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frezik

@frezik@midwest.social

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frezik ,

That sort of thing probably has an outsized effect on people. They get hate it at first because everything is different, then they have to use it at work, and then they get used to it and want to use it at home.

frezik ,

They have the skill, have a good start on the infrastructure, and have the money to do what America did in the 70s.

They don't have the skill, infrastructure, or money to build what was shown in the rendering. Nobody does. To do what they show doesn't just require a moon base, but full out lunar mining and manufacturing. We only have preliminary ideas about how to do that, none of which have any practical testing, and we're a long way from getting there.

frezik ,

I've said before that the supercharger network is their most important long term asset. They opened up their plug standard, other manufacturers are jumping on board, and they have the largest network that supports all those new EVs.

Only problem is that it's boring, and Elon doesn't like boring. So now here we are.

frezik ,

Right. If you put in enough chargers, ranges of 300 to 400mi are fine. You need to stop every 2 to 4 hours, anyway, so it's not a big deal in practice.

frezik ,

It was attached to the hyperloop, right? Which itself doesn't seem to be anything more than a ploy to delay/kill California high speed rail.

It succeeded exactly as much as it dared to hope. California rail does seem to be over the hump at this point, but it took an extra decade to get there.

frezik ,

It's not that good of an idea in the long run. It was attractive when EVs struggled to have 100mi range and L3 chargers didn't exist. Once batteries got good enough to push 300-400mi and there's plenty of L3 chargers around, it's just not necessary. The range will outlast your bladder.

That's on top of what others have mentioned about how they can get abused. You'll never know if the new battery you're getting is good. Or if the charge station tests it and find it's junk, then they have to do something with it, which increases their costs.

frezik ,

If anything, it was a major coup by Tesla to make their plug the standard when they have the largest existing charging network for that plug. Now they're in a position of letting other networks catch up.

This decision is bafflingly stupid. Is firing people the only way Musk can get hard anymore?

frezik ,

You're harming yourself doing this. First, sitting for long periods of time isn't good, and getting up and stretching every 2 hours is recommended. This applies to office work just as much as driving. Second, urination typically happens every 3-4 hours, and if you're not, then you're likely dehydrated or have something else going wrong.

If you really, really want to do this, well OK, but we shouldn't put the whole EV transition on hold just to let you do this.

frezik ,

10-80% charge time is in the range of 20 minutes. EVs already exist that will get you 4 hours of driving on that. Yes, even in the cold.

This isn't as big a problem in practice as it's made out to be.

frezik ,

It's like he looked at Carly Fiorina's run on HP and said "hold my beer".

frezik , (edited )

0-100F is a base 10 scale that has inherent advantages. It's not just "what you're used to" any more than you get used to base 10 anything, including all of the metric system. (Which should be redesigned around base 12, but that's a whole different rant).

Beyond that, I find that 1 degree Celsius is too wide of a measurement for a lot of things, especially in the kitchen. My sous vide steaks get cooked at 130F, and that tends to be +/- 1F with the accuracy of the sous vide. If I said it's at 54C +/- 1C, that's not quite right. 54C is closer to 129F, so it's almost outside the accuracy range already. Plus, that 1C of accuracy covers 2.2F, so the finish temperature could be anywhere from 126.8F to 132.2F. Way outside the range, the steak does come out different at those temperatures, and the lower end of that is potentially unsafe (though that's a complicated topic, as well).

But then if I say 54.4C +/- 0.45C, now I have to use more numbers (since numbers with zeros at the end, as in the F example, are easier to remember) with more decimal places to get to the same thing. Dropping down to milligrade or whatever is now using a prefix that's uncommon with this unit of measurement.

But then, I also want to use grams to measure everything out in the kitchen. Ounces and cups are crude for no real advantage.

Metric's ability to convert between units easily isn't particularly useful in the kitchen. Unless you're doing some molecular gastronomy shit, that is.

Purity is not a virtue. Being able to use different measurement systems in different contexts is an advantage.

frezik ,

0-100F is not base 10 at all,

Umm, yes, it is. Zero and a hundred, and convention is to break up temperatures like "it's in the forties". It's all base 10.

