidia 的做法🐒

How it Works by Archibald Williams is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE STEAM TURBINE. here Chapter III. THE STEAM TURBINE. How a turbine works—The De Laval turbine—The Parsons turbine—Description of the Parsons turbine—The expansive action of steam in a Parsons turbine—Balancing the thrust—Advantages of the marine turbine. MORE than two thousand years ago Hero of Alexandria produced the first apparatus to which the name of steam-engine could rightly be given. Its principle was practically the same as that of the revolving jet used to sprinkle lawns during dry weather, steam being used in the place of water. From the top of a closed cauldron rose two vertical pipes, which at their upper ends had short, right-angle bends. Between them was hung a hollow globe, pivoted on two short tubes projecting from its sides into the upright tubes. Two little L-shaped pipes projected from opposite sides of the globe, at the ends of a diameter, in a plane perpendicular to the axis. On fire being applied to the cauldron, steam was generated. It passed up through the upright, through the pivots, and into the globe, from which it escaped by the two L-shaped nozzles, causing rapid revolution of the ball. In short, the first steam-engine was a turbine. Curiously enough, we have reverted to this primitive type (scientifically developed, of course) in the most modern engineering practice. HOW A TURBINE WORKS. In reciprocating—that is, cylinder—engines steam is admitted into a chamber and the door shut behind it, as it were. As it struggles to expand, it forces out one of the confining walls—that is, the piston—and presently the door opens again, and allows it to escape when it has done its work. In Hero's toy the impact of the issuing molecules against other molecules that have already emerged from the pipes was used. One may compare the reaction to that exerted by a thrown stone on the thrower. If the thrower is standing on skates, the reaction of the stone will cause him to glide backwards, just as if he had pushed off from some fixed object. In the case of the —namely, the Hero-type—turbine the nozzle from which the steam or water issues moves, along with bodies to which it may be attached. In turbines steam is led through fixed nozzles or steam-ways, and the momentum of the steam is brought to bear on the surfaces of movable bodies connected with the shaft. reaction action THE DE LAVAL TURBINE. In its earliest form this turbine was a modification of Hero's. The wheel was merely a pipe bent in S form, attached at its centre to a hollow vertical shaft supplied with steam through a stuffing-box at one extremity. The steam blew out tangentially from the ends of the S, causing the shaft to revolve rapidly and work the machinery (usually a cream separator) mounted on it. This motor proved very suitable for dairy work, but was too wasteful of steam to be useful where high power was needed. In the De Laval turbine as now constructed the steam is blown from stationary nozzles against vanes mounted on a revolving wheel. Fig. 36 shows the nozzles and a turbine wheel. The wheel is made as a solid disc, to the circumference of which the vanes are dovetailed separately in a single row. Each vane is of curved section, the concave side directed towards the nozzles, which, as will be gathered from the "transparent" specimen on the right of our illustration, gradually expand towards the mouth. This is to allow the expansion of the steam, and a consequent gain of velocity. As it issues, each molecule strikes against the concave face of a vane, and, while changing its direction, is robbed of its kinetic energy, which passes to the wheel. To turn once more to a stone-throwing comparison, it is as if a boy were pelting the wheel with an enormous number of tiny stones. Now, escaping high-pressure steam moves very fast indeed. To give figures, if it enters the small end of a De Laval nozzle at 200 lbs. per square inch, it will leave the big end at a velocity of 48 miles per —that is, at a speed which would take it right round the world in 8½ hours! The wheel itself would not move at more than about one-third of this speed as a maximum. But even so, it may make as many as 30,000 revolutions per minute. A mechanical difficulty is now encountered—namely, that arising from vibration. No matter how carefully the turbine wheel may be balanced, it is practically impossible to make its centre of gravity coincide exactly with the central point of the shaft; in other words, the wheel will be a bit—perhaps only a tiny fraction of an ounce—heavier on one side than the other. This want of truth causes vibration, which, at the high speed mentioned, would cause the shaft to knock the bearings in which it revolves to pieces, if—and this is the point—those bearings were close to the wheel M. de Laval mounted the wheel on a shaft long enough between the bearings to "whip," or bend a little, and the difficulty was surmounted. minute The normal speed of the turbine wheel is too high for direct driving of some machinery, so it is reduced by means of gearing. To dynamos, pumps, and air-fans it is often coupled direct. THE PARSONS TURBINE. At the grand naval review held in 1897 in honour of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, one of the most noteworthy sights was the little of 44½ tons burthen, which darted about among the floating forts at a speed much surpassing that of the fastest "destroyer." Inside the nimble little craft were engines developing 2,000 horse power, without any of the clank and vibration which usually reigns in the engine-room of a high-speed vessel. The was