tankplanker

@tankplanker@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whatever happened to cheap eReaders? – Terence Eden’s Blog⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah I am the same, I would rather pay more for a better device, and preferably not one from Amazon if I can help it. Its only a matter of time before they start cracking down even more on side loading as they are in the process of removing backing up your own books already. They were only ever cheap in the first place because Amazon wanted to dominate the market and close up shop around their own bookstore so they heavily subsidised the price and turned a blind eye to piracy.

  I upgraded my ancient paperwhite for a PocketBook InkPad Color 3 because I wanted colour and a larger screen to read comics but also something that was more responsive. Sure its never going to beat a good tablet for colour depth or responsiveness, its still eink after all, but its so much nicer to use than my old paperwhite.

  For something that I use for at least an hour a day, every day (I had a near 600 week streak on my kindle), I do not see the money spent as a bad investment when they lasting a near decade. I could have just replaced my battery in my paperwhite and carried on using it, but the upsides of a nicer ereader that is away from Amazon was a big pull for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨WHERE ARE MY PRECISION SCREWDRIVERS⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I can snap the heads of cheaply made screws or ones made from softer material like “brass” with a screwdriver let alone an impact driver.

  If I am doing something with a lot of screws, say decking, then I will spend more on my screws simply because I want better quality if I am going to be fitting a few hundred in a day. I also want to know that if I come back to it in a few years that the screw will unscrew quickly when I come to it. Sure it can be a significant cost increase but the time and frustration saved makes it back.

  Quality screwdrivers like Vessel Megadora or Wera or Swisstools or similar tend to cam out less than the pack of ten you got from the dollar store. Same with the hex bits for your impact or drill driver.

  Last test I heard had Roberson above Torx for reducing cam out, but if you camming Torx that easily I would just switch to an actual bolt if it needs that much torque to tighten.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Telegraph has deleted this sob story ⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Getting to a good university is only part of the battle and the real prize is the job afterwards. Having a big network is what helps with the latter.

  Take law, even at Oxbridge only about 10% of students on that course at either university get into a training contract to become a solicitor. Its closer to 1% at normal universities.

  Getting onto that training contract is knowing how to present yourself to the right contacts and go to the right events.

  Many subjects are like this, especially for the top jobs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨30% of South Korean schools have adopted AI-powered digital textbooks since the country's education ministry began a full-scale rollout in March 2025⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Interestingly the AI stories are voiced by real people, ractors. That would now be one of the first things cut, see James Earl Jones

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thanks to the american FPTP voting system, Nigel Farage could obtain an absolute majority with a minority of the votes⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They and the Torys are inveterate gamblers who every couple of decades win a huge number of seats as Labour did at the last election and that hope that they can win big every time rather than playing the odds properly.

  This is coupled with wanting to lock out smaller parties like the Lib Dems, but that doesn’t really work for Tory adjacent parties like Reform when seat boundaries have been gerrymandered by the Tories to such a degree that a small shift in certain seats can win the election.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Simplest way is a Windows VM and screen capture in the OS running the VM. Obviously next step for Microsoft is to detect and block Windows VMs, good luck to them with that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Yvette Cooper ‘open to EU youth mobility scheme’⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This will be hilarious if it goes through. Imagine the scenes when a certain pro Brexit demographic that has always been the priority for government policies suddenly doesn’t get preferential treatment at the airport for their month in Spain every winter yet “millennials” do.

  (Yes I am are the youngest Millennials are 28, its part of the joke)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is that the battery is usually half the cost of manufacturing the car, larger batteries still means more expense, at least until whatever replaces the current battery tech is mainstream.

  Britians cheapest brand new EV that isnt limited to 28mph top speed is the Dacia Spring at £11k. $17k is about £13k. UK average commuting distance is a round trip of about 40 miles. In an ICE car thats costing about £6 a day, vs. 70p in an EV that can charge at home overnight. My kids basically get brand new (small) EVs for free vs. running an older ICE that I would gift them just on the fuel saving.

