A lot of people up above seem to not comprehend your first step and think you want to hold the money until the first milestone is completed. You put it right, they get funds to start operating, then it's milestone dependent. The exact percentages may be different, and different categories of projects may have a different release rate, but I'd bet a lot of these will fail to meet the first milestone, and instead of then creatively wasting the rest of the money, it will get returned back to the users. It's better for everyone overall. The starters don't have to go through years of failure, the backers don't have to go through years of broken promises, and everyone moves on.
Sometimes it takes trying to do it to realize how poorly you have actually planned for it, and at that point the best thing is to close up shop and rethink the idea.

It's crazy that I now actively avoid pressing the start icon on Windows because it will take 5 seconds to settle down from it's "dynamic" loading of shit and shit ads.

99.9% of the time I open it I want to simply launch an application that is already installed. I don't want to search the internet, that's what my open browser with 100+ tabs is for. I don't want suggestions for software to install, I already have it installed. I don't need sports news I never asked for, the weather, which is on my phone, or anything else. I simply want to be able to easily find my applications and start them.

And potentially less screwed. Someone finds your wallet with cash and credit cards, they can use those. Straight out take the cash, and attempt to use CC's. At least with a phone the wireless payment doesn't work without unlocking it.

All that really has done is changed what reason they are allowed to tell you, which has basically forced them to all say, in more or less the same unhelpful words, "We had many fine candidates. Wish you luck."

They can't give feedback because of legal. If they say the wrong thing in the criticism, then get dinged for not hiring a protected class, whether you meant to or not. So having these requirements, rather than helping, just makes it so we get worse feedback, and companies will just lie to you and the onus is on you to prove it. Outcome stays the same, and now worse behavior.

Are we arguing that native american's lost because they didn't have adequate social policy to procreate enough?

There are third party websites that resell gift cards, they pay pennies on the dollar and are largely based on trust. They offer guarantees that the funds are there, etc, and I'm certain that they track bad players. I used to do retail arbitrage and this was a pretty good grift if the items our buyers wanted happened to be from a store I could use gift cards on. Some were discounted 12% or thereabouts.

As for your particular problem with Google Play gift cards, you can go to put it into your account where it shows you the value, then click cancel instead of redeem.

The A/C costs no more than it would in an ICE, which runs it off mechanical energy from the engine. In both instances you are paying for a compressor to do the same amount of work. Your argument would work, however, for heating during the colder months as ICE engines produce so much waste heat you literally have a huge radiator and fan to cool it off. The most efficient HVACs for EVs use a heat pump to reduce the need for resistive heating, though they may find heat seaters to be more efficient way to keep them warm vs blowing hot air into the cabin which may simply have its door left open due to frequent stops.

There will certainly be other ways of support other than official software updates. Opening up the bootloader and allowing others to run custom roms and use the hardware they pay for in any way they see fit could be a reasonable way out. Take away my free voice recognition home automation capability? Only if provide me with a way to install my own assistant. Your a kickstarter, and ran out of money in two years? Fine, open up all the software and give it to the community who paid for it.

It's often asked if physics is absolutely necessary for a CS degree. But the one thing that physics gives you a lot of is practice in breaking down a problem and modeling it. It teaches you about compromises you can make to simplify the problem, and how to account for those inaccuracies.

Similar to how in grade school you are graded more on your work than the answer. It's more important to understand and be able to explain your process as to how you arrived at your answer, this allows you to check that they understand the concepts, and becomes more critical the more complex things become.

Some do this, it's the whole ChargePoint model. Unfortunately the bean counters at host sites don't necessarily understand how to set an appropriate rate. I was at a hotel that had these and they were set to $5/hr for the first 6hrs, then $20/hr after that, for a 6kw charger, which is split with the spot next to it, so with two people charging your rate essentially doubles. If you wanted to sleep for 8hrs and get 24-48kwh, that would cost $70.

The supercharger a couple miles away was like $0.30/kwh, or $7.20-$14.40 for the same amount of energy.

Their miscalculation for setting rates means that I will never stay there again.

As a rideshare driver this has NOT been my experience.

For AC, I keep it comfortable for me (74F) and turn it down with passenger request, or with two or more passengers.

For winter, I wear a jacket, keep it comfortable at 70F, and turn it down with more passengers.

During a particular winter storm I had a passenger in the car for 5hrs set at 72F, and calculated based on range use that I could idle there in a winter storm for over 24hrs while maintaining a comfortable temperature.

Typical day of driving for me was around 200 to 250mi, which amounted to about 9hrs of being online and driving. On busy days, especially when I'll run over 9hrs, I might stop by a DCFC for 10min to give an additional 100mi.

Anecdotally I would charge to 100% at home, drive for 9hrs and head home at arrive with less than 5%. Idling has a near 0 cost in a BEV, much lower than hybrids or ICE cars. Stop and go traffic? My average with my normal driving is 280W/mi, while ride share driving I averaged more around 250W/mi and sometimes got down to 235W/mi.

During a winter storm I had my longest ride ever, 5hr to drive 30mi. The cabin temp was left at 72F, keeping us all comfortable. I calculated out that I could probably sit there idle in freezing temps for more than 24hr.

I was recently in China. Every train I got on they scanned my passport. Purchasing the tickets, they scan my passport. The gates to enter/exit ask directly for either national ID or passport.
Most vending machines and shops don't accept cash. Everybody uses WeChat and simply scans a QR code. I was visiting relatives and they bought everything while out there, never once did they produce cash to pay for something.

To be fair that page is a blog post of the announcement of Greater Big Bend earning their endorsement and has a date published of April 2nd, 2022. The new site received certification on March 11th, 2024.

As an advocacy group they can't force places to apply, and in fact they state that they work on nominations to decide which places to work on. The idea being that if a community cares enough about preserving the night sky that they will be more committed to make any necessary changes to receive the designation.

There's a lot of requirements of the core area and the surrounding areas to do outreach and to preserve the dark sky. Every stakeholder needs to be committed. This includes changing of local ordinances, especially ones for outdoor lighting. Of course, the preserve would be useless if there was no public access allowed.

Hopefully the RAC find value in this and decide to put Jasper up for designation on top of their own. Just because a site has not been designated does not mean that it does not meet its requirements. Dark Sky International isn't saying that Jasper is not a dark sky preserve by not having them designated, it's likely as simple as no one has bothered to apply yet, or if they have applied, the process has not yet completed. Another possibility is they have applied, but were unable or unwilling to make the changes necessary to meet the requirements set out by Dark Sky International.

From a brief reading of their process https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdarksky.org%2Fwhat-we-do... it seems that they take it quit seriously that the proper stake holders are involved, that they meet the standards. Seems to typically require 80% of land owners to participate. They also must show that it is legally protected. This is MUCH different than designating an area simply by how dark they sky is, it is designating that the area is LEGALLY protected to preserve the dark sky.

Not knowing more about Jasper, or the RAC's requirements, and whether or not they have sought designation from Dark Sky International or not, it is hard to say.

At the very least they should make it similar to what they have been doing with subscription services. Make it as easy to end a subscription as it is to start a subscription. If I can consent to forced arbitration from their damn popup window I should also be able to opt out from the same damn popup.