That's a big part of it. It's also important to look at how schools compete for students based on amenities, not just the quality of education. I haven't studied the numbers, but I would expect to see that the budgets of schools are shifting more and more towards non-academic expenditures.
Now there is finally enough attention to the cost of schools that schools can compete on cost, so I expect to see the market forces coming into play as a bigger factor in the coming years.
If you're paying attention, you can catch those right away. I prefer eBay when I'm intentionally buying from China. It's a great source of random cables, usually for $0.77 each ($0.99 Canadian).
Of course, eBay has its own scam where the search shows a great price, but then the product page has you select from a number of options, and the only one that is at the low price is something completely different.
Tesla turns off Supercharging on any Tesla that is totaled, if they know about it. I assume this means they invalidate the key. In some cases, salvaged cars never had the key disabled and will Supercharge just fine. That is a serious issue, though. Without Supercharging, a Tesla is just a local car.
And the important point is that quick charging is nearly irrelevant except on trips, and you don't take a short-range EV on a trip. Regular charging is mostly at home or work. People aren't generally buying EVs on the assumption that they'll fill them up at a quick charge station like they do with gas.
It's not like there are a lot of pure EVs out there (excluding limited distribution compliance cars), so any generalization is flawed. The market clearly is moving towards a 200-mile minimum advertised range. But even 150 is about double the range cited in the article.
I assumed (probably incorrectly) linear degradation. As such, 20% degradation at the end means an average of 10% degradation. The real formula would be an integral of the degradation curve, but what I used should be sufficient.
Yeah, it never gets that cold in Florida. That's why they never had problems with shuttle launches, and orange growers never panic about freezing.
I'll agree that it's rare to drop below freezing, but it does happen.
Also, it's not clear to me that the optimal charging temperature is anything above freezing. That's not a magic temperature when dealing with battery chemistry. I know my Tesla starts to have reduced regenerative braking below 45 or so until the pack warms up. For high speed charging, they'll probably want to heat to 45 or 50 for best results.
EVs work fine in the cold, but it does reduce their range. A friend of mine used the same cells that Tesla uses to power a light for his dog sled in the Iditarod, and it worked flawlessly at 40 below.
Some cars do worse in the winter than others. My Tesla may lose a third of its range in extreme cold while my Leaf loses more than half. Whether this makes a particular EV impractical for you depends on the car and your needs.
This sounds like it may be a nice solution for heating the battery during charging, but you also need to both heat and cool batteries during driving to keep them in the optimal temperature range. Can this also be used while also drawing power to drive the vehicle? It sounds like it only works with external power.
So if you assume that the battery will have external heating and cooling anyway, the elegance of the solution is lost, and now it's back to the question of whether this method of heating the battery is more efficient than using a traditional heating system.
Great idea. A keyboard with an SD-card reader would be great. Even a keyboard with a built-in USB hub would be convenient. (I know some have that feature, but it's all too rare.)
I heard about that. One scenario that they were looking at was putting a small nuclear reactor (like you would find in a submarine) at a base in Afghanistan and produce diesel-compatible fuel. Sure, the cost would be huge, but you would eliminate the need for lots of trucks that are being shot at. Obviously they would have to secure the reactor, as it would be a high priority target, but reducing dependencies on supply lines is a massive logistical win.
Generating fuel with excess electricity on an aircraft carrier is pretty much a no-brainer if they can get the process to work and produce enough fuel to be worth the effort.
Actually, all I want is a micro-SD slot. In my old laptop, I had a micros-SD adapter that I kept in the SD slot. My new laptop would leave it sticking out. Not good.
I know space is at a premium in laptops, and my new Dell is every bit as sexy as an Apple laptop, but couldn't they spare a few more cubic millimeters?
I think the whole point is adjusting for weather conditions. They want to optimize flights to avoid turbulence and maximize tailwinds. The assertion in the summary is that pilots don't have enough information to do a good job on that right now (at least when flying over the ocean). I wouldn't be surprised if you could average a 15-minute improvement over the Atlantic and double that over the Pacific, which would translate into a lot of fuel savings for the airlines.
