Right, the economist refer to this as "externality". Fossil fuels aren't cheap, if you factor in the costs that people using them transfer to third parties. Theoretically, if the true cost of using fossil fuels were factored into every pound of coal or gallon of gasoline consumed, then we would use *exactly the right amount* of fossil fuels. Probably not zero, but not as much as we do when we pretend pollution isn't a cost.

Another issue is the lack of affordable public charging. Especially here in Europe with our sky high petrol excise, an EV might be a bit more expensive to purchase but a lot cheaper to run than an IC car. If you can charge at home, that is. Charging at a public charger can be twice as expensive, and if you're forced to use a fast charger it's even more. That changes the economics of EVs rather a lot.

As I replied to you elsewhere, yes, the per capita rate is imporant, but Americans insist on making absolute comparisons.

The absolute comparison also isn't entirely irrelevant. The article uses electrical generation as a proxy for GDP, a widely used practice and one that probably underestimates China if anything. So total electrical generation indicates the economic power represented by a particular political entity. Monaco and Liechenstein are not superpowers even though their GDP/capita are more than twice the US's and the threat of sanctions from Ireland doesn't carry the same weight as those from the US.

No, they were still terrible. But they were all there was.

Perhaps you've never had or don't remember the experience of carefully checking the polarity and voltage on a wall wart barrel jack and then holding your breath as you plugged it into your expensive gizmo.

Many cell phone chargers will charge a laptop. You can charge a Macbook pro using an iPhone charger.

But sure, you might have one of the old 15 W phone chargers. So chargers state their power output and the USB spec limits the current so any up to spec charger that advertises 36 W (12 V @ 3A) or more should charge any laptop, unless you've got something super weird.

USB guarantees negotiationless current at 5V and 0.5 A. Raspberry Pi decided to use an optional negotiationless mode instead of implementing PD like they should have.

You're very unlikely to find a 15W+ charger that doesn't offer the optional 5V 3A though. No, the Pi 4 doesn't require 4 A, which is not a supported configuraiton under the USB spec, even with PD.

I hope that doesn't mean the modern game system experience.
80s console: Turn on, 5 seconds later the game is ready to play.
Modern gaming conveniences: Turn on, wait 30 minutes for the console to patch, then another 30 while the game pulls in a 1 GB update.

The little two-shot moka pots are great for camping too.

If you mean why is the US dollar the most common reserve currency, it's because the US made everyone send them their gold after WWII. Since then it's dropped to 50-60% and is still falling. The reason it's not lower is because the US federal government auctions off about a trillion and a half of them a year.

It sounds like you buy a lot of shady stuff that doesn't meet the USB certification.

Barrel jacks are a terrible idea from the dawn of technology. Plug the wrong one in and fry something. Drop it in a puddle and fry something. And if you're dumb enough to put 200 Watts over it the thing you fry might be your house.

The inability to connect always live no matter what power directly into a device is a feature.

The EIAJ standard barrel jacks (usually yellow tipped) are designed to fit only in the corresponding size socket and in none of the other sizes. Each size is for a specific voltage range, the different plugs are supposed to save you from accidentally over-volting your devices.

EA specifically makes a lot of its money from having agreements with other big companies: FIFA, NFL, NHL, F1, NBA, etc. That requires a lot of money that the employees probably don't have, and also probably multi-year exclusive contracts EA has locked up.

However, they could quit and go make new games instead of adding a few more polys to the models and updating the database of player names every year. Maybe ask the union for some startup capital. Helping employee-owned companies get started would seem to be an excellent goal for a union.

Reset copyright to 14 years, one time renewable for another 14 for a hefty fee, worth it for blockbusters and bestsellers, not for anything else. And no more "moral rights"; derivative works should always be allowed if they are not blatant copies. If some Star Wars or Harry Potter fanfic book or movie is shitty, then the market will take care of that. And if is not shitty but good, then the public will be well served with new content they will enjoy. That was the purpose of copyright, once. Let's make it so again.

While major media companies are wiping their arse with the social contract that is copyright, I do not feel one tiny bit of obligation to uphold my end of it, and I will turn to piracy when and where I can. Screw them.

That's what they've done. Or rather they've bought the politicians who create the regulatory frameworks. But if people woke up and realized they've been frog-boiled into giving away their privacy, then that would be prohibitively expensive.