turboSnail

@turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oracle Layoffs: Tech giant to slash 30,000 jobs as banks pull out from financing AI data centres | Company Business News⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Some people say Oracle doesn’t have clients. They have hostages.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Turns out a lot has happened in the past five years. It was about time I took another look at the EV market.

I narrowed it down to cars manufactured in 2019, and I found so many Nissan Leafs. Those are the kind you’d only want to drive when the ambient temperature suits NMC batteries. Maybe a third of the year, if you’re being generous. Not too long ago, those cars were new and really expensive, but still equally niche products as they are today. Many competing models had the same issues back then, and my perceptions were shaped by that era.

Another popular model seems to be the Renault Zoe. Some versions can heat the battery to optimal temperatures, so I guess a Zoe could be a reasonable option as long as you do your due diligence. These Zoes are now used and very affordable, so I’d say we’ve passed the point of no return. EVs are a viable option today. 😀

Well… assuming you have a place to charge it. Right now, I don’t, so it’s back to square one for me. 😞
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Recently I realized that my EV data neeed an update. Previous I thought that everything even remotely affordable was automatically Nissan Leaf level of useless. Well, the cheapest ones still are, but within the affordable range there are some cars that aren’t trash. I was surprised to find something I could realistically consider buying.

As long as I can figure out a way to charge it, my next car will be electric. Currently, I can’t charge at home, so there’s a bit of a problem…
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Haven’t seen anything decent at that price. You’ll be fine as long as you just drive in a city and keep the temperature of your car reasonable. If not, you’ll need to spend at least twice as much to get something decent.

The prices coming down though. We’re actually pretty close reasonable right now.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
In practical terms, maintenance used to be a bottleneck. Didn’t know if it still is. If you always need to go to Tesla for maintenance, it’s going to get ridiculously expensive.

And then there’s the philosophical side. Who wants to drive a car associated with filth like Elon.

Other than that, getting a used Tesla could be nice.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Did some quick market research and the numbers are in.

If your only drive in good weather in a city, you can get an EV for about 5 k€. If your country has snow and ice enabled, you’ll need to spend about 12 k€, but that’s still tolerable.

It’s not that expensive after all. Used to be pretty absurd a few years ago. Next, I’ll just need to figure out how to charge an EV. I’ll probably need to move to a newer building first.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 12 Reportedly Set for Release This Year as a Fully Modular, Subscription-Based, AI-Focused OS⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Stopped reading after the “Why it matters” section. Nobody uses that phrase in an article.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
The only good things about NMC cells is the energy density and the ability to pull a decent power during acceleration.

When it comes to temporaries, they are surprisingly picky. Too hot or cold, and they wear out quickly. If you push beyond that, you’ll lose range instantly. That’s why a heat pump is such a great thing to have.

Also, the state of charge matters to longevity. If you use the wrong percentages frequently, you’ll start losing capacity sooner or later. Even if you treat the battery perfectly, it’s still going to wear out like the tires do, but this thing costs as much as an engine.

I’m really looking forward to seeing all the other battery chemistries take their share of the market.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
I guess an update is in order. I was thinking of a calculation that is already several years old. I can’t even find it any more, but it had three options: small gasoline powered ICE car, hybrid and a fully electric one. Can’t remember if the latter one was Tesla, Toyota, BMW or something. Anyway, at that time, TCO of a small gasoline powered car was a bit lower that that of a hybrid or a fully electric one.

The final tipping point will be when the demand for EVs exceeds the demand for other car types. When that happens, depreciation of gasoline cars will increase dramatically, giving EVs a lower TCO. At the moment, charging infrastructure seems to be the bottle neck for a many people, so that’s why we haven’t gone past the tipping point yet. The real bottle neck here is actually the electrical grid, and upgrading that will take many years, if not decades. We could install more charging stations, but that would break the whole grid, so that’s why we have to limit their number in specific parts of the grid.

The price of a new EV is obviously going to decrease in the future, as every step along the chain ramps up production. Alternative battery chemistries play a role as well, now that LFP cars have finally entered the market. I’m also looking forward to seeing how Na-ion batteries affect the prices, but that’s still going to take a many years. I expect that in about 5-10 years the prices of cheap EVs will be a lot lower than they are today.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
The way I see it, rich people can buy new cars. Everyone else who needs one should consider buying a used one instead. After a few years, depreciation isn’t quite so rapid any more, which makes TCO less of a burden.

Maintenance expenses do increase as the car ages, but as long as it isn’t like 25 years old, it’s not completely absurd. Currently, I’m looking to buy something that is about 5 years old, and then sell it when it begins to require frequent maintenance. That way, I should be able to avoid the two expensive extremes.

However, there’s another nasty twist. Cold environment will murder the NMC cells in no time. Not too long ago, I had to leave my car in a cold parking lot for a long time, and when I got back it was about -30 °C. Fortunately, I don’t need to abuse the engine this way any more than maybe twice every year. Oh, boy did it sound unhappy with that cold start, but it managed it anyway. If I had an EV, I would probably need to leave it at home, and take a bus for horribly timed trips like that.

