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Comment Re:Sure, let someone else be the gatekeeper (Score 1) 162

If the average person who futzes around with Windows can't run Linux Mint, they're being deliberately obtuse. Or they're stupid.

Say my roommate wants me to load MP3s onto her iPhone. I haven't figured out how to do that other than through iTunes for Windows, which does not run in Wine, or Finder for macOS. Am I "deliberately obtuse" or "stupid"?

Comment What instead of iOS or Android with Google Play? (Score 1) 162

Even more regrettably, it seems almost all free-software advocates I have known are mindlessly following along instead of rejecting such absurdly invasive Big-Brother brain-damaged computers under the euphemisim of "smart something."

Which handheld computer with a cellular radio that respects users' freedom is compatible with U.S. mobile networks? Last I checked, things like the Fairphone were made for the European market, with no attempt to get onto Verizon's or AT&T's allowlist.

Comment Re:Let him keep the debris (Score 1) 57

Arguably, the homeowner may not want to give it up -- the debris is likely to be worth way more to a collector than the damage it caused, especially since there's video of the crash.

Of course, then the question of "who owns it?" comes up -- the ISS *clearly* discarded it, and by chance it ended up in the homeowner's possession.

Typically, meteorites belong to the land owner where they fall, and this isn't debris from a crash like we had with Columbia -- it's literally trash from space.

So, maybe the lawyers will be arguing about it for a while, or maybe the homeowner will just give it to NASA without any drama -- I know that the previous article says that NASA now has it, but that doesn't mean they get to keep it. Or maybe NASA will analyze it and then return it without any drama.

Either way, I imagine that the homeowner will file a claim with their own insurance, who will then file a claim with NASA or Japan (or both?) and if they recover the money, the homeowner will get their deductable back.

Comment Re:lawsuit in 3..2..1... (Score 1) 49

Beyond the TOS, there are actual laws that might apply to this situation.

First thing that comes to mind? Depending on the method used, it might fall afoul of the The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Not all Discord messages are public, and if some technical abuse was involved in accessing messages in an unauthorized manner (peeking into DMs, servers you've not actually joined, etc) then that could be grounds for criminal prosecution.

=Smidge=

Comment Re:And in five years they have to do it again? (Score 1) 169

Considering there are EVs that are 10+ years old and still doing just fine, I challenge the "isn't insignificant" part.

BMW, Audi, Tesla, and Ford warranty their packs will retain 70% capacity for 8 years/100K miles. Hyundai does 70% at 10Y/100K. Rivian is 70% at 8Y/175K. This gives us a pretty good picture of what to expect at a minimum - The manufacturers are willing to put their money down on these numbers, so chances are good they will be exceeded for most owners.

People like GP are constantly wanting to conflate EV batteries with cell phone batteries. They are not even remotely the same.
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Comment Re:great, now think again (Score 1) 214

> the demand and supply must always match

Correct. Overproduction results in increase in grid frequency which can cause a lot of damage.

> this means that that you produce more than you need and have to either sell outside ... or switch off the source

Or import less (Cali imports up to ~30% of its power from Arizona and Utah). In this case, the a good chunk of that excess power seems to have been absorbed by temporarily increasing demand through charging grid scale batteries. That energy can be (and has been) released later in the day to help offset peak loads, allowing utilities to avoid spinning up expensive gas turbines.

> If on the other hand they invested in say nuclear this would not be necessary

Nuclear is far and away the most expensive and has the longest lead time. It also has a problem of needing large supplies of water, and that water needs to be not too warm or else they need to throttle or shut down the plant. Drought and heat waves are both issues in California so expanding nuclear power is difficult even if the local population was accepting of their presence.

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Comment Re:... for a small fraction of 30 of the last 38 d (Score 3, Informative) 214

> What the heck kind of tortured cherry picked thing is this?

It's pretty simple? For 30 of the past 38 days, renewable energy production exceeded energy demand for at least 15 minutes.

While the 38 days part is a little strange, this is overall good information. Paired with their burgeoning energy storage capacity it means we are starting to catch a glimpse of the break-over point where we have 100% renewable energy 24/7. 15 minutes of surplus means 15 minutes of not burning fossil fuels after the sun sets.

It's a start, and already more than the shills told us was impossible.
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Comment Re:Mobile Video Quality (Score 1) 41

> perhaps the ones that pay a kickback to the ISP

Kickback? What about apps *owned* by the ISP? Most service providers also offer their own brand of on-demand services. Even if anyone can buy priority traffic for better speeds, they can give it to themselves for free. It's extremely anti-competitive.

=Smidge=

Comment Why ban? I thought there was no demand for EVs? (Score 1) 283

Funny how the narrative has changed. Weren't the legacy automakers were shelving EV plans because consumers didn't want EVs? So the Chinese EVs should find no demand, pack up their wares, and go home. So what harm could affordable EVs possibly cause?

Unless, and this is a stretch, what if consumers DO want EVs, just not $70K EV trims of $38K cars?. In that case the problem is automakers can't, or more likely don't want to, make EVs in a price range appealing to consumers. I'm all for anti-dumping legislation, but this doesn't feel like dumping, this is a rebuke to automakers who thought they'd be able to control the narrative and avoid selling EVs to keep the parts and service money tap flowing. The automakers should head the wake up, and for example, stop offering $70K* Ford F150 EVs and give consumers a $38K Ford F150 EV. If the Chinese can build them cheap, we're going to have to find a way to build them cheap while still turning a profit.

*The F150 standard battery with 230 miles of range is sub-ICE range, 300 miles is the minimum comparable for an ICS replacement.

Comment Re:In my experience 3rd party ink clogs print head (Score 3, Interesting) 116

Buy from a reputable source. Just because you don't like paying the extortionary prices for official HP ink and supporting their bullshit business model, doesn't mean you must, or should, buy the cheapest shit you can find off eBay or a random vendor at a convention.

At the very least buy from an established business that has a refund policy and customer service to complain to...
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Comment Re:But, but ... (Score 1) 185

Ironically, it's is more of an argument for them. They were not saying there would be no more updates, be them major or minor to windows, but rather than they wouldn't have "numbers" and transition into more of an OS as a service model.

The market doesn't like the sound of that. That's fine, but it's not like if Microsoft stopped numbering their releases they wouldn't be doing the exact same thing: sunsetting older versions of windows and pushing users towards newer supported versions.

I know some people think they should be able to "buy" an OS and stay on it forever, but the internet has rendered that largely impossible. If you want to air-gap your PC and stay on whatever version of Windows you want, go for it, but as soon as you're connected to the internet, they're doing the right thing trying to push people off of codebases that no longer support an economic case for security updates.

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