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Comment Re: Don't be overconfidence battery tech progressi (Score 1) 188

As youâ(TM)ve pointed out many times, the UK is much smaller than Canada, and this means that EV charging is incredibly straightforward for me

In another slashdot post about EVs, a poster was saying that it 'feels like' it would be impossible to drive across Canada in an EV in the middle of winter.

I pointed out that A Better Route Planner exists, and he doesn't need to 'feel' anything about it, he can just go look. And yes, it turns out that with a modern EV, even in the middle of winter, you can drive cross country with zero issues. Charging added something like six hours or so on to the several thousand KM trip, and that assumed all fast-chargers and no overnight charging at a hotel or anything.

The minute you switch from that mentality to âoeIâ(TM)ll charge while I do something elseâ, it all just slots into place. So on road trips, I charge when I eat or while Iâ(TM)m parked up for the day (or overnight).

Yup. You *have* to change your mentality away from 'refueling is an activity/event in and of itself' to 'refueling is something that happens while the car is parked anyway while I'm sleeping/shopping/pissing/eating/whatever.'

Comment Re:This guy had a different experience (Score 1) 188

treating EVs as thought theyâ(TM)re inconvenient ICE vehicles instead of adapting your modus operandi even the slightest iota will lead to you having a shit experience.

Truth. I see this attitude a lot.

"I don't want to sit around for half an hour while my car charges." Yeah, that's why we don't do that; we plug in the car and wander off to do something.

But even *if* it's a charger in the middle of nowhere and you're stuck sitting there charging, I'd rather half an hour in the car, while the heater's running, than standing outside for a few minutes in -30c plus wind chill pumping gas.

Comment Re:Memo to classical economists (Score 1) 77

"Rational actor" has been disproven for a very long time.

My favorite easy experiment (you can run it with a grade school class) is this one:

Two participants. One participant is given one dollar. The other participant is given nothing.

Now, the participant with one dollar must offer some amount of that dollar to the other participant. The other participant can say 'yes,' take that amount, and they both walk away, or 'no,' and both participants get nothing.

The 'rational actor' would accept an offer of 'I'll give you a penny.' After all, walking away with one penny leaves you materially better than walking away with zero pennies.

The average participant, however, will only accept, at minimum, something like 37 cents. Anything less than that is seen as 'insulting' or 'greedy' and worthy of punishment.

Comment Re: "far too small to generate any lift"?? (Score 4, Interesting) 106

That's how I read it. It should say it has no thrust.

A typical jet turbofan airframe has two engines that each have a generator shaft taking turbine energy and making electrical current. It then has a whole 'nother turbine engine used on the ground and in some other flight legs called the APU; this exhausts out the tail cone usually, and can start engines or provide extra hydraulic power if needed, but is slow to start just like the main engines.

For power loss emergencies, a small spring-loaded fan pops into action super fast, called a Ram Air Turbine or RAT. It can only make enough electrical power to reboot key systems like engine FADECs or avionics, often only on one electrical channel instead of all channels. It's only a turbine, not a thrust-producing fan. It's a pinwheel toy in comparison to the APU and even the APU cannot produce significant thrust.

Comment Re:Portable hardware (Score 1) 43

The question isn't 'are they number 1' or 'are they number 2' but 'did they sell enough hardware and software, or otherwise benefit from having the brand, to make it worth their while?'

After all, you mention the Wii, but a lot of people who bought a Wii never bought a game past Wii Sports. Many people bought PS3s to be Blu-Ray players, just like many people bought a PS2 to be a DVD player.

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