We're the first species who can respond effectively to being endangered.
The point I was making in my 3rd paragraph (the bit you didn't quote) is that, yes, we COULD respond effectively to being endangered, but (for various reasons) we AREN'T responding effectively. If we were to respond effectively, we'd have significantly cut CO2 emissions and pollution/waste as soon as AGW/etc gained strong scientific consensus. We are NOT responding effectively because those in power who dictate our response either have a financial or political incentive to not respond in an effective way (or they're just plain stupid). We COULD respond effectively but we WON'T and therefore we'll go extinct anyway.
Between the military industrial complex, disposable personal computing devices (smartphones), and hugely extravagant lifestyles for the super rich (to name but a few examples) do you honestly think our species is responding effectively? If your answer is "but we're not endangered yet", by the time we are becoming an endangered species we're well past the point of being too late to change anything anyway.
In general, a slow charge is better for the battery. Fast-charging can be done with minimal harm to the battery if certain conditions are met. For more details see the link below. (Link discusses in terms of Li-ion, not sure if Apple has switched to LiPo but we can assume they behave similarly to Li-ion).
You are more or less correct, no matter what happens life itself will continue by adapting and evolving (you're a bit off on the timescales, the changes will be a lot slower than you seem to think), we humans pose very little threat to the continuation of life in general.
However a secondary or tertiary effect of the changes likely to happen is that humans go extinct. Change is good, change is normal, for the planet as a whole. Not so good for our species in particular.
What's the most depressing is we are causing the very changes that will bring about our own extincting. Moreover we are aware (some of us are, some chose to deny) of the changes we are causing and that they will likely lead to our extinction, we still have the ability to reverse them but we chose not to.
Of course in America irrational fears of socialism win the day most times...
Fears about socialised medicine win the day EVERY time. Which is the primary cause of the US having a worse life expectancy and worse medical outcomes than Canada and Japan despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare, exactly as you pointed out.
I am seeing it happen right before my eyes in my country (UK). We used to have a world-leading socialised healthcare system that is slowly being eroded into a US-style system by greedy right-wing politicians. It works like this: Step 1: chronically under-fund the social health system, step 2 create headlines about the health system failing (obviously don't mention drastic funding cuts), step 3, point to private healthcare providers as the solution. Step 4: identify private healthcare providers looking for investment (or ones your mates are already invested in) and invest, step 5, abuse the political process to make sure large medical contracts (paid for by taxpayers) go to the private providers you identified. Step 6, profit for you and your mates at the cost of quality and affordability of healthcare for the general population.
I take your point. Technically my job requires I have a car, if it weren't for the job I could do without a car most of the time. I'm often visiting rural areas not served by public transport, and constantly using taxis would be prohibitively expensive. I also need certain equipment that would not fit on a motorbike. But you're right, nobody *needs* these things to live, we want them. Yes I could live without a phone or a TV but they greatly increase my quality of life at the cost of minimal pollution.
I tend to hold onto things (not just electronics) for years, only replacing them if they are no longer economically practical to repair. I've had my TV for nearly 10 years, my car for 10 years (and it was 5yr old when I bought it), my desktop PC for 5 years (except for gfx card upgrades, all purchased used), my kitchen knives for 15 years. I recently replaced a 5 year old Samsung smartphone that died, I bought a flagship phone (used) with the expectation that it will last me another 5 years. I only buy new clothes if old ones wear out or no longer fit, most of my wardrobe is unchanged from 10 years ago, same goes for furniture, kitchen appliances, etc. I use very few consumables compared to most people, i.e. I don't use any skin/beauty products, tiny amount of shampoo (I'm bald, beard only), no vitamin supplements, no makeup or hair products, no aftershave/cologne (I do use alcohol based deodorant), no razor blades. That is how I do my part for the environment. I think if more people purchased used items and kept them for longer then domestic pollution would be significantly reduced, along with cutting down use of non-food consumables. As a bonus you save a ton of money.
Question: Why is environmental pollution from the military getting a free pass? Nearly all military vehicles the world over are powered by fossil fuels. Each large-scale military exercise must waste thousands of tons of fuel. Shouldn't we be pushing for world peace followed by the abolition of all military forces? That huge amount of pollution is all fine but I should feel guilty for owning a car/phone/TV? I don't think so.
