hex4def6 (u/hex4def6)

hex4def6 commented on Impacts of adding PV solar system to internal combustion engine vehicles jstor.org/stable/26169128... · Posted by u/red369

chris222 · a month ago

I’ve just done a legtimate 425 mile solar powered round trip which is the culmination of many things I will explain below. I can now effectively drive anywhere in a 225 mile radius and back for about $10 total cost and on 100% solar power.

I have a two complete solar systems on my house the first one was 10.98kW AC installed 4 years ago with the panels facing south. The second was just installed a few days ago and is a 9.9kW AC with the panels facing east/west. Combined the system will produce over 20MWh of power per year. Both systems are grid tied used EnPhase microinverters and are now combined together for monitoring in one site.

I have an EnPhase IQ EV Charger. This has a mode where it communicates with the solar system, understands how much power is being produced and consumed in the house and then adjusts the EV charger output to match the excess solar production.

I have an EV with the largest battery that is available. The Chevy Silverado EV truck has 24 battery modules with a total gross capacity of slightly over 200kWh. The efficiency on road trips at high speeds is about 2.1miles per kWh. I have verified this with a real world road trip of over 400 miles.

The cost of the solar is around 5 cents per kWh over the 25+ year lifespan of the system.

hex4def6 · a month ago

I assume you're on a pretty attractive net metering agreement? That's a huge system.

Unless you're consuming a significant portion of that, the payback rate is going to be pretty badly impacted by having such a large system for most people.

hex4def6 commented on Seven Engineers Suspended After $2.3M Bridge Includes 90-Degree Turn vice.com/en/article/7-eng... · Posted by u/_sbl_

short_sells_poo · a month ago

The feeling I get from the article is that the engineers basically received specs that were nothing short of idiotic, were given no choice but to implement it and now are getting the blame.

It's easy to point the finger at them and say "why did you greenlight this?", but I'm quite sure they are completely expendable in this shitshow and the people actually responsible would've simply gotten some batch of new engineers who would've greenlit it in the end anyway.

hex4def6 · a month ago

Sure, but as a licensed engineer, you're signing off on the design as being safe and fit for purpose.

What if their manager had insisted they use cheaper concrete or less rebar? At a certain point, you have to refuse to put your signature on to something.

It's not entirely clear how far up the chain of command the suspensions go, but if they're including decision makers in the suspension, I think it's a good lesson to others to not just rubber stamp designs.

hex4def6 commented on Statement on California State Senate Advancing Dangerous Surveillance Bill eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06... · Posted by u/mdp2021

phendrenad2 · 3 months ago

Okay let's get one thing out of the way: You can't use a narrow legalese-defined definition of "wiretapping" and act like it's the same as the popular definition of wiretapping. You do this when you talk about the "wiretapping" in the bill and say that it "really is that crazy". You might not realize that you're doing this, because it might be so ingrained in your training as, whatever profession you are, but it doesn't fly with me. You MUST choose between one definition or the other, and either way, your argument falls apart.

Secondly, if "someone disagrees with me an organization I like in a strident and caustic way" is enough to make you reach for an ad hominem, then that just shows an unfortunate delusionality on your part. Not really helpful to your cause me-thinks.

> Far from merely shielding tracking pixel abusers from "frivolous" lawsuits <blah blah blah>

It appears that we agree on the substance of my argument. Which is enough for me.

EDIT: After reading a comment below, it seems that you might actually be using the "popular" definition of wiretapping, in which case, please provide an example of a scenario where this law allows something nefarious, taking into account other laws such as the CCPA. I doubt one exists.

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

If exempting "commercial purposes" from a law results in no harm being done to anyone, then you are arguing the law is shouldn't exist in the first place.

CCPA appears to limitations based on the size of the enterprise, so that doesn't guarantee protection.

So, which state laws prevent someone from wiretapping my communications and then selling it?

hex4def6 commented on There should be no Computer Art (1971) dam.org/museum/essays_ui/... · Posted by u/glimshe

TeMPOraL · 3 months ago

> I'll stick to the best definition of art that I've heard : "if it gives you an emotion, it is art".

I think it's necessary, but not sufficient. So I kinda like my better:

It's art if (and to the extent of) people generally agree it's art.

