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Joined 3 年前
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Cake day: 2023年9月29日

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  • Some years ago in the Netherlands, I was cycling home through a pitch black cycling path covered by trees (so not even moonlight) with my very decent bike light illuminating the path ahead of me.

    Before I could even process that there was another cyclist coming towards me, a dark figure zips past so closely that I feel their jacket brush my left hand. It startled me so much that I needed to stop and catch my breath. I could only imagine what would have happened if I had hit him head on with us both going 25 km/h.

    I’m curious to hear how that incident was my fault.


  • People are insufficiently conscious of their visibility. Last night, in the dark and rain, a jogger came running full speed to cross a crosswalk from a dark wooded area between buildings who was completely wearing black. I would have hit her if it weren’t for the two inches of white socks that extended above her black sneakers which allowed me to slam the brakes just a moment before.

    I know it can be hard to introspect about your own visibility. My partner has pointed out to me how to be better visible when I go out on my bike. More people should think about it.


  • The non-stop chimes and beeps and spoken alerts in cars in South Korea is absolutely maddening. With these constant distractions, there’s absolutely no way this makes driving safer.

    Imagine passing a speed limit sign that warns of an upcoming speed bump. It will immediately start loud beeping because you’re now speeding as you roll out, while simultaneously speaking out loud what the new speed limit is, while simultaneously also saying there’s a speed bump, all while your music and navigation play as well.

    Thank goodness this was vetoed.



  • Connecting a classic (non-Google TV) Chromecast to a new WiFi (or heaven forbid a hotel WiFi with a capture portal) was always such a pain. And casting over networks without mDNS is flaky at best and otherwise downright impossible.

    By contrast, I’ve loved taking along my Chromecast with Google TV to hotels, along with:

    • A VPN client installed it already,
    • An Android phone that can create a WiFi AP while connected to the hotel WiFi,
    • A Bluetooth speaker and my Bluetooth headphones paired to it so I get great audio as well.

    This has been a complete gamechanger and a genuine upgrade over yesteryear’s Chromecasts.






  • It would be better if direct sales were allowed, but unfortunately dealerships are required by law in almost all US states. The shady bit is how Tesla got one of the few exceptions and continues to be exempt despite being among the leading car manufacturers in the USA. All other leading manufacturers are required by state laws to sell their vehicles through dealerships.

    Tesla’s NCAS chargers only began to allow non-Teslas to use it from 2019, so this is kind of recent history in terms of car ownership and network coverage.



  • Regarding the sales process: in Tesla’s early days, they received an exception to the requirement for needing to use dealerships. Generally this is very shady and is outright unfair towards other car manufacturers—even Rivian didn’t get this same special treatment because lawmakers saw how Tesla abused it.

    Tesla’s growing monopoly on charging networks isn’t something to be proud of, in my opinion, and neither is their proprietary charging cable. We need open standards.

    Also, Tesla’s mileage estimates are notoriously exaggerated. Perhaps technically you can get the claimed range if the entire trip is downhill…