Mostly I was offended by the accusation that the motivation for my previous comment (or my general position on this issue) is laziness, especially from an AC.
I agree with your comments on the biases of Slashdot generally (although I've only been here about 12 years).
But I highly doubt the right-wing trolls are being paid, I've seen paid trolls at work and they usually do a half decent job, most people wouldn't even label them as trolls, they employ things like subtlety, nuance, cunning and long-term strategic thinking. I've seen none of those qualities on Slashdot (apart from a few notable exceptions) for a long time. If someone is paying them, damn straight they should get a refund, my pre-teen nephew could do a better job.
For your information, I own a single small ICE vehicle which I require for my work. I have not replaced for an electric because I believe the environmental damage in building an electric vehicle from scratch (including the battery) plus that from scrapping my ICE car is more than my (already built) ICE will put out in normal use over the next decade.
I don't eat processed food at all.
Could be worse, I could lack the balls to post under an actual name like you.
Apart from your hyperbolic "Which is it? Do we get nuclear power? Or, is global warming just a hoax?" I agree with you.
If you were being serious with the above quote, the answer is obvious. Global warming is real, it is not a hoax. We will not get new nuclear plants because the people in charge of various nations with nuclear capability are not scientists or engineers, they are businessmen and bureaucrats who have bought into the anti-nuclear FUD (just like most of the ACs replying to your comment).
Citation for your 30% figure please. Mining and transportation are also necessary for coal but I bet they aren't included in typical coal-plant CO2 figures either.
I've searched my mind for any reason I can find to disagree with this on moral grounds but came up short. I'm fed up of fighting climate science deniers over something that will have very little affect on my life. I know it sounds selfish but why should I (and parent poster) bother?
Of those 1.4 billion smartphones sold in 2014, how many are still in use (being kept in a drawer as a backup counts as 'use') by the original owner, how many are being used by a second or third owner, and how many are in the landfill? I suspect a large majority are in a landfill. Huge amounts of advanced computing power, precious metals, lithium batteries etc etc all disposed of as 'waste' every year, I'm certainly no environmental nut (I will cling onto my internal combustion engine till I die) but I find it sickening.
Smartphones should be made to last at least 3-5 years (a new battery is allowed, and all phones must have user replaceable batteries), old phones must be refurbished or responsibly recycled by the manufacturer. All phones must have an external microSD slot (dual sim where the 2nd sim slot doubles as a microSD slot is fine) so people aren't forced to upgrade due to lack of memory. Of course it will never happen, there's too much money to be made convincing people they need to upgrade their phone EVERY year.
Using electrical resistance heating (also known as Joule or Ohmic heating) has a COP of exactly 1.0. Which means for one Joule of electricity you get one joule of heat.
Heat pumps however can have a COP of 3 or 4, by pumping heat in from outside (yes even if its below freezing outside, do some research on heat pumps) you can get 3 or more joules of heat introduced to your living space for only 1 joule of electricity used.
Electric resistance heaters are being phased out in some countries (e.e sweden, denmark) because of their poor performance compared to heat pumps.
Electrical resistance heating is still more suitable in many industries because the heating can more finely controlled and cycled more quickly.
Whilst I agree that e-cigs are a good way to quit, I don't agree with this. A traditional cigarette gives a handy cue when to stop (the cig is all smoked, if I want to continue I have to light another one). When I tried an e-cig this cue to stop was absent, once I started puffing and then got distracted I often found myself still puffing away an hour later, consuming many times more nicotine than I would have from a single normal cig. YMMV.
This. If future AI is tasked with product design then code will have to be included to force the AI to produce sub-optimal design (i.e. planned obsolescence). Ofcourse all of the AI's code will be proprietary so the public will never have proof unless there is some whistle-blowing.
Fair play, I see more clearly now where you are coming from. Yes I know the Lab gruppen is an extreme example. Regarding the fans, yes they are noisy but replacing them with better quality silent PC fans is well within the capability of even the most novice of hobbyists, but I'm getting off the point.