TV weather people saying that the temp will be in the 80s is less useful to me than if they tell me if it will be 27°C for example

Is it going to be 27C all day long? Is it going to be between 80 and 90 all day long? One is more likely than the other, and even if it's 78 in the morning, that's fine, doesn't make much difference.

Here, C is overly precise for the task.

Why would you do ±1°C if the sous vide can do decimals?

Because 130, a number with a zero at the end of it, is easier to deal with than 54.4.

This has an effect on UI, as well. Two buttons for going up or down. With F, you can do that in 1 or 0.5 degree increments. In C, it'd have to be 0.1, and you're pressing it more to get to where you want.

Also, the recipe calls for 130°F because it was made by an American, if you look for European recipes it will probably say 54°C.

Which will be wrong. Steak turns out differently with slight changes in temperature around this level. European recipes will have to go to 54.4C.

Neither will add decimals to their recipes because that’s just being anal

No, it's using sous vide properly. Precision is why you do it.

frezik ,

The book is clear that people stopped reading books on their own, then came to distrust them, and then pressured the government to outlaw them. It wasn't top-down like you might expect in an authoritarian society.

TBH, the book is a lot of "old man yells at cloud". Bradbury wasn't even that old at the time he wrote it, but it comes off that way.

One thing I think makes a good point is porches. Just a place for you to hang out and signal to your neighbors that it's OK to start up a random conversation as they walk by. Most houses aren't built these days with porches that are particularly usable for that, and setback requirements in zoning often make them legally impossible to add.

frezik ,

I have read it relatively recently, and you're not completely off. The people democratically decided to outlaw books because their society sucked.

frezik ,

When it comes to works for hire like most commercial games, the term is 95 years after publication, or 120 years after creation, whichever comes first. In another 50 years or so, you can legally fall down all the holes.

frezik ,

In works for hire like that, it's a different standard. Basically 95 years from publication.

frezik ,

If that's true, 1300 mile range isn't the big deal. Going much over 400mi is pointless if we build proper charging infrastructure. Use wh/kg advancements to reduce weight, nor increase range.

The big thing is that we can build fully electric airplanes with that kind of wh/kg.

Big if, though. Batteries have been improving by 5-8% per year, and while we're not close to theoretical limits yet, this would represent an unprecedented leap all at once. That claim needs more to back it up than a press release.

frezik ,

Hmm?

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

M3 pros are 72.4Wh.

frezik , (edited )

Here's the internals of the 13 with a 61Wh battery:

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_0054.jpeg

And here's the 16 with an 85Wh battery:

https://images.prismic.io/frameworkmarketplace/0b001897-9e05-406e-8f50-af54ba76a723_Load+up+on+memory+and+storage.jpg?auto=compress,format

Where would a larger battery fit?

The real answer to your question is to wait 3-4 years for battery technology to get about 20% better (given historical trends of 5-8% improvements per year).

frezik ,

Longer doesn't work because it has to fit in existing bags people have. Thickening it won't work because reviewers will then complain it's too thick.

I have a Toshiba laptop from around 2012 which has a slide-out optical drive. To me, it's thick but not too thick; it's just right. If we could return to that size, I think we'd be good. It'd also support better cooling (my Framework 13 with an i7-1280P gets hot, and there just isn't enough space for a bigger cooler). Reviewers over the past 10 years have pushed for thinner and thinner, and we gave up too much in the meantime.

Same goes for screen bezels and built in webcams. All else being equal, a cam with a bigger sensor is better because it can capture more light. Thin screen bezels force a small webcam, and thus your laptop has a shittier camera than a 10 year old smartphone.

In both cases, I don't think actual customers care all that much past a certain point. Reviewers have been deducting stars for a slightly thicker case or a slightly thicker bezel than other models on the market, and customers just go along with it.

frezik ,

The do have to source the same parts as the rest of the industry. This is why, for example, they can't have a socketable laptop CPU. Those don't exist anymore, and Framework is too small to afford a custom part from Intel or AMD.