  Obviously not everyone can change at home, but this will change the more people push for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Do they speak Spanish? The English version of them make no effort to learn to speak Spanish, or integrate outside their own communities, then make videos about people doing that who go to England.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'An Insult To Life Itself': Hayao Miyazaki’s AI Criticism Resurfaces As OpenAI’s Ghibli-Style Image Trend Takes Over Social Media⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a fundamental issue understanding what art is for sure. People who could really draw well could already copy his style perfectly, but just because you can perfectly copy it doesn’t make it original, and thus have the same value. It’s not that it has no value, just considerably less value than his films.

  It’s that total lack of originality with AI slavishly copying a style like this that shows its lack of creative value. It’s like pressing play on a keyboard programmed with 20 top tunes of the 80s and randomly pressing the high hat key.

  Sure, it enables someone who can’t play the piano to “play” a song, but not really. It’s the same getting AI to copy by rote someone else’s style they developed, it requires no effort or application of originality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Tesla blew its lead.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Only touch screen controls for important controls are a safety hazard, and the upcoming safety standards in the EU will withhold the top ratings because of this: etsc.eu/cars-will-need-buttons-not-just-touchscre…

  Controls for things like the radio or cruise control are fine on the wheel as buttons. Indicators absolutely aren’t, and are the example I used for good reason. Honestly I have no words if you cant see that they are an actual safety hazard on something like a roundabout, particularly one you would navigate at speed.

  Simple left or right turns at say traffic lights or other junction aren’t the problem, trying to activate them while the wheel can be at some random orientation is difficult, so you end up not bothering.

  Not signalling when at a round about is an offense in the UK. Its rarely enforced due to lack of traffic police, but its enough that its an actual offense that the car should be designed not to make it considerably harder to use them. In the event of an accident serious enough for the police to get involved if you didn’t indicate then that’s going to count against you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Tesla blew its lead.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Which ones aren’t? Also deciding to copy dumb ideas from elsewhere is even more dumb as someone else did the alpha testing for you, showed it was dumb, and you still copied it.

  I forgot the yoke instead of a wheel. That’s another Elon special.

  Buttons for indicators I know are on modern ferraris, I can’t afford one but I still wouldn’t buy one because of them. Try using buttons on a steering wheel when doing a right at a roundabout, just the dumbest shit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Tesla blew its lead.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  BYD is eating everyone’s lunch at the bottom not just Tesla.

  Tesla could have prospered by sticking to the mid range but their build quality is appalling even for a lower mid car.

  Couple that with some truly dumb design ideas from Elon (no lidar, no physical buttons, indicators as buttons, stupidly high repair bills due to design choices) and some even more stupid personal behaviors from him and he has just cut the legs out of his market.

  EV buyers who are spending more money care about this kind of thing, budget buyers it is mostly about price.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why can’t HVAC be made smarter?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  With a thermostat, smart or dumb, you set a target temperature and a time. With a dumb thermostat it waits till that time and then activates. With a smart thermostat it should learn how long it takes to heat or cool to that target temperature in certain conditions and then aims to hit the target at that point.

  So if you got up at 8am and wanted it 20c with a dumb thermostat you got to work out when it needs to go on in order to hit that as no heating system is instant on something the size of a house, with a smart thermostat with learning you do not need to do that at all, just set it for 8am.

  As no system is working in a vacuum how hot or cool it is outside, even how sunny it is, has a big impact on how quickly your system heats or cools. Being able to measure and compensate for the outside temperature means the actual start time can be adjusted for you. This can save significant amount of cash.

  As an example, lets say the outside temperature was going to be -10c 6am till 8am and you wanted it 20c by 8am. Doing it with a dumb thermostat you would either have to live with an under or overshoot on temperature. Say next day its 2C, now you need to adjust your overshoot again. With a smart thermostat I do not need to do that at all.

  Sure, you can just live with the under/overshoot, but its better for your bills and better for the environment not to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: There are 6 levels (0-5) of autonomous driving⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Aren’t the robo taxis remotely supervised as well? Not really level 4 if somebody is having to do that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Volkswagen ID. EVERY1 is an affordable EV for the masses⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Which EVs have front drum brakes?

  Regen comes in all different strengths depending on what the automaker decides is appropriate for that car and the budget assigned to it. Cheap EVs like this one you can normally turn it off or on, and may be get a one pedal mode.

