In Canada, a teen couldn't just go into a store and buy it, and even getting hold of large quantities of potassium nitrate was challenging.

Don't know how old you are, but when I was a kid in Toronto in the mid-1960s we could (and did) go down to the local drug store and buy potassium nitrate in 1-pound containers. Ditto sulphur, so long as you weren't stupid enough to try to buy both at the same time. (At least we never tried that, we just assumed that the cashier would be at least as knowledgeable as us and figure it out. Maybe not.)

Our sixth grade teacher did admonish us (not directly, but the class as a whole) about the dangers of such homebrew, with a few anecdotes of kids who had lost various body parts through doing stupid things like using metal implements to mix the stuff (sparks!), or treating it a bit too cavalierly.

Don't you know that most explosives work via a reaction with oxygen in the air?

Actually no, most don't, unless you're talking about fuel-air explosions (which can be bloody huge!). Most solid or liquid explosives use an oxidizer that's part of the mix -- or don't use an oxidizer as such at all, but rather their rather unstable molecular configuration degenerates to a lower energy state with much release of energy and component parts (most high explosives).

"They ported the Unix for a Radio Shack system"

FTFY

Xenix was based on a source license from AT&T (the original, not the renamed Southern Bell) of Bell Labs' Version 7 Unix. Microsoft also made Xenix ports available for a number of other systems.

Plenty of other companies also made licensed ports of V7, which they couldn't call Unix (or UNIX) because AT&T wouldn't license the trademark. For example, Amdahl made UTS which ran on their IBM 370 clones (as well as on IBM hardware).

It probably comes from reading the licenses, which you should try sometime. Note also the word forked.

You take some BSD-licensed code, make changes to it (creating a derivative version), then GPL-license the derivative. Anyone is still free to find the original BSD sources and make their own derivative, but they can't do anything with the GPL-licensed fork without following the GPL -- which includes GPL'ing any work derived from that.

Of course unless the changes introduced by the fork are particularly compelling, nobody is going to care. But it's still a possibility. The BSD licence allows it, just as it allows someone to make totally proprietary derivatives.

I guess there's no chance in hell of him ever being nominated to the Supreme Court.

*sigh*

Well, it's still a better car in most ways. People don't only buy the cheapest car.

Is your car already air conditioned when you get into it? The Leaf lets you set that. You're literally more comfortable in a Leaf than you would be in most cars. And the difference in running costs is not extreme. And yes, the equation in the UK is different, gas is more expensive, and there's more charging stations. But America will catch up, and the Leaf/electric cars are getting ever cheaper.

But no single car is right for everyone; but I do find the extremely common hatred amusing.

I checked into it. The premature failure of the battery in hot climates was an issue with the 2011, 2012 models, but Nissan reformulated the battery chemistry and the 2013 version doesn't really have the issue (the degradation happens at 1/3 the rate).

They also extended the warranty to cover back to the 2011 models, and if it happens they replace the battery back to full charge state.

Even when they do wear out, they're selling replacement batteries at (what seems to be) slightly below cost. The batteries are getting cheaper all the time anyway (8% per annum), and provided you do a reasonable mileage, the Leaf is still cheaper and more reliable than using a hybrid.

In order for the package to be useful, you need to be where it arrives.

Imagine if you received a notification saying it was at the post office and then you replied to it, and it arrived shortly afterwards, so you're always there to receive it.

Not necessarily. On the upside, the drones only weigh a few kilograms, compared to a tonne or two for a truck, and the drones can fly as-the-crow-flies direct routes, and they are electric vehicles, so are actually potentially much *more* efficient, particularly in Switzerland, where they get a lot of their energy from hydroelectricity.

I suspect in a lot of cases they will be faster and more efficient.

Apparently you're incapable of understanding that your wife frequents a restaurant that actually caters for sufferers of Celiac disease, and you're also incapable of understanding that them doing so is not indicative of 'fanaticism'.

> A restaraunt my wife frequents has completely separate grills and utensils for gluten free cooking. That's pretty much fanaticism.

No, for people that actually have celiac disease (as opposed to people that are "gluten free"), that's how you have to do it. They're allergic to even small traces of gluten; similar to the way peanuts trigger allergies in minute traces.

As I understand it, your situation is that you get stuck in traffic jams every day, in 35C weather for 6 hours, which would mean the A/C would flatten the battery, you're probably going to change jobs so you 100% definitely will have to sell the car, even though you don't have a new job yet, you have no fast chargers on any freeways you may be doing long distances on, you do high mileage, which you apparently think means the battery pack will wear out, but simultaneously, you think that the vehicle won't pay for itself because electric vehicles only pay for themselves on high mileages which you aren't going to be doing. In addition, your car is uninsured, so you may crash it and lose all the economic value in the battery. You also live in the south, where the batteries age more quickly. Oh and Nissan are going to fraudulently reprogram their battery indicator, and the courts are totally going to let them get away with it.

Makes sense!

As I have already pointed out, even in the US, the average daily mileage is only 30; and most people don't suddenly jump into their car and drive for days on any regular basis.

And there's very little problem with a 2 hour jam. It's a 7+ hour jam that does for your range.

I'm not saying that batteries don't degrade, only it takes more than a 'few years'. The batteries are expected to last 10 years/100,000-150,000 miles or more without significant degradation, and there's no evidence that this won't be achieved.

The other thing I haven't mentioned- cost. Yes, electric cars are fairly expensive right now, but they batteries are getting exponentially cheaper every year. Fossil cars, are NOT getting cheaper. We're right about at the crossing point now; electric cars are going to be cheaper- and second hand cars are becoming more and more available and more and more cost-effective, and they're cheaper to run. Pretty soon everyone will preferentially run an electric car, because it's cheaper.

I mean, sure, electric cars are better for only 99% of most people's journeys.

I'm in the UK; it has a half decent; but not fully decent infrastructure, some parts of the country don't have very much public charging infrastructure.

Obviously, if you don't have much public infrastructure around you, you shouldn't get the Leaf.

Nissan Leafs don't seem to lose much range; it's still a relatively new car, but so far it seems that there's very little degradation of the batteries; the idea that range plummets after a 'few years' is clearly bullshit.

Indeed, the second hand value seems to have gone up recently for vehicles of the same age.

The rule of thumb that Leaf drivers use is 70 mile range at 70 mph; note that the A/C or heating makes very little difference; unless you're stuck for hours in a traffic jam; which is pretty damn rare, but even then you have the choice of how much to use the A/C; it's not like you're going to be unexpectedly stranded, the car keeps you informed of the situation.