Search results

  1. J

    Satellite firm pauses imagery after revealing Iran’s attacks on US bases

    As covered in Ashlee Vance's When the Heavens Went on Sale, these are not really "former NASA scientists" in the sense that most scientists are. These folks are a fascinating clique of people trying to live and breathe life into their ideological ideas about what is best for humanity and how to...
  2. J

    MacBook Neo hands-on: Apple build quality at a substantially lower price

    The one thing I'll say about memory usage, as I have years of using the M1 Air under my belt now, is that 8GB is reasonable enough for web browsing and most other usage. The one notable exception that's part of most folks' daily lives? MS Office. Whether the full fat application or the site (at...
  3. J

    MacBook Neo hands-on: Apple build quality at a substantially lower price

    Not just institutional buyers. I expect a lot of the lower-income college freshmen will select one of these devices.
  4. J

    Google Pixel 10a review: The sidegrade

    Considering the way Google Fi structures their deals (need to keep the device for 4 months to get the discount), you can probably find pretty deeply discounted used ones on eBay in a few months, or a used 9a right now for like $250.
  5. J

    Google Pixel 10a review: The sidegrade

    You realize this is exactly what most users are looking for, right?
  6. J

    The AI apocalypse is nigh in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

    I'm usually not a fan of the Ars film reviews. They seem pretty basic. Working in the screenwriter's and director's thoughts without explicitly revealing the story was much more interesting!
  7. J

    Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, or something else? At $10k, you have lots of EV options

    So I actually wrote that page of documentation. Sorry if it's not clear. Today, you can buy the hardware to have remote lock and unlock, check SOC, and start your heater/A/C. To do that, you'll need to buy: 1) OVMS kit from Medlock and Sons (I personally opted for the Kia 4G kit, but as long as...
  8. J

    Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, or something else? At $10k, you have lots of EV options

    I'm very interested in that vehicle and have spent significant time lurking in the relevant reddit. I don't think asking price is the only, or even primary, flaw in the Buzz. VW may get their shit together with the Rivian generation of software/joint venture, but their current stack is so...
  9. J

    Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, or something else? At $10k, you have lots of EV options

    FYI - The Bolt is almost OK-ish for road trips (think like 30 mins of charging for every 1h15m driving, IIRC) in warm weather. In winter, the Bolt is garbage for road trips. It doesn't precondition the battery, so you never even hit that peak 55kW charging rate. Going 10%-80% took me like an...
  10. J

    Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations

    I came here to post something similar. I've seen other threads where folks will snip, even summarize the responses of another with [clearly edited] brackets. I don't actually see a problem with this, and have definitely seen it not punished before. I would suggest treading carefully as a mod. I...
  11. J

    China bans all retractable car door handles, starting next year

    I don't think flush is the problem here, and mandating handles that poke out will therefore NOT fix the issue. The problem is electrically actuated doors where the handle is just electrical. I actually like the design of the Tesla 3/Y exterior handle (notably, not the very stupid electric Model...
  12. J

    County pays $600,000 to pentesters it arrested for assessing courthouse security

    I know this is confusing, but it's Dallas County, Iowa. So nothing to do with Texas.
  13. J

    TikTok settles hours before landmark social media addiction trial starts

    Quite right. We should also obviously legalize smoking and drinking at any age, guns for 2 year olds, and fentanyl for middle schoolers. Because obviously parenting is the right answer here for society, not laws. /s Your theory of parental culpability is ridiculous and you can fuck right off...
  14. J

    Resurrected Pebble maker announces a kind-of-smart ring for capturing audio notes

    If you read the article, they're really basing the estimate on providing about 20h (or less!) of talk time, which sounds entirely plausible. It seems like it's zero power unless you actually push the button.
  15. J

    Study confirms Romans used “hot mixing“ to make concrete

    It's not just "quicklime" which you can get today, but is fine and has none of the aggregate. That's why they're doing research; people would like to know which key(s) would unlock 2000 year concrete that survives constant sea waves. And it's not just that somebody has found the key. There are...
  16. J

    Resurrected Pebble maker announces a kind-of-smart ring for capturing audio notes

    Worth noting that the new RePebble/Pebble company is NOT VC backed. Eric, the original Pebble founder, is using his own money to fund development. His stated goal is to do it because nobody in the 10 years since Pebble cratered has made the watch he wants. I mention this because they don't have...
  17. J

    SteamOS vs. Windows on dedicated GPUs: It’s complicated, but Windows has an edge

    This is not true, and I don't understand why you felt the need to attack him. A loooooong time ago, like 30 years(!), Gabe worked at Microsoft and made a small fortune. Gabe took that money, founded Valve, made Half-Life, and probably made another small fortune. In the ensuing decades, he's...
  18. J

    Where Apple’s Vision Pro stands today, post-M5 refresh

    I'm only going to mention this because nobody else has. I have a use case. I want to take meetings where I can see a screenshare, legibly, while watering my garden. That's it. Nobody else offers that. AVP notably almost offers it, but they made the very foolish decision to not let monitors...
  19. J

    Mark Zuckerberg’s illegal school drove his neighbors crazy

    Have none of you been Abundance-pilled? There are reasons to have zoning, and I believe in the validity of the noise and parking complaints. But, a bunch of multimillionaires complaining about how a neighbor uses their property? Karens, the lot of them. "Traffic" isn't really a valid complain...
  20. J

    Texas lawmakers double down on Discovery, call for DOJ investigation into Smithsonian

    Let me start with this: I think we actually agree that Democrats suck at PR. My point is that Obama broke the system. Democrats in the 111th Congress (2009-2011) had a filibuster-proof majority (60 seats) in the Senate. They used it to pass the ACA, but then got slaughtered in the midterms...