  Something like the latest Taycan is pretty brutal with it set to its highest level when traveling at speed and that’s just lifting off the throttle. I feather the throttle when using regen to adjust the level it gives me, otherwise it would be an awful experience for my passengers, bit like some one stamping on the brake every time you want to slow down. Using the throttle to adjust the regen is no different to using the brake pedal progressively once you get used to it.

  Regen is there to supplement the brakes not replace them for emergency or other unplanned stops. Once you doing an emergency stop you are at the mercy of the ABS system anyway, as that will limit your stopping distance based on the actual grip you have at that moment in time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Volkswagen ID. EVERY1 is an affordable EV for the masses⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  EV wheels done correctly actually lower the drag on the car improving efficiency. If they are done really well they also lighter with lower rolling resistance reducing that all important unsprung weight, which further helps efficiency.

  Wheels even affect ICE cars, with larger heavier wheels impacting CO2 rating and economy for some models. The VW XL1 is an extreme example of this pushed as far as it could go at the time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Router Hardware: How Much Paranoia is Too Much?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If I am relying on it, I buy from brands I trust. No brand is going to be perfect but some are clearly going to be lower risk than randoms from aliexpress. Its as much to do with reliability, achievable duty cycle (rather than promises of duty cycle), support (especially how easy it is to get a replacement under warranty), how long they will push firmware updates for, than just security trustworthiness.

  Pretty much any device is going to have a vulnerability or potential for a back door at some point but the company being transparent about the issue and fixing it promptly is worth a lot. Its the same reason I would have a Google or (premium) Samsung phone, I trust that they will support the phone for the time period they say they will, something I would not do with say Oneplus based on my past experience of them.

  I buy electronics from aliexpress all the time, but nothing I rely on day to day like a router, simply because I am shit out of luck getting it replaced quickly if it goes wrong, even if I want to get a replacement. I have a cheap mikrotik hex I keep as a backup of a backup (my APs are my primary backup for my router), and this is fine for a week or so but I would not want to be out a month or more with it.

  I guess you could plan in proper redundancy as I have, or may be you can afford a an outage, so may be you don’t need that. If I cannot work, I cannot earn, so I have backup internet, routers, wifi etc. planned into my install.

  I think what someone else wrote about defense is depth is the real key here. I have my network divided into separate VLANs that are firewalled off from each other, so one for IoT, one for cameras, one for my TVs and other screens, one for my devices. This means if something is compromised they still have to get across the network and it simplifies my firewall rules as I am applying them to subnets rather than individual devices in a self maintained group. It makes it easier to say block external DNS queries and redirect to my pihole for my IoT and TVs but not my personal devices as I would have a good reason to go external.

  May be you do not have a lot of devices, I realize I am nearer the upper end of a home network with over 50 active devices and it will be over kill if you only have a laptop and a phone on your network.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft is reportedly killing Skype⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It also cobbled in groups from Exchange, and the Collab site from SharePoint. Its pretty much three raccoons in a trench-coat.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anyone remember this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mosaic and Lynx on Sun workstations was how I started as well. Back then, there was a ton of open ftp access as well, wild.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Inspirational⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It gets worse as the horse was part of a herd that came with the ranches he purchased to smush into a mega ranch. He wanted rid of the horses as they cost a fair bit to keep, so he was literally giving away something that saved him money and cost them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are Expensive TVs Actually Better? An Analysis of TV Prices and Review Scores⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah we gave up and paid for live sports streaming once it came in 4k HDR for sports. It isn’t cheap but no real alternative that doesn’t have risk and unreliability associated around it. Anything that isn’t live there are plenty of reliable, high quality ways to obtain things for free, but live, I need it to work and not look like a potato on a large screen if I have people round. I did try that method for a few years, its ok on a phone or laptop with just me as I will put up with the problems but absolutely not on a big screen.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are Expensive TVs Actually Better? An Analysis of TV Prices and Review Scores⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Live sport (Football/F1), family movie or TV night, its a social gathering point as much as anything. There is still stuff we want to watch together on a high quality screen thru a proper AV setup, although we moved back to a 2.0 setup from a 5.1.

