🇨🇦 tunetardis

I don’t think there is an easy answer to a question like that, as it involves a lot of individual circumstances. You did land a licence, which suggests you are not cognitively impaired to the point that driving is out of the question? Give yourself some credit. It sounds like you are on the anxiety spectrum though, as am I. Perhaps you were in the midst of a panic attack at the time of the accident?

I think in some ways it’s a noble calling to find alternatives to driving? But do it for the right reasons. If it’s stage 1 on the path to becoming an agoraphobiac, fuck that. You’re only 19. Don’t build a cage around yourself now that you’ll only realize is there when you get your standard issue midlife crisis at 40.

My son doesn’t drive, and he seems to be doing ok. He strategized to get an apartment near enough to work and amenities that he can walk most of the time, and there is also an LRT station nearby. He rideshares for anything else.

I don’t know what will happen if he ever starts a family? That could introduce some challenges, but one day at a time I guess. For my part as an empty nester at this point, I have discovered an ebike is an awesome alternative to driving the 10k to work. It saves so much money over any other option, is better for the environment, and I’ve even managed to shed a bit of weight. Still got the old dad bod though…

But I think these are some of the right reasons to look at driving alternatives. Anxiety just sucks, and you’ll probably still have it on an ebike or public transit. Take care of that first and then assess your options, I think?

I know someone who’s going in for a colonoscopy. Maybe they can get the two-for-one package with a reading tossed in?

That’s Swedish isn’t it?

My dad had this brilliant idea for everyone to say “cheese” in the local language every time he took a selfie of us when we were travelling around Europe. Let’s just say even though that was years ago in my childhood, I can look through that album and know instantly which photos were taken in Sweden!

I’m not a web dev but was chatting with a friend who is, lamenting web 2.0 for pretty much the same reasons as OP. He’s like “2.0?!? Where have you been? It’s all about web3 and blockchains.” Now where was that comfortable old rock I had been hiding under again?

When the www was in its infancy, I thought there needed to be a standardized way to classify content. Something Dewey Decimal System-ish I suppose? But it would need to be easy for casual content providers to use, since the only way it could work would be in at a grass roots, decentralized level where each provider would be responsible for classifying their own content.

Perhaps there could be tools like expert systems that would ask you a number of questions about your data and then link it up appropriately. It could usher in a golden age of library science!

But then everyone went fuck that. Search engines.

I’m almost afraid to ask what Golden Dome is? If it’s SDI 2.0, we need to stay away in droves. I think there’s some merit in sinking a bit of R&D into dealing with emerging threats like drones, and maybe upgrading the ancient DEW line radars? But if this is another Star Wars missile shield over the entire continent proposal, that was a costly boondoggle in the 80s and I see no reason to believe it wouldn’t be one again today.

EVs are generally heavier, meaning more tire wear, so I’m skeptical that the reduction is all that meaningful.

Yeah this was my first thought as well. In the balance, I have no doubt that EVs are better for the environment than ICEVs, but when we’re nitpicking about particulates coming out of wear and tear, the weight issue has got to play into that.

In North America, people tend to drive automobiles that are way bigger than they need to be. I have read that this is in part due to auto dealers enjoying larger margins on big vehicles and encouraging this on their clientele. But EVs are different. Bigger means more batteries means more expensive to manufacture. So the sweet spot in terms of profit margins may be something smaller? But whether this will translate into fewer SUVs and pickups on the road I don’t know.

Wish car manufacturers never bought up the streetcars and trolleys, they effectively killed public transit in the US pretty early on.

At least it seems light rail is having a moment. I grew up in Toronto where they never did give up on streetcars, though there was a close call (in the 80s I think it was) when the auto lobby tried to have them removed. Fortunately, the mayor at the time was a huge fan. And now it seems the street cars have been upgraded to 3-car light rail.

And LRTs seem to be popping up all over the US too. Do you know the way to San Jose? It’s light rail. That system’s been around forever, but I was surprised on my last visit to Phoenix to see an LRT whiz by. That’s about as car-centric a city as I could possibly imagine.

Thru regen braking, EVs reduce that (but bikes are even better!)

In fairness, regen braking is not all that common in ebikes, though some models do have it now. But bikes are better for the environment than cars in every way regardless.