I would argue that in the last 5 years Class-D has caught up to Class-AB in terms of sound quality, linearity, SNR and (almost caught up, expect class-D to catch up and exceed class-AB in next 5-10 years) THD figures. I will look for evidence (ideally using an oscilloscope as you say) to back this up and get back to you. If we ignore audiophile manufacturers that charge over-the-odds prices for their hardware (over the top aesthetics or just paying for the brand name, McIntosh I'm looking at you) and restrict ourselves to new products rather than used, then I would say we are just past the tipping point where Class-d is becoming better value than Class-AB. By that I mean Class-D will provide equal sound quality, equal power at a slightly lower cost, but that has only become true in the last year or two. This can be shown by the fact that many of the large volume AVR manufacturers are already switching to class-D, Pioneer already have for their SC-LX series as I said in previous comment. Onkyo/Denon/Marantz/Sony will almost certainly make the switch soon if they haven't already.
But manufacturers are doing this very quietly, they know there is a lot of bias out there against class-D technology (I'm not accusing you anymore because you explained your position, but I bet a lot of the people who modded you up only did so because your post supports their bias). For example models that are still Class-AB will have "Class-AB" plastered all over their marketing materials, models that have made the switch to Class-D are mostly keeping very quiet about it. Some manufacturers are even adding mass/ballast to their class-D consumer amps because they know there is a strong bias amongst audio enthusiasts that heavier = better, which is broadly true for speakers (because bigger magnets) and class-AB (because bigger toroidal transformer) but not Class-D.
I think comparing new vs used is unfair. Yes ofcourse a used class-AB will be cheaper than a new class-D (I would disagree that the class-AB would sound better in the general case), using used prices is not a good measure of value for anything because there are huge variations in prices depending on location, item condition, seller knowing what the item actually is and what its worth etc.
All I know is I will be going to class-D for all my future amplifier purchases, unless I come across a used class-AB with similar specs for a lower price of course, but I won't be actively looking at class-AB. I would say if you're currently looking for an AVR or general-duty amplifier its a toss-up between class-AB and class-D depending on your power requirements and whether you look at the consumer space or the professional/PA space right now but the balance is swinging more towards class-D all the time. If you are a bass-head like me and want to really feel the ULF (ultra-low-freqs, less than 30Hz) and need thousands of watts of clean power to achieve it then Class-D provides much better value than class-AB for this use-case and has for several years now.
There are many other software choices that are actually usable. For windows I use Hostsman (does deduplication in seconds for millions of lines, not hours or days like apk's stuff). For non-rooted android I use PersonalDNSfilter which is available on f-droid (again, processes files with many millions of entries in seconds). There are many other alternatives
apk doesn't actually maintain any hosts files, all he does is peddles his crappy hosts-management software. Which is what I find absolutely hilarious about apk, hosts files are actually a halfway decent method to block ads and other malicious content (not on their own, but alongside a strong firewall, well-configured browser, careful choice of DNS etc etc hosts files have their place) but between his asinine spam and awful quality 'hosts files engine' (which is slow as hell) he gives intelligent people the impression that hosts are a complete waste of time, which is a shame aswell as hilarious.
In terms of maintained hosts files, there are plenty of those. 'Energized' is a collection of various hosts files in a range of sizes depending on how much you want to block, hosted on github, actively maintained with (usually) weekly updates and an active discussion group on telegram. There are dozens of others (with various levels of maintenance), again use your search engine.
It saddens me that this blatant bias against class-d technology still exists, and even worse that people would mod this FUD up. Your information was correct 10 or 15 years ago, things have moved on. Digital Class-D amps are lighter, cheaper, run cooler and waste less electricity than a class-AB of the same power output. Your cherry picked examples are exactly that, cherry picked to agree with your (biased) viewpoint.
