4
points
starwatch
Joined 224 karma
- Their chat about the limitations of optical memory made me think of Magneto-Optic (MO) memory cells [0] that I read about earlier this year. From what I understood (not an expert - so I'm open to correction) we move away from Von Neumann, to something where memory is a "filter" that light passes through rather than a bucket of data that needs to be moved around.
Overall it’s interesting to me that we can trade a bigger size to get more speed.
- For anyone looking for an in-vehicle EDC to solve this problem I'd recommend a Keetch tool. I used them in the fire service with great success on the laminated glass of a windscreen. I assume it'd work equally well on a laminated side window glass - though I've not tried. Nice thing is that the sharp spike on it would work quite well on tempered glass too (though we had proper glass breakers for that).
- I think the general premise of AI in war is pretty scary. But this in particular stood out to me as an important challenge:
> There are also fears that automated systems will violate the rules of war. How will they avoid harming civilians, or distinguish soldiers who want to surrender?
As it stands we see guerrilla fighters already ignore these rules (ISIS for example). It's a little frightening to consider such groups acquiring and deploying automated machine guns. We need to regulate these kinds of weapons systems much like we do with CBRN weapons.
- 4 points
- The poor regulation around this is pretty bad for startups. Personally I've taken to only buying rechargeable battery powered devices from big brands. Anything else and I look for a power cord, single-use batteries, or mechanical operation.
It's not an ideal solution and not just because of examples like the Samsung Galaxy Note7. It's because I love rooting for the startups, the disruptors, the innovators. But in the world of battery powered products I'm inclined to think (or hope!) that the bigger players have more to lose by cheaping out on cheap batteries.
- If you want more context on PFAS, I recommend this Veritasium video [0]. It expanded on my usual thought of "PFAS = bad," explaining why non-stick cookware is probably fine while other forms of PFAS are problematic. The video also covers the environmental damage caused by PFAS manufacturing.
- 71 points
- After seeing warnings about rustwasm not being maintained [1], I'm glad that wasm-bindgen is still actively supported [2]. That said, it's concerning that many previously recommended practices (e.g. like relying on wasm-pack) are now in question [3]. This makes it harder for devs to adopt Rust for building WASM apps.
[1]: https://rustwasm.github.io/docs/book/
[2]: https://github.com/wasm-bindgen
[3]: https://github.com/wasm-bindgen/wasm-bindgen/issues/4634
- 4 points
- You're right, the Norwegian government can do whatever they want. And yes, the ability to stop domain squatting is a nice side effect. For me though, it was a pretty surprising process, and set of restrictions.
Life is full of tradeoffs and this is no exception. I quite like the .no TLD - I find it lends itself to fun product / side project names. It's just a pity that I'm limited to 5 with the .no TLD :)
- Money can be "lost", and "created". In fact, it regularly is by commercial banks; this is the cornerstone of the modern economy. The bank of England wrote a pretty accessible document on money being created and destroyed [1]. For a slightly deeper dive (but equally accessible) check out "Can’t We Just Print More Money?" by Rupal Patel, et al. [2] which describes the different kinds of money.
The 2014 doc was a pretty wild read for me when it came out - it changed my perspective quite a bit.
[1]:https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-...
[2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58796370-can-t-we-just-p...
- I've recently had a glimpse of that - buying my first .no domain required me to be registered on the Norwegian population register, and full digital verification. There was even a phone call with the registrar! Some of the other rules are bonkers too [1]:
- Each private individual may at any time subscribe to up to 5 domain names directly under .no
- Each organisation may at any time subscribe to up to 100 domain names directly under .no
[1]: https://www.norid.no/en/om-domenenavn/regelverk-for-no/
- Edit: It'll manifest as the change in average age of scrapped vehicles [in countries] with large fleets of EV's on the road.
- > That's statistical. A small number will start their exponential degrade at 80%, but most won't. Some might get to 60% before they start it.
The paper that underpins the 80% claim is paywalled and I'm cheap so don't have the numbers to hand. But in the abstract sense being statistical could go the other way too - i.e. some might get to 90% before they start their exponential decay.
> And "exponential degrade" doesn't mean it's particularly fast.
True, exponential doesn't mean much other than e^n where it's implied that n > 1. However the value of n does matter, for example a decay rate for n=100 is quite different than n=1.1. Again, we're talking in general terms as I don't have the value of n for this. For better or worse, I'm taking the paper at face value when it talks of end of life at 80% - however it has been peer reviewed and is in a "proper" journal so to my mind that adds some credibility.
It's worth mentioning that the current DoE guidance on lifetimes is: "12 to 15 years in moderate climates (8 to 12 years in extreme climates)". Of course that guidance is also based on a statistical analysis that doesn't seem to account for modern battery management systems [1]. There are additional factors at play that govern battery degradation, including things like: battery chemistry, environment, EV charging habits, etc.
Ultimately the real test of EV battery life will come with time. It'll manifest as the change in average age of scrapped vehicles with large fleets of EV's on the road. In Norway right now it's about 18 years (for a mostly internal combustion fleet) [2]. However as of this year all private vehicles sold must be zero-emission - so in 10-20 years we'll have some interesting data [3].
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20250530000446/https://afdc.ener...
[2]: https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/table/05522/tableViewLayout1/...
[3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20250530115356/https://www.regje...
- As another comment mentioned, the cited studies are more about how the battery chemistry changes over time, not how people use the EV. That said, EV manufacturers definitely care about driver habits too, since it affects warranty claims and how they configure their battery management systems.
I think modern EVs are set up to charge to a certain percentage of capacity rather than a specific range, kind of like how smartphones do it.
Your point about depth of discharge ( 80%->17% ) makes sense though, since the battery system can't really control someone's driving routine.
- It is an older paper, though that in itself isn't a reason to discount this (or any science). For example, the DoE still uses an 2014 predictive model to estimate longevity of today's EV batteries at "12 to 15 years in moderate climates (8 to 12 years in extreme climates)" [1]. However as the DoE says, battery longevity depends on a bunch of factors e.g. chemistry, charging patterns, etc.
To the practical matter - yes, EV manufacturers are very careful with warranty periods. Anecdotally, an acquaintance had a Tesla for 8 years. 6 months after the 8-year battery warranty expired the battery ceased working. The details were a little unclear (it was explained in broken English/Norwegian). That said, anecdata carries little weight. What we need is more peer-reviewed research to update our understanding of battery longevity. Until we have that we need to rely on the existing published knowledge... otherwise anyone can assert anything and we learn nothing.
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20250530000446/https://afdc.ener...
- > At that point, a Tesla will have more than 80% of its initial capacity, and in some cases, even more. So people will probably give up their car, well, well before the battery gets close to becoming a burden.
I looked into the secondhand EV market (in Norway). In doing so I read quite a bit of academic research to figure out the lifetime of an EV. Apparently the 80% capacity is the accepted end of life for an EV battery:
"For batteries, 80% of the initial capacity is referred to as the point after which it tends to exhibit an exponential decay of capacity and is considered an unreliable power source after this point for EV application" [1]
So, the Tesla the article talks about won't be much good, or at least not for very long.
- There's an interesting planet money podcast[0] about SawStop and why it's not a bigger thing in the world. TLDR: the big power tool companies didn't want to pay to licence the tech, so evidently came to some mutual agreement to ignore it as a feature to save customer fingers.
[0]:https://www.npr.org/2024/10/11/nx-s1-5135668/planet-money-wh...
It's a hobby project I started putting together a couple of months back; a little spot on the internet for prayer and reflection.