ThePointblank

Tesla is piling on Nikola's woes in their ongoing lawsuit by claiming that Nikola patented a stolen truck design: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/09/nikola-patented-a-stolen-truck-design-tesla-claims-in-legal-response/ It seems like Tesla is pushing to invalid Nikola's patents by trying to demonstrate that Nikola's patents lack novelty over prior art, and misattribution of inventorship. That would be the death knell of Nikola's ongoing lawsuit against Tesla, and just adds to the legal troubles Nikola is facing.

They do have a functioning prototype of the Nikola Two, but they've been extremely quiet about the technology behind it. It also appears that much of the technology behind it is off-the-shelf components, using fuel cells provided by Bosch, along with partnerships with Iveco. However, they've been beaten to the punch on testing a hydrogen powered truck; Kenworth has already delivered a few trucks of their own design for field testing to their clients, using Toyota developed fuel cells. Whatever the situation with Nikola is, apparently, the Feds are involved; the SEC and the Department of Justice have launched investigations into the company. So things appear to be getting very interesting.

If you are familiar with Canon cameras, I would stick with Canon. Sony's cameras, while being technically advanced, have a much higher learning curve because their user interface isn't as refined as Canon. The EOS RP is a very good budget full frame mirrorless; not many mirrorless cameras can hit it's price point and do a decent job, short of older models. If you can, try to stretch for a used or refurbished EOS R; it's the next step up from the RP, and while it is getting long in the tooth, it's a very competent camera.

Most modern DSLR's are designed to be used as video cameras, and it's unlikely that the sensor will die due to use prior to the camera being significantly outdated, so it probably isn't a major concern unless you are planning on running it 24 hours a day, every day, for a long time, and maybe, you might see some degradation, but by then, the camera is well out of date and obsolete.

After a short seller leveled fraud allegations against Nikola Motors almost two weeks ago, Nikola's chief chairman and founder, Trevor Milton has abruptly resigned from his position: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/09/nikola-founder-abruptly-resigns-amid-fraud-allegations/ The short seller, Hindenburg Research made a series of fraud allegations against Nikola, chiefly, that Milton mislead investors and the public when back in 2016, they announced their first product, the Nikola One semi truck was fully functional. Hindenburg Research then made an allegation that the Nikola One truck seen in a 2018 promo video was actually towed up a hill, and let loose to roll down a hill to appear to be driving under it's own power, which Nikola eventually admitted was true, but tried to split hairs by claiming they never said the truck was actually driving under it's own power in the video. Hindenburg Research's allegations came at a very interesting time for Nikola, as it was 2 days after they signed a deal with GM, where GM would produce Nikola's Badger pickup truck, where GM would essentially build the truck with their battery and fuel cell technology, and with all appearances being that Nikola contributing nothing to the agreement beyond lending their name, some financing, and providing GM a 11% stake in Nikola. Other than that, Nikola claims they have figured out a way to significantly cut the cost of hydrogen significantly, but they have released zero details on that front as well. Nikola has named former GM executive, Stephen Girsky as its new chairman to replace Milton. The situation with Nikola is getting very interesting indeed; it seems like there's nothing about the company that has driven it's sky high valuation, and the market appears to be catching onto that fact, as Nikola's stock has taken a massive beating after Hindenburg Research leveled their allegations. They appear to have nothing in terms of technology and research that would make them such a valuable company, and by all appearances, they look like another Theranos situation.

Very little chance of damage to a camera if you use it as a webcam. For DSLR's they are pretty much running in live view when hooked up like this, and with mirrorless cameras, this is their default operation to show something on your EVF or back screen. I've hooked up my EOS R as a webcam, and it works great. Image quality beats the snot out of any webcam, and it makes use of my existing camera gear.