  Its also my main screen away from my desk, I like watching on a big screen even if its my youtube videos of woodworkers or trains or whatever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 25-Year-Old Is Writing Backdoors Into The Treasury’s $6 Trillion Payment System. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fucker thinks hes Gus Gorman in Superman III and thinks salami slicing is his get rich quick scheme.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hair loss drug finasteride 'biggest mistake of my life'⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Low T also causes hairloss…

  Also, I used the difficulty in getting TRT when HRT is so widely available as a perfect example of how much harder it is to get medication for men from the NHS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hair loss drug finasteride 'biggest mistake of my life'⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Its availability of treatment as well for mens health. TRT thresholds that the NHS applies to men are insanely low, almost like they do not want to spend the money rather than provide actual benefit to people with low test. Its pretty bad as the threshold for women to get HRT is almost non existent and its just given out without further tests.

  While I think TRT should only be issued once tested it should be at higher thresholds as it solves so many other issues. However like the new weight loss drugs we do not give the NHS enough money to stick it on prescription for everybody that would benefit from it, particularly as both are likely to be very long term to whole life treatments.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Poll reveals the amount of Brits who would take weight-loss jabs for free on NHS⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is using BMI, which while the vast majority of these people are at the very least overweight it will be missing all the unhealthy skinny fat people.

  I wish they would switch to a system that takes account of waist/hip ratio as if you do not have a narrower waist than hips (with a bigger differential if you are a woman) you are carrying more fat than you should be and are also at a risk of a variety of “fat” people illnesses such as heart attacks, diabetes, etc. despite your weight being in a normal range as you lack the muscle mass and/or skeletal mass for your height

  The actual number of people who need to sort out their diet and exercise is just shocking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thousands of UK farmers protest against inheritance tax hike⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I already covered over priced areas in my previous post, and the south west squarely falls into that category.

  Frankly if you have 500 or more acres in that area and you aren’t already making bank from farming then you would be an utter, complete moron not to sell for the £10m+ that you would net from the sale. You could even buy a similar sized farm in a cheaper area and bank half of it. Plenty of farmers selling up as they have no family who wants to take it on.

  Taxation on the rich should be both on salary and on assets, especially assets that appreciate like land, otherwise we end up with the rich owning everything. The rich have massively larger purchase power than everybody else even if they were taxed fairly. We have to start somewhere with reversing that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thousands of UK farmers protest against inheritance tax hike⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Assuming you aren’t living in the Cotswolds or other areas dominated by hobby farmers who over pay and under produce while have significant competition for the price of large houses that pushes up the cost per acre. £5m out side of these areas purchases a good few acres. At £10k an acre (roughly in the upper third for cost) that’s about 500 acres with farm buildings.

  Even in a shit year with the wrong sort of production you should be clearing £250 per acre per year, or about £125k for 500 acres. Well run farms who pick the right crops for that year clear double that. £40k is significant but its not going to leave them in the poor house, particularly when you can stagger the payments to allow for inflation and also for poor yielding years.

  That doesn’t include the various subsidies, which while even shitter than ever, they are hardly zero if you pick the right crop. Nor does it include any diversification, which any sensible farmer would already be doing. I don’t doubt this is going to result in a number of farms being forced to sell, but then were they ever actually viable in todays market?

  The zero inheritance tax rule has to change because of people like Clarkson who have freely admitted to only buying their farm to avoid inheritance tax. Its pushed up the cost of farms as now you are competing against hobby farmers like Clarkson, or those who use a tenant farmer who is now priced out of the market to buy their own farm, or even worse, the farm just notionally farms with tiny herds.

  I particularly dislike Clarkson and others pretending that its going to hit 96% of farmers, when the majority are well within the £3m, and with careful planning using the revised gifting rules you can extend it much higher than that. Most of those that are worried have their kids living and working on the farm, by carefully arranging how you hand over their property and some of the land, if done early enough, you can extend that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thousands of UK farmers protest against inheritance tax hike⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They get ten years to pay it, its not subject to payment in one lump sum. Its also half the usual rate of tax, and only on anything over £3m if married and using all the allowances. On a £5m farm its about £40k a year for 10 years, not insignificant but inflation over 10 years will reduce the sting of it and you can even end load it by only paying back 1% initially and more at the end to further let inflation do its thing.