I'm thinking combining the retail space with a real distribution center where packages are already sent out from. Or maybe have it near enough with dedicated trucks going back and forth, though that would be less efficient. I'm assuming it's effectively a separate building apart from the merchandise moving, and certainly the retail parking would be separate from the delivery truck parking.

I think it would be interesting to try a physical store combined with a distribution warehouse. The store would have terminals (or you could use your app) where you could look up any item and see where it is. If it's not on a shelf, but in the attached distribution warehouse, you could order it and it would show up in 15 minutes (without extra packaging).

I'm imagining a tunnel between buildings with a long conveyer belt, and items placed in plastic bins with bar codes that would identify the customer, but there are plenty of variations.

Yes, AI will struggle with doing full tasks unsupervised. But it can still do most of the work for many tasks. It just needs supervision by someone who understands the task. Sometimes the problem is the AI making incorrect assumptions about the task (it wasn't fully framed), sometimes as stated in the summary, the AI context window is too small, so it forgets things, and sometimes it just chooses a really bad approach.

I have been using Claude Code a lot recently. It's really good at summarizing existing code. It's good at specific targeted changes. It's pretty bad at designing solutions. I find that while it's usually still faster than doing it manually, I often have to point out where there's a better (usually simpler) solution.

So AI doesn't replace the human, but when used correctly, it makes the human more productive. If instead of having a human do the task manually and compare that to the time taken for a human to supervise AI doing the task, you'll probably find for many that the human can do a lot more with AI. (Yes, I know some studies have shown the opposite, but I think that's mostly people not understanding how to effectively manage AI, which may take some experience and training.)

But AI is far better at almost everything that it was a year ago. So even if it's 2.5% now, it may be 25% next year and 90% a year later. We're living in interesting times.

How many people actually use the speakers built into their TVs? The general rule is you want to get a sound bar at a minimum or a real audio system.

According to Google, about two-thirds are connected to sound systems, which may be right for higher-end TVs. It's probably logical to put better speakers on smaller and cheaper TVs that are less likely to use external sound, but that's the opposite of what manufacturers are likely to do.

We're probably stuck with lousy TV sound unless we get magic speakers that are good, cheap, and small. Until then, we'll have bad, cheap, and small.

You are mad.

My eyes are laid out horizontally, so video should be, too.

If I'm watching on my phone, I'm turning it sideways.

Yeah, I was just playing with my Atari 800XL. I used Claude to write some code for it. So I guess it's still being a problem.

How many doctors will be using this or something like it to diagnose their patients?

If it's anything like my experience with AI coding, it will be great for telling doctors how smart their diagnoses are, but will sometimes point out things that they missed.

Yup. And in many places there are government programs that will subsidize home energy inspections and recommended insulation improvements.

But if you try to improve the building codes to increase energy efficiency for new construction, builders will be up in arms, and it's a tough battle. And that's where you make a huge difference, fixing hundreds or thousands of new buildings at once. And they could also require homes to pass energy inspections to be sold (here we already have septic and smoke detector requirements), which would help a lot for easy fixes like attic insulation.

There's far too much personalizing societal problems instead of working to correct the underlying problems. Both is fine, but the priority should usually be on fixing the system.

A typical 55" TV draws perhaps 80W. Convert to kWh/year, and it's 80*24*365.25/1000 = 701.28.
If you electricity is $0.20/kWh, then you're looking at $140/year for your "art" display. That's over $10/month.

Some people don't care, but it's really wasteful.

Now an e-ink display would be really efficient, only needing power when the image is changed, but those aren't practical for TVs (or likely for any large use).

We have a consistent problem of telling individuals to do better, when that's mostly just a distraction from the majority if the problem. We tell people to turn down thermostats instead of improving energy efficiency codes. Now we're saying blame business class seating when private jets are the biggest inefficiency in the airline industry.

Yes, we can and should look at the small things, but we should really focus our energies on the major culprits.

That's mostly true. I've run some LLMs locally: they're slow and not very powerful, but there are times when having it local is nice for privacy.

I do expect this to change over time, with more operations being practical to run locally. I would really like to have voice input be a local task, for example.

But they're addicted to doing business in NY.

One of the best features of Unix is cut-and-paste with only using the mouse. I recently started using a Mac for my work desktop, and I really miss it. At least it works within iTerm2 and emacs, but not between programs.

Sure, perhaps have an option to turn it off, but don't break one of the best features of Linux just because too many people don't know how to use it.

Buy why by a plug-in instead of a regular hybrid if you're not going to plug it in? Maybe the model you want doesn't offer both options, but otherwise it seems dumb.

As to the questions:
1. No garage: If you still have off-street parking, you can plug it in outside.
2. Garage full: Again, plug it in outside.
3. Cost to install outlet: Just use a regular 120V outlet; most PHEVs have smaller batteries that will still fill up overnight on a 120V outlet.
4. Upgrade breaker panel: Almost never needed, and you can always use an existing 120V outlet.
5. New wiring: Maybe you do need a new outside outlet, but often not.
6. Upgrade power line: That's stupid. The total amperage of all circuits normally exceeds the incoming amperage; you look at what is reasonably going to be used at the same time. If a 14-50 outlet is too much, use a smaller 240V or even 120V outlet.
7. Where does electricity cost that much? The most expensive electricity in the USA is in Hawaii, and that's $0.40/kWh. In Massachusetts, it's approaching $0.30/kWh, which is near the top. Most states are under $0.20/kWh. It's going to be much cheaper than gas everywhere.

Their big problem is that they haven't figured out how to make money on EVs. Part of the problem is their dealer networks don't want to sell them due to the lower maintenance costs. That keeps the volume down to where they can't amortize the costs properly.