Sounds tautological, but it isn't[0].

Of course, not everything is art. There are some aspects typically - but not always - present. Whether something gives you an emotion is one. Whether it has a deeper story behind it is another. Whether it's something that you can bond over with other people, or a shared experience, yet another. But none of those are required to be present. Art is ultimately a consensus opinion.

--

[0] - In fact, most of our civilization is built on ideas that exist only as long as most people expect most other people to believe them. Examples include: money, laws, countries, corporations, even the concept of society itself.

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

That feels unnecessarily restrictive.

Does Jiro and his sushi constitute an artist and his art? Let's say yes, and let's say most people today agree with this. They're cosmopolitan enough to recognize the sophistication and craft. This definition therefore defines it as "art".

I would say if you told the average Brit living in the UK in the 1950s that there's a guy that's really good at slicing up raw fish, you might get a different average answer.

So I don't think art is dependent on the conclusion viewer, but on the intention of the author. If they arrange rocks just-so, because they enjoy the shadows they make at noon, I think that's art.

hex4def6 commented on Why is everybody knitting chickens? ironicsans.ghost.io/why-i... · Posted by u/mooreds

spencerflem · 3 months ago

People have been saying the exact opposite- that we used to all have the same 20 TV shows but now with internet microgenres we don't have enough shared culture anymore.

If you think of the ravelry community as valid as an in person community this will be nicer I think.

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

Hmm, interesting counterpoint.

I think both things can be simultaneously true. There are a million sub-cultures that can now exist, that are no longer tied to a geographic location. This is both good and bad. Good, insofar as if you're in the middle of Ohio in a 2000 person town, and really-really into model trains or whatever, you can find an online community that shares this. But I also think it's bad insofar as we've lost some sense of culture or commonality with our (geographic) neighbors.

But to the homogenization point; I still think within a specific sub-culture (sewing circles), you can have global homogenization. The sewing circle might new be global, on facebook and tiktok, instead of 10,000 insular hamlets. Is this bad/good? I'm not sure. There's nothing from stopping you creating a local facebook group. And in theory, good ideas can spread rather than be confined to a specific geographic group. But I can't help feeling that some independent thought and ways of thinking are lost through this globalization.

hex4def6 commented on Why is everybody knitting chickens? ironicsans.ghost.io/why-i... · Posted by u/mooreds

AlecSchueler · 3 months ago

Trends have been happening since long before social media. I don't see the problem with "everybody" getting involved in knitting and making chickens anyway, what's the harm here?

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

I think the "homogenization" is the keyword here. It's not that trends are bad, it's just that, in the 'old days' a trend might start as a community-wide phenomena that over time might spread into neighboring communities, finally becoming part of the local / regional zeitgeist.

These trends would spread slowly enough that other trends in other communities would have time and room to grow and develop. The result is you get a bunch of localized cultures, all unique in some way.

The best analogy I can think of is a plant mono-crop. Instead of different species of plant gradually finding their niche, we plant 50,000 acres with corn or soy.

I have to say, even over the last 20+ years or so, it really does feel like you can go anywhere in the world and get a very similar experience. You can go to the local 7-11, buy a coca-cola, hit up your local costco, listen to people arguing about American politics. It just feels like different countries have gradually been losing their unique culture, and we just have this global homogenized version with slight regional differences.

hex4def6 commented on One hundred and one rules of effective living mitchhorowitz.substack.co... · Posted by u/mathgenius

hnthrow90348765 · 3 months ago

>1) Do your work—do it on time and fully, if not early and overabundantly.

I cannot overstate how absolutely hollow it must be that work is your #1 rule of living

The next saddest thing is that the only mention of love is a fucking Machiavelli quote

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

Some of my most stressful times at work have been when I had the least stuff to do. It's nice for a few days, but when it stretches into weeks I start feeling queasy.

Obviously, being buried under an avalanche of thankless work is just as bad.

My ideal life would be some sprints of large effort (maybe pulling the occasional all-nighter once in a while), followed by rest / low work times.