Example: Lab-Gruppen FP14000 (Class-D), 2 x 7000W @ 2ohm stable, 112dBA SNR, + 0 / -3dB 2Hz - 34.2kHz, 12KG, £4000. Even if you ignore the weight, you won't find anything class-AB that can deliver this amount of power for the same price, not even close. If such an amp existed the wasted heat would be enormous, a serious problem requiring lots of cooling, probably even water-cooling if limited for space, the lab gruppen has 3 standard 80mm fans, and barely gets warm running at full output. All amps targeted at audiophiles are overpriced for what you get, like another poster said look at studio/PA amps for more honest pricing, and you'll find the majority are class-D, I wonder why that is.
I'm talking about buying a receiver that says it is 100 wpc (7 or 9 of them), but weighs only 25 pounds. The transformer for a class AB receiver of that size alone would be 40 pounds.
This is very common, manufacturers overselling their products. It may say "100wpc" but because of the small transformer if you try to drive all channels you won't get 100wpc. 100wpc is measured with 2 channels driven. Consumers are becoming wary of this so you'll see power output given for 'all channels driven'.
Operating a receiver in class D (even if it's part-time) so that you can undersize the shit out of everything automatically disqualifies it as being a HiFi receiver.
Why? Have you've got a citation for this? There's nothing in the definition of 'hifi' that specifies the type of amplifier technology that must be used. The latest Pioneer receivers (e.g. later SC-LX models) all use class-D amps, they have still received very positive reviews and various audio certifications, so I can't imagine there's any inherent inferiority to class-D. Also, the vast majority of PA amplifiers today are class-D too. I suspect this is just bias against class D hardware on your part.
We could all agree these apps and their authors are despicable. But I'll be honest and say if I had the idea first, had the coding skills to implement it, and made decent money from it I'd have non-zero but very little guilt doing it myself.
My justification? Nobody is forced to download these apps, anybody with the right knowledge/experience can see what they really are, anybody without those shouldn't be using the device until they do. You wouldn't give anyone a gun before teaching them proper gun safety, an internet device is generally not as dangerous but still needs greater than zero training. Many people use these devices for years and years, but since they don't care to learn anything about how it works they are still at risk.
Not from being shot (like a gun), but at the very least having lots of their time wasted by multiple ads and invasions of privacy they could easily avoid if they knew how, or at worst having their savings or their identity stolen by scammers or a garden variety data breach (they seem to be weekly now). If you knowingly take that risk, you deserve everything you get.
I personally would be happy to turn your wasted time into my extra cash, but I wouldn't go as far as taking your money directly, that's just not cricket.
I completely agree and have been saying this for years. The internet was, and should be treated like the wild west, anything goes. If you have any presence online at all, expect to be flamed/trolled/hacked, and don't feel bad about doing the same to others. Meatspace is the place to be polite and civilised (because of physical proximity you are more easily punished for not being civilised). Don't bring your immature, bedwetting need for niceness to our internet, its not wanted here.
Then the internet became actually important for getting things done (shopping, taxes, finding employment etc) so 'normal' people inexperienced in the 'wild west' nature of the internet had to use it. Unable or unwilling to deal with the reality of the internet, they turned it into the boring, nanny state reality that exists in meatspace in most western countries.
Eventually, yes, but it can take a very long time. I am not an engineer (my background is Physics), but when I look around me I see people doing tons of jobs that I reckon I could automate easily if I knew a bit of robotics and how to write code. For example the self service checkouts at supermarkets, I remember asking a supermarket manager in the 90s why he didn't just replace all the till-workers with airport luggage scanners (or similar) plus some software that could identify product items and charge the correct amount. His answer was that he wouldn't see a penny of the extra profit (it would go to the directors/CEO and shareholders) so why bother? I couldn't think of a suitable rebuttal.
Yep, and unless something drastic happens the storage will never be full. When I first opened my spam account in 2003(ish) I had 100MB of free space. Before I filled half of that, they upgraded it ton 500MB, and before I filled half of that it went to 1GB. Now its either 10 or 20GB and I'm using maybe 2 or 3GB, by the time my usage gets to 5GB they'll no doubt have upgraded my space to 50GB.
I know they are probably harvesting every morsel of data they can from all the emails, but the most they will get is my first name and last initial because anyone that gets the 'spam' email address also gets a false address and phone number.
Slashdot Mirror
Lets you lock it? What use is that if anyone with a Bluetooth phone can come along and unlock it with zero validation?
