Which means it's now on the long slow slide into obsolescence. I figure it's good for software updates for maybe another 12 months, after that it's just a matter of time until some software I need / want requires an OS version the tablet can't support.

The tablet has an earlier version in 2012, and a refresh in 2013 which was a major update in terms of the hardware. It's basically being retired after only 2-3 years, which is a shame, since it's quite a decent little tablet - the 2013 refresh at least is.

I expect it will still give me a couple more years of happy service in any case, and since that meets my "five year lifetime" criteria for buying, I'm still relatively happy.

Ah yes, blame the problem on the people trying to fix things, not on the people who only want to get rich whether nuclear makes sense or not. We had so-called "alternative" energy sources like wind and hydro long before we had nuclear power, and they were always viable.

So stop buying goods from China, problem solved. They won't make it if we don't buy it.

Have you even imagined what permitting such a thing is like? You could only do it in the country, and only where the lay of the land permits it. You can't just put a water storage tank above your house and ignore the consequences. And you're still ignoring that the battery packs have already been constructed. They're going to use used ones. That means the cost of construction of the battery pack is $0, that's considerably cheaper than adding a water tank. All they'll need is a combination inverter and charge controller, as opposed to (for example) a shitload of pipe (the cost of this alone will exceed that of the inverter) as well as a pump, motor, turbine, generator, and finally the charge controller/inverter.

You are ignoring the efficiency of using used battery packs. Stop it.

Note that they don't tell you what the efficiency or capacity are. As you store more power, they lose more energy. Fairly worthless. It also incorporates a special and expensive engine. Fail, fail.

No, no it isn't. First, air-based storage is always horribly lossy due to loss of the thermal energy; your above example tries to solve this with technology and argon, but it is thus complex and runs at high pressures and will be prone to failure. Second, the bladders will have to be replaced regularly, because under deep water is not a comfortable environment for them.

The efficiency is not great, but it's a lot better than anything based on compressing gases.

Well, compressed air storage is still stupid, but flywheels are cool, and applicable ones have been around for at least a decade, see Beacon Power. So yay, we found the viable alternative to used batteries! That took a really long time.

The truth is that used batteries are an excellent way to add more storage capacity, since they're just lying around anyway.

Maybe you don't, but I do, when they don't depend on registry entries. I got tired of installing Civ and AlphaC on every build via the installer, then the official patches, then the unofficial patches, so I just 7z-exe'd the directories.

Not really. There's three official DLCs for Skyrim (not counting the high-res texpack, which is free) and game mods may require any number of them. Many of the most interesting mods require at least the two larger (and more expensive) expansions.

The problem is that Skyrim is still hugely popular and active. It still has a healthy modding community, so people are actually still buying the game. You need a healthy mod community to make it worth it, but that also precludes doing it...

It costs a lot to build a safe car. Tesla and Audi A8 drivers walk away from accidents that tear their cars in half. But you'll note that these are some of the most expensive cars to produce. Cadillac is now using the same techniques (plus some, so they can build an aluminum unibody with steel floor pans) so your wish has been granted, the first genuinely safe cars are coming out from a big 3 automaker. Problem is, they're coming from the marque that doesn't share platforms.

That's not really clear. What is clear is that safety systems tend to reduce the severity of accidents, so that less of them are fatalities.

Skyrim players are used to clicking and getting the mod for free. They could have offered this feature with a new game, but Skyrim players must have reasonably been worried that content they'd been getting for free would cost them money.

The gas doesn't luminesce. The arc provides the light directly. You can put it wherever you want if you plan ahead.

They only shave a couple of tenths, though, because of all the mass they have to add to support the hybrid system. It makes a pretty small difference there. The only place it makes a big difference is in fuel economy. It brings supercars into the twenties and hypercars into the double digits. So I don't buy all that bollocks about it not being for fuel economy. The only exception is that Koenigsegg without gears, it truly couldn't function without it.

what I gather from having read up on it just now is that it's not especially inexpensive to produce. Still, if it's everything it claims to be, I'd pay something of a premium for it over sugar...

Are you sure it didn't also have Acesulfame K?

I can taste aspartame right off, yuck. Never felt anything weird from it myself. But I still prefer sucralose, I've never felt anything weird from it either. I used a whole lot of it last time I was on the Atkins diet. My lady is afraid of it so we use stevia, and now monk fruit extract. When they bother to fill their shelves, Safeway now carries it without sugar, as a liquid. It's got some preservatives, of course, even though it sits on the shelf for about a picosecond.

No, no they can not. Cola in particular is horrible with Stevia. However, Zevia's Ginger Ale and Ginger Root Beer (which really just tastes like root beer) are both very good. I have been somewhat nauseated by their other flavors, so while this may be subjective, at least I'm discriminating.