There was an article posted somewhere on Lemmy a few months back where someone tried to do similar calculations for the US as a whole. What I took from the result was 95% renewable was achievable and still cheaper than fossil fuels. However the over provisioning of renewables and over double the storage needed to reliably achievable 100% made that infeasible with today’s proving and technology. Basically you can install storage to cover when the sun is not shining but it’s much more difficult to cover weeks of gloominess

Not that old, plus I don’t see it.

Asbestos is great at insulating really hot things so was used on boilers , especially ships and industrial to insulate the hot pipes and improve efficiency. However in this case we need something with thermal mass: any sand or rock might do, or water, or oil, or a modern phase change material. That material next to the heater will get hot but the entire mass won’t, so can be insulated with standard materials. There’s no point in something like asbestos

An important part of my point was also that what I assume were cheap materials was enough to take advantage of nightly time of use metering. In upstate NY, a standard “radiator” per room was sufficient, similar to hot water or steam heat

When I was a kid my parents had electric resistance heat with some very effective thermal storage.

Each room had a unit about the size of a typical radiator. The unit was basically an insulated box with a small circulation fan. I’m not sure what was inside but always assumed some form of brick - they weren’t expensive so it couldn’t be anything exotic. At night when electric rates were low, whatever was inside the units was heated up. During the day, the only power usage was a small circulation fan controlled by the thermostat.

I just got a heat pump installed and thought thermal storage would be worth considering since I was also looking into solar, but contractors acted like they never heard of it, and there really didn’t seem to be any consumer units available.

The solar panels are another story. I don’t see how such a scammy (in the us) industry even exists. They make it really hard to give them my money

Certainly some of it is on me: I don’t like to plan ahead enough for an appointment but also don’t want to wait. I prefer a place that does walk-ins and I learn when they’re unlikely to have a line.

Supercuts is a great example. My town had two of them so I went to each several times before learning that one was consistently better, so I started going there regularly. Then they closed. So now I’m going to the other but they’re a mess: employees consistently do noticeably worse job and are not attentive to incoming customers. I don’t think I set a high bar but they’re not achieving it. And specifically they insist on giving me a combover even when I say no: I know my hair is thinning but it’s past the point where a combover is anything but sad. I also don’t comb my hair to the side so a combover just looks uneven and sad. Why can’t they just accept when I say no?

My town has been going through a generational and demographic shift so all the old places are being replaced with shiny new ones. While I’m sure those new ones will do a basic haircut, they put so much effort into being shiny and modern with modern hairstyles for young adults or hairstyles traditionally associated with various demographics. Great but why can’t we keep it simple? Why can’t I walk in, ask for a haircut, give my preferences And just get it done?

Not often enough. It looks pretty ratty by the time I force myself to go. Maybe 4-6 months?

I’ve always been annoyed by haircuts so it’s difficult to motivate myself to go. However by the time I settle on a new location to regularly use, they close down. Then it’s that much more annoying o find a new place I don’t hate

I do trim my beard weekly though. Since I have the tools and know how to use them. Currently I have a full beard but cut very short, and shave my neck - shaving a straight line is tough to do

There is no reset. All the easy to reach fossil fuels being gone may be an insurmountable obstacle to any reset being able to reach an industrial age

Why masturbate yourself like a peon, when you can spend $500000 to? And get a free Florence Pugh voice to “avenge” your crusaders?

I kind of thought that was the only real difference with 11: requiring the tpm

There are some companies that sell hardware with Linux pre-installed. The bigger companies that do are Dell and Lenovo.

Last time I checked, admittedly years ago, I was irritated at paying the same price as for the windows version of the same hardware. Why do I still need to pay the Microsoft tax and who’s getting it?

Usually neurodivergent isn’t relevant. People are bullied because they’re different and because they’re an easy target, regardless of why they’re different

Think of it like grandma. She can fold your underwear for you but needs to go sit down every half hour

government leaders and other prominent persons for political purposes

I guess it depends on who you call prominent but yes, the billionaire? CEO of one of the biggest healthcare companies in the US was in a prominent (important) position regardless whether anyone knew who he was. And yes there is evidence of a political purpose.

I have to say that going into this my reaction was no, this is not an assassination. However looking at the linked definition and thinking it through changed my opinion

…second phone number…

Of course but it doesn’t scale. I’m currently up to 182 unique generated email addresses to help keep my online accounts a little more secure. But they all go through one or two phone numbers, leaving me more open to sim attacks, social engineering and data aggregation

Hahaha. When I was in college I visited the Boston area and fell in love with it. It took me a couple of jobs but I eventually made it and would never turn back

• love the history
• love the academics, more youthful society
• love the politics, quality of life issues
• I’m in tech so I love the job opportunities

…. And yes I love the mild weather while still having seasons. While this is essentially the same latitude I grew up at, being on the coast moderates it a lot. It never really gets cold (relatively), never has much snow, and the snow melts quickly. Although I don’t like the humidity

I definitely am, and other people seem to be, more aware of germs, epidemics, etc. it’s not just the effects of COViD but the ongoing efforts to deny science and modern medicine.

Every time taco don disbands another public health agency or brain worm spouts nonsense, it reminds me how easily we lost so many people. We not only didn’t learn anything but are somehow worse off, but I’m reminded to wash my hands better and more, seek out annual vaccines, get a supply of masks for the winter

You’re not supposed to use regular paper

I’m not entirely sure what you mean but my password manager alerts when the hash of one of my passwords matches one from a dark web data dump, and prompts me to replace it with a newly generated one.

I’m sure it’s not a unique feature

Admittedly I do have a few bad password, a combination of I don’t see how I could care (like a Reddit alt account) and sites that break the password change automation (yeah I’m lazy)

In some ways 2fa is a weak spot even disregarding recovery processes being open to social engineering, now you’re giving a verified identifier uniquely tied to you

I generate unique email addresses and passwords for every account but can’t realistically do that with phone numbers

2fa by sms or voice isn’t especially secure anyway since you’re open to sim attacks and social engineering. I have a lot more hope for Passkeys but don’t really trust the practical advice arts of managing them yet

A great place to start is data privacy laws. If they don’t collect unnecessary PII, it can’t be exposed.

But yes, companies need to face more liability. While it’s true that no one is inhackable - you’d need to be perfect everywhere all the time and the bad guys only need one break to succeed - there are best practices that make it a lot more unlikely. If you as a company have been hacked and you’re not taking good care of your customers data, you should be liable for carelessness. Admittedly following good data security practices can be expensive but that’s why there should be consequences for those who cut corners

Only reducing the speed limit is next to useless: most people will continue driving the speed the road is designed for, except that the police get extra ticket revenue. How does that help?

They cite Boston as an example where it worked, but they need to take a closer look. Boston has some of the worst traffic in the country, keeping speeds lower. Boston is older than most other us cities and has narrow winding streets, keeping speeds lower. Most importantly, Boston has been taking additional steps such as installing medians, curb bumps, roundabouts, bike lanes, bus lanes, reducing lanes. While they’re not doing enough, it is plenty of additional Steps for Boston to not be a representative example f just reducing speed l8mits