We're the first species who can respond effectively to being endangered.
The point I was making in my 3rd paragraph (the bit you didn't quote) is that, yes, we COULD respond effectively to being endangered, but (for various reasons) we AREN'T responding effectively. If we were to respond effectively, we'd have significantly cut CO2 emissions and pollution/waste as soon as AGW/etc gained strong scientific consensus. We are NOT responding effectively because those in power who dictate our response either have a financial or political incentive to not respond in an effective way (or they're just plain stupid). We COULD respond effectively but we WON'T and therefore we'll go extinct anyway.
Between the military industrial complex, disposable personal computing devices (smartphones), and hugely extravagant lifestyles for the super rich (to name but a few examples) do you honestly think our species is responding effectively? If your answer is "but we're not endangered yet", by the time we are becoming an endangered species we're well past the point of being too late to change anything anyway.
In general, a slow charge is better for the battery. Fast-charging can be done with minimal harm to the battery if certain conditions are met. For more details see the link below. (Link discusses in terms of Li-ion, not sure if Apple has switched to LiPo but we can assume they behave similarly to Li-ion).
https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/ultra_fast_chargers
You are more or less correct, no matter what happens life itself will continue by adapting and evolving (you're a bit off on the timescales, the changes will be a lot slower than you seem to think), we humans pose very little threat to the continuation of life in general.
However a secondary or tertiary effect of the changes likely to happen is that humans go extinct. Change is good, change is normal, for the planet as a whole. Not so good for our species in particular.
What's the most depressing is we are causing the very changes that will bring about our own extincting. Moreover we are aware (some of us are, some chose to deny) of the changes we are causing and that they will likely lead to our extinction, we still have the ability to reverse them but we chose not to.
Of course in America irrational fears of socialism win the day most times...
Fears about socialised medicine win the day EVERY time. Which is the primary cause of the US having a worse life expectancy and worse medical outcomes than Canada and Japan despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare, exactly as you pointed out.
I am seeing it happen right before my eyes in my country (UK). We used to have a world-leading socialised healthcare system that is slowly being eroded into a US-style system by greedy right-wing politicians. It works like this: Step 1: chronically under-fund the social health system, step 2 create headlines about the health system failing (obviously don't mention drastic funding cuts), step 3, point to private healthcare providers as the solution. Step 4: identify private healthcare providers looking for investment (or ones your mates are already invested in) and invest, step 5, abuse the political process to make sure large medical contracts (paid for by taxpayers) go to the private providers you identified. Step 6, profit for you and your mates at the cost of quality and affordability of healthcare for the general population.
I take your point. Technically my job requires I have a car, if it weren't for the job I could do without a car most of the time. I'm often visiting rural areas not served by public transport, and constantly using taxis would be prohibitively expensive. I also need certain equipment that would not fit on a motorbike. But you're right, nobody *needs* these things to live, we want them. Yes I could live without a phone or a TV but they greatly increase my quality of life at the cost of minimal pollution.
I tend to hold onto things (not just electronics) for years, only replacing them if they are no longer economically practical to repair. I've had my TV for nearly 10 years, my car for 10 years (and it was 5yr old when I bought it), my desktop PC for 5 years (except for gfx card upgrades, all purchased used), my kitchen knives for 15 years. I recently replaced a 5 year old Samsung smartphone that died, I bought a flagship phone (used) with the expectation that it will last me another 5 years. I only buy new clothes if old ones wear out or no longer fit, most of my wardrobe is unchanged from 10 years ago, same goes for furniture, kitchen appliances, etc. I use very few consumables compared to most people, i.e. I don't use any skin/beauty products, tiny amount of shampoo (I'm bald, beard only), no vitamin supplements, no makeup or hair products, no aftershave/cologne (I do use alcohol based deodorant), no razor blades. That is how I do my part for the environment. I think if more people purchased used items and kept them for longer then domestic pollution would be significantly reduced, along with cutting down use of non-food consumables. As a bonus you save a ton of money.
