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AA5B

@AA5B@lemmy.world

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AA5B ,

So true - and I hate having to use specific ones for specific people. Apple Cash works well within my family, I use Venmo for my teen’s drivers Ed, and Zelle for house cleaner

AA5B ,

The space based nukes paragraph is irrelevant. While I agree with the point thtat it may not only be useful for long term space habitation, it may be required, I don’t see what that has to do with earth based commercial power generation. They’re very different beasts with little overlap. That’s like saying you support corn based subsidies, because we’ll have to grow crops off world: true but not relevant.

AA5B ,

I didn’t think that was ready for commercialize yet. You have all the disadvantages of nuclear, but need additional development costs, need to implement a supply chain, then build out a new technology that is less efficient than existing nuclear, has unclear service life, may be supplanted by fusion or renewables, and you can still use it to make bomb material. Seems like a poor idea and a waste of money.

From India’s perspective, they’d get to lead in a new technology, where they have huge reserves of fuel, and cheap labor to scale up to a billion energy-starved citizens …. And if it helped increase their nuclear weapons stock in the face of tight controls on plutonium, so much the better

AA5B ,

Wikipedia has a good discussion, if you don’t need technical detail. They’re fairly optimistic, but do note difficulties. It actually looks more positive than I expected, with the number of demonstration reactors in the last decade or so. Note: “demonstration”. I don’t think there’s anything actually blocking use of Thorium, but some unresolved issues for commercialization, plus it’s not clear the actual results are better, or that nuclear is any longer a good place to invest. It’s more of: at this point, why would you go down that road?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

AA5B ,

All good points, and I’m all for pretty much any technological research, but

And I do think cost and build times for nuclear generators are a problem

Thorium is another form of fission generation that has not been commercialized yet. In the real world, maybe it will be better, or maybe it won’t. But fission generation already takes too long to build out, so why switch lanes to a different form of fission generation that also needs more time and money to be commercialized? Nuclear uranium fission generation had its growing pains over the years, as the technology found challenges to address and areas to improve, but thorium has not yet gotten far enough to run into those so there will be additional challenges requiring time, money, further development

If those were decades ago when the future was bright for fission technology, I’d be all over this. However the future is dark and cloudy for fission generation, nightfall may be approaching. The advantages of thorium are not enough to shine a new light, there’s not enough room for improvement to save fission generation, this is just an expensive detour.

AA5B , (edited )

someone else said we will need some kind of nuclear power for future space exploration

And I was one of those someone else’s, but in the context of calling out that there’s likely little in common.

  • a power plant on earth needs to be scaled up, assembled on site to meet the needs, can depend on gravity and open air. It needs repair ability and refuel ability, and can’t pollute ground water. It is well staffed and call in more as needed
  • a power plant off planet is likely much smaller, it has t be completely assembled ahead of time to fit on a rocket, and can not count on gravity, water, air, or even air pressure. It’s critical that it move mostly hands off: there’s no staff, no repairs, no spare parts.

biomass shouldn’t be installed as it destroys too many native forests.

That’s a choice: too many less developed countries still clear native forest for agriculture, so expanding agriculture has a downside . ITs something those countries need to take care of regardless, just to feed their people.

This is a failure of policy and governance, not technology

AA5B ,

I’m not claiming to be any more knowledgeable than what I read here, but Wikipedia says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

In 1973, however, the US government settled on uranium technology and largely discontinued thorium-related nuclear research. The reasons were that uranium-fuelled reactors were more efficient, the research was proven and thorium's breeding ratio was thought insufficient to produce enough fuel to support development of a commercial nuclear industry

AA5B ,

I wish they’d remove seatbelt as a wakeup dependency. I keep getting caught by that.

  1. Get in car
  2. Foot immediately on brake

EXPECTED: car wakes up while I put my seatbelt on

ACTUAL: car chimes seatbelt warning. I have to take my foot off brake, put seatbelt on, then put foot back on brake to wake car up. Now I can’t drive until it does.

I suppose it’s only a second or two that I’m twiddling my thumbs and it’s faster than starting a Dino-fueled car, and certainly I don’t expect to drive without a seat belt, but why does it insist on doing things in the order that makes me wait?

AA5B ,

I’ll be the contrarian - this could be good for Intuit.

