If only voters would get this worked up about corruption.

People are also ignoring the benefits. Data centers don't bring a lot of jobs after construction is complete, but they can generate a lot of tax revenues for counties and cities. Huge amounts of money that can be a real game-changer for the local budgets, and could be very beneficial for the locals. By itself that's not a reason to accept them, but it should be part of the overall calculation, and the net cost/benefit of the projects should be reasonably and fairly evaluated, and negotiated.

But this isn't what's happening.

The thumb wheels on the steering wheel do that. You do have to use the touch screen to put it in "mirror adjust" mode, but really that's something you only do once. Set up your driver profile, set your mirrors, then the car just always changes them to your settings.

I find the auto wiper works pretty well... it is important to keep the windshield fairly clean, but I like to do that anyway.

Yeah, the Model 3/Y handles are weird. The S/X handles are pretty nice. In theory the fact that they're motorized could make them a maintenance problem. In practice, little electric motors are extremely reliable. There was a problem with the wiring harness getting fatigued and breaking about 10 years ago, but that's been fixed.

Those are also on the thumb wheels on the steering wheel.

Before I came up with my current system I spent a lot of time looking into actuators for windows. They exist but they're expensive, often bulky and look like a lot of work to install and maintain. Then it occurred to me that I already have a whole-house fan (HVAC system)... if I could just get it to draw from outside rather than from the air returns. That part woks great and I think it does give me a pretty good single point of control. The only problem is that the house is pretty tight so I also needed a way to create some negative pressure, hence the laundry room to attic fan. I think that's still my airflow bottleneck.

As for whether I've crunched the numbers.... no, I haven't. And since I installed solar last year it maybe doesn't even matter any more? Throughout most of the summer I'm actually giving away nearly a MWh per month of electricity even after running house, A/C, car, steam shower, etc. So it's really more of a game to me than a serious attempt to save money. That said, I do watch my energy consumption closely (game, right?) and running the fans consumes maybe 400W. Overnight that's about 3.2 kWh. Meanwhile, my AC draws 4 kW, so if my AC kicks on for 45 minutes it consumes as much as the passive system does all night. And for that, the passive system cools the house by ~10F degrees while the AC will cool it by about 2F, which would indicate 5X efficiency improvement. But even that doesn't fully capture it, because the AC will cool the *air* by 2F while the passive system will cool the house and also much of the thermal mass, so it's actually moving quite a bit more heat out than the thermostat temperatures would indicate.

So, yeah, an order of magnitude more efficient seems about right. When outside air cools down at night!

I've also been thinking about building something for my shop. It's an uninsulated pole barn (30' wide x 40' long x 25' high) which gets quite hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter. I think some automated fans to exploit day/night temperature variations could probably move the average interior temperature several degrees closer to comfortable, year round. Even better if I insulate it.

2. Every phone mounting solution is janky shit and looks like janky shit. If I was still 16 and it was a beater from Craigslist, sure - but neither are the case.

I use the Quadlock system in my car same as on my motorcycle....with magnetic charging.

Works great, secure quick mounting and detaching the phone when leaving either vehicle.

On the bike it's on the handlebars obviously, but for there car I got a windshield mount that holds it and it works great!!!!

Me? I like my big iPhone, but I only replace them ever 6 years or so....so, with the cost spread out over that long, it isn't really $$.

My 2017 car doesn't have CarPlay...but no big deal, I just use Bluetooth to stream Spotify to the cars OEM head unit....plays great.

If I need to use maps, My phone is right there in easy vision and can still be playing tunes while giving me directions.

...the newer ones that also tend to have better functioning voice driven commands.

I do NOT want to talk to my fucking car.

Hell I can't stand phone assistance that tries to make me talk to the computer.

The only time I want to be talking to my car is when I'm cursing it fucking up, or the damned traffic situation at the time if it isn't moving at speed....

Given some of the places I drive, a pure EV is not an option for me ...

Amish communities?

Southeast in the US.....

Hell last time I used the app to look for public charging stations in New Orleans.....there were precious few.

Most of the ones on the app were private ones....

I"d really not want to be stuck with an EV just before or after a Hurricane when power can be out for a month or more easily.....

You can drive gas in....but it's not so easy to drive batteries in to re-fuel your car, even if you had a widespread public EV charging infrastructure down here.

I am thankful I have a car that is till majority populated with physical switches, buttons and dials I can operate 98% from muscle memory without having to take my eyes off the road....of if I do it is usually a second or less.

I prefer 2 seater sports cars, that's all I've had my life to date.....I like analog gauges, manual transmission and all.

Frankly if they could come out with a simple car like in my youth....a '78 280Z type car...simple transmissions, I was more than able to deal with crank windows....that thing ran forever, simple and fun to drive while I owned it.

No worrying about telemetry, no computer needs....I mean I'll be happy with it to have Bluetooth so I can stream Spotify to it, but other than that, just keep analog controls, and as little computer as possible.

Cars like that, can last multiple decades with a little care.....and I pretty much only want my distractions to driving to be when the stereo starts playing "Highway to Hell" or the like....and I start head banging while driving down the highway...a little faster.

Remote places here in Northern British Columbia, reached by logging roads. There are now chargers along some remote provincial highways (e.g. highway 20), but I have yet to see one on a logging road. Some of the places I drive, there isn't even a gas station. You have to carry a lot of gas yourself.

It's much less likely to crash than other software, and nobody will try to forcibly update it.

If you talk to your car about deep stuff, you should probably consider a visit to a psychiatrist. :)

I want a car that runs GNU/Linux or FreeBSD.

Interesting. Given some of the places I drive, a pure EV is not an option for me, but a hybrid might be.

Exactly. Using AI to edit the piece is like using a spellchecker. She's using a tool to do what she could do by hand. It has no bearing on the fact that many of her students have not learned basic math.

I definitely do not want a car with a giant touch screen. I have a 2014 Ford Explorer. The touch screen for that is modest in size but even so I would prefer some of the controls to be mechanical. I have driven a 2024 Ford Expedition belonging to a client. In many ways it is nice, but it has a knob instead of a gear shift lever, which I hate. It's distracting to have to look at a knob in the center console. Worst of all, it has a very large touch screen. It looks awful, but more important, it is very distracting to have to turn to it. Touch screens are okay for settings that you don't adjust while driving, but mechanical controls and gauges in front of you are much better for things you manipulate and look at while driving.