Same with batteries. A thicker laptop battery may not even exist.

frezik ,

Thick isn't a problem for bags (up to a point). It's reviewers complaining about it and deducting stars that's the problem.

frezik ,

I'd guess 2027, since all the stuff mentioned are things that are culminating more recently.

That said, the company's best long term asset is probably the charging network. Especially since other manufacturers are adopting their plug. But that's boring, and Musk isn't a guy who cares about the boring stuff. He's exactly the type to ignore the company's best strategic direction just because he can't make grandiose claims on Xhitter about it.

frezik ,

Yes, and it's common for job cuts to only make things worse for companies over the following quarters. It only makes things more backed up. It only helps your stock price for this quarter.

Whatever you might think about the Cybertruck, it is sold through for at least the next year. I think they're terrible--they look even dumber in person than in photos--but there are people who are lining up to buy one. Cutting staff does not sell Cybertrucks any faster.

A $25k Tesla EV would be a huge win, both in the US and (most importantly for the company's bottom line) China. There are reports of it being canceled, which may or may not be true, but it does appear that Elon wants to go all in on a self driving taxi, and I don't see that working. Even if it eventually does, it's a huge gamble when there's a very straightforward moneymaker sitting right there that doesn't require any particular R&D breakthroughs. Looks like Kia/Hyundai are happy to take that market if Tesla doesn't want it. Meanwhile, BYD is sitting over there figuring out how to enter US and EU markets. Telsa is stuck with a stupid polygon truck.

frezik ,

Production numbers are awful, but that's only more reason why laying off workers is a bad move.

frezik ,

Do you mean converting an ICE into an EV in your garage? There are hobbyists who do that, but it's not a small project.

Do you mean taking an existing ICE frame and making an EV version? It happens. The Mini Cooper EV is a Cooper S with the guts from the BMW i3 dropped in. They changed as little as they could get away with. They even left the hood scoop on.

It makes for an EV that's just OK, but not great.

frezik ,

The main obstacle is that they aren't very good. They're a transitional step. We're already moving past the point where it makes sense. The next Mini EV models coming out will be purpose built designs.

frezik ,

Hunter S Thompson wrote a scathing eulogy for Richard Nixon, which I think is relevant here:

"Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism -- which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful."

(Non paywalled link: https://web.archive.org/web/20150213034115/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/)

Sometimes, you need one or two journalists who are in a position to say "you know what? These people suck, and I'm sick of pretending they don't". It doesn't need to be every journalist, and it probably shouldn't be, but someone needs to say it.

frezik ,

One part of this (which isn't really covered in the article) is that Google historically had a give-and-take relationship with people gaming search engine results. SEO has been a thing for a long time, and it's impossible to make it go away. However, Google used to punish sites that took it too far. It wasn't necessarily ideal, but it worked well enough to keep egregious spam out of the top level results, and companies could still direct users to their site when they had something they were actually looking for. SEO consulting companies sprang up who knew Google's rules well, and that arguably meant a bunch of grifters being overpaid, but at least the results stayed relevant.

Google seems to have given up on enforcing many of those rules.

frezik ,

I think you could do it in Lemmy itself combined with RSS feeds. The mods would curate a list of RSS feeds, and use the keywords to pick the ones for a bot to automatically post (which means if a programming blog did a post about windsurfing, it wouldn't show up as long as the meta keywords didn't match). Mods could take suggestions each week for feeds to add or remove.

frezik ,

No one cares Google sucks now. If you do, go get a fucking life.

Dude, no. Having good search results matter. People are directly influenced by what comes out at the top of search results. Finding a good reference makes the difference between a well sourced claim and just talking out of your ass. It absolutely has an effect on public discourse at large.

It doesn't have to be Google, but Google was so good at it for so long that we're now kinda lost.

frezik ,

You say that because it's clear you have no fucking clue how difficult a problem this is. This isn't something you can do overnight, and I'm not even sure a self-hosted solution is possible.

frezik ,

No, you just haven't thought through the implications more than a single step.

The real trick is SEO. These systems will be gamed. Google used to handle this by using its monopoly on search to enforce rules. It wasn't perfect, but it kept the worst spam from being in the top five results for the most part. Doing this self-hosted would mean a million users having to agree to do the same thing to punish spam results, and that does not work.