They were already forced to support free filing for simple returns. This IRS Direct File has similar eligibility, so Intuit already wasn’t making money off them, but now Intuit also doesn’t need the cost of scaling up for them

Intuit gets to take a bunch of freeloaders off their support costs, and can focus where their real profits are: people with more complex returns or higher income, that also don’t need an accountant

Intuit also gets to act less scammy. The only way they were making anything off those freeloaders was selling them things they don’t need

AA5B ,

I’m r, you could just phrase it as a starting point. We have thos much done for you: fill out anything else

It would even let IRS set data driven priorities on what to add. This is the thing most people changed, so let’s work on that for next year

AA5B , (edited )

Fer sure and thanks for that list. It can make things seem much more hopeful

I think the issue is we all have a short attention span. Software or an inline service can scale in almost no time so we’re used to the idea of huge changes being everywhere all at once.

Arguably a lot of the innovation forthe real world changes in the article have already happened. Yes, it’s amazing how much increase there is in EV sales but we’ve been speculating Tesla stock and technology for years, arguing the political nonsense around them for years, arguing for investment in the shakeout hit years. Has that innovation already hapoened or is it innovation when scaled up to the real world?

AA5B ,

Already solved by evolution. This is the same problem as all of us have with visual data. We’ve evolved to need much less data transfer by doing some image processing first. Same deal. Stick some processors in there so you only need to transfer processed results, not raw data

AA5B ,

There are so many things but I really need to say: Republicans

As I started paying attention to politics, I started noticing patterns. And they’ve been getting more extreme over the years. It’s easy to say conservative positions sound good, and it’s easy to say all politicians are cynical self-centered liars with no intentions except amassing power and wealth. But if you’re paying any attention at all, you see Republicans far worse, far more blatant lies, far more corrupt and it isn’t even close.

Then I come online and see Republicans trying to justify absolute shitty behavior, hold themselves above the law, govern by obstruction. They used to say they had goals, a foundation, beliefs but I’d like to see them act constructively for their constituents with those beliefs. Please. Meanwhile people start trumpeting a case of Democrat malfeasance and other Democrats are at the front of the line to see justice done. Sometimes it can be difficult to maintain cynicism.

But then we come down to my vested interests. In a strong believer in education, science, technology, investing for the future. One party has not just given up, but actively obstruct across the board

AA5B , (edited )

I don’t know how frequent it is, but the important point is the attitude that test failures can be ok. I don’t know if this one is, but yes there’s a pattern ….

Instead of being so risk averse that you take years and billions extra doing your best to create one of a kind hardware trying be perfect (NASA/Boeing), SpaceX builds many copies, iterate, test frequently, learn from failures. This approach seemed to have worked extremely well for previous rockets, so I’m still cheering them on.

Even just consider this test - the fact that they’re trying to build a rocket engine every week with the goal of automating the process well enough to have high confidence in them, can test it without the rocket, can build a rocket and attach engines later, can use a rocket and replace a failed engine. If this modular approach comes together this is huge!

AA5B ,

And they don’t even have a goal of more than one launch a year and billions of dollars per launch. Artemis is the same old flag waving BS: do it once to say you’re first, then lose interest.

Starship’s goals of reusability, frequent launches, order of magnitude cost reductions can be the foundation of the next jump in space industry/exploration

AA5B ,

The point is a more accurate analogy would be the truck pulling over after 494 miles, with plenty of charge left in the batteries, because they decided not to continue the test during rush hour.

Sure, technically they didn’t make 500 miles, but they were pretty damn close, encountered nothing preventing it, and chose not to for other reasons. Continuing those few extra miles serves no purpose at this time,and is arguably contrary to successful testing

AA5B ,

Maybe you should check your history there as well

AA5B ,

I’d be happy if my fridge had some sort of optional rack for an arbitrary tablet, with power supply or even a traditional paper calendar . Even happier if it had cheap simple Zigbee/z-wave/Thread sensors - let me choose to do or not do anything with them

AA5B ,

There’s no reason they need so much processing, something that expensive. All you need is very cheap sensors - it really needs to be from the manufacturer for power and to get a signal through the metal skin.