So if by "almost" there I mean 80%, I can ignore plastics completely, as that's only 4% of oil. But you're right when it comes to oil used for other things besides my cars. 70% of US oil consumption is for transportation, and 65% of that is personal vehicles.
So switching to EVs for personal transport accounts for about 45% of oil use. Since we have solar, I would say we can safely say we've fossil fuel consumption on our behalf by over 50%. Yes, that's not "almost" there, but it's a very sizable dent.
If everyone reached for the low hanging fruit, we would be in much better shape.
This is why I run a tor relay node. Everytime I hear about something like this, it reminds me that tor is used by people in countries like this to bypass censorship.
OK, I really run it because of the EFF's tor challenge where I got a free T-shirt, but that's the reason I've kept it running after the challenge was over.
Most electric snow blowers are single stage. The reviews I see on Amazon tend to fall into two categories: If it's the first snow blower someone has bought, they give it five stars. If it's replacing a two-stage gas blower, it gets one star. My impression is that they just won't do the job when I have a three-foot packed wall at the end of my driveway from the snow plow.
Encryption means a third party eavesdropping can't parse the communication.
Authentication means the host validates the identity of the client, typically using a password.
There's no requirement that these be linked. Of course, authentication without encryption is quite difficult to do securely. Encryption without authentication does leave the door open for a man-in-the-middle attack, but it does block passive monitoring.
I'm mostly there with solar power and electric cars. My lawn mower and snow blower are next. Eliminating plastic is beyond me, but I do try to minimize my use when it's practical.
If your roof isn't shaded by trees, then solar electricity probably makes sense, especially if your state offers any sort of incentive program. A few states have anti-solar programs (Florida) or really cheap electricity (Idaho), but even without incentives, it's becoming cost effective in many areas.
If you drive under 100 miles a day, there's little reason not to be driving electric. Certainly for most two-car families, one should be electric. Plug-in hybrids give you many of the advantages, allowing you to only buy gas on trips unless you have a particularly long commute. Having switched entirely to pure EVs, I have no regrets.
Most of this is incremental security improvements, as for most users, WPA2 is still sufficiently secure. However, the big deal here is the opportunistic encryption that will encrypt connections that don't require authentication. That's a big deal.
I like to leave my WiFi open for guests, but I have to set up a separate network in order to keep my regular use encrypted. Once everything supports opportunistic encryption, I can just have one network. That's not particularly important.
Where this matters is public WiFi. Many stores have free WiFi with no password. Often they have a login after you connect (annoying, but a separate issue), but there is no encryption on the link. Anyone who knows what they're doing can see every packet you send. When this technology becomes widespread, it will become a bit harder for evesdroppers.
Of course, using public WiFi, you should be using end-to-end encryption on anything important. This is pretty much standard these days for most things, but too often something slips through.
Agreed. But the basic question of whether the pitch was over the plate can certainly be automated. They could have the computer indicate in the umpire's ear whether the ball was good, outside, inside, low, or high, and the umpire could then just focus on the other aspects you mentioned.
I would argue that if the call is still a judgement call with full information, then there's something wrong with the rules. I like my sports objective. Of course, I don't always get what I like.
Baseball is a perfect example where this is completely feasible. Calling balls vs. strikes when the batter doesn't swing is a matter of where exactly the ball is. Umpires are notoriously inaccurate. The 538 even did a story showing that they biased their calls in favor of ending games that went into extra innings.
But the issue here isn't fairness or doing what is right. Ultimately professional sports are businesses. And they're not in the business of fair games, they're in the entertainment business. Right now, they won't switch to computers because the think it would reduce fan engagement. If fans get fed up with the consistent bad calls, then they'll switch. So when you hear arguments about "human factor," tradition, and fairness, it's all just a smokescreen for what will keep the most fans watching the games.
I'm not a sports fan, but I would prefer whatever solution results in games being decided based on the players, not the referees, and I see that as shifting to more computers. I expect it's just a matter of time before the majority of fans agrees and they make the change.
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That's a big part of it. It's also important to look at how schools compete for students based on amenities, not just the quality of education. I haven't studied the numbers, but I would expect to see that the budgets of schools are shifting more and more towards non-academic expenditures.
