markvdb

14 ms·

211.
by markvdb 4y ago
"Russian people worked hard to make those Baltic states happy and now they are the most ungrateful nations saying only dirty words about USSR and Russia." Ahem.
212.
by markvdb 4y ago
Yes, the USSR and its citizens suffered a lot in WW II. Yes of course that set back USSR technological innovation. Trying to weigh what state did more damage is not a useful metric. Recognising specific damage _is_ useful. Here's an ex
213.
by markvdb 4y ago
> [...] Brussels continues to self-destruct for the sake of stopping a comic-book villain version of Putin who is apparently an existential threat to the West, but also not powerful enough to even take over Ukraine. You might be underest
214.
by markvdb 4y ago
You've just demystified a large potential demand source for this thing to me.
215.
by markvdb 4y ago
EU level energy emergency measures. So much time lost already since late February. Measures would have to radically focus on short term returns to yield a timely effect. Some ideas to evaluate, in no particular order. Some are (close to mai
216.
by markvdb 4y ago
> fast reactors yield waste products that principally live only a couple of hundred years. Hundreds of years is not acceptable. Humanity is not able to handle projects spanning hundreds of years time. Look at the Zaporizhia atomic energy
217.
by markvdb 4y ago
On the relay side, this is a solved problem. Have a look at devices like the Shelly pro 4pm. On the sensor side, there are a few very nice esp32 based boards. Have a look at the https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/
218.
by markvdb 4y ago
Monty Python's Terry Jones was a well-regarded medievalist [0]. I wouldn't be surprised to learn this famous quote could be directly linked to Jones' knowledge about the middle ages. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org&#x
219.
by markvdb 4y ago
Wind turbine blades perhaps? Ever increasing blade sizes are a serious limiting factor when moving these.
220.
by markvdb 4y ago
Feature phone user here. I had a smartphone for about a year in 2009. I gave it away after seeing four people in a row waiting for the train consumed by their pinging devices. I can't recommend the feature phone experience warmly enoug
221.
by markvdb 4y ago
Just bought my significant other a new Android phone. I carefully picked the right device: - Lineageos supported - mainline linux 5.17 supported (except for the camera for now)
222.
by markvdb 4y ago
Been there, done that. It detracts from the scope.
223.
by markvdb 4y ago
So much air in this statement, but almost zero raw numbers. In the mean time, there are good quality air/water heat pumps on the market in Europe. Look at the Nibe F2120 for example. It blows this thing out of the water. It has a COP o
224.
by markvdb 4y ago
It certainly would. One can get a lot further and move more things on an ebike compared to on a bicycle. Not to forget the advantages of ten times less road maintenance, ten times more throughput, ten times less parking requirements, more s
225.
by markvdb 4y ago
Belgium does. CPI here is fairly in line with neighbouring countries, but wage inflation is not. There's some complaints about this by employer organisations, but nothing serious for now. Neither the unions nor the main political parti
226.
by markvdb 4y ago
I just read the EPA recommendation for dealing with old batteries [0]. Shocking quote: "In most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash." [0] https://www.epa.gov/re
227.
by markvdb 4y ago
Update. Local price comparison site was just updated this morning. Price here would be between 14569€ (.40€/kWh) and 17308€ (.47€/kWh) depending on the supplier chose. This includes all taxes and surcharges.
228.
by markvdb 4y ago
I ran your figures through a local price comparison engine. [0] Cheapest rate for you here would be ~12800€, or ~$13400/year. For reference, that's slightly less than half the median net income here. [1] I also made a quick price
229.
by markvdb 4y ago
> I'm not saying you can't do the math, but as I see it, every factor adds in such a huge margin of error into both the numerator and the denominator that the result of the computation easily becomes pretty useless. You just de
230.
by markvdb 4y ago
> Those are very visible examples, but if you're applying the veil of ignorance test you have to weight by how many people they actually apply to. (I wouldn't be surprised if all of them put together represented a smaller propo
231.
by markvdb 4y ago
I'm open to any system of government that systematically tries to pass John Rawls' veil of ignorance[0] test. In theory, it doesn't even have to be democratic. In practice though, I haven't yet seen any non-democracy ge
232.
by markvdb 4y ago
This is war. Billions are still flowing to Russia for natural gas. It would be neigh impossible for Russia to export natural gas to alternative markets. So if you really want to weaken the Russian war effort... ... set an EU-wide tarriff on
233.
by markvdb 4y ago
> Obviously yes, why wouldn't they? Because OVH's negligence transpires more widely than just in DC fires. I've had my primary business domain name almost expire twice due to OVH's incompetence. I should have run awa
234.
by markvdb 4y ago
Two Pax Americana timescale elements: - Technological progress has increased worldwide interdependence, to the point of destroying resilience. The world is one vulnerable system now to a much larger extent than any time in the past. Think U
235.
by markvdb 4y ago
> What does being "behind" even mean? In my case as a guitar teacher, I see two patterns: - Students with less support at home or natural feeling for guitar are about a year behind where they would normally be after four years
236.
by markvdb 4y ago
This system enables regenerative braking on bicycles. That means you also gain a lot... What I would love to see though would be this, applied to a recumbent or a velomobile. Those often have atypically long chains.
237.
by markvdb 4y ago
One may think of it as balancing the water budget, or more realistically as somewhat managing the negative externalities of sucking the land dry in ~ four human generations.
238.
by markvdb 4y ago
I wish I had misread my sources[0], but unfortunately, 500000l per year per household really is in there. From the relevant wikipedia article [1]: "Many homes in Sacramento didn't have water meters until recently. They now are gra
239.
by markvdb 4y ago
Both agricultural and residential overconsumption need tackling. Both. Example from the article: "326,000 gallons (1.23 million liters), is enough water to supply one or two households for a year." No! That is enough for >16 ho
240.
by markvdb 4y ago
> The economic block in the government remains very professional and impartial even now. Professional, yes. Impartial, no. Complicit is the word.

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