Question: Why is environmental pollution from the military getting a free pass? Nearly all military vehicles the world over are powered by fossil fuels. Each large-scale military exercise must waste thousands of tons of fuel. Shouldn't we be pushing for world peace followed by the abolition of all military forces? That huge amount of pollution is all fine but I should feel guilty for owning a car/phone/TV? I don't think so.
Mostly I was offended by the accusation that the motivation for my previous comment (or my general position on this issue) is laziness, especially from an AC.
I agree with your comments on the biases of Slashdot generally (although I've only been here about 12 years).
But I highly doubt the right-wing trolls are being paid, I've seen paid trolls at work and they usually do a half decent job, most people wouldn't even label them as trolls, they employ things like subtlety, nuance, cunning and long-term strategic thinking. I've seen none of those qualities on Slashdot (apart from a few notable exceptions) for a long time. If someone is paying them, damn straight they should get a refund, my pre-teen nephew could do a better job.
And another +1 for correct use of "boors".
For your information, I own a single small ICE vehicle which I require for my work. I have not replaced for an electric because I believe the environmental damage in building an electric vehicle from scratch (including the battery) plus that from scrapping my ICE car is more than my (already built) ICE will put out in normal use over the next decade.
I don't eat processed food at all.
Could be worse, I could lack the balls to post under an actual name like you.
Apart from your hyperbolic "Which is it? Do we get nuclear power? Or, is global warming just a hoax?" I agree with you.
If you were being serious with the above quote, the answer is obvious. Global warming is real, it is not a hoax. We will not get new nuclear plants because the people in charge of various nations with nuclear capability are not scientists or engineers, they are businessmen and bureaucrats who have bought into the anti-nuclear FUD (just like most of the ACs replying to your comment).
Citation for your 30% figure please. Mining and transportation are also necessary for coal but I bet they aren't included in typical coal-plant CO2 figures either.
I've searched my mind for any reason I can find to disagree with this on moral grounds but came up short. I'm fed up of fighting climate science deniers over something that will have very little affect on my life. I know it sounds selfish but why should I (and parent poster) bother?
Of those 1.4 billion smartphones sold in 2014, how many are still in use (being kept in a drawer as a backup counts as 'use') by the original owner, how many are being used by a second or third owner, and how many are in the landfill? I suspect a large majority are in a landfill. Huge amounts of advanced computing power, precious metals, lithium batteries etc etc all disposed of as 'waste' every year, I'm certainly no environmental nut (I will cling onto my internal combustion engine till I die) but I find it sickening.
Smartphones should be made to last at least 3-5 years (a new battery is allowed, and all phones must have user replaceable batteries), old phones must be refurbished or responsibly recycled by the manufacturer. All phones must have an external microSD slot (dual sim where the 2nd sim slot doubles as a microSD slot is fine) so people aren't forced to upgrade due to lack of memory. Of course it will never happen, there's too much money to be made convincing people they need to upgrade their phone EVERY year.
Using electrical resistance heating (also known as Joule or Ohmic heating) has a COP of exactly 1.0. Which means for one Joule of electricity you get one joule of heat.
Heat pumps however can have a COP of 3 or 4, by pumping heat in from outside (yes even if its below freezing outside, do some research on heat pumps) you can get 3 or more joules of heat introduced to your living space for only 1 joule of electricity used.
Electric resistance heaters are being phased out in some countries (e.e sweden, denmark) because of their poor performance compared to heat pumps.
Electrical resistance heating is still more suitable in many industries because the heating can more finely controlled and cycled more quickly.
Whilst I agree that e-cigs are a good way to quit, I don't agree with this. A traditional cigarette gives a handy cue when to stop (the cig is all smoked, if I want to continue I have to light another one). When I tried an e-cig this cue to stop was absent, once I started puffing and then got distracted I often found myself still puffing away an hour later, consuming many times more nicotine than I would have from a single normal cig. YMMV.
This. If future AI is tasked with product design then code will have to be included to force the AI to produce sub-optimal design (i.e. planned obsolescence). Ofcourse all of the AI's code will be proprietary so the public will never have proof unless there is some whistle-blowing.
Exactly what I was going to post. How is this not obvious to everyone?
