rgmerk

17 ms·

211.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Doesn't matter as a tool of domestic abuse, as the attacker almost certainly has local access to the device concerned. The howls of outrage when Microsoft announced this are such that they may well have gotten the message on this one.
212.
by rgmerk 2y ago
This kind of thing has happened repeatedly, but kinda misses the point. Stalkerware is designed and built as a tool of abuse. The people who create it are looking to profit off that abuse. More effort should be devoted to prosecuting these
213.
by rgmerk 2y ago
A lot of American steel mills have houses literally right next door to them, in part because many of them were built before the widespread availability of cars. There's no way in the world you're putting a nuclear plant on site.
214.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Some may be plumbed in, but there are also models where you have to empty the reservoir after drying.
215.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Residential energy use (excluding transportation) is a bit over 20% of total US energy use [1]. Industrial use is about 32%. Of the transportation sector, about 25% is "cars and motorcycles" and 32% is light trucks; however, a lot
216.
by rgmerk 2y ago
“There are hundreds of local municipalities and elected authorities.” That’s the root of your problem. Too many governments, not enough attention available to keep them accountable.
217.
by rgmerk 2y ago
War in East Asia, were it to happen, will be nothing like war in Europe - as was the case in WWII.
218.
by rgmerk 2y ago
What an asshole. I mean, the article describes a guy who isn't just an asshole on occasion, it describes a man who has devoted over a decade of his life to acts of assholery grand and petty.
219.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Undoing dumb rules that favour existing vested interests is hard everywhere. I mean, the US doesn't exactly cover itself in glory in its own utility regulations. "cost-of-service" regulation means that monopoly utilities are
220.
by rgmerk 2y ago
If you’re postulating unbounded growth, seems pretty arbitrary to not postulate engineering solutions to this problem (eg shift the energy intensive industry off-Earth).
221.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Growing up in a small town, I could see thousands of stars on a clear night. In a major metropolitan area where I live now, it’s hundreds. When I visited Beijing for three weeks, I think there was one night where the pollution cleared suf
222.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Apparently part of the issue is that the Chinese grid is very badly managed. They can build physical grid connections much more easily than we can manage (for the usual values of “we”), but they manage interprovincial transmission according
223.
by rgmerk 2y ago
I used Blackboard for a decade. Trust me, it's awful.
224.
by rgmerk 2y ago
This is less impressive than it sounds. Real (inflation adjusted) US GDP is almost nine times higher than it was in 1945.
225.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Yes, there are costs involved, but for some people, at some stages in one's life, owning a weekender is great if you can afford it. Taking a toddler to a hotel is a major PITA; taking a toddler to a holiday home, while I wouldn't
226.
by rgmerk 2y ago
I’ve seen stories in the Australian media about foreigners (Australians and Americans) buying these and restoring them. The story was set up by a couple of Americans who’ve set up a business assisting people to do it. Even taking into accou
227.
by rgmerk 2y ago
I dunno, the 500th commission of Bandit and Lucky’s Dad doing *censored* probably gets pretty tiresome as well.
228.
by rgmerk 2y ago
While it’s undoubtedly an oversimplification this short podcast covers some of the key differences: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-news-daily/iyl-ar...
229.
by rgmerk 2y ago
Yeah, so was Australia. But Australia is now roughly as rich as, say, Germany, whereas Argentina is...not. Most of that is down to bad policy from Peron onward.
230.
by rgmerk 2y ago
For those unfamiliar Argentina was, at the start of the 20th century, among the richest countries on Earth. After many decades of mismanagement, it has a GDP per capita roughly equal to the likes of Mauritius (which 30 years ago was a far p
231.
by rgmerk 3y ago
Yes, it's happened. Even the UK, which has an arguably worse NIMBY problem than California, managed it (though it's getting close to your 20-year deadline): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1 There ha
232.
by rgmerk 3y ago
The trouble with this kind of thing is that it rapidly becomes the equivalent of WordArt - a signifier of amateurism.
233.
by rgmerk 3y ago
So a thing which is currently useless because it runs at a speed that makes the Harvard Mark I look fast, might be rendered useless if a thing that doesn’t physically exist despite decades of effort is constructed? :P)
234.
by rgmerk 3y ago
Personally, I treat wireless earbuds as essentially disposable items. Even if they're mechanically reliable, they fall out on a ride/run, they fill up with earwax, and are otherwise way too vulnerable to invest hundreds of dollars
235.
by rgmerk 3y ago
Events can happen to anyone, even competent state-sponsored organisations. And intelligence agencies are sometimes rather less ruthlessly competent than imagined (Kremlin assisinations in the UK have been a comedy of errors [1]). Maybe anot
236.
by rgmerk 3y ago
There may have been very good reasons to sunset the internal tool, and underhanded as this was it may have made a necessary process a lot less painful that it might otherwise have been.
237.
by rgmerk 3y ago
The climate impact of mining (for commodities other than fossil fuels) isn't trivial, but it's not a big deal in the greater scheme of things. About 4-7% of global emissions are from mining (which doesn't include petroleum ex
238.
by rgmerk 3y ago
I spent much of 2023 writing the code for our company to implement the changes in the new version of this standards document: https://www.frc.org.uk/library/standards-codes-policy/actuar... As far as getting paid
239.
by rgmerk 3y ago
There's never been any doubt that you can make a small, short-range battery electric airplane. We will probably be able to make short-range battery electric and fuel cell airliners. There is no prospect whatsoever of making an intercon
240.
by rgmerk 3y ago
Intermittent, yes. Expensive, no. It's just not. It's a bit more expensive in the US because, hey, protectionism, but solar panels are now by far the cheapest source of electricity on Earth if you don't care when that electri

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