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Comment Re:Problem identified (Score 1) 310

It is not hard to find the source for this:
https://www.pge.com/assets/pge...

The "default" plan is the "E-TOU-C" plan, which has a price of $0.40 (offpeak) / $0.51 (peak) below "baseline" and $0.50 (offpeak) and / $0.61 (peak) above "baseline". The old E-1 plan isn't available anymore unless you got grandfathered into it.

Comment Re:I don't understand! (Score 3, Interesting) 37

The past few phones that I've had all failed due to the physical connector on the charging port failing. Wireless charging is allowing my current phone to last longer.

It would be interesting to compare the cost of needing to replace the phone sooner vs the cost of the extra power.

Comment Re: Better than a blackout (Score 1) 203

The batteries have a limited lifespan. The panels last quite a long time.

https://www.nrel.gov/state-loc...
"NREL research has shown that solar panels have a median degradation rate of about 0.5% per year but the rate could be higher in hotter climates and for rooftop systems.[1] A degradation rate of 0.5% implies that production from a solar panel will decrease at a rate of 0.5% per year. This means that in year 20, the module is producing approximately 90% of the electricity it produced in year 1. "

Comment Re:Terrorists already have plenty of avenues (Score 1) 287

Both the Glock and the Sig P320 (and nearly all other ploymer handguns) have a forged then milled steel skeleton within the handgrip section of the gun embedded in the polymer.

Polymer isn't strong enough for the slide to move on during recoil.

The P320 even has gone so far as to make the steel skeleton legally be defined as the "frame" instead of the "lower handgrip" section that is usually referred to as the "frame".
https://www.sigsauer.com/fcu

Comment Re:That's about 6% on a typical truck (Score 1) 97

You'll see the same thing in the US. A Freightliner Cascadia gets about 8-9mpg when doing flat freeway runs fully loaded at 40k-80klbs. That said, a heavy goods vehicle would be using diesel fuel, and wouldn't be starting and stopping much.

Pickup trucks in the US, specifically 1/2 ton models like the Chevy Silverado 1500 overwhelmingly run on gasoline. Diesel fuel, depending on the blend, has between 10-15% more energy per unit volume.

Also, the EPA tests for fuel economy are based 55% on short start-and-stop type trips and 45% on highway numbers. If you take a heavy goods vehicle and do the same calculations where 45% of the total miles driven are short start-and-stop type trips then you'll quickly find that those vehicles tend to get 4-5mpg on that kind of driving.

Comment Re:Still no Charger (Score 1) 220

if your car is an insurance writeoff, and you repair it, and Tesla finds out, they'll tell their superchargers (read: not your car) not to charge that car until your amateur wiring job has been properly recertified, in order to protect their hardware.

This is one of the reasons I won't purchase from them. That entire incident seemed very "ma bell" to me.

Up until the 1978 breakup, AT&T wouldn't let you connect a telephone to the grid unless you paid them for the phone. If they caught you using a telephone that wasn't made by them, they would disconnect your line. It kept easy long distance voice communications as a toy for the rich. This and a number of other things lead to a series of lawsuits the effectively dismantled the company.

Every state in the US has a law stating that you must be able to repair your vehicle at an independent shop that isn't affiliated by the manufacturer. It is legal in every state in the union for you to fix your own car, in your own garage, all by yourself.

A power outlet, even a smart one like a USB PD or IOT outlet, does not lock out the serial number of a laptop just because it is reported to have water damage.

The manufacturer can put safety equipment in the chargers to prevent overdraw and over/under voltage. They can refuse any load that does not follow normal charging specifications for safety. There is no need, nor any point, to lock out serial numbers unless it's a crass classism to keep "those people" who own "old cheap cars" from parking in the same premium charging station as the rich folks.

That, and I don't think it will hold up in court for them to say "Cars with salvage titles can't use our plugs".

Comment Re:Wish someone would make a USB capability box (Score 2) 155

These boxes exist, but they are not yet economical. I'd bet that we wind up with cheaper versions of this device in the next year or so. https://www.thedebugstore.com/...

We will also probably wind up with a software solution. As of today, most OSes let you read the transfer speeds and PD wattage information on your machine, but it does not diagnose "which part is the bottleneck" questions.

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