Canon's EOS Webcam Utility is now out of beta for Windows, and they've expanded compatibility to add additional cameras: https://www.dpreview.com/news/3220375111/canon-s-eos-webcam-utility-out-of-beta-on-windows-now-supports-more-programs-cameras https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/self-help-center/eos-webcam-utility The officially supported list of the programs that will now work with EOS Webcam Utility for Windows: Cisco Webex Messenger Streamlabs Discord Microsoft Teams YouTube Live LIVE Facebook Live Open Broadcaster Software ZOOM Hangouts Skype Hangouts Meet Slack As for cameras, below is a list of the models that are currently supported by the official release: EOS Digital Cameras EOS-1D C* EOS-1D X* EOS-1D X Mark II EOS-1D X Mark IlI EOS 5D Mark III* EOS 5D Mark IV EOS 5DS EOS 5DS R EOS 6D * EOS 6D Mark I ** EOS 60D * EOS 7D * EOS 7D Mark I1 EOS 70D * EOS 77D** EOS 80D ** EOS 90D ** EOS M200 *** EOS M50 ** EOS M6 Mark II ** EOS R EOS R5* EOS R6 *** EOS Ra* EOS Rebel SL1* EOS Rebel SL2 ** EOS Rebel SL3 ** EOS Rebel T3* EOS Rebel T3i* EOS Rebel T5* EOS Rebel T5i* EOS Rebel T6 EOS Rebel T6i EOS Rebel T6s * EOS Rebel T7 ** EOS Rebel T7i ** EOS Rebel T8i*** EOS Rebel T100 ** EOS RP ** PowerShot Cameras: PowerShot G5X Mark II ** PowerShot G7X Mark Ill ** PowerShot SX70 HS * Recently added camera ** USB not included with camera

The thing about customs decisions regarding if something violates import laws is that they are often made at the local level, not at a higher up level. It's up to the officer's discretion as to whenever or not something violates import laws. While local officers might consult with managers and higher up the food chain, the ultimate discretion is up to the customs officer at the scene, and it is sometimes a judgement call if it is particularly a grey zone.

It's 7 years old, and Sony has since released 2 refreshes of the RX100 series. What is your budget, and where are you located?

Best is subjective, and is dependent upon requirements, use case, and budget.

The Panasonic can record 10 bit 4:2:2 internally at very high bitrates, has a waveform and vector scope built-in, can take full sized audio in/out via an accessory, and can record in excess of 30 minutes.

That actually looks fairly flimsy for a tripod. And because it so old, it probably doesn't have a compatible quick release plate type still in existence, though it looks somewhat similar to the Manfrotto RC2 type system. Probably better off tossing it out, and getting a proper tripod with a more universal mount; ones that use the Arca Swiss mount are pretty much the industry standard these days due to their universality.

You'll probably will need to up the budget, as there aren't many good cameras that do decent video at $200, especially if you are looking for one that has the ability to take an external mic. You probably won't be able to go any higher than 720p in terms of resolution at that price, unless you pick up a used camera.

I would actually pick the Panasonic GH5 over the A7SII. The Panasonic is a better overall video camera.

You are probably better off with something like a Canon C500 Mark II, or a Sony FX9. The Canon's and Sony's are more single user friendly, more reliable, and their accessories don't cost an arm and a leg. Plus, the Canon and Sony are in general more user friendly, as they have a more capable autofocus system, so unless you have a lot of experience pulling focus, the RED's will have a major learning curve to use effectively. You might like the Canon better because Canon's colour science is well regarded compared to Sony. But based upon your use case, why are you picking cine cameras for that type of work? You are probably better off with some sort of hybrid mirrorless camera, such as Canon's EOS R5 or R6, or the Panasonic S1H. You'll get what you need for that type of content creation with those cameras, as a cine camera is very much overkill.

Scuttlebutt going around is that the A7SIII is having overheating problems under certain conditions as demonstrated by this reviewer:

Google is apparently in negotiations with Samsung to have Samsung discontinue Bixby and the Galaxy App Store and promote Google apps instead, with financial incentives from Google to sweeten the offer: From Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/07/google-wants-samsung-to-kill-bixby-galaxy-app-store/ Quotes The sources are saying that they intend on finalizing some sort of agreement this Friday, so we'll see what happens. From what I've seen of Bixby and the Galaxy App Store on my Samsung phone, both aren't much to write home about. Bixby is barely useful, and I prefer to use the Google Assistant, or Alexa for stuff. Also, the Galaxy App Store is pretty thin on good apps, and doesn't have the market share the Google App Store has. I suspect that if Samsung does kill Bixby and the Galaxy App Store, there's no real loss for most end users.

That's the old Tamron, which isn't as good. Would recommend you stay away from it. The updated G2 version is much better.

Should be able to use the timer feature for the shutter; set the time to say, 5 or 10 seconds, and just press the button and let the camera count down. Works well for still subjects if the camera is mounted on a tripod.

It really depends on the history of the companies involved in crowdfunding projects; be more wary of those with no history, has missed milestones, can't effectively manage expectations, or doesn't respond to backers.

First one looks a bit like camera shake. The Sony has a contrast based AF system, which isn't the most effective at picking out subjects with not a lot of contrast and poor lighting.

