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lostapathy

2,112 karma · joined September 9, 2012

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lostapathy··on Vermont replacing power plants with home batteries
2-wheel dollies with motorized stair climbers are a thing too. Not super common, but aren't cost prohibitive for a use case like this where they'd see daily use.
lostapathy··on Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain
> The topic here is travel to small towns.

The solution is simple - plan ahead just enough to have enough charge to get back out of the small town.

lostapathy··on Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain
> Your 1 hour at a level 2 charger will get you about 15 minutes down the road

A level 2 charger adds about 40 miles to a Model 3 or Model Y in an hour of charging. I don't know what you drive that is so much less efficient. 8 hours on a level 2 would fill the battery, not just get you to the next charger.

> I know that I'm never more than 15 minutes from a gas station You're being dramatic the other direction here - plenty of routes have you more than 15 minutes from a gas station, including the one I described in my prior post.

I'm sure there are places where it actually is a little tricky. Maybe more so depending on vehicles (Tesla does seem to be the best experience, by a lot). That doesn't change the fact that good EVs are just not a big deal to travel with anymore.

lostapathy··on Has Violence Against Teachers Become Accepted by Society?
How often, though, are these not really "cost saving" measures so much as "nobody gets a free ride" measures?

Some schools spend a lot of staff effort managing bad behavior, to everyone's harm, that could be greatly reduced by just making sure every kid had breakfast and lunch. Feeding the kids is "communism", so it's bad, but needing to spend more on non-teaching staff to manage behavior, and getting less instruction out of teaching staff because they spend half their time dealing with behavior issues is worse.

lostapathy··on Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain
I think there's a common misconception by non-EV drivers that every charge you have to wait until the battery is full - you don't. You just have to charge enough to get to your next stop.

If you're in a small town with a level 2 charger at a city park, you just charge enough to get back to civilization. Then hit the fast charger when you're back to the main highway.

Yeah, it takes a little planning to hit charging stops - but it's not actually much planning. And the built-in navigation takes care of most of it for you anyway. I was genuinely surprised on my first trip (again, through not-EV-friendly territory) how much of a non-issue it was in practice, and how much I didn't feel like I was waiting on chargers (even relatively slow "fast chargers"). I just took my time using the restroom, grabbed a fresh drink, checked my notifications on my phone, and it was time to head out again.

lostapathy··on Nissan's third generation e-POWER powertrain
Just got a Tesla. I was worried about travel through western Iowa, it seemed fairly worst case looking at the map of my route, because I’m not on the interstate and the Tesla superchargers aren’t near my route. To my surprise, it was a non-issue. Modern EVs have enough range and there are indeed just enough chargers.
lostapathy··on Ubiquiti: Enterprise NAS, Built on ZFS
So what do you actually recommend?
lostapathy··on Why isn't the U.S. better at soccer?
Perhaps the kids that could be soccer superstars stick with basketball until they figure out they aren't tall enough for the NBA, but are too old or just never developed enough interest in soccer to become a pro at that. But if they didn't have that NBA dream growing up, they may well have become a soccer superstar?
lostapathy··on Why isn't the U.S. better at soccer?
This is probably less true than you'd think. Freak athletes are great athletes no matter the sport.

There's kind of a soft cap on NFL player height at about 6'5" or 6'6" - hardly anybody is taller than that. But the NBA is majority guys 6'6" or taller. That split isn't because all those kids got sorted into the right sport when they were kids. It's because if you're enough of an athlete to go pro and tall enough to make a living off basketball, that's a lot easier life with a longer career than playing football.

lostapathy··on Why isn't the U.S. better at soccer?
> Women's soccer is relatively popular, however.

This may be a function of the fact that no other women's team sport is at all popular in the US?

lostapathy··on The real cost of owning a home
Honestly, I'd debate this.

The problem is the "handyperson" may "know" (but not actually) and do what they think they know. When I encounter the same task, I don't know I stop and try to learn the right way first. So there's a good chance the homeowner is actually on a better path.

