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dublinben

8,837 karma · joined April 16, 2012

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dublinben··on Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain
There's a really easy calculator available at https://chooseev.com/savings-calculator/ You can play with different values for vehicles and local prices.[0][1]

It looks to me like an EV makes as much sense in Texas as anywhere. The places where EVs don't make sense currently have average gas prices but high electricity prices, like the Northeast.

[0] https://gasprices.aaa.com/todays-state-averages/

[1] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...

dublinben··on Nike exits the S&P 100 after 18 years and a $200B market-cap wipeout
This model[0] is touted as one of their top three "bestsellers" and is completely unobjectionable, as far as contemporary sneakers go. It's a plain white, leather-looking tennis shoe that doesn't even have their brand's stupid characteristic sole that collects gravel.

Even typically goofy looking Hoka will sell you something appropriate for all-day work wear, anti-slip soles and all.[1] It comes in black, white, and monochrome grey.

Nike doesn't seem capable of making a shoe that looks like a normal person could wear it in real life. Most of them look more appropriate for a space station than planet earth.

[0] https://www.on.com/en-us/products/the-roger-advantage-m-3mf3...

[1] https://www.hoka.com/en/us/mens-recovery-comfort-shoes/bondi...

dublinben··on Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives
It’s okay to be anti-car. Even if you own a car and use it regularly. There’s more than enough reasons to be anti-car. Just pick your favorite.
dublinben··on Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives
You’re right, we should!

We could even build these special purpose, heavy duty roads out of something stronger than asphalt, like metal. Then once we have these sturdy new metal roads for trucks, we can raise the weight limit to allow them to carry heavier loads. And since there’s no little cars getting in the way, we could even group together multiple trucks going in the same direction for better logistical efficiency.

You can see where I’m going with this. ;-)

dublinben··on Tiny $70 Xteink X3 e-reader
https://standardebooks.org/
dublinben··on Get your Windows license refund
Or as Apple once (in)famously asked, "what's a computer?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S5BLs51yDQ

dublinben··on Gmail might partially be to blame for receiving emails from other Sean Conners
My Gmail account is old enough that I needed a beta invite from a cooler friend. As a cool kid myself, I registered a name full of punctuation. For decades Google has treated the punctuated and unpunctuated addresses as one and the same. There is no distinct Google account that can be access via one username or the other.
dublinben··on BYD Yangwang U8 has remarkable emergency floating function that would save lives
How many drivers of $150k cars die after driving into floodwaters? It costs nothing to turn around and not drive through a flood.

https://www.weather.gov/safety/flood-turn-around-dont-drown

dublinben··on If You Build It, They Will Come
Public transit should be worth the (inexpensive) cost of a ticket. The money used to make fares free should instead be spent on improving the quality of service. Better service attracts more riders, bringing in more ticket revenue, enabling further service improvements, and so on. It produces a positive flywheel effect that benefits current passengers, new passengers, and even drivers!

Free transit is a downward cycle, where increased ridership just increases costs, creating a negative flywheel.

dublinben··on Waymo says can't avoid bike lanes because riders want to be dropped off in them
Behavior by cyclists certainly has a bias towards survivorship. Every other vehicle on the road represents a potentially lethal threat at any time.

Inadequate dedicated infrastructure for cyclists leads to behavior like "Idaho stops" that look counterintuitive to drivers, but improves safety for cyclists at intersections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

dublinben··on The future of everything is lies, I guess: Where do we go from here?
Roads that have existed for hundreds or thousands of years certainly weren't built for cars.
dublinben··on The future of everything is lies, I guess: Where do we go from here?
Horse-drawn busses predate private automobiles by almost a hundred years.[0] The movement to pave roads was started by bicyclists decades before the rise of the automobile.[1] Cars usurped preexisting infrastructure and drove out other road users, like trolleybusses and streetcars.

