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Comment PID FTW (Score 1) 149

I remember watching some BBQ competition TV series (figures, right?) and the winner was an asian dude who built his own PID BBQ fan controllers and used them with cheap grills. It's not impossible for a human to get that kind of consistency, but it's not expensive to let a computer do it any more.

Now, why aren't all the things PID? People regularly retrofit even digital appliances to be PID because they aren't already, how insane is that?

Comment Re:The Final Nail (Score 2) 377

There's a clawing feeling that it was somehow 'My Fault'.... and it probably was. With hindsight, maybe I should've set it to run the backup while we were in the building, rather than at home over the weekend. I could've used an external drive to keep one locally too. There were probably a dozen things that I could've done that'd stop it.

Only one thing which really mattered... verifying your backups. If you don't do that, there's almost no point in making any. (It gives you something to pray for...)

Comment Re:EVs are a PITA (Score 1) 688

Obviously the outcome was suspected before going, but he does claim that he did call them up and be very clear before he was going where he was going, and that the card still didn't work; a subsequent call solved the problem, but in the moment it would still be highly frustrating. But returning to the first point, if you suspect it will go this way, then yes the whole video is an attempt to sell us the idea (for whatever reason) that if you buy an i3, you'd better buy the range extender. I, of course, am using it to sell the idea that EVs need lots of range, and since there are some relatively cheap ones coming out which suit the description better than the i3, which is not quite BMW's message. With that said, I wouldn't buy a Bolt, either :)

Comment Re:Biofuels? Hmm (Score 1) 688

The problem with biofuels is you need to grow them somewhere and if they're normal plants (as opposed to algae)

Well, your comment does include the solution. Algae can be grown at most latitudes and in most water. The waste from the process can be composted safely anywhere. What's not to like?

Comment Re:The reason is more simple (Score 1) 688

That is part of the issue.
1. Price: The 30k price range for most "affordable" electric cars is still a bit too much, for what you get for a car, you are still better off paying 20k for the same type of car and you will probably pay about the same for gas over the live of the car.

2. Range: 100-200 miles isn't that great. Sure it fine for your daily commute, but if you need to take a road trip, it gets riskier. Most gasoline cars get about 450-600 miles to a full tank. The argument get two cars or get a rental isn't that good of one. You want your own car for the most part and the freedom that comes with it.

3. Recharge time: Most people can fill up their tank in under 5 minutes. Charging an electric car can take a lot longer.

4. Fuzzy marketing... What people want to know is how much will it cost them in extra power bill to charge their car, and how much pollution is that worth, they just give you a loosy goosy response. While we know price varies, and if you have solar panels it may get offsetted.... however we would like a state average. Or at least give us some analogy such as running 3 dryers for 8 hours....

5. Limit being the green hippy car. I don't want my car to be a political statement, bumper stickers do that. I just want a good affordable car. I am a Prius owner, because I need to drive 60 miles every day for my commute and Gas gets expensive, I really do hate it when I get treated as a second class driver from SUV and pickup trucks filled with Right Wing bumper stickers. ( I have no bumper stickers on my car) thinking that I am some Liberal just because of the car I drive.

Comment Re:Hmmm (Score 1) 26

Somebody gave me "flamebait", carelessly ignoring the carbon footprint of the label.

But go ahead, tell us how this site is all overrun by "leftist fascists". Tell me enough times and I might even tell you where the next reptoid meeting is.

Possibly you could explain how you thought the scope of my verses was limited to /.
I very much had the Agenda 21 Aristocracy in mind while considering the rhymes.

Comment Re:Outage.. (Score 2, Insightful) 377

As with most mistakes, it is part of a system that is faulty and awaiting one simple mistake to escalate.
Any one human can make a mistake. However a good system should have built in methods to protect against this.
Why wasn't their a backup system, why didn't it have have a fail over network/power, why wasn't there proper labeling.

Chances are there was a culture of trying to save money: paying for a redundant system cost twice as much, or more. Having those network guys spend hours cleaning up and reorganizing where they can be working on more profit driven activities.
They are too focused on being agile and quick, that they will let little things slip.

For 99% of the failures and mistakes that happen it is the fault of the system, and not of the person who happened to make mistakes.

Organizations need to prioritize these methods and follow to make sure they are worked. Not just write them down, post them on some intranet and blame people for not following them if it wasn't followed. It needs the full organization to make sure checks are in place.

Comment Re:EVs are a PITA (Score 2) 688

and yet, everybody that owns EVs (real EVs, not hybrids like the volt or the I3),

You can buy the i3 as an EV. It's got piss-poor range, though.

Why? Because they are far less hassles than ICE cars.

Look, the average age of the American fleet is currently at a record high of 11 years. That means that of the people with money for new cars, most of them have still got warranties. So what are they going to buy? They're going to buy what's familiar. If you have a warranty and a decent dealer then it's not a big deal if your ICE fails. You get a loaner and they replace your motor, or whatever. Who cares?

I have argued frequently and passionately that EVs will be superior to ICEs once they get the range up around the same place as ICEs. But you can get cars with ICEs that get over 600 miles on one fill, and it's unusual for one to get less than 300 on a tank. There's lots of reasons to love EVs, but cars are about convenience and it's not convenient to have to rent another car. I bought a car so I could go places in it, not so I could rent another car when I want to go far away.

Comment Re:Carbon Footprint (Score 2) 688

I suspect that switching from my petrol-powered car to an electric vehicle would actually increase the amount of greenhouse gas emissions I generate.

you would be wrong, even if 100% of your power comes from coal you'd still reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. you do however increase your radioactive isotope emissions...

Comment Is it purly your mistake. (Score 1) 377

I have been part of of a large mistake costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However most mistakes are part of a chain of events of little mistakes, where they all combine to a big mistake. For example, if someone happen to trip over a plug that unplugged a production server. Then questions on why was the cable was out where it can be tripped, who decided that it wasn't worth the money to put time, to get a better system of cable management...

Normally a person will get fired for a mistake if it was due to intentional misconduct or it happens to get political and needs someone to blame, however if it happens you need to be sure that you put the blame back on the system (not an individual), then you will need to follow up to fix the system so it doesn't happen again.

Most of the most expensive mistakes, are often due to a huge chain of events. A good system should be in place to stop a simple mistake from escalate into big ones.

Comment Re:I'm retired now (Score 5, Funny) 377

I don't have anything nearly that bad - my worst only cost me data. A friend taught me (while I was still learning Linux) a trick, how you could play music with dd by outputting the sound to /dev/dsp. But as I said, I was still learning Linux and hadn't quite gotten all of the device names into my head, and I mixed /dev/dsp up with /dev/sda...

Comment Re:The reason is more simple (Score 1) 688

There's a good chance the vehicle that'll need replacing will be the minivan. There are no electric minivans.

There will be, sooner or later. The crossover trend is going to double back around and become the minivan again. If I were to build one myself, though, I'd start with a Previa. The mid-engine layout ought to lend itself. Most of the existing ones are VW microbuses, but those are expensive and also instadeath in a big collision.

Comment Re:Preening Progressive Prius Pricks (Score 4, Informative) 688

No law needed, once the government stop subsidizing oil diesel and gas vehicles will be as expensive to drive as they are in other countries and electric will start to look a lot more attractive.

Without government granting bullshit patents we'd have carbon-negative biofuels for our diesels by now. They'd still make acid rain, of course, but they wouldn't be contributing to carbon release. And you'd fill them up with bio-based crankcase lube, too — it's better when you run biofuels, because of the compatibility of the blow-by gases.

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