Fair play, I see more clearly now where you are coming from. Yes I know the Lab gruppen is an extreme example. Regarding the fans, yes they are noisy but replacing them with better quality silent PC fans is well within the capability of even the most novice of hobbyists, but I'm getting off the point.
I would argue that in the last 5 years Class-D has caught up to Class-AB in terms of sound quality, linearity, SNR and (almost caught up, expect class-D to catch up and exceed class-AB in next 5-10 years) THD figures. I will look for evidence (ideally using an oscilloscope as you say) to back this up and get back to you. If we ignore audiophile manufacturers that charge over-the-odds prices for their hardware (over the top aesthetics or just paying for the brand name, McIntosh I'm looking at you) and restrict ourselves to new products rather than used, then I would say we are just past the tipping point where Class-d is becoming better value than Class-AB. By that I mean Class-D will provide equal sound quality, equal power at a slightly lower cost, but that has only become true in the last year or two. This can be shown by the fact that many of the large volume AVR manufacturers are already switching to class-D, Pioneer already have for their SC-LX series as I said in previous comment. Onkyo/Denon/Marantz/Sony will almost certainly make the switch soon if they haven't already.
But manufacturers are doing this very quietly, they know there is a lot of bias out there against class-D technology (I'm not accusing you anymore because you explained your position, but I bet a lot of the people who modded you up only did so because your post supports their bias). For example models that are still Class-AB will have "Class-AB" plastered all over their marketing materials, models that have made the switch to Class-D are mostly keeping very quiet about it. Some manufacturers are even adding mass/ballast to their class-D consumer amps because they know there is a strong bias amongst audio enthusiasts that heavier = better, which is broadly true for speakers (because bigger magnets) and class-AB (because bigger toroidal transformer) but not Class-D.
I think comparing new vs used is unfair. Yes ofcourse a used class-AB will be cheaper than a new class-D (I would disagree that the class-AB would sound better in the general case), using used prices is not a good measure of value for anything because there are huge variations in prices depending on location, item condition, seller knowing what the item actually is and what its worth etc.
All I know is I will be going to class-D for all my future amplifier purchases, unless I come across a used class-AB with similar specs for a lower price of course, but I won't be actively looking at class-AB. I would say if you're currently looking for an AVR or general-duty amplifier its a toss-up between class-AB and class-D depending on your power requirements and whether you look at the consumer space or the professional/PA space right now but the balance is swinging more towards class-D all the time. If you are a bass-head like me and want to really feel the ULF (ultra-low-freqs, less than 30Hz) and need thousands of watts of clean power to achieve it then Class-D provides much better value than class-AB for this use-case and has for several years now.
There are many other software choices that are actually usable. For windows I use Hostsman (does deduplication in seconds for millions of lines, not hours or days like apk's stuff). For non-rooted android I use PersonalDNSfilter which is available on f-droid (again, processes files with many millions of entries in seconds). There are many other alternatives
apk doesn't actually maintain any hosts files, all he does is peddles his crappy hosts-management software. Which is what I find absolutely hilarious about apk, hosts files are actually a halfway decent method to block ads and other malicious content (not on their own, but alongside a strong firewall, well-configured browser, careful choice of DNS etc etc hosts files have their place) but between his asinine spam and awful quality 'hosts files engine' (which is slow as hell) he gives intelligent people the impression that hosts are a complete waste of time, which is a shame aswell as hilarious.
In terms of maintained hosts files, there are plenty of those. 'Energized' is a collection of various hosts files in a range of sizes depending on how much you want to block, hosted on github, actively maintained with (usually) weekly updates and an active discussion group on telegram. There are dozens of others (with various levels of maintenance), again use your search engine.
It saddens me that this blatant bias against class-d technology still exists, and even worse that people would mod this FUD up. Your information was correct 10 or 15 years ago, things have moved on. Digital Class-D amps are lighter, cheaper, run cooler and waste less electricity than a class-AB of the same power output. Your cherry picked examples are exactly that, cherry picked to agree with your (biased) viewpoint.