We have so thoroughly remade society in the service of cars that it can be difficult to recognize any possible alternative.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsebus

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Roads_Movement

dublinben··on The AI School Bus Camera Company Blanketing America in Tickets
Unfortunately it sounds like this program is designed to maximize revenue for the private vendor, not make roads safer by changing driver behavior. The county is also using this surface-level fix as an excuse to avoid more fundamental road design changes that would actually improve safety for vulnerable road users.

Other automated enforcement mechanisms like average speed cameras and automated tolling are more effective at achieving their purported goals. Ultimately, enforcement will always be secondary to proper road design in both cost and effectiveness.

dublinben··on DNS LOC Record (2014)
Unfortunately the example included (geekatlas.com) appears to be long gone, so we're not able to enjoy this ourselves.
dublinben··on Kagi Bloopers – Search Results Gone Wrong
The EU is still buying billions of dollars of fossil fuels and other resources from Russia.[0]

[0] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/3/how-much-of-europes...

dublinben··on Samsung Family Hub for 2025 Update Elevates the Smart Home Ecosystem
Sony Pictures Core and Kaleidescape are as close as it gets, and both require expensive proprietary hardware.
dublinben··on End of Japanese community
That’s corporate for “would you like to discuss this off the record away from public view?”

Especially with a non-native English speaker who may be more comfortable expressing themselves in writing asynchronously.

dublinben··on I took all my projects off the cloud, saving thousands of dollars
12 TB is easy. https://yourdatafitsinram.net/
dublinben··on The Mack Super Pumper was a locomotive engined fire fighter (2018)
Some interesting history here: https://www.firerescue1.com/firefighting-history/articles/th...
dublinben··on AI tools churn out 'workslop', but 'the buck' should stop with bosses
>Do people need training to use a calculator?

Yes? Quite a bit of time was spent in math classes over the years learning to use calculators. Especially the more complicated functions of so-called graphing calculators. They're certainly not self-explanatory.

What does it say about your skill or the depth of this tool that you haven't gotten better at using it after 2 years of practice?

dublinben··on The American Nations regions across North America
Here's a non-Amazon metasearch site for independent book sellers. There's copies starting as low as $11.

https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?mtype=B&keyword=Albion%27...

dublinben··on The Storm Hits the Art Market
What do you think the market is for this kind of digital art? Do you see this style of work attracting an audience elsewhere? How much is it selling for?

I'm far from an expert, but I do occasionally buy original artwork. The sheer multitude of works you are displaying (more than one a day!) devalues what you are doing. It suggests that these can be churned out with relatively little effort.

If you are really posting this for other people, and not just yourself, try posting fewer pieces. If you had to pick the single best work from July, which one would it be? If nothing stands out to you, then how is a potential customer supposed to pick you out from the crowd of similar artists?

I personally like the Persistence of Structure series, but they're each pretty interchangeable.

dublinben··on Escaping the Internet
Unironically referencing a four year old "female delusion calculator" (https://igotstandardsbro.com/) is also quite a choice. I've learned more about this individual from these two blog posts than I ever wanted to.
dublinben··on Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center
Louisiana has a long history of political corruption, and the petrochemical industry is a major part of their economy.
dublinben··on Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down
Vanguard and Blackrock are just asset managers. Public companies are owned by everyone with mutual funds, like pension funds and individual retirement accounts.

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.34N76K4

dublinben··on Fourble turns lists of MP3 files hosted anywhere into podcasts
A podcast is just a distribution method. It means digital audio files delivered over the Internet using RSS feeds.
dublinben··on How to increase your surface area for luck
If everyone is hosting events, who will attend them?
dublinben··on Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system
Just to hazard a guess, you could start reading here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_environmental_impac...
dublinben··on Dystopian tales of that time when I sold out to Google
Coming from their manager, I suspect it could have also been meant as:

"Radical transparency doesn't mean you get to say negative things."

dublinben··on Ask HN: Why hasn't Apple bought a cell carrier like AT&T or Verizon?
Wireless carriers are a low-margin, increasingly commoditized business. Apple is only interested in expanding into high-margin businesses like services (iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV, etc.) where they can offer unique value (e.g. privacy) compared to their competitors. Apple keeps so much cash on hand because they have more money than worthwhile ways to invest it.
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