I've always heard that cars in accidents don't explode like in american movies. And yet when we stopped in traffic on the highway and the guy behind us didn't, leading to being rear-ended at high speed, our car EXPLODED in a fireball that envelopped the car. I saw it IN FRONT OF ME (I was driving). Fortunately the backseat was packed to the ceiling (we were moving), so the flames were mostly outside. Total 8 cars burnt to the ground, minor injuries to us (glass cuts, burns) and the read-ender, total loss of everything we owned...

I strongly disagree. It takes all of 5 mins to install Linux on a PC from a USB stick. If Windows didn't come with your PC, good luck. Also once installed, any update of *all* programs is as simple as "apt update", or even letting the auto-updater run in the background if enabled. On Windows the system upgrade just reboots the PC WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION overnight, and for any program you have to hunt down, download and install new versions individually. Which leads to people never upgrading them, which leads to security problems, which leads to spending hours cleaning sick PCs with antiviruses.
And one more thing, any problem you have on Linux can be found online with a solution that starts with "type this...", while on Windows it's "click on this then that, then that..." but the windows don't match because it's the home version not the pro version or whatnot. No, Linux has been WAY EASIER to use for the last 10 or 15 years.

Well, it's a road with lots of traffic... And a lot of pedal bikes too.

I just read the same expression in another thread. What does it mean ? I assume it's not 20 years of military service like it used to be in the Roman Legion...

Partly wrong. There are available systems now that are installed all around outdoors concert venues to attenuate the lower boom-boom frequencies for the neighborhood. They need to be calibrated an positioned precisely but they work.

I've long wondered if building some noise cancellation in my front yard would be feasible. Morons with exhaust-less bikes or souped-up cars pass multiple times a minute when the weather is good... I know this tech already exists for concert venues outdoors. I've done some acoustic research software in the 90s so I should get to it... And I wonder if the reverse is possible: above a certain noise threshold, use several speakers to generate an in-phase sound directed at the origin. If a resonance can be built I wonder if it could damage the engine (or at least the moron's eardrums).

In the 90s I remember a guy who built a similar anti-loud-music device but using different principles. In apartments his neighbor had his speakers directly against the common wall. So he got some strong electro-magnets, connected them to a wave generator and an amplifier, and then he'd just send various 'sounds' through it. No sound would come out of his, but the magnetic coupling would be picked up on the other side and strongly interfere with the music. I remember him mentioning various tests with white noise, sine wave, grating square waves and very loud impulses...

I'll mention digital cameras in the 2000 decade. The depreciation was insane: after 6 months they were worth NOTHING on the used marked, while previous film cameras would still be worth 30% after 10 years. And new owners were frustrated because every 2 months there was a new model twice better while also cheaper. It was very frustrating for photographers. Then the performances and the market stabilized. The EV car market is still in the 1st phase...

The best excuse I've heard is "so they can grow faster". But how is that a good thing in any way ?

Ever since I heard that the Black Sea is anoxic below a certain depth I've wondered if it was possible to pump air down below to help start life getting a foothold. I know an entire sea is not like a puny aquarium, but still, it is the method used in some African lakes that used to spew toxic gases from their bottom every couple of decades. So would it be possible to improve those dead zones simply by pumping compressed air ?

I was on vacation in Greece for a cloudy week in december. The solar thermal showers were bitch cold...

Particularly since *even* if those methods work, it still leaves the *small* problem of ocean acidification...

Then they can be certified for use on the road and expressively allowed. Until then, no.

You can purchase TPM2 cards for about 10$. I wonder what happens in you plug it in, upgrade to Win11 and then remove the card ?

I switched to Linux in 2002 or so. Since then I've kept a VM with XP and then Win10 for the (very) few Win softwares I still use, including a RAW conversion tool and a panorama stitcher. There are Linux alternatives, but it takes so long to retrain that I never took the jump.