NickM

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481.
by NickM 10y ago
> The suggestions you mentioned all have substantial negative impacts to humanity - arguably as much as climate change itself I think that assertion deserves to be examined a bit more closely. We are already effectively subsidizing the f
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by NickM 10y ago
Increased efficiency is definitely a contributing factor as well. It's very inspiring to see that our population and economy have both grown, yet demand for electricity has remained flat.
483.
by NickM 10y ago
Lithium-ion cells have been slowly, steadily improving by a few percent a year for a long time now. A few percent is not a lot, but if these incremental improvements keep happening then that adds up to some pretty good progress. Cost is als
484.
by NickM 10y ago
I think it makes sense given the overarching mission of SpaceX. Their primary long-term goal is to get a self-sustaining colony set up on Mars. Getting that done will require a lot of people willing to uproot their lives and move to another
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by NickM 10y ago
I think they mean "because the computers that fly the plane run a different OS than the computers that control the in-flight entertainment". The malware isn't going to cause the plane to crash, but it could still execute and
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by NickM 11y ago
> Unless you can afford a dedicated "commute only with no need to take on long trips" vehicle, I do not understand the appeal of fully electrics aside from status symbols. Compared to a plug-in hybrid like the Volt, you have: m
487.
by NickM 11y ago
Excellent writeup. Also worth noting is that there are many different types of battery chemistry used by different lithium-ion cells: laptops may have cells with chemistries optimized for a certain lifetime/capacity/power tradeoff
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by NickM 11y ago
It seems impossible that they could have it be fully autonomous to the point of not needing a steering wheel though. You can tell an autonomous car "take me to the mall", or "pull out of the garage", but there are so man
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by NickM 11y ago
8 years, unlimited miles for the battery and the drivetrain. 4 years and 50k miles for everything else.
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by NickM 11y ago
There's a big difference between "currently known lithium reserves" and "worldwide lithium reserves". There's not much incentive to find additional reserves when you can essentially just pick it up off the grou
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by NickM 11y ago
"Bad" names can attract lots of attention. Perhaps they're more interested in turning heads than setting up the best possible brand connotations.
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by NickM 11y ago
compare to Li-ion's 400-1200 This may be true for some kinds of li-ion batteries, but they can be engineered to last much longer than that. Tesla's daily cycle home battery is warrantied for 5,000 cycles, for example. Assuming t
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by NickM 11y ago
Ah, okay. So for lithium-ion cells that are not currently being used, they can withstand extremely cold temperatures with no issues. I believe Tesla used to have wording in their battery warranty that said they wouldn't cover battery d
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by NickM 11y ago
I've noticed a strong pop-psych trend these days of referring to one's own feelings or experiences in terms of neurotransmitters. e.g. "I'm hooked on the dopamine rush of such-and-such activity," "I'm feel
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by NickM 11y ago
In my understanding, cold should be killing the batteries. Well, depends on what you mean by that. If you're talking about long-term longevity, cold actually helps: lithium-ion cell capacities generally degrade more slowly in cold te
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by NickM 11y ago
Obviously this is just anecdotal, but I work for a company with an unlimited vacation policy, and I've actually enjoyed it. I probably average 4 weeks of vacation per year, which is what I had in my previous (non-unlimited) job. But, n
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by NickM 11y ago
Because the examples you're giving are clearly ridiculous, even to the layperson. Obviously planes can fly, nobody has ever gotten their soul sucked out by a vacuum cleaner, etc. Now first let me say I think vaccines are a Very Good
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by NickM 11y ago
I would hardly call being forced to make EVs a punishment. In ten or twenty years, when EVs really take off, Tesla/Apple/Google/Samsung/etc are going to eat the lunch of anyone left behind. Investing in electric vehicles
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by NickM 11y ago
The only trouble there is that what if a company wants to (for instance) invest in EVs anyway? Now the incentive is to first make a quick buck cheating and lying, and then when they get caught the punishment is to do the same thing they wer
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by NickM 11y ago
I think most mathematicians would not accept something like that as a proof. Our understanding of physics is based on real-world observations and experiments in a way that math is not.
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by NickM 11y ago
> fusion reactors are nuclear as well and they will be a big thing in the future I used to think this as well, but I'm not sure I believe it anymore. I suspect that by the time we're able to make fusion power work, the solar&#x
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by NickM 11y ago
The author's main argument seems to be that nobody will want to do it. But historically, there have been numerous cases of colonists giving up a safe, easy life to go live somewhere inhospitable and dangerous. When I think about the fi
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by NickM 11y ago
I agree with you, though I'm not sure if height is even the best metaphor: our brains are remarkably changeable based on how we use them, so a better comparison might be measuring an athlete's muscle mass in different parts of the
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by NickM 11y ago
Yes, exactly. Reproducible builds can catch accidental differences, but discrepancies introduced by a malicious actor can still easily be hidden if they have complete control over the software and hardware.
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by NickM 11y ago
You're assuming the car doesn't also cheat on the "make install" test. How do we know the car isn't programmed to secretly leave the cheating software intact? Whatever extra layers of software verification we attemp
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by NickM 11y ago
Forcing VW to release source code would not have prevented this. They could have simply released a different set code from what is actually running on the cars. This is an extremely hard problem to work around. They could let you dump the b
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by NickM 11y ago
On the one hand, Musk has been known to exaggerate timelines. All of Tesla's cars have ended up being released behind schedule (the first Model X cars are being delivered tonight, multiple years late). I doubt we'll really have fu
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by NickM 11y ago
for their wrongdoing that did not result in anyone's death It's well-established that fossil fuel emissions actually do cause many deaths due to increased cancer rates and other respiratory illnesses. Burning diesel without prop
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by NickM 11y ago
You are largely correct, but rooftop solar is fairly popular in Australia, and EV owners are much more likely than average to also buy rooftop solar. This is for economic reasons as much as ideological ones - solar pays for itself a lot fas
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by NickM 11y ago
Oh yeah, you are right to criticize the Leaf on that front. You would think if they were going to make a really weird looking car like that, they could at least take advantage of the relaxed design constraints and make it super efficient...

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