rsynnott

5 ms·

91.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
> The only upside I have read about would be access to adopting the Euro which has a lower inflation rate than the ISK. Strictly speaking, Iceland could do this unilaterally, anyway; Kosovo and Montenegro have done so, and Denmark and a
92.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Iceland's in a fairly different situation. It's already in the EEA; that is, it's subject to most EU law and gets most of the benefits, but gets to have its own rules around fish. (This was an option for the UK, and is actual
93.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
It's even a bit sillier than that. David Cameron promised a dumb thing to get elected, on the assumption that he'd be in another libdem coalition, and the libdems wouldn't allow it. Then he got a majority. And campaigned agai
94.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Seem like probably about 400CE; this is very much late-stage Roman emperor behaviour.
95.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Very big senile post-Soviet dictator energy. I give it six months before he’s renaming the months.
96.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
… yeah, I mean there’s not a multi-trillion market in that!
97.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
It applies to all card networks (ie Visa and Mastercard, and local schemes like Girocard and Cartes Bancaires, though in practice most local schemes had cheaper-than-cap fees anyway), for consumer cards only. About the only significant thin
98.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
I think it's unfortunate that they chose to adapt _that_ one, really. It's good, but it's before Pratchett really got into his stride, and it's far closer to a straight satire of fantasy novels than subsequent books.
99.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
In Ireland, Eircom, way back in the day, called ADSL _exchanges which had a fibre connection_ (versus microwave) “fibre-powered broadband”. This lead to confusion when they launched their VDSL product, and even more confusion when they laun
100.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Bloody hell, what’s next? “The requirement for 300km/h for high speed rail is unreasonable prejudicial to technologies such as steam”.
101.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
It’s not uncommon for cities to be worse than rural areas now. In Ireland, nearly all rural premises have 10gbit-capable fibre available (will be literally all by early next year) but parts of central Dublin are stuck with VDSL. Retrofittin
102.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
We’re on about our third attempt at rural internet in Ireland. The first two involved wasting a lot of money subsidising dubious cellular and satellite stuff which was arguably marginally good enough 20 years ago, but not now. Thankfully on
103.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
And is largely dying out as far as I can see; it’s only even still issued in a couple of European countries.
104.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
> especially in places like Europe where they’ve foolishly and enthusiastically started forcing everyone into digital payment In Europe (or at least the EEA, but the UK and I think Switzerland have their own capping) card interchange is
105.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
This is arguably partly because the EU caps card interchange (at 0.3%, generally). So these reward schemes don’t exist, because there’s no money for them, so why would anyone use a credit card over a debit card or bank transfer unless they
106.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Euro 7 takes effect in a couple of months. For practical purposes, that means that anything on sale in Europe already has to comply; no-one’s going to launch a car on the basis that any they don’t sell by November become a waste product.
107.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
There are cranks who claim that, essentially, the _middle ages_ did not happen. Claiming that things which obviously happened didn’t happen is one of the more common forms of crankery; motives vary (I think the Middle Ages deniers are gener
108.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Plate tectonics was super controversial at one point. Would be a common one for conspiracy theorists of a certain vintage.
109.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Oh, sorry, yeah, the eUp (looked just like an Up) was the first modern VW one, not the eGolf. Design shown off in 2010, full production in 2013. Again, looked just like an Up. I’d say a first gen Leaf looked fairly typical of small Nissan c
110.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
There'd be lots of PHEVs which don't meet Euro 7. I doubt anyone is bothering to try to meet it for anything not sold in Europe.
111.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
... Huh? The Nissan Leaf and Renault ZoE looked fairly normal. And the eGolf looked _so_ normal that people didn't realise VW made electric cars. (I'm fairly sure that the reason the id3 and 4 look a bit weird is a direct reaction
112.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
For those who enjoy the Bosch painting, there’s this fun robot, which posts random crops of it daily: https://bsky.app/profile/boschbot.bsky.social It’s been going years now, still hasn’t run out (though it seems to ha
113.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Foldable phones still feel like a solution in search of a problem to me. Like, what is the actual usecase?
114.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
The sticker seems like an important aspect.
115.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
I refuse to believe that at this point the AI companies are not doing that deliberately.
116.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Are you suggesting that it would be advantageous for humanity to evolve to live in London circa 2000? Larry Niven played with this in one of his stories; a time traveller from the far (and highly polluted) future has to use mechanical breat
117.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Impossible to retrofit, of course, but what helps more are big tunnels. Modern ~9m diameter single tunnel systems are a lot better for this than old 3.5m diameter double tunnel systems.
118.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
And diesel hydraulic trains (and some buses) usually use these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retarder_(mechanical_engineeri...
119.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Generally, the busiest streets are pedestrianised; you just can't move that volume of people in cars. (Actually, the _very_ busiest streets are probably major bus gates (where, again, there are no cars), those can have fairly ridiculou
120.
by rsynnott 2mo ago
Well, ah, selectively progressive: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-21508758

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