Considering it took ASML and industry partners over 15 years to get a viable EUV scanner system built for high volume manufacturing to be able to produce sub 7nm chips, and they are the only ones out there with a working unit, it will take the Chinese well over another decade to figure out the technology and get it to the point where they can mass produce with the systems. The semi-conductor industry is a very high cost intensive industry, with large needs for capital to build the fabs, acquire the tools, and hire highly technically skilled people to be able to design and build chips. China has the potential for the latter down already, but the issue is former. It has been trying to close the gap here in technical know-how through attempting acquisitions, but the current political climate in Washington and in the West from here on makes another effort to outright buy the expertise makes this unlikely. And at this current pace, China in order to catch up would need the decades of human capital and expertise these companies have collected. It is one thing to talk about theoretical science, it's another to demonstrate the applied sciences needed for high end semiconductor production. Calibrating and perfecting the application of a theory is much harder than just mere application. It takes years and years of experience, trial and error, even sometimes lucky mistakes to really master applying a complicated theory. In said process, sometimes new scientific phenomenons are observed and need to be explained. This isn't an industry where you can start from scratch and be among the best in a few years.

They do not have the tooling; the tooling, equipment, and technology is in the hands of Western countries, not the Chinese. And advanced lithography machines are not something anyone can pull apart and study without the OEM being aware of it. Bleeding edge litho gear isn’t something you will want to fiddle with unless you are doing it along with the supplier - they won’t be handing over the repair manual. These OEM's have to put tech support on-site with customers to get it up and running as well, and to conduct maintenance and repairs. No, SMIC was intending on doing their sub 12nm production on ASML produced machinery. The export of the machines were denied late last year, and were never delivered. ASML’s export license expired unused on June 30, 2019, and no new license was granted in the following eight-week period during which a renewal request would normally be considered, according to a public database of licenses published by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It's because semiconductor lithography machines are covered under the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. The Chinese are not a party to that arrangement, and thus transfers of the more advanced semiconductor equipment invites much more scrutiny, especially to China.

You aren't getting it. You stated that "there's like a dozen fabs in china capable of 5nm built by the Chinese operating with Chinese made machines." That statement is factually wrong. There are no fabs in China capable of 5nm operating with Chinese built and designed machines. Hell, there aren't any fabs running 5nm anywhere in commercially viable quantities; the bleeding edge right now is 7nm, and only Samsung and TSMC are capable of that. And neither companies are running sub 7nm production in China; TSMC is exclusively producing anything sub 7nm in Taiwan, and Samsung likewise is doing so solely in South Korea. Both companies have only sampled production of 5nm parts, and even then, it means that in reality, the fab is shipping very early runs of chips made with this process to its launch customer(s), who will need to do a ton of testing and evaluation of their own, and may find the yields and reliability uneconomically low at this point… in preparation for a more mature and stable process a few months down the road. Probably give them later this year till the launch customers feel comfortable enough with the 5nm process to give TSMC and Samsung the go-ahead to mass produce their chips on the process. The fabs that can run 7nm production are using machinery exclusively designed by ASML; they are the only game in town for sub 13nm process lithographic machines. Nobody else has been able to demonstrate lithographic machines capable of sub 13nm production other than ASML. Even then, photolithography machines only handle the exposure part of this process. All the other steps are handled by other machines that are very high-tech pieces of equipment in their own rights and these machines are manufactured by different companies such as Applied Materials, and ASM.

Those fab machines are primarily made by ASML, a Dutch company, using IP from the US. A couple of other companies produce lithographic machines, but they aren't as competitive as the ones from ASML, and they are all Western companies (Nikon, Canon, and Ultratech). As such ASML has a near monopoly on advanced lithographic machines, with about 2/3's of the world market for lithographic machines total (they've cornered the more advanced market, while their competitors primarily battle it out in the 28+nm category). And it is not easy to try to reverse engineer these machines; for one, the optics inside are incredibly delicate and intricate part of their extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines is their optics, with the end result being that they are notoriously difficult, if not impossible to reverse engineer and copy. The optics on these machiens are made by Carl Zeiss AG, a German company and use specialized multi-layer masks and exotic optics materials polished down to a couple of nanometers scale accuracy, down to a few dozen atoms in variance. The reason is the very low tolerance and high sensitivity of EUV laser light to even the smallest lens imperfections, and these optics are the primary reason these machines are so expensive and take so long to manufacture. If the Chinese (or anyone else) could successfully copy and reproduce the optics (which I seriously doubt), then the most difficult part of their work would be done. From my knowledge, ASML has never shipped their most advanced lithography machines to a Chinese firm; the Dutch government blocked the sale by denying export permits as lithographic machines fall under the purview of the Wassenaar Arrangement, which controls the export of certain dual-use technologies.