A constant amount of work, all the same, blurs the days together. Too little, and you start feeling useless. Too much (consistently) and you're overwhelmed.

hex4def6 commented on Dusk OS duskos.org/... · Posted by u/GTP

os2warpman · 3 months ago

>Its primary purpose is to be maximally useful during the first stage of civilizational collapse, that is, when we can't produce modern computers anymore but that there's still many modern computers around.

Any event or series of events that removes mankind's ability to produce modern computers is a global extinction-level event and rather than dicking around with computers one should really be considering suicide to avoid a slow, painful, inevitable death in a hostile world surrounded by misery.

People act like computers are complicated. They are but they also aren't.

Any moderately-sized US state university can (and some have) build one from scratch: as in from fucking sand to "Shall we play a game?", all in one go.

The state university nearest to me has a complete nanofab that can make-- and package!-- ICs (somewhere around 14nm-ish), a different lab that can make wafers from scratch, a chemistry department where undergrads could make the plastics, and all of the software guys you can shake a stick at.

The loss of the ability to make many things, including computers but also other more important things like the industrial process for making ammonia, globally, simultaneously, is the end of humanity.

The knowledge and ability is so widely globally distributed that taking it all out is death.

Do not mistake the centralization of consumer goods assembly with the centralization of the knowledge needed to assemble consumer goods.

Is this OS just for the brief period of time between the loss and the ultimate end? To like, play some rounds of solitaire while awaiting the inevitable?

hex4def6 · 3 months ago

They can make their own ingots and ultra pure chemicals, and turbopumps and ion implantation machines and spin coaters CVD machines and and the HEPA filters for the cleanroom, and the remote servers that control the licensing dongle for the robot arm that movies the thingie from "A" to "B"?

Sand to "hello world" is a tall order. There is a pyramid of industry that supports the entire thing. Even Sand -> 99.9999 % Si (purification & Czochralski crystal growth) needs multi‑story furnaces, vacuum pulling stations, 10 MW of steady power, and months of process engineering. All of have huge dependency chains.

Even modern "mild" events like supply chain disruptions would be enough to shut down any sort of non-toy level production in short order.

So yeah, a university as it currently stands can make a microchip, relying on all of these dependency chains being in operational order. But I don't doubt that would quickly no longer be the case if you had a hot war or societal collapse.

The exponential growth in processor capabilities relied on a global manufacturing infrastructure from the 1970s until today. To do the same level of progression would require much of that infrastructure.

Assuming someone managed to strategically nuke every major foundry / chemical / machine supplier, but leave everything else the same? Sure, maybe we get back to our present tech in 15-20 years.

Assume it's the result of a societal collapse? No way in hell.

hex4def6 commented on The Inchtuthil Nail Hoard scottishhistory.org/artic... · Posted by u/Luc

ars · 4 months ago

I would not use silver to compare prices from that long ago, silver and gold were both cheaper than today.

I would use the salary for a day labor instead. Like if I spend my salary for a day on just nails, vs how many nails a smith could make for the same number of working hours.

hex4def6 · 4 months ago

Sure, but that means the Roman cost would be even cheaper. If silver was cheaper in Roman times, and iron was 1/300th the cost, then the Roman nail becomes even cheaper (which doesn't make sense)

I'm not sure what the hourly rate for a day laborer would be. $20/hr?

I think the real issues with this calculation are the idea someone can crank out 2,300 nails / hour. I think 1 per minute (sustained) seems much more reasonable. That makes the labor cost 40x more. And maybe it would be a semi-skilled occupation, so $20/hr or $40/hr makes more sense. So now the labor cost is 150x more.

hex4def6 commented on The Inchtuthil Nail Hoard scottishhistory.org/artic... · Posted by u/Luc

opwieurposiu · 4 months ago

The gp was saying around 200 nails an hour, not 2k an hour. Your labor cost is an order of magnitude too low.

I can't find the price of nails in roman times, but 300 years ago it was around a buck a nail.

https://www.nber.org/digest/202203/tracking-price-nails-1695

hex4def6 · 4 months ago

Sure. I guess I was pointing out in a roundabout way that one of the assumptions must be wrong. I don't think 2,300/hr feels realistic. 200 seems much more reasonable (or less). I'd be inclined to believe 1 nail per minute (sustained). If you assume $20-40/hr, now we're up $2-4/nail which seems much more reasonable.