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Comment Renewable Mandate (Score 4, Insightful) 94

Maybe we should consider requiring new renewable power generation before allowing new datacenters to connect to the grid (and ban generators for non-emergency use). There would be a market for renewable power installation credits, so new datacenters would drive the greening of the grid instead of increasing carbon output.

This doesn't solve the water use for cooling issue, though.

Comment Bug finding (Score 2) 12

I'm not ready to turn over major code development to AI, but I would be perfectly happy to have it scan the code base for suspicious code. Just the other day I had a small bit of code in a language I'm just learning, and I pasted it into an AI and asked it to explain it. The explanation was good, and it pointed out that what the code actually did did not match what the comment said; that's a big red flag. It was also able to fix the code to match the comment. Since I'm just learning the language, it saved me a good bit of time (but probably slowed down my learning of the language).

But it would be great to have it look over the whole code base and report issues that may need attention.

Comment Not About Range (Score 1) 137

This is about cheaper batteries, not about range. We already have cars with over 400 miles of range. They're just expensive. All that matters here is the lower cost per kWh. If they're saying a 30% cheaper battery, then that means automakers have options to reduce prices or extend range (or increase profits for a few years until other companies get similar technology). And is 30% the real number? I'm not clear on that, and even if that's the claim, it's hard to be sure they're not cherry-picking price points on existing batteries to make their tech look good.

So perhaps this means your standard 300+ mile range car can move to 400+, but more likely it means a price drop, though perhaps with pricier longer range versions. Except for trucks where towing kills the range.

Speaking of trucks, the other thing to look at is weight per kWh. How much weight does this drop from a 500-mile semi? That's significant, as it means more cargo.

Transportation

Class Action Accuses Toyota of Illegally Sharing Drivers' Data (insurancejournal.com) 51

"A federal class action lawsuit filed this week in Texas accused Toyota and an affiliated telematics aggregator of unlawfully collecting drivers' information and then selling that data to Progressive," reports Insurance Journal: The lawsuit alleges that Toyota and Connected Analytic Services (CAS) collected vast amounts of vehicle data, including location, speed, direction, braking and swerving/cornering events, and then shared that information with Progressive's Snapshot data sharing program. The class action seeks an award of damages, including actual, nominal, consequential damages, and punitive, and an order prohibiting further collection of drivers' location and vehicle data.
Florida man Philip Siefke had bought a new Toyota RAV4 XLE in 2021 "equipped with a telematics device that can track and collect driving data," according to the article. But when he tried to sign up for insurance from Progressive, "a background pop-up window appeared, notifying Siefke that Progressive was already in possession of his driving data, the lawsuit says. A Progressive customer service representative explained to Siefke over the phone that the carrier had obtained his driving data from tracking technology installed in his RAV4." (Toyota told him later he'd unknowingly signed up for a "trial" of the data sharing, and had failed to opt out.) The lawsuit alleges Toyota never provided Siefke with any sort of notice that the car manufacture would share his driving data with third parties... The lawsuit says class members suffered actual injury from having their driving data collected and sold to third parties including, but not limited to, damage to and diminution in the value of their driving data, violation of their privacy rights, [and] the likelihood of future theft of their driving data.
The telemetry device "can reportedly gather information about location, fuel levels, the odometer, speed, tire pressure, window status, and seatbelt status," notes CarScoop.com. "In January, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton started an investigation into Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, and FCA..." According to plaintiff Philip Siefke from Eagle Lake, Florida, Toyota, Progressive, and Connected Analytic Services collect data that can contribute to a "potential discount" on the auto insurance of owners. However, it can also cause insurance premiums to be jacked up.
The plaintiff's lawyer issued a press release: Despite Toyota claiming it does not share data without the express consent of customers, Toyota may have unknowingly signed up customers for "trials" of sharing customer driving data without providing any sort of notice to them. Moreover, according to the lawsuit, Toyota represented through its app that it was not collecting customer data even though it was, in fact, gathering and selling customer information. We are actively investigating whether Toyota, CAS, or related entities may have violated state and federal laws by selling this highly sensitive data without adequate disclosure or consent...

If you purchased a Toyota vehicle and have since seen your auto insurance rates increase (or been denied coverage), or have reason to believe your driving data has been sold, please contact us today or visit our website at classactionlawyers.com/toyota-tracking.

On his YouTube channel, consumer protection attorney Steve Lehto shared a related experience he had — before realizing he wasn't alone. "I've heard that story from so many people who said 'Yeah, I I bought a brand new car and the salesman was showing me how to set everything up, and during the setup process he clicked Yes on something.' Who knows what you just clicked on?!"

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the news.

Comment Re:VRU's vulnerable road users. (Score 1) 112

That's also the class that has legal requirements for a minimum passing distance. In many states, you have to have at least a 3' separation. Massachusetts didn't have a specified distance until recently, but set it at 4'. That's for pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, electric unicycles, horses, and pretty much anything else without a license plate. It's a legal category, so it makes sense to use the term when discussing regulations, safety criteria, and such.

Comment Re:Offer the option. (Score 1) 158

If the numbers in the summary are correct, the system pays for itself in five years. Maybe six or seven if the estimates are optimistic and the builder adds a profit margin to the added cost. Still the total cost of ownership for the home goes down. Yes, you pay a little more in monthly mortgage payments, but you pay less in electric bills, so the overall expense is lower. Banks will need to take that into account in determining whether people qualify for a mortgage, but assuming they do, this should make homes more affordable, not less.

Comment Re:power out (Score 2) 138

People who charge at home often get in the habit of plugging in every time the get home so they never have to think about it. In those cases, they should be fine. People who can't charge at home and have to plan a charging stop may be impacted, but people with petrol cars may also have a challenge finding stations with generators that are still operating.

Comment Upper Stage (Score 2) 46

Apparently the upper stage of the launch vehicle is also still in orbit. Perhaps leave the satellite and bring back the upper stage. It's also probably a lot larger, so there will be more to study. And it's probably also a lot harder to bring back, so we may learn more about how to do things than just bringing back a tiny satellite; an astronaut in a Dragon could just climb out and grab the satellite.

Comment XigmaNAS (Score 1) 108

Years ago FreeNAS went commercial, and there was an open source fork called NAS4Free, which eventually rebranded as XigmaNAS. I've been running that for many years, and it's been rock solid, but I'm not pushing it hard. It's also managed with a web GUI, and has support for a crazy long list of features. I just use it for NFS and TimeMachine.

Comment Re:Mine was already vintage. (Score 2, Interesting) 46

It might pay to upgrade, though likely not in this case. It would be worth measuring the actual power draw, multiply Watts times 24*365.25 / 1000 * (cost per KwH from your power bill).

Let's do the math:

I see someone reported a 2012 Mac Mini drawing 9.1W, and power at $.16/KwH (national average), that comes out to only $12.76/year. So you're not likely to be able to save enough to pay for an upgrade. But if you were in Massachusetts at $.28/KwH with a home-built server drawing 65W, that's about $160/year, so upgrading to a lower-power system could pay for itself.

Comment They Don't Care (Score 0) 46

Clearly the other streaming services just don't care. Bandwidth is too low on their cost matrix for even a significant savings to matter to them. They just don't want to bother with the complexity of setting up another encoding system. It's not like they have to switch; they just need to encode shows in both, and then stream to customers with hardware that supports the new codec. If they just did this for their top hits, they could save a ton of bandwidth with minimal effort.

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