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Gas is only cheap in the very near term. It's already started ticking up and it's almost a given we'll eventually have carbon taxes which make it even higher. I don't understand why people in this country fail to grasp the concept of historical trends. We react to short-term blips as if they're...

That's playing with fire. Sure, I back up on USB drives too, but I also have copies of my data on two SSDs and one HDD. I should probably also put non-changing stuff on DVD-RWs or DVD-Rs. Nobody should trust their data solely to a thumb drive. I've heard of those things just failing without warning.

I'm quite sure all the major automakers would do exactly the same things I mentioned if they really wanted to mainstream EVs. They have plenty of people way smarter than either of us. For whatever reason they don't. The businessperson in me might say it's because they invested a lot in tooling...

This one sounds like the best of the bunch, although I haven't bought one yet. It supercedes this one, which is no longer made.

It's a telemarketing scam for sure. Telemarketers posing as the IRS saying you owe money is an ongoing scam. Best bet is to not answer calls from numbers you're not familiar with and/or block them. In fact, get a call blocker. You can safely block certain entire area codes right off, like 100...

And you'll provide the financing I assume? Tesla is already pretty much doing the same things I would do but they're only one company without the ability at present to produce the same number of vehicles as major auto manufacturers. China will probably be the first to mass market EVs. They have...

The thing is the average person isn't going to use or need enterprise-level drives for backup. They'll probably buy the cheapest external HDD they can find, and then handle it roughly. If it's not their sole means of backing up then that's not an issue but sadly for many people it is. SSDs are...

First, kudos on getting something which is at least partially EV, although I think Chevy could have done way better than a 40 mile electric only range, and even though I still think the concept of having a gas generator is a unnecessary kludge used to basically compensate for some horrible...

Just my opinion but I've long felt that using only HDDs are a really bad way to store anything you care about, particularly if they're external HDDs which are handled constantly. One slip and the drive could be toast. My own preference is to use solid state (SSD or USB flash drives) and perhaps...

Repair are a big factor here also. I've read from many sources even with a higher initial purchase price the TCO of EVs is less than ICE cars. With economies of scale from mass production there won't even be a higher initial purchase price for EVs. People won't buy an EV before they need a new...

I'm talking about the baseline power supply which is mostly nuclear, coal, CNG, and hydroelectric. None of those can easily be throttled down at night, particularly nuclear, so the excess power is there for the taking. Right now we often just burn it up in resistor grids if there are no takers...

Let's be realistic here. Batteries have their limitations but the oil companies spread a lot of FUD out of self-interest. Apparently you bought into it. Something like 95% of car trips are under 40 miles. Almost all are under 200 miles. Obviously a person who drives 500 miles a day can't use an...

Amen to that a thousand times over. IMO the only reason for hybrids to exist might be to get a general public resistant to change used to the idea of an electric propulsion system without being dependent upon a battery. And the need for doing this really only exists because of all the FUD spread...

Anything I care about I keep in multiple places on whatever storage media is in common use at the time. Right now I have redundant copies of my important stuff on several USB flash drives, two SSDs, and a 2 TB HDD. If holographic memory cubes became common, I would put a copy of all my data on...

The charge loss rate is less at colder temperatures. While I don't have any numbers, putting the SSD in a freezer would probably increase the storage time substantially. Also, as Coug said, some large fraction of the people here probably don't need to be concerned about what will happen in 40...

We still use tape? I thought tape was obsolete over a decade ago. I used to use one of these for back up but it became obsolete as soon as CD-RWs became common. Now USB drives have long made CD-based backup obsolete. The open question however is how long will HDDs remain cheaper per GB by a...

OLED inherently emits light on their own. Hence no need for polarizers. LCD displays selectively block out backlighting by using polarizers.

I've only been to family weddings. Weddings are pretty boring, especially the church part if you have to listen to an hour long sermon. Only two things worth doing at most weddings-either get drunk or fuck the bridesmaids. I couldn't do the latter because the weddings were family functions, so I...

Right, and I have my glasses if I want to see clearly in the distance for whatever reason. I may even get a new pair after reading this thread. I'm just happy that I can use my naked eyes for 99% of the tasks I do regularly. Watching TV is typically the only time I put on my glasses. If I...

I've pretty much always done mostly close tasks, like building models, circuit board work, etc. I never went into "ball" type sports where I would need good enough vision to see a ball coming at me from a distance. That and driving (which is something I don't need to do, either) are about the...

I see things just fine in those situations, at least well enough to avoid them. It's not important for me to see details on a car or dog, so long as I see it. I'm not sure what the minimum vision you need for that is but I think anything 20/200 or better is good enough. I can easily see cars 3...

I think the value of getting Lasik depends upon what you wear glasses for. I've read Lasik will correct your distance vision but not the range over which your eye can focus. As a result, your near vision will suffer. 99% of what I do involves near vision. That includes working on electronics...

I just took this vision test out of curiosity. I used 10 feet for the distance. Uncorrected is around 20/125 in the left eye and 20/100 in the right. With my existing glasses it was 20/25 and 20/20 corrected, respectively. This had more to do with the left lens having fine scratches than...