Oh man really? That’s hilarious! I’m glad Dad didn’t shell out for a big spread in there then. It was just his name and that’s it.

This reminds me a bit of that shady outfit that was promising to have a star named after you for a price. I was taking astronomy at the time and some friends asked me about it. I said NO! Don’t even think about it. While there are way more stars in the Milky Way alone than there are people who have ever lived, astronomers are most certainly not in the business of naming them all. You can get a visiting comet named after you if you spot it first though.

I was at a used bookstore and there was this volume called the Who’s Who Almanac or something to that effect. I was shocked to find my dad’s name in there! He was an academic in a rather narrow discipline. I wouldn’t say he was a prolific publisher or had any major discoveries under his name, but he spoke numerous languages and was well-travelled. To be fair, the book was essentially a giant list of names and didn’t include bios or anything, so the bar might have been pretty low? But still…

I suppose Facebook, if only because it’s the hardest to avoid for me. Friends, family, local businesses, charities, bands I follow, bands I play in, friggin everything is on FB and the feed is such a cesspool at this point. And the only thing that might have a snowball’s chance in Hell of challenging its dominance is maybe Discord? Some of my friends seem to be spending more time there of late, and a few community groups I’m involved with have started their own too. But I dunno.

I’m not familiar with how Netflix’s ad tier works and am almost afraid to ask, but could someone ELI5?

If a company wanted to push an ad on Netflix, wouldn’t it be up to them to decide whether to use AI make the thing? Or is this sort of the equivalent of a small business sending a script to the local radio station to have the DJ read it (i.e. rather than producing their own ad), except they add some AI-generated visuals?

Well I guess he’s effected some change there in that he’s got me working hard to avoid reddit.

I saw a meme going around about our guy in Canada who met a similar fate. It compared him to a toilet, noting that while both are full of shit, the toilet at least has a seat.

Oh wow I hadn’t realized that!

I checked on their web site. They say it can handle up to 140W for a 3-hour charge, which I assume means 28Vx5A. The minimum is 30W (20Vx1.5A).

That’s interesting. I wonder what the battery voltage is? Since most ebikes are up in the 36-48V range and USB-C maxes out at 20V, they’d presumably need to do some step up transforming in there?

That’s cool that the connector is bidirectional for charging portable electronics off your bike. I discovered my bike has a stealth USB-A output hidden behind a rubberized cover under the instrument panel. I didn’t even know it was there for like a year, but it’s awesome!

That’s an interesting idea of having swappable battery packs rather than sitting around waiting for the thing to charge. I remember in the early days of EVs, there was some talk about that but it’s much harder to pull off with the huge batteries in a car.

Yeah, I suppose they could also be useful for translation when travelling someplace where you can’t read the language, provided it’s reasonably accurate and not too laggy?

In terms of occasional use, I was thinking they could be good for loading speeches or music/lyrics when you’re up on a stage. But while that seems like it ought to be a fairly trivial feature to implement, as both a software developer and performer, I could see this being more challenging than you think to get a good experience out of that sort of app.

This seems like a tech that would be hard to get right? There are a lot of trade-offs involving cost, weight, resolution, processing, battery life, etc.

For my part, I would probably use AR features rather sparingly to maintain my sanity, but they could be very useful in certain narrow applications. Whether these would be sufficient to justify the price tag is uncertain. I also tend to be rough on glasses, so that would be a worry.

Yeah seriously don’t tell my wife this. She still counts on them and it’s going to go badly…

I guess the central premise of capitalism is that while every society has its haves and have nots, capitalism is supposed to encourage the haves to invest in the economy rather than hoarding their wealth. In return, they stand to get even wealthier, but a stronger economy ought to generate more employment and generally improve the lives of commoners as well.

Unfortunately, in a never-ending quest to make wealth-generation more efficient and streamlined, employment is being eliminated through automation, outsourcing, etc. and the system is eating itself out from the inside. I doubt it can persist much longer, but what will replace it remains unclear. I pray that it will be something sensible that ensures everyone has their basic needs met and can still find rewarding pursuits in life. But there are so many ways it could go very wrong, and that includes staying on the current course.