Example: Lab-Gruppen FP14000 (Class-D), 2 x 7000W @ 2ohm stable, 112dBA SNR, + 0 / -3dB 2Hz - 34.2kHz, 12KG, £4000. Even if you ignore the weight, you won't find anything class-AB that can deliver this amount of power for the same price, not even close. If such an amp existed the wasted heat would be enormous, a serious problem requiring lots of cooling, probably even water-cooling if limited for space, the lab gruppen has 3 standard 80mm fans, and barely gets warm running at full output. All amps targeted at audiophiles are overpriced for what you get, like another poster said look at studio/PA amps for more honest pricing, and you'll find the majority are class-D, I wonder why that is.
I'm talking about buying a receiver that says it is 100 wpc (7 or 9 of them), but weighs only 25 pounds. The transformer for a class AB receiver of that size alone would be 40 pounds.
This is very common, manufacturers overselling their products. It may say "100wpc" but because of the small transformer if you try to drive all channels you won't get 100wpc. 100wpc is measured with 2 channels driven. Consumers are becoming wary of this so you'll see power output given for 'all channels driven'.
Operating a receiver in class D (even if it's part-time) so that you can undersize the shit out of everything automatically disqualifies it as being a HiFi receiver.
Why? Have you've got a citation for this? There's nothing in the definition of 'hifi' that specifies the type of amplifier technology that must be used. The latest Pioneer receivers (e.g. later SC-LX models) all use class-D amps, they have still received very positive reviews and various audio certifications, so I can't imagine there's any inherent inferiority to class-D. Also, the vast majority of PA amplifiers today are class-D too. I suspect this is just bias against class D hardware on your part.
We could all agree these apps and their authors are despicable. But I'll be honest and say if I had the idea first, had the coding skills to implement it, and made decent money from it I'd have non-zero but very little guilt doing it myself.
My justification? Nobody is forced to download these apps, anybody with the right knowledge/experience can see what they really are, anybody without those shouldn't be using the device until they do. You wouldn't give anyone a gun before teaching them proper gun safety, an internet device is generally not as dangerous but still needs greater than zero training. Many people use these devices for years and years, but since they don't care to learn anything about how it works they are still at risk.
Not from being shot (like a gun), but at the very least having lots of their time wasted by multiple ads and invasions of privacy they could easily avoid if they knew how, or at worst having their savings or their identity stolen by scammers or a garden variety data breach (they seem to be weekly now). If you knowingly take that risk, you deserve everything you get.
I personally would be happy to turn your wasted time into my extra cash, but I wouldn't go as far as taking your money directly, that's just not cricket.
I completely agree and have been saying this for years. The internet was, and should be treated like the wild west, anything goes. If you have any presence online at all, expect to be flamed/trolled/hacked, and don't feel bad about doing the same to others. Meatspace is the place to be polite and civilised (because of physical proximity you are more easily punished for not being civilised). Don't bring your immature, bedwetting need for niceness to our internet, its not wanted here.
Then the internet became actually important for getting things done (shopping, taxes, finding employment etc) so 'normal' people inexperienced in the 'wild west' nature of the internet had to use it. Unable or unwilling to deal with the reality of the internet, they turned it into the boring, nanny state reality that exists in meatspace in most western countries.
Eventually, yes, but it can take a very long time. I am not an engineer (my background is Physics), but when I look around me I see people doing tons of jobs that I reckon I could automate easily if I knew a bit of robotics and how to write code. For example the self service checkouts at supermarkets, I remember asking a supermarket manager in the 90s why he didn't just replace all the till-workers with airport luggage scanners (or similar) plus some software that could identify product items and charge the correct amount. His answer was that he wouldn't see a penny of the extra profit (it would go to the directors/CEO and shareholders) so why bother? I couldn't think of a suitable rebuttal.
Yep, and unless something drastic happens the storage will never be full. When I first opened my spam account in 2003(ish) I had 100MB of free space. Before I filled half of that, they upgraded it ton 500MB, and before I filled half of that it went to 1GB. Now its either 10 or 20GB and I'm using maybe 2 or 3GB, by the time my usage gets to 5GB they'll no doubt have upgraded my space to 50GB.
I know they are probably harvesting every morsel of data they can from all the emails, but the most they will get is my first name and last initial because anyone that gets the 'spam' email address also gets a false address and phone number.