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Comment Not quite there yet, depending on location. (Score 1) 155

It's cool to see this as a general rule. Electricity rates don't change very often, while Gas rates fluctuate quarterly, or sometimes even more frequently, making it difficult to compare cost. I'm in Colorado, and the cost of Natural Gas doesn't *quite* offset the Electricity cost for raw therms output to heat the house, but they're within $30/month of each other as of the last month's billing. They might actually be break even after Xcel kicks in it's quarterly increase for the winter months.

It's not enough value at this point to just rip out something functional just because, but when it comes time to replace the existing unit and I have to foot the bill anyway, a heat pump unit with gas backup seams more and more likely. The writing seems to be on the wall that electricity is the future for residential, and a lot of commercial stuff, regardless of how it's generated. I don't see power generation from NG going away any time soon though.

Comment Data Collection (Score 1) 62

Seems like in order to make this work, it's likely going to encourage users to input more specific data about themselves to more accurately map requirements. E.g. "Devops" won't really be sufficient when the job requirement lists specifics like Python, CI/CD, etc.

Comment Re:Difficult and serious problem (Score 2) 106

The guy is a jerk, and deserves what he gets. However as a side note, have you looked up what it costs to dump a truckload of construction trash these days? It might not be astronomical if you have the budget for a home improvement project, but it's definitely not "miniscule" in my neck of the woods.

Comment Not Recognized? (Score 4, Interesting) 106

Not likely. People understand what e-waste is. It's just far easier, and many times a lot cheaper, to toss it in the trash bin than try and figure out how to properly dispose of it.

If there was a bin for e-waste like there is for recycling and trash in many places, you'd have a lot less e-waste mixed into landfills with general trash. Not sure what you'd do with it, but at least it would be pre-sorted.

Comment Re:The price of cars is still shooting way up (Score 1) 173

You get to learn something today.... "the motor is attached directly to the shaft" is just plain wrong. EV's have differential gears just like every ICE car, unless there are 4 motors, one per wheel. And even then, there might be some gearing or disconnect involved. There might not be a transmission, but there are still mechanical elements and gears/bearings/etc. involved.

No doubt, EV's have far fewer mechanical parts than an ICE engine, but they still have a lot of parts!. And while electrical components tend to last longer than mechanical components as a general rule, it's not an *exclusive* rule. Electronics can fail and wear out over time as well.

As for motor replacement cost? Used Tesla motors right now are $3-5K. A use 3.0 ecoboost, common in a lot of Fords as an example, is $4-6k. There's not *that* much difference there, and I'd argue you'll pay a lot less to replace the ICE than the EV just because there are so many more mechanics available to do the job. EV's are also still relatively new, and their long term reliability and cost is still being determined. Very few have reached their EOL for battery packs, so that replacement cost and hassle hasn't even hit the general market in any volume yet to determine a reliable cost.

Disclaimer: I own both ICE and EV vehicles. I like them both for various specific reasons. TBH, the ROI/Cost on each of them is pretty close. The EV was far more expensive than the ICE, but it's way cheaper to operate. The ICE is more expensive to operate, but it's a quarter the monthly payment that the EV is. And I can use it in more long-distance scenarios without the hassle of figuring out go-juice issues.

Buy what you need, and debate all you want. (after all, this is the internet) But there are still a ton of unknowns about the future of EV's, other than the singular fact that they are here to stay.

Comment The phone is just a small part. (Score 1) 546

The phone is just a small part of the puzzle for an investigation. You can't blow something up with *only* a phone. You have to move around, communicate across public networks, and physically acquire elements. Sure, having the data on a phone with documented communications might be handy, but it's not strictly necessary for any investigation of physical activity. Saying it is, is just being lazy.

Comment Re:the reason why (Score 3, Informative) 146

No you can't.

Wrong. You absolutely can use pre-generated keys for google's authentication services. They call them backup codes.

Authenticator runs on a phone or tablet. Without internet you can't even set it up.

Wrong again. You can absolutely setup accounts in Google Authenticator (And most other similar apps) without network access. You can even install the app itself without access in many cases, if you want to side-load from a PC or something.

Without perfect clock sync the codes generated by authenticator stop working.

Sorta wrong. The clocks don't have to be perfect, they just have to be close. Pretty much every service has the ability to deal with a certain amount of clock skew. Smartphones these days are pretty good at keeping time, even when not connected to the network, so this usually isn't an issue. But this is also dependent on if the service is using TOTP or HOTP. (Time based or Counter based codes)

The codes generated by authenticator have a very short shelf life, measured in seconds.

Here you got one right, every code has a 60 second lifespan. (:

But to the point of the original post (GGGP?) that brought up the autheticator... They should at least have HOTP/TOTP as an option for those with smartphones in this case. They probably can't drop SMS altogether because of the users that *don't* have smart phones, but no reason not to support both.

Comment Wrong (Score 4, Interesting) 151

I generate this data. I own this car. This is my data, not the company who made my car. If it's a rental, sure, go ahead and do what you want with that. But if I own the car, that data is MINE to choose whom I give it to, or don't give it to, and use as I see fit.

This isn't any different than any other appliance or device. I own my computer, The manufacturers that made it don't own the data that's created by using it. Tired of companies thinking they own what I do with the stuff they sell me. It's getting ridiculous.

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