Now there is finally enough attention to the cost of schools that schools can compete on cost, so I expect to see the market forces coming into play as a bigger factor in the coming years.
If you're paying attention, you can catch those right away. I prefer eBay when I'm intentionally buying from China. It's a great source of random cables, usually for $0.77 each ($0.99 Canadian).
Of course, eBay has its own scam where the search shows a great price, but then the product page has you select from a number of options, and the only one that is at the low price is something completely different.
Tesla turns off Supercharging on any Tesla that is totaled, if they know about it. I assume this means they invalidate the key. In some cases, salvaged cars never had the key disabled and will Supercharge just fine. That is a serious issue, though. Without Supercharging, a Tesla is just a local car.
And the important point is that quick charging is nearly irrelevant except on trips, and you don't take a short-range EV on a trip. Regular charging is mostly at home or work. People aren't generally buying EVs on the assumption that they'll fill them up at a quick charge station like they do with gas.
It's not like there are a lot of pure EVs out there (excluding limited distribution compliance cars), so any generalization is flawed. The market clearly is moving towards a 200-mile minimum advertised range. But even 150 is about double the range cited in the article.
I assumed (probably incorrectly) linear degradation. As such, 20% degradation at the end means an average of 10% degradation. The real formula would be an integral of the degradation curve, but what I used should be sufficient.
Yeah, it never gets that cold in Florida. That's why they never had problems with shuttle launches, and orange growers never panic about freezing.
I'll agree that it's rare to drop below freezing, but it does happen.
Also, it's not clear to me that the optimal charging temperature is anything above freezing. That's not a magic temperature when dealing with battery chemistry. I know my Tesla starts to have reduced regenerative braking below 45 or so until the pack warms up. For high speed charging, they'll probably want to heat to 45 or 50 for best results.
EVs work fine in the cold, but it does reduce their range. A friend of mine used the same cells that Tesla uses to power a light for his dog sled in the Iditarod, and it worked flawlessly at 40 below.
Some cars do worse in the winter than others. My Tesla may lose a third of its range in extreme cold while my Leaf loses more than half. Whether this makes a particular EV impractical for you depends on the car and your needs.
This sounds like it may be a nice solution for heating the battery during charging, but you also need to both heat and cool batteries during driving to keep them in the optimal temperature range. Can this also be used while also drawing power to drive the vehicle? It sounds like it only works with external power.
So if you assume that the battery will have external heating and cooling anyway, the elegance of the solution is lost, and now it's back to the question of whether this method of heating the battery is more efficient than using a traditional heating system.
If they say it can go 4500 cycles with a 20% degradation, then assuming a linear drop, a total distance of 280,000 miles implies...
280000/4500/0.9 -> 70 miles of range.
That's a compliance car. Even the Leaf is over 100 miles now, and most are over 200.
Great idea. A keyboard with an SD-card reader would be great. Even a keyboard with a built-in USB hub would be convenient. (I know some have that feature, but it's all too rare.)
I heard about that. One scenario that they were looking at was putting a small nuclear reactor (like you would find in a submarine) at a base in Afghanistan and produce diesel-compatible fuel. Sure, the cost would be huge, but you would eliminate the need for lots of trucks that are being shot at. Obviously they would have to secure the reactor, as it would be a high priority target, but reducing dependencies on supply lines is a massive logistical win.
Generating fuel with excess electricity on an aircraft carrier is pretty much a no-brainer if they can get the process to work and produce enough fuel to be worth the effort.
This!
Actually, all I want is a micro-SD slot. In my old laptop, I had a micros-SD adapter that I kept in the SD slot. My new laptop would leave it sticking out. Not good.
I know space is at a premium in laptops, and my new Dell is every bit as sexy as an Apple laptop, but couldn't they spare a few more cubic millimeters?
The big news would be if they bought a generic drug manufacturer.
I think the whole point is adjusting for weather conditions. They want to optimize flights to avoid turbulence and maximize tailwinds. The assertion in the summary is that pilots don't have enough information to do a good job on that right now (at least when flying over the ocean). I wouldn't be surprised if you could average a 15-minute improvement over the Atlantic and double that over the Pacific, which would translate into a lot of fuel savings for the airlines.