Minimal software, no required online services or planned obsolescence, no privacy violations or data collection, no confusion for anyone who chooses not to use it, very minimal price increase. Since I can track power consumption externally if I want, I’m not sure what you’d even want beyond temperature monitoring and alerts

AA5B ,

While that sounds like a good idea, I can’t see that working. You’d need many cameras and even then some stuff would be hidden behind others

AA5B ,

Important links!!!!!!!!

AA5B ,

See results for Natalie Portman

AA5B ,

Trying to make me get myself, huh? Yeah, I fell for it, but no, that doesn’t work. Http 404

AA5B ,

Right, a rock can get in any car and your pin doesn’t help, so one of your best safeguards is to not leave anything visible in the car

AA5B ,

But it all comes down to the fae, the fairies, the fair folk

AA5B ,

I never looked into it, but assumed it was just like an “echo dot”. May deserves a premium for being smaller and belatedly powered, as much as $30?

AA5B ,

There are actual checks and balance to ensure you’re a citizen and you vote at most once

AA5B ,

So …. In a decade we’ll get ApplePay?

AA5B ,

It’s hilarious to see this next to another thread about a Republican political ad “ So don’t be weak and gay” …. Apparently it’s easier than y’all thought, to manipulate voters. The expressiveness and compassion of todays ai far outshines what most Conservatives seem able to muster

(Apologize for the intrusion of politics: I’ll shut up now)

AA5B ,

So true, but especially true of ai. Previous rounds of hype for ai tended to turn into boring things that just worked, and the hype moved on. Even automated driving, where ai really hasn’t delivered yet, has turned into boring everyday ho hum features common to cars, and the hype moved on to generative ai

AA5B ,

My TV

  • moves static pictures around a bit
  • has an aggressive screen saver, then power down
  • streaming devices are fairly aggressive about sleeping/ power down
  • there’s only so many hours to watch TV
  • most video has a lot of dark

Those are great features to combat burnin and save energy, and no big deal on my TV. However those would be aggravating on a monitor I’m trying to work at, plus most of the monitor is bright

AA5B ,

Sure but this is one of the differences between tv and monitor.

  • tv time is max a few hours, lots of dark, lots of movement, pixel shifting has no impact
  • work monitor is 8+ hours, close work, high brightness/contrast. I don’t know if pixel shifting is noticeable but it’s more likely, plus there’s more static element, more bright, more contrast
AA5B ,

This is a feature, not a bug. The rest of us don’t want crap being sent to admin email addresses, so fix your damn email and try again.

Personally I use generated email addresses to most places, but my personal address is <FIRST>@<LAST>.us

AA5B ,

That’s interesting. I haven’t paid attention to caps in litter.

Here they ask that you separate caps and throw them out, to make recycling the bottle easier. Even if you do a bottle return, haven’t done that in years since we have recycling, but the machine shreds the bottle and pops the top off into a separate bin, I always assumed trash

AA5B ,

Less plastics on your streets, in your yards, and fields, is also an important goal

AA5B ,

It may have been more difficult and expensive than you’d expect. My understanding was distribution contracts tend to be per country. Netflix can’t just stream all the stuff from north of the border, but have to start over with buying rights to everything in a new country

This made more sense when distributors were all per country but not so much for streamers

AA5B ,

The music industry figured it out: I listen to way more music than ever before and I willingly pay more than ever before

Video streaming keeps trying to make my experience more frustrating, less value to me. They’re scrounging for dollars is driving me away. I’ve considered my options for making video entertainment enjoyable again, and I’m just tired of the whole thing. I’m spending more time in projects, more time online, more time reading ebooks from my library. I’m watching less video than before, enjoying it less, getting less value for my money and it’s just all not worth it. Their efforts to profit more from my attention are getting them less of it and losing my willingness to pay

AA5B ,

They may not even have thought of it. If you’re a customer of such a place, you could suggest to them that there are people who drive EVs and a similar benefit for charging would attract those customers.

Of course it probably comes down to someone would need to decide it’s worth the investment of setting up a charging station, so it’s not going to be cheap or fast

AA5B ,

Freedom of choice is certainly important but we do all have to work together for the sake of our future and our children’s future. It is certainly a good idea to set efficiency and emissions standards, including up to a controlled transition to zero emissions.

It’s not even close to a situation of forcing any customers: we’re at a stage of forcing manufacturers to improve their products and work toward a transition in 11 years, and help encourage a growing market for them to profit by it.

