Thread

1. ricardobayes · 1789988959 · focus · HN ↗

   The article features a truck that the chips get loaded onto. This quote from Tanenbaum immediately jumped into mind:

   "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway."

   1. leoedin · 1789994911 · focus · HN ↗

      I was wondering how much financial value they put in one truck. Presumably the value density of this stuff is incredibly high (although not really to anyone else, so security probably isn't a huge issue). At what point do you split the shipment between multiple trucks to avoid huge losses if there's a crash?

      When I worked on satellites we had some electronics which used a radiation hardened FPGA which cost something like $500k per chip. Carrying that around was nerve wracking.

      1. ceejayoz · 1789997958 · focus · HN ↗

         I once had to keep a $20M (technically; a million download codes for the same $20 movie for a promotion) thumbdrive in my home safe because it arrived too late to put in the safety deposit box like it was supposed to be.

         I had to remind myself a few times the practical value to anyone was about $22.

         1. jasondigitized · 1790010731 · focus · HN ↗

            I worked at a [Not to be named Country]'s monetary authority. Part of everyone's duty was to receive shipments of newly printed cash from De La Rue and get it into the vault before it was distributed to banks. Seeing millions of dollars packaged in cardboard boxes being moved from the street to the vault with men posted up in the bushes with machine guns was something I will never forget.

            1. oasisbob · 1790011335 · focus · HN ↗

               It's funny how rote and regularized "playing" with money gets after a while though.

               I used to work for a financial institution small enough to sometimes need someone from the back office to help fill in as a warm body for dual-control when we received cash shipments.

               It only took a couple sessions in a vault to get entirely bored with having a half million dollars in front of you.

               1. aljgz · 1790018896 · focus · HN ↗

                  My first serious software was for a sizable goldsmith factory. They keep an incredibly low profile visible from outside, and they get really good at it. Once inside, the amount of gold that's moving around is jaw dropping. After a while, most of the time it feels like aluminum, or any other material. All you see is cuts to be made, welding to be done, carvings, sandblast, etc... It's work and responsibility and everyone is just trying to get it done and make it the problem of the next person.

                  1. oasisbob · 1790228255 · focus · HN ↗

                     My dad was a goldsmith! (Who eventually ended up doing software for jewelers!)

                     I definitely know what those small brown boxes which ship UPS ground look like. Very normal.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.