the first turbine-driven boat, and as such, even apart from her extraordinary pace, she attracted great attention. Since 1897 the Parsons turbine has been installed on many ships, including several men-of-war, and it seems probable that the time is not far distant when reciprocating engines will be abandoned on all high-speed craft. Turbinia Turbinia DESCRIPTION OF THE PARSONS TURBINE. The essential parts of a Parsons turbine are:—(1) The shaft, on which is mounted (2) the drum; (3) the cylindrical casing inside which the drum revolves; (4) the vanes on the drum and casing; (5) the balance pistons. Fig. 37 shows a diagrammatic turbine in section. The drum, it will be noticed, increases its diameter in three stages, d1, d2, d3, towards the right. From end to end it is studded with little vanes, m m, set in parallel rings small distances apart. Each vane has a curved section ( ), the hollow side facing towards the left. The vanes stick out from the drum like short spokes, and their outer ends almost touch the casing. To the latter are attached equally-spaced rings of fixed vanes, f f, pointing inwards towards the drum, and occupying the intervals between the rings of moving vanes. Their concave sides also face towards the left, but, as seen in Fig. 38, their line of curve lies the reverse way to that of m m. Steam enters the casing at a, and at once rushes through the vanes towards the outlet at b. It meets the first row of fixed vanes, and has its path so deflected that it strikes the ring of moving (or drum) vanes at the most effective angle, and pushes them round. It then has its direction changed by the ring of f f, so that it may treat the next row of m m in a similar fashion. see Fig. 38 THE EXPANSIVE ACTION OF STEAM IN A TURBINE. On reaching the end of d1 it enters the second, or intermediate, set of vanes. The drum here is of a greater diameter, and the blades are longer and set somewhat farther apart, to give a freer passage to the now partly expanded steam, which has lost pressure but gained velocity. The process of movement is repeated through this stage; and again in d3, the low-pressure drum. The steam then escapes to the condenser through b, having by this time expanded very many times; and it is found advisable, for reasons explained in connection with compound steam-engines, to have a separate turbine in an independent casing for the extreme stages of expansion. The vanes are made of brass. In the turbines of the , the huge Cunard liner, 1,115,000 vanes are used. The largest diameter of the drums is 11 feet, and each low-pressure turbine weighs 350 tons. Carmania BALANCING OF THRUST. The push exerted by the steam on the blades not only turns the drum, but presses it in the direction in which the steam flows. This end thrust is counterbalanced by means of the "dummy" pistons, p1, p2, p3. Each dummy consists of a number of discs revolving between rings projecting from the casing, the distance between discs and rings being so small that but little steam can pass. In the high-pressure compartment the steam pushes p1 to the left with the same pressure as it pushes the blades of d1 to the right. After completing the first stage it fills the passage c, which communicates with the second piston, p2, and the pressure on that piston negatives the thrust on d2. Similarly, the passage e causes the steam to press equally on p3 and the vanes of d3. So that the bearings in which the shaft revolves have but little thrust to take. This form of compensation is necessary in marine as well as in stationary turbines. In the former the dummy pistons are so proportioned that the forward thrust given by them and the screw combined is almost equal to the thrust aft of the moving vanes. ADVANTAGES OF THE MARINE TURBINE. (1.) Absence of vibration. Reciprocating engines, however well balanced, cause a shaking of the whole ship which is very unpleasant to passengers. The turbine, on the other hand, being almost perfectly balanced, runs so smoothly at the highest speeds that, if the hand be laid on the covering, it is sometimes almost impossible to tell whether the machinery is in motion. As a consequence of this smooth running there is little noise in the engine-room—a pleasant contrast to the deafening roar of reciprocating engines. (2.) Turbines occupy less room. (3.) They are more easily tended. (4.) They require fewer repairs, since the rubbing surfaces are very small as compared to those of reciprocating engines. (5.) They are more economical at high speeds. It must be remembered that a turbine is essentially meant for high speeds. If run slowly, the steam will escape through the many passages without doing much work. Owing to its construction, a turbine cannot be reversed like a cylinder engine. It therefore becomes necessary to fit special astern turbines to one or more of the screw shafts, for use when the ship has to be stopped or moved astern. Under ordinary conditions these turbines revolve idly in their cases. The highest speed ever attained on the sea was the forty-two miles per hour of the unfortunate , a turbine destroyer which developed 11,500 horse power, though displacing only 370 tons. This velocity would compare favourably with that of a good many expresses on certain railways that we could name. In the future thirty miles an hour will certainly be attained by turbine-driven liners. Viper About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Archibald Williams (2009). How it Works. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28553/pg28553-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

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