And then there's the problem of crawling and storing the entire web. Doing this for specific topics is doable. The entire web is not. Not for a home user with limited budget. YaCy's P2P mode might be a way around that, but it's also not really "self-hosted" anymore.

Microsoft dumped tons of money into making the second best search engine, and it's a bit of a joke. This is not an easy problem.

frezik ,

I'm going to blow your mind: it's also capable of being run through a car wash.

frezik ,

All of which is a problem, not something we should passively accept as the status quo. These employees were advocating for change to fix exactly those sorts of problems.

frezik ,

Not silent. They change the tactic to "what were they expecting?" or "of course they got fired for that, everyone knows you'll get fired for that". The phrase "don't reveal your power level" exists among them for a reason.

'Vortex Cannon vs Drone' - Mark Rober shows off tech from a "defense technology company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems". That seems bad

I've enjoyed Mark Rober's videos for a while now. They are fun, touch on accessible topics, and have decent production value. But this recent video isn't sitting right with me...

frezik ,

This, I think, is more a symptom of YouTube no longer supporting creators. Most every big channel is looking to alternate income sources. YouTube ad revenue and sponsor inserts aren't good enough.

Thing is, I wouldn't mind it if channels could self-fund by things like this, but it's being done on top of all the ads, not replacing them.

frezik ,

Skeet/trap shooting was designed around duck hunting. Ducks aren't particularly acrobatic flyers. Even fat, heavy quadcopters like off the shelf DJI stuff can do some impressive maneuvers, and purpose built racing quads are wicked. If the operator tries a little to do some evasive maneuvers, or the autopilot has it programmed in, it's going to be very hard to shoot down.

Shotguns also aren't common on the battlefield. They're not that useful for typical army engagement ranges. Navy vessels do use them for boarding actions, but you usually won't find them in armies.

frezik ,

20 years ago, it was The Matrix. 10 years ago, Guy Fawkes masks. Thigh highs and cat ears are the least cringy of the possibilities to date.

frezik ,

Maybe a historical biopic in the style of photos of the time. Like take pictures of Lincoln, Grant, Lee, etc., use voice actors plus modern reenactors for background characters, and build it into a whole movie.

I dunno, I'm probably reaching.

frezik ,

It's been two years away for the last 30 years.

frezik ,

There's a different way to look at companies. They're not just profit-making entities. They are ways of organizing people to accomplish things nobody could do on their own. The profit is just there to keep the lights on and pay everyone a living wage.

Our current system doesn't encourage that approach, but that's just a problem with the current system.

frezik ,

No, stop, please, don't kill your platform, no, stop. Eh, nevermind.

frezik ,

Battery advancements aren't crap. We've gotten 5-8% improvement in capacity per year, which compounds to a doubling every 10 to 15 years. Every advancement covered by over sensationalized pop sci articles you've ever heard has contributed to that. It's important not to let sensationalism make you jaded to actual advancements.

Now, as for broadband, we haven't pushed out the technologies to the last mile that we already have. However, this sort of thing is useful for the backbone and universities. Universities sometimes have to transfer massive amounts of data, and some of the most efficient ways to do that are a van full of hard drives.

frezik ,

"I took 50mg of acid, as directed in the book 'Never Do 50mg of Acid'".

Breakthrough promises secure and private quantum computing at home (www.physics.ox.ac.uk)

The full power of next-generation quantum computing could soon be harnessed by millions of individuals and companies thanks to a breakthrough by scientists at Oxford’s Department of Physics guaranteeing security and privacy. The advance promises to unlock the transformative potential of cloud-based quantum computing and is...

frezik ,

Limited, but there might be a few. Generating the best route between two locations might be one.

There's some stuff at medium sized businesses that would be useful, like how to pack a box most efficiently. Or many boxes in a truck.

Maybe some fast sorting algorithms, or compression? Not sure if there's algorithmic efficiency to gain, there.

frezik ,

If you're thinking of quantum encryption, that's entirely separate from quantum computing.

frezik ,

We don't have a lack of other possibilities for using excess solar/wind. Heating up rocks can work.

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