This is back to old arguments like:

  • free speech but you can’t yell “FIRE” in a coowded theater
  • freedom to swing your arms, that stops before you hit my face

And connected to Tragedy of the Commons.

  • breathable air and livable environments are something we all need in common. You have no right to take that from the rest of us
AA5B ,

More importantly, people should give more priority to more common needs. I plug my car in when I get home, like my phone, and just always have a charge. It is so much more convenient to never have to go to a local gas station again. Much better than older cars where it seemed like I had to go every couple of weeks.

Yes, recharging my EV is less convenient on road trips, but it’s more convenient 95+% of the time

AA5B ,

Not sure how to react with this one. On the one hand, we need a bigger and better used EV market, but on the other hand, this shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s sort of like buying a 20 yr old Corolla, then complaining it can’t haul gravel

AA5B ,

Why Tram? While I prefer them as well and my area has some, this is the same scenario a bus can handle, and a bus is arguably better since it can go more places and be more flexible without infrastructure costs. For most places, we need to electrify buses and figure out how to make them a more appealing choice

Trains and trains are better at scaling for more populated areas but buses need to be part of that continuum

AA5B ,

The only problem with this idea is plugin hybrids should have been an important step. Why haven’t we already phased out pure gasoline vehicles for hybrid and plugin hybrid? We could have and should have done this when pure EVs were not yet practical.

But that time has passed. EVs are or could be practical for most uses, with current technology. Manufacturers don’t get to just build overpriced luxury vehicles and say “see, no one wants them: let’s go back to gasoline”. Not enough cheap EVs? We could if manufacturers would scale up, or if we allowed imports from China. Not enough charging stations? That’s just time and investment, and was rapidly changing at least up to Tesla’s layoffs. You don’t get to delay the build out and say “see, there’s not enough chargers”. Not enough raw materials? Huge discoveries in the last couple of years, and recycling ready to scale up as soon as enough vehicles are there. Not enough power in the grid? They only respond to steady growth in demand, and need that growth maintained over years. I suppose plug-in hybrid is better than gasoline but we’re really at the stage where EV technology is practical for most and the biggest impediment is just doing it

AA5B ,

Right, but the technology is there. The obstruction is legal/policy/who pays, so older technology shouldn’t have to be the answer.

I’m frustrated with this same issue at my ex’s condo. The entire complex is townhouses with assigned parking in front. It also has the service entrance in front, so a charger is a short cable under the side walk from a unit’s service entrance to a pedestal at their parking spot. Cheap and easy, and everyone pays their own electric bill. So why won’t they do it? Oh well, if my ex doesn’t want that fight, it’s not my problem

AA5B ,

Yeah, that seems like more than enough activity to scale up to something that can handle more.

Unfortunately trams can have similar shortcomings all too easily, but I guess it’s the next step

Around here, they’re trying the approach of dedicated bus lanes. The claim is that a lot of the time it only takes one bus stuck in traffic to get behind and stuck in that problem. With a dedicated lane, the bus scales a little better, goes a little faster, is a little more likely to be on time.

AA5B ,

Sure, we have standards to demonstrate that. We know that global warming is taking that livable environment away. We have established goals per country, and strategies to meet them. Those strategies map out limits for how much your vehicle can pollute, without being detrimental to everyone’s livable environment. Given the impact on people, we’ve made the compromise to phase those in over more than a decade, but after 2035 (in my state), the compromise is over. New cars for sale can no longer emit carbon dioxide as part of their operation.

Your existing vehicle is grandfathered since we hadn’t established those limits when it was manufactured, and it was the purchased with the expectation of being suitable for purpose

AA5B ,

Read the news sometime. A memorable recent one I read included the history of a barrier island town, the nearby ones already abandoned, and whether they need to abandon it yet or if it was still livable. The root cause was sea level rise caused by global warming

AA5B ,

Seems like a good plan that’s right for your situation, but for all of our future, I hope that’s rare ten years from now.

For anyone in their own house, where it’s pretty straightforward to install a charger …. It’s damn nice to never again have to go to a local refueling station. Recharging your car can be just like your phone: plug it in overnight and it’s just always full.

Yeah, it can be a bit less convenient on a road trip, but 95+% time, plugging into your home charger is more convenient

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