Am I missing something here or did the Snellen system fall out of general use? What do numbers like -10.25 mean?

My father learned English as his first language and came out with some gems: HIV headlights = HID headlights condom = condominium buffet pronounced as bufh-it turlet = toilet three = tree furry = fury That's just off the top of my head. I've been meaning to compile a complete list of his...

I've had the same glasses since my early 20s. That's when my parent's insurance stopped paying for glasses or eye exams. Given that I only need glasses when watching TV, I haven't had much incentive since to get an eye exam or a new pair. I might finally look into it soon given how ratty my...

Unfortunately my mom is going through the early stages of this and it's been taking its toll on me physically and mentally. My siblings aren't really able to help much but they still expect 1/3 of everything when mom goes. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep working, either. Pretty...

I think the way it often worked 30 years ago, or even today in places like Europe, is that the business informs its customers in advance it'll be shut down for x weeks while essential staff are on vacation, or at least that certain functions will be unavailable during that time. Here in the US...

For what it's worth whenever professors gave us assignments in advance I tended to finish them early. It was lots of fun watching everyone else with their hand up their behinds trying to finish things up before winter or spring break while I was more or less coasting. Same thing back when I...

The only time I'm aware of it is slowing for corners on descents and (less often) slowing for sharp corners on level roads. I hardly ever use my brakes even just riding recreationally. I typically see things I need to slow down for in time enough to just coast down.

My guess is yes because electric companies in general have a lot of surplus capacity at night. The distribution grid itself isn't the problem. A lot of it is designed so in theory every home could be drawing 10 or 20 kW at the same time. So long as the electric company can supply it, you're...

It's not that they're better at dealing with heat but rather that they just don't make as much. The early LEDs were maybe 10% efficient. Nowadays 30% to 50% is normal. Because you have more lumens per watt you need 1/3 to 1/5 the amount of power to make any given amount of light. And only 50% to...

Why would it? The only type of streetlight which can easily be filtered out is low-pressure sodium. NYC and most other cities don't use that because it's an eerie, monochromatic yellow light with a negative CRI. HPS is just as problematic to filter out as whiter lights. Also, the LED lights send...

Yes, exactly. For that reason I'm thrilled NYC is replacing the HPS streetlights with 4300K LED. Believe it or not some people are actually complaining the new lights are too bright, or too white. I guess people can get used to even bad light like HPS. I'll give them a year or two to adjust, and...

Not me. I prefer 4500K to 5500K with high CRI. I don't like anything less than about 4500K but I could probably live with it if it's 3500K or higher. Can't stand anything below that. Way too yellow for my tastes.

I never bought it but you're probably thinking of this.

This is why I never answer numbers whch aren't familiar to me. I'll usually do a Google search right after they call, and if they're a known scammer I just block them so they can never bother me again. If they're calling from an area code where I don't know anyone, I just block the entire area...

This made my day. It's a pity phone service providers don't offer it as an option.

I share your love of 4:3 screens. Right now I'm using an LG 1600x1200 20" monitor my neighbors gave me second hand as my primary monitor. I have a little more room for something larger. My ideal would be perhaps a 24" or 25" 4:3 OLED screen with 4096x3072 resolution. Barring that I'll just hold...

Those are passive heat sinks. By definition the heat flux per unit area will be pretty low. Thermal tape is more than adequate here. Thermal epoxy mainly offers an advantage in high heat flux applications, such as a microprocessor or a thermoelectric cooler on a fan-forced or liquid heat sink.

I'm just saying this has been one of the reasons some people have come out against it. Obviously unisex bathrooms are a better answer here but the general prudishness of American society has prevented their widespread adoption. More times than I care to think about. This is NYC. Sometimes...

There is a good reason some people are against this. What's to stop me from using the women's room just to sneek a peak and saying my "gender identity" is female? These transgender bathroom laws in my opinion are opening a huge door for voyeurs. Then again, given some of the people passing them...

The Republicans lost me when they were taken over by the religious right and their obsession with abortion, birth control, and so forth. With all the problems facing this country it frankly annoys me that we waste so much time debating what are at best fringe issues. It annoys me even more when...

Compared to most of the legislation the NYC City Council passes what Congress passes seems erudite by comparison. The latest gem they inflicted on us is a 5 cent tax on plastic grocery bags.

It could be worse. I read somewhere the US government lost money running a brothel. I don't see how that's even possible.

I'm mostly referring to rules which let businesses outsource, relocate overseas, and so forth. Basically, I'm talking about the rules businesses now use to avoid taxes. If you didn't know what the tax consequences of outsourcing from India or Mexico might be in six months you probably would just...

Also worth mentioning is we removed launch authority from submarine commanders a while back. No one man, whether the President or a rogue submarine commander, can start WWIII. I think the intention here is to use this tactic mainly for economic matters. I'd personally like to see lots of...

One of the comments to that video said it best-this is why caricatures are supposed to be in 2d.

I don't know about that. (Fast forward to last 20 seconds)

Well, the fact so much of the Republican party is trying to stop Trump tells me all the pigs who usually feed at the trough stand to lose big if he wins. Putting aside all the negatives associated with him for a minute, I can say a Trump presidency at least wouldn't be boring. You probably won't...