So if by "almost" there I mean 80%, I can ignore plastics completely, as that's only 4% of oil. But you're right when it comes to oil used for other things besides my cars. 70% of US oil consumption is for transportation, and 65% of that is personal vehicles.
So switching to EVs for personal transport accounts for about 45% of oil use. Since we have solar, I would say we can safely say we've fossil fuel consumption on our behalf by over 50%. Yes, that's not "almost" there, but it's a very sizable dent.
If everyone reached for the low hanging fruit, we would be in much better shape.
This is why I run a tor relay node. Everytime I hear about something like this, it reminds me that tor is used by people in countries like this to bypass censorship.
OK, I really run it because of the EFF's tor challenge where I got a free T-shirt, but that's the reason I've kept it running after the challenge was over.
Most electric snow blowers are single stage. The reviews I see on Amazon tend to fall into two categories: If it's the first snow blower someone has bought, they give it five stars. If it's replacing a two-stage gas blower, it gets one star. My impression is that they just won't do the job when I have a three-foot packed wall at the end of my driveway from the snow plow.
No, it's not.
Encryption means a third party eavesdropping can't parse the communication.
Authentication means the host validates the identity of the client, typically using a password.
There's no requirement that these be linked. Of course, authentication without encryption is quite difficult to do securely. Encryption without authentication does leave the door open for a man-in-the-middle attack, but it does block passive monitoring.
I'm mostly there with solar power and electric cars. My lawn mower and snow blower are next. Eliminating plastic is beyond me, but I do try to minimize my use when it's practical.
If your roof isn't shaded by trees, then solar electricity probably makes sense, especially if your state offers any sort of incentive program. A few states have anti-solar programs (Florida) or really cheap electricity (Idaho), but even without incentives, it's becoming cost effective in many areas.
If you drive under 100 miles a day, there's little reason not to be driving electric. Certainly for most two-car families, one should be electric. Plug-in hybrids give you many of the advantages, allowing you to only buy gas on trips unless you have a particularly long commute. Having switched entirely to pure EVs, I have no regrets.
Most of this is incremental security improvements, as for most users, WPA2 is still sufficiently secure. However, the big deal here is the opportunistic encryption that will encrypt connections that don't require authentication. That's a big deal.
I like to leave my WiFi open for guests, but I have to set up a separate network in order to keep my regular use encrypted. Once everything supports opportunistic encryption, I can just have one network. That's not particularly important.
Where this matters is public WiFi. Many stores have free WiFi with no password. Often they have a login after you connect (annoying, but a separate issue), but there is no encryption on the link. Anyone who knows what they're doing can see every packet you send. When this technology becomes widespread, it will become a bit harder for evesdroppers.
Of course, using public WiFi, you should be using end-to-end encryption on anything important. This is pretty much standard these days for most things, but too often something slips through.
This raises the effort required from passive snooping to active interception. This is a good thing. This is an attempt to break mass surveillance.
Agreed. But the basic question of whether the pitch was over the plate can certainly be automated. They could have the computer indicate in the umpire's ear whether the ball was good, outside, inside, low, or high, and the umpire could then just focus on the other aspects you mentioned.
I would argue that if the call is still a judgement call with full information, then there's something wrong with the rules. I like my sports objective. Of course, I don't always get what I like.
Baseball is a perfect example where this is completely feasible. Calling balls vs. strikes when the batter doesn't swing is a matter of where exactly the ball is. Umpires are notoriously inaccurate. The 538 even did a story showing that they biased their calls in favor of ending games that went into extra innings.
But the issue here isn't fairness or doing what is right. Ultimately professional sports are businesses. And they're not in the business of fair games, they're in the entertainment business. Right now, they won't switch to computers because the think it would reduce fan engagement. If fans get fed up with the consistent bad calls, then they'll switch. So when you hear arguments about "human factor," tradition, and fairness, it's all just a smokescreen for what will keep the most fans watching the games.
I'm not a sports fan, but I would prefer whatever solution results in games being decided based on the players, not the referees, and I see that as shifting to more computers. I expect it's just a matter of time before the majority of fans agrees and they make the change.