zbrozek

13 ms·

121.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Deleting zoning would be be an incredible boost for the economy, but I don't think it's politically possible. Prop 13 is a constitutional amendment that the legislature can't repeal. Folks are addicted to spending money, and
122.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Those 'other things' are generally more optional than shelter, so you'll bid up shelter until you get it while sacrificing those other things. Inelastic demand and inelastic supply is a bad combo. We see affordability and pop
123.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Still the case, huh. That's unfortunate. All of my VMs run on a headless server, so my only means of use is via some form of remote desktop.
124.
by zbrozek 3y ago
What's the best solution for remote viewing with virtio-gpu? I vaguely recall that it had some incompatibility with spice. I have a bunch of qemu/kvm virtual machines for various tasks. For two of them I decided that graphics perf
125.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I think you're deliberately avoiding what I am saying, which is "price controls" and pretending that I am saying "regulation". Those are completely different concepts. The article itself is showing exactly what happ
126.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Regulating some behaviors is important, but price controls break markets by disconnecting supply and demand.
127.
by zbrozek 3y ago
California electeds don't believe in market economics. So we get rent control, insurance control, utility control (amusingly in the higher-than-market price direction), etc.
128.
by zbrozek 3y ago
That would be great, but your forebears locked in a great prop 13 basis decades ago and it would be worth more than your raise to give it up. Or you're in faux social housing in the form of a rent controlled apartment and don't wa
129.
by zbrozek 3y ago
There's also a huge tendency to design for fast, high quality connectivity. Try using any Google product on airplane wifi. Even just chat loads in minutes-to-never and frequently keels over dead, forcing an outrageously expensive reloa
130.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Inverters do not operate transformers at 60 Hz. Many of them don't have even have isolation transformers at all. Their magnetic components are comparatively tiny. Those that do have isolation transformers will run them at high frequenc
131.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I'm old now, and I won't dismiss that the new stuff is aesthetically nice. It's also not that hard to use. But I just don't like the visual polish more than I like the clarity and responsiveness of the old UI elements. I
132.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I miss old school checkboxes for UI toggles. They're crisp and clear and don't entice bored people to animate them.
133.
by zbrozek 3y ago
The US doesn't want new domestic anything. We have made it nearly impossible to build housing, transmission lines, power plants, factories, etc. It seems like the only thing we still know how to do and also want to do is roads.
134.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I'm not aware of any font overrides (that's not something I typically fuss with) but now you have me suspicious that I don't know my own setup!
135.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I lost a Windows 11 license because my laptop's motherboard failed and had to get replaced.
136.
by zbrozek 3y ago
For that visit, Windows 11 with Firefox developer. Ublock Origin and Noscript, with some combination of previously allowed and default-blocked script sources. I didn't really investigate what was missing to mess with the case, but allo
137.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Case is inverted with javascript disabled. I've never seen that before!
138.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Some local councils around here want to make it a condition of approval that the first floor of mixed-use must remain commercial. Developers want it to be flexible because they can't predict future need. Constraints cost! Euclidean z
139.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I grew up in Lexington, KY and Sharps Chapel, TN, but spent the last eighteen years in CA. I'm hoping to move back in the next couple of years. My parents are still out there. I hope to still be welcome.
140.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Yeah we're getting shafted. Starts at $0.487 and goes up to $0.618 per KWh. https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHED...
141.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Mini splits are better in this regard than traditional ducted installations.
142.
by zbrozek 3y ago
3.78 at Mathilda and Maude in Sunnyvale
143.
by zbrozek 3y ago
California resident here. Both of my last two places with gas furnaces combust unconditioned air.
144.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Their price per joule of electricity is higher than per joule of gas by more than the coefficient of performance of a heat pump. You are better off getting thermal energy by burning gas if your energy provider is PG&E. The story only ge
145.
by zbrozek 3y ago
PG&E electric rates are so high that it's operationally more expensive to use a heat pump than a condensing gas system. The heat pump is the better deal practically everywhere else in the contiguous US. I'm installing a heat p
146.
by zbrozek 3y ago
The simplest devices are on or off. If they are grossly oversized they cycle a lot and make homes less comfortable by pushing a huge volume of hot or cold air briefly. Variable speed compressors are better, but blowers may not also be varia
147.
by zbrozek 3y ago
Consumer protection law could also demand a full and automatic refund.
148.
by zbrozek 3y ago
I'm not sure how the US average residential retail number is weighted, but let's take it at face value at $0.1619/KWh. [1] Baseline allocations are very small (around San Francisco--territory T--you get 177 KWh/mo in the
149.
by zbrozek 3y ago
It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. Incidentally, I happen to have almost the same refrigerator as the author (same thing, but without the hot water dispenser). My on
150.
by zbrozek 3y ago
The average price paid for a KWh is very different than what a median customer pays for a marginal KWh. There are myriad small utilities that drag down the average price paid for a KWh in CA, but the three big IOUs cover the majority of acc

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