A lot of the handypeople you hire, kinda by nature of being under-the-radar, also end up intentionally cutting corners where "it doesn't matter" because savings are a priority for their customers, and it can go too far. I, on the other hand, at least know I'm not trying to cheap out on my own work just because my last customers were broke and I'm conditioned to working in that mode.

lostapathy··on The real cost of owning a home
The other trouble is that every handyman thinks they have a great handle on everything but have at least one blind spot where they do really, really stupid stuff.
lostapathy··on Serving a website on a Raspberry Pi Zero running in RAM
Self hosting a mailbox is easy - getting email back out is the hard part.
lostapathy··on The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis
Relatedly, it's a skill that goes with positions that are clung to such that nobody else gets to practice and learn said skill.
lostapathy··on Empty Screenings – Finds AMC movie screenings with few or no tickets sold
I think this varies with the type of film. If it's a film with real fans and excitement is thick, a packed theater is amazing. OTOH, films where the audience isn't engaged, or dare I say invested, having a crowd can often just be annoying because of the chatter or people moving around.
lostapathy··on Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings
My 9 year old got verified as 21+ somehow. He obviously doesn’t have a photo id, so there is no way to verify him as a child. Support refused to help. The whole system is insane.
lostapathy··on Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years?
Did perl5 to perl6 actually happen? I feel like perl mostly fell out of favor along the way.
lostapathy··on Agents that run while I sleep
So much of this - never would have guessed how much code I wouldn't write doing this as a career.
lostapathy··on New iPad Air, powered by M4
You're complaining about things that were changed years ago.
lostapathy··on New iPad Air, powered by M4
What's the "somehow" about the mouse? They've supported that for a while now.
lostapathy··on What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025
At which point if you're short on capacity (but who knows how your demand might shift over a decade) it's not like you need to replace the original batteries to get that 20% back, you will probably be able to just expand the pack to bring the capacity up.
lostapathy··on What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025
This right here - I have been investigating getting my own contractor license for DIY work on a property I own that must be permitted but city will only issue permits to licensed contractors. Took a practice test for the exam on a whim and nearly passed it without studying. Anybody seriously considering DIY'ing the install of something like this probably could get a license without a lot of work.
lostapathy··on The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
Yes, let’s solve a tricky problem the hardest way possible.
lostapathy··on Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams
Is it really "accepting a concession" if the "alternative" is so expensive as to not be an option anyway?

This is like telling someone who doesn't like that they have to wait in traffic they should just take a helicopter to work everyday. Yes, it's technically an option for some people, but for the vast majority it's not.

lostapathy··on Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams
The "you can just not agree to it" argument is so bogus. You can only buy good/services that are for sale, and when they all have the same crappy terms, you have to agree to somebody's to live in the modern world.

That's like the people who claim only idiots live in HOAs but neglect the fact that, in some markets, nearly all real estate worth living in is covered by an HOA of some sort so your alternative isn't "buy a different house" it's "live in an apartment forever"

lostapathy··on Meta projected 10% of 2024 revenue came from scams
Who exactly would you ever ask to find out that the samsung fridge you were looking at was going to get ads in the future?

Certainly not the appliance salesman, they don't know samsung's plans. And good luck calling samsung and asking for the "future plans" department. This is such a dishonest take.

lostapathy··on Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?
Dental insurance is even worse. My dental insurance has ridiculously low limits, but it gets you access to the "real" negotiated rates rather than whatever silliness "retail price" is.

I tried going without when I switched jobs to an employer that doesn't offer it, but one cleaning as a "cash payer" cost more than the annual premiums to buy insurance privately.

lostapathy··on It's just a virus, the E.R. told him – days later, he was dead
I've been in the hospital more than once for a week at a time. At no point did I ever see the same doctor more than once in a 24 hour period - from that perspective, it seems irrelevant to continuity of care how long their shift was.
lostapathy··on It's just a virus, the E.R. told him – days later, he was dead
Perhaps if we didn't expect superhuman schedules from doctors, doctors wouldn't command as much of a cost as they do now.

From the doctors I know, it seems like most don't get into it for the money, but they put up with it long-term because of the money. If we treated them better and increased supply, they would almost certainly cost less.

lostapathy··on America's Largest Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
Might be an opportunity to make such a site?
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