Let’s say, about 6 times a year, I’ll have badly timed trips, with temperatures hovering around +5…-15 °C: That isn’t a complete disaster for EVs, but it’s still very bad for the cells. Some cars have a built-in heating system for the battery, so I guess that feature would see frequent use. When I’m eventually buying a use EV, having a battery heating system is going to be a completely non-negotiable feature.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Letting users fill out a form before notifying them that they need to sign in to submit it is scummy and needs to end.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Oof… that’s just diabolical.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Depreciation is a massive slice of the pie in all cars, but EVs are hit even harder. Buying a used EV is probably my best bet in about 5-10 years from now.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Here’s a financial argument. The initial purchase price is too high for me, and the depreciation of electric vehicles is also very high. Overall cost of ownership per distance driven is lower if I drive a small gasoline-powered car.

I really don’t want it to be that way, but that’s the reality I have to deal with. Cheaper EVs are coming, but they still aren’t in my price range.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Letting users fill out a form before notifying them that they need to sign in to submit it is scummy and needs to end.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
There’s an even worse variant of that.
1. Install an app.
2. Start it up.
3. It asks you some relevant questions to customize the experience to your needs.
4. You answer them, and that takes a while.
5. It asks you for your card.
6. ???
7. Profit

At least that’s how the app devs imagine how that’s going to go. IRL though, you just kill the app immediately, leave a bad review about dark patterns, and delete the whole scamware from your phone. If the devs are feeling extra greedy, they’ll also ask for you to rate the app long before you’ve even had an opportunity to do anything with it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dark patterns killed my wife’s Windows 11 installation – OSnews⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Yikes! That was pretty messed up. Goes to show that you can’t really trust Microsoft or Samsungto handle things for you.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3211: Amperage⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Imagine having those explosions in the background during a meeting 😄
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Physics of Data Centers in Space⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Cooling is still possible if you radiate the heat away. Convective cooling won’t work though.

The temperature of those few particles doesn’t really matter much since there are so few of them. The overall energy density is low. The whole concept of temperature begins to fall apart in an extreme environment like that.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Physics of Data Centers in Space⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
How do you measure the temperature of particles that aren’t there?

Also, the hot argument refers to intense solar radiation, which is available only on one side of the satellite. The other side doesn’t receive sunshine, so it will loose heat.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3211: Amperage⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I just put that on in the background while I was cooking, cleaning etc. I actually watched the first 30 minutes like a normal video. During the rest, I was actively looking only about 10% of the time.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Car Wash Test on 53 leading AI models: "I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Well, they are language models after all. They have data on language, not real life. When you go beyond language as a training data, you can expect better results. In the meantime, these kinds of problems aren’t going anywhere.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Li-ion technology has huge factories behind it, so economies of scale apply here. The first Na-ion battery factories have just started, so everything is more expensive to manufacture in small scale. However, the ingredients are cheaper and easily available. Once they ramp up production, we can make a fair comparison between the two.

I have a feeling LIBs are going to be more expensive, but they won’t disappear since high energy density is very handy in mobile applications like cars and phones. SIBs are probably end up being a lot cheaper, which should make them a popular option in all the less demanding applications, like grid energy storage, kitchen scales and anything in between.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3211: Amperage⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
A still from that video really looks like something from a space telescope. Small glowing dots and a gas cloud in the background.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3211: Amperage⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Apparently you saw that 400 battery video too.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The longer I'm alive, the more I feel that people make things complicated to feel important.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
LOL. What a classic!
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The longer I'm alive, the more I feel that people make things complicated to feel important.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
😄 Such a familiar feeling, especially when it comes to software. You go to the official site and read until you fall asleep. Usually, I’ll just skip that and go straight to the relevant Wikipedia site, read the first three lines, and get the general idea of what that thing is all about. Works well with established technologies I haven’t heard of before. Doesn’t work with things that were invented two months ago.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ad companies are the ones destroying civilization⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
The advertisement-based business model has turned out to be highly successful, just like the newspapers have proven. However, magazines were a hybrid solution. You would pay for the magazine, but there would still be a few ads. Reminds me of modern Netflix actually.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Travelling on a flying carpet must be terrifying⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Likewise, riding a unicorn is completely safe.
How many horse related accidents have you heard of? Many. How about unicorns then? Zero.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Quidk! I need a chili recipe. What would you add to a pound of hamburger, diced jalapenos, chili powder and bloody mary mix?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Something sweet like banana, pineapple, mango etc.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The longer I'm alive, the more I feel that people make things complicated to feel important.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
By providing solutions in an ever-changing dynamic landscape… by utilising cutting edge machine learning… bla bla blockchain… with cloud computing… and high definition whatever… something something profit margins…
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ad companies are the ones destroying civilization⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
That’s an interesting thought, and I would like to add a few things to it.

The whole idea of having ad funded things is fundamentally flawed. It has also become too dominant, and difficult to compete with. Ads are the tool used in this business model, but are they really the root cause of the problems you mentioned? I would say no.

Theoretically, you could still have ads without ruining everything. When other business models aren’t competitive enough, the whole system naturally gravitates to the mess we’re currently in.

I think cheap mobile games have showed that you can charge a small amount of money, and people will be willing to pay up. That way, everything doesn’t have to be ad funded. It’s just that this business model doesn’t appear to be appealing enough in other arenas, and that’s a real problem.