I think that after every 3rd wave of Missile Command (what a disgustingly irresponsible creation!!), the game should require that the player's parents check to make sure the player isn't getting depressed by the prospect of nuclear war.

And in Asteroids, after any ship destruction due to collision with an asteroid, the game should require parental attestation that the player isn't starting to develop symptoms of petraphobia.

In both cases, if the parents aren't available (e.g. dead because the player is in their 80s) I suppose a Notary Public or a AMA-certified doctor would be a good-enough replacement.

We have learned so much since the early days of computer games, and it's better to be safe than sorry. (But don't fuck with Joust! I want to be able to play without having to call my mom every time the Lava Troll touches my mount's legs inappropriately.)

Well, first of all, no, you're not running three thousand-watt block heaters off of one 120v/15a circuit.

Second, actually, you can get chargers like the Grizzl-E Duo that have multiple charging heads off of one circuit.

Third, 'fuel injection' doesn't heat up your oil. Nor does it defrost your windshield.

Yes, assuming that in this made-up scenario of yours, you're sleeping, fully clothed, on top of the blankets, with your work phone strapped to your ear, your go-bag handcuffed to your secondary hand, and your car keys strapped to your dominant hand.

Otherwise, you get the call, you use your car app to preheat your car (shit, mine ties into siri, so I can just tell it to preheat the car while I'm, you know, getting dressed, using the washroom, getting a coffee, whatever.

Ah, yes, good old fluffernutter, who for some reason hates EVs with a passion.

but what if your work calls and there's a problem and you have to leave sooner? EVs are sure going to suck for people who are on-call and may have to leave at any time.

Having been in this scenario, I can tell you exactly how it works when you have to jump in the car and go somewhere when it's -30c.

"Ok, I understand, I'll be in." *clicks hang-up button.* *opens car app.* *clicks 'climate start.'* *clicks 'winter.'*

Then, you get dressed, grab your stuff, walk outside, unplug the car, climb in to your warmed up, conditioned EV, and toot toot off.

This is as opposed to how this exact scenario worked when I drove an ICE car, which meant either a) going outside, starting the car, and letting it run cold, which is bad, or b) getting in, and driving it slow for the first ten minutes, shivering and trying to breathe as shallowly as possible to keep the inside of the windshield from frosting up.

Or you just jump in the EV and drive off, and it's still going to heat up faster, easier, and cleaner, *and* you're not damaging your engine by trying to push semi-solid oil around.

I've not tried charging mine in cold weather at a rapid charger, but I'm sure the charging controls will use some of the power to heat the battery, as otherwise it wouldn't be able to accept the charge.

A good EV, when you use the in-car nav to let the car know you're heading to a DC fast charger, will start warming up the batteries ahead of time. Some just have a 'condition the batteries for charging' button. Otherwise, yes, when you connect, the batteries will use the DC power to warm up, but this is obviously less efficient.

I haven't read the text of this Swiss law, but if it's anything like USA's, UK's, or EU's laws, then it regulates "providers" and/or "carriers," not software applications themselves.

If you are sending already-made ciphertext through a regulated service, the service won't be in trouble. But if the service offers to encrypt for you, then they will be in trouble.

It just occurred to me that the now-common conflation between web apps and local apps (to a lot of phone users, these two things look the same) matters.

Maybe ASF just likes whiskey.

White oak has more tyloses and a tighter grain structure than other oak varieties, which cause its barrels to be more waterproof. It chars better. And it generally wins most taste tests. It's just perfect for barrel aging.

Save your red oaks for furniture.

Is Amazon fitting the bill for higher insurance rates?

This question surprised me.

Before we tackle the unlikely possibility that this raises insurance rates, your question makes me realize there's another question you might want to try to answer first:

Who do you think currently pays for the insurance on Amazon's vehicles?

And another: do you think that by Amazon making the choice to deploy an additional piece of driver hardware, the insurance-premium-paying party in the above question, would change?

Ok, bud.

The best contrived example you could come up with is 'being invited to a wedding the next day?'

Shit, many of us are old enough to remember having to plug your ICE car in overnight so it would start in the morning.

EV is GREAT for ultra cold weather, because you can pre-heat without needing to worry about the engine.

Sure, and 100 years ago, 'infrastructure' was 'hay troughs, water troughs, hitching posts and stables.'

And getting in a high voltage electric service is a one-time capex, whereas maintaining and refilling underground fuel tanks is an awful lot of ongoing opex.

Ha ha! The github page shows it as last committed "48 years ago." Good one, MS.

I carried my Abacus "The Anatomy of the Commodore 64" around all the time, mostly because it had a somewhat-commented disassembly of the C64's ROMs, which included this interpreter. But actual source would be even cooler.

I remember reading through it and suddenly realizing: "oh, that is why IF..GOTO is slightly faster than IF..THEN, because it skips an unnecessary call to CHRGET."