It's not the same thing, because the cumulative windows updates are not HW compatibility breaking updates. Yes, you can circumvent that, and I can too, but the people most likely capable of doing the circumventiom are those who are leasy likely having HW needing that in the first place. There are a lot of people who have never on their life opened the registry editor, for example. And the instructions often are not available in all languages.

At least all the software developers I know don't ever google anything when doing their work. And there are only customer-facing jobs, where the customer is constantly following what you do. Sarcasm aside, often the point of education is to make you remember what concepts there are and how to apply, but in the job you won't usually need everything you have been taught. So you will know which reference you're after, and with a small refresher can apply it. And the things that you'll need frequently you will learn to do without a reference.

Yeah this was what also I thought immediately, how detached from reality are these people?

Trading isn't the same thing as capitalism, though. "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" is an excellent thing to read on that and many other topics as well.

There are alternatives to padding packaging with plastic. Like Scotch Cushion Lock by 3M. There's also plastic-free packing tape.

That is like asking what is the replacement for asbestos and if it's worse. There are so many uses for PFAS and there is not just a single replacement. So it's a question that is basically impossible to answer. And who knows how long it takes to evaluate that. Having that said, for example with popcorn, making them in a kettle is really easy, and in my opinion, gives a better taste, basically with no burnt kernels. It is also cheaper and leads to less waste.

Can clicking a button really be considered a digital signature in the US? What if a dog or a toddler clicks on the button without the adult even ever knowing that? How can they prove that you, the owner of the device, actually consented to the terms?

WHO has not declared the pandemic over, yet again we're reading about something "after the COVID-19 pandemic". It's not over when people are still dying of it, getting long COVID, getting their immune system wrecked by the virus. Sure, the economy has recovered and the restrictions are gone. But the virus didn't go anywhere. Maybe we can start talking about the climate change as a past event, too? Don't look up!

Trademarks can be granted for names etc. that are already in use (like Apple), but they are limited in scope. Apple is a trademark held by both Apple Inc. and Apple Corps (the company owned by The Beatles), but they have limitations to where it applies. And actually, you can lose your enforcement rights to a trademark when it becomes an everyday generic term, so popularizing a name can actually be counterproductive in enforcing a trademark (see the Wikipedia page "Generic trademark"). Some examples mentioned are bubble wrap, linoleum and taser.

Google gets money from ads. People use adblockers as they get frustrated, and people are happy, but site owners and especially Google aren't happy. This proposal on the surface makes site owners happy again (they get money), perhaps non-tech savvy users (they don't get ads), but how about Google? Well obviously they get a share of the micro payments, so they will be happy. And they don't have to deal with any lawsuits, advertiser reviews, controversies, political ads. They will be super happy. But this will be exploited, almost 100% sure. And I think this makes the web even sadder place than web full of ads.

Yes, backup system is needed for most people also in Finland, but some heat pumps are producing more heat than they use electricity down to -35C. Of course the problem still is that the colder it is, the more heat you need, but the less heat the pump is outputting. So either you will need to invest more for the cold days, and the payoff time gets longer and longer, or you will have a backup system (resistive heating of course is the cheapest form of heating). The issue then gets that the power grid can be very, very loaded on cold day peak hours. Still, adding a heat pump parallel to an existing system in many cases is a good investment.

I don't know where the number was pulled from, but the original plan was to have 75MW power production capacity, and storage capacity of 530 MWh. Which is not too bad considering that Finland has about 14 GW peak energy consumption, and hydroelectric capacity peaks at about 1.2 GW. It is also not a game changer alone, but it would help to collect wind energy during the night times and also even out the morning and 5-to-7 PM peaks in power usage.

The plant has been planned for a couple of years now, and it was even already cancelled at the end of 2023 due to costs from high interest rates, but looks like it is back on due to a new operator chiming in.

Source: https://www.epv.fi/project/pyh...

A Finn here. I'm not really holding my breath for democratic russia. The country has a long history of coping by lying and stealing, deeply built into people's mind and to the society. How do you get rid of rampant corruption in such a country to the level of giving a chance to democracy? Adding to that, quite many russians secretly love misery. They also see democracy as having a weak czar, which to them equals chaos. So to have orderly misery, it is better not to have at least a true democracy. We really should prepare for almost anything with future russia, but I'm not sure if our politicians are capable enough to do that. Too many seem to be just playing political games, and the rest spend their energy I countering that. Hopefully some advisors behind the scenes are thinking of strategies much harder.

Even this unfortunately addresses nine of the thousands of PFAS that exist. And they are used widely. People only really know Teflon (and manufacturers are now trying to cover the fact that they are using Teflon by using alternative names for it). But things like textile protectors, tooth floss and various plastic containers, even for food stuff. Yes, your mayonnaise, microwave popcorn, takeaway food etc. might be in a package containing PFAS, that will even seep into the food. Some manufacturing processes of the packagin do not properly fix the PFAS to the material and the amount of them getting to the food can be really high. At the moment, at least I'm not aware of any regulation for the amount that may end up in the food. Nor is it mandatory even to label items containing PFAS.

I know the toilet seat lids are not airtight nor can filter aerosols (I was surprised to find out that closing the lid makes no difference for the aerosol spreading, thoug). I would assume closing the lid still makes a difference for bigger drops of water ending up on the floor.