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EmptyCoffeeCup

14 karma · joined November 29, 2023

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EmptyCoffeeCup··on US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire
No chance. Up like a rocket, down like a feather.

and that's without considering the lost production capacity.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on China's 450kmph bullet train is the fastest ever built
You'd think they'd be complaints about the sonic booms...

What's that, mach 586?

Seems a bit excessive.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Twitch: "Hey, come back! This commercial break can't play while you're away."
At that point, you stop watching, right?

Youtube isn't some life or death resource - if they go too far, users will switch off.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Tesla fined for repeatedly failing to help UK police over driving offences
Very happy - the £100 fine isn't the problem, it's the points/day-wasted-on-useless-course that is the real deterrent to speeding.

And before people say "think of the children" and "I learned something I should have already known on the course" - Speed limits are increasingly being changed for political reasons: Safety has nothing to do with it, therefore, these arguments no longer stand (my local authority is determined to make cars as slow as buses, and is more than happy to "set aside" any suggestions that they do not do this).

EmptyCoffeeCup··on I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone
The "Yes or Maybe Later" dialogue boxes that festoon the internet & Windows 11 need to end - time for another law imo:

"No" must always be an option, and notices must not be shown again if this is selected.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on English vocabulary test – how many words do you know?
lol, yes - if you're native. I doubt the average far-eastern grandparent would achieve C2 easily.
EmptyCoffeeCup··on UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
If this were true, the papers wouldn't have run an article yesterday bitching about the lords sending back the workers rights bill again.

The commons may _eventually_ overrule them, but it takes time and costs political capital.

The majority of our population want more law, more rules, more restrictions : they don't see the value or enjoyment in doing something, so they don't think anyone should be able to do it.

Ask the average joe whether or not cars should prevent drivers from being able to "chose" to break the speed limit: You'll get a resounding "yes" 8/10 times - the value of freewill seems to be increasing lost on my country men.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright
The lights aren't too bright, they're just poorly aligned.

Go for a walk of an evening along a footpath into traffic. I guarantee it'll be Teslas and Minis that are the routinely the culprits of dazzling.

I'd guess it's cheap, lazily aligned hardware in the Tesla, and the ridiculous design of the Mini that cause the problems.

Yes, sporadically you'll be blinded by another model- one that needs an alignment - but it'll consistently be Tesla's and Minis.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on A new pay-per-mile tax system is reportedly being considered by the Government
Fuel duty works out at about 5p/mile. Slightly more for thirstier vehicles, slightly less for lighter vehicles.

There is zero need to implement anything for petrol or diesel vehicles, which nicely eliminates the "pre-2016" problem (How many 10 year old electric vehicles are there? Not enough to worry about). I'd be inclined to provide a government API, and require the manufacturers to provide the data in a specified format. Make it part of type approval for use on the UK roads.

Not impossible, nor should a VIN + Mileage number be particularly risky for privacy concerns - the number should be pushed regularly, to prevent wind-back tricks.

15p/mile has got to be a joke though. That'd be the equivalent of setting fuel duty to £1.50/litre - it would immediately shag what's left of the economy.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Vodafone admits 'major outage' as more than 130,000 report problems
I also use an MVNO service.

I have a horrible feeling that 3 traffic is being prioritised over Vodafone MVNO traffic, leading to service deg.

End of the day, I was on Vodafone's network for a reason - it was the least congested in my area. 3 was crap. If I’m suddenly fighting for bandwidth with 3 customers because of this merger I will have to try EE (o2 is known garbage around here; 2 mbps at most thanks to traffic management).

Ofcom should never have allowed it - the UK does not need reduced competition in this space.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
Wasn't there a post the other day saying they'd moved it from "Ballache" to "All but impossible" to use a local account in 25H2?
EmptyCoffeeCup··on Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine
Lol.

One of my colleagues had Child Services round, as their daughter had told her school he was abusing her, because he confiscated her mobile (that he was paying for).

Good luck "parenting" any child in this day and age, when any seemingly minor things you think you can do as a parent, lead to that sort of outcome.

How'd you keep a kid off the internet, when they're happy to say anything to the authorities get that internet access back?

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Kevo app shutdown
Yep that.

30p/kWh in the day, 12p/kWh at night.

Dry an entire load for less than the cost of a Day Rate kWh, simply by pressing the "delay" button a few times.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Kevo app shutdown
Pretty common in dryers as well.

They turn over and blow cold air periodically to prevent them getting stinky.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on I ran Claude in a loop for 3 months, and it created a genz programming language
Confused...

If "struct" is "squad"

Why is it "struct" in his example?

EmptyCoffeeCup··on No place in children's hands: <16s in UK to be banned from buying energy drinks
I think just about every school in the land has one or two kids in each year who spend their lunch money on Monster/Red Bull (Caffeine is addictive - they cannot help it).

Sadly, there is often only enough money for caffeine or food: So you end up with children who are living off Sugar & Caffeine. They look as healthy as you'd expect.

This legislation is as much about preventing such scenarios as it is about the effects of the energy drinks themselves - (not that it'll work, but that's a another point entirely)

As for the tea/coffee points - I don't think any school allows access to a kettle - it is already a moot point.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on AI is turning Apple into a "loser"
Only matters for people who care; that is not even the majority of apple users.

It is well established that upgrading every year is a waste of funds; A lot of users buy a phone every 5-8 years (or after a destructive event) -

IOS is nice to use. That's all that matters to a huge proportion of the market.

Me? I'll keep my 13 Mini until it dies, or until a new "Mini" is released - phones don't need to be massive.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on How the U.K. broke its own economy
Hardly, it's full of people that each individual member state had no say on whether they were there or not.

Why should someone elected by the Polish electorate, or the Romanian one, have any say over what the British or Germans do? Especially when it's British & German money funding the project?

The EU is clearly going in a direction the British people do not like, and therefore they did the only thing they could after concessions were refused -leave.

If the EU were only interested in co-operation and trade, this would not be a problem. As it is, apparently it _is_ a problem. Why would that be, except to punish the British for daring to say "this isn't working - we don't want tighter integration"

Meanwhile, the EU continue to fiddle whilst Rome burns. British politics may be boned, but the people now have the ability to sack the lot of them as they did last summer. That is worth far more than a few % of GDP (which the British govt. have no interest in, or they'd be pushing policies that help growth - lower taxes, higher speed-limits, cheaper trains, reduction in gas prices etcetc) : as it is, all the stories we read are about slower roads, more expensive trains and higher taxes.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Nvidia and its partners built a system to bypass U.S. export restrictions
You're thinking too literally. The USA do not need any co-operation with from the operators of TMSC to deny China the asset. They have enough bombs.

The Americans will want the experience of the operators. If those operators refuse to go to America, they'll be unalived with the plant itself.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
What do you mean? You fire out the "detonate" command on the frequency used by Hezbollah - only pagers connected to that network blow.

It's statistically probable you'll overwhelmingly damage terrorists. Sadly collateral damage is inevitable in war, and this is far more precise than even a laser guided bomb.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on 77% of employees report AI has increased workloads and hampered productivity
And half the time you can tell, because the article reads like it was put together by something that doesn't understand the complete picture.

IE, they've produced crap.

EmptyCoffeeCup··on Apple pulls plug on Goldman credit-card partnership
Majority of large retailers in the UK take AMEX. Probably over 75% of my consumer spending goes through my AMEX card - Petrol, Food etc, never had an issue.

Can't speak for the rest of Europe.