Dude, fuck product managers and their incentives
They'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
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timbit42 commented on Giving people money helped less than I thought it would theargumentmag.com/p/givi... · Posted by u/tekla
money does nothing without stable housing and community
It also does nothing for those with physical or mental ailments. Public healthcare would help those.
timbit42 commented on How much do electric car batteries degrade? sustainabilitybynumbers.c... · Posted by u/xnx
Huh? Battery has never forced me to upgrade. It has invariably been the inability to still use the "new and improved" version of google maps.
I use my phone instead. Having these apps in the car is like buying a smart TV and having the Netflix and YouTube apps fail after a few years due to changes in the services that the apps can't handle and the manufacturer not providing updates any longer.
timbit42 commented on How much do electric car batteries degrade? sustainabilitybynumbers.c... · Posted by u/xnx
My prius (2006 model) finally had the traction battery (NiMh) start to loose modules at about 250K miles. It was clearly getting weaker, but drivable at that time. Then Covid hit, and it sat for 2 months without being driven / charge cycled. That pushed it over the edge.
That isn't predictive at all of NMC or LFP chemistries though (and I'm not going through multiple charge cycles per drive), but a fun anecdote. It was an entertaining project opening up the battery pack and identifying/replacing the bad modules.
In the end, other parts of the car were dying too, and the final straw was California's refusal to allow aftermarket catalytic converter replacements, and the Toyota's price (with no competition) was more than the vehicle was worth.
So far my two EVs, both NMC chemistry (Kia and Rivian) are at 80,000 and 30,000 miles respectively, with no noticeable degradation.
My Prius is also a 2006 but with only 194,000 kms. The first battery module failed 21 months ago. I bought a used one on eBay for $35 and it's been running perfectly fine ever since. I keep it undercoated but the body is going to go before anything else because we salt our roads in the winter.
timbit42 commented on AOL to discontinue dial-up internet nytimes.com/2025/08/11/bu... · Posted by u/situationista
In 1997 I got a job at a college where only the college administrators had internet and it was via WinProxy and a modem on my desktop PC. They were paying for a number of ISP email addresses. They also had a static website hosted elsewhere on a pre-OSX Mac.
I was able to propose spending $1,000 on a web/email server and putting in a 56K ISDN line for a lower monthly cost. This also gave them full control over their web server to write PHP and use MySQL. It also allowed every staff member to have an email on their own domain and web access. We also put Squid proxy on the server to cache some of the web browsing. It worked well. Later when we were able to upgrade to DSL, we also added the computer lab to the internet. Fun times.
timbit42 commented on AOL to discontinue dial-up internet nytimes.com/2025/08/11/bu... · Posted by u/situationista
My first modem was the 300 baud VIC Modem Commodore made for the Commodore VIC-20. It was supposed to be the first modem for under $100 which they achieved by not having those rubber cups for the receiver. Instead, it plugged directly into the wall. Years later I found out the first modems were 110 baud.
I bought the VIC Modem second hand but the only thing I could connect to was another friend who had a modem. We transferred some files but decided it was faster to drive over to his house with a disk and then drive back.
I also tried connecting to a data service listed in the yellow pages, and the modem would connect, but then I couldn't get it to do anything. The service was listed as being free but I didn't realize it was a long distance call to connect to it and that wasn't free so my parents ended up with an $80 long distance bill from my modem calls.
Then I had a 1200 baud modem Commodore made for the Commodore 64. Again, I was only able to connect with other friends who had a modem.
When I got my Amiga 2000, I set up a BBS (FidoNet 1:255/42) with a SupraModem 2400. Later they had a deal for sysops to get their new 14,400 modem. I can't remember if it was buy-one-get-one-free, or buy-one-get-one-half-price. I only had one phone line so I sold the second one to a friend who used my BBS the most. At least someone could benefit from my having 14,400.
I also remember playing Battle Chess over the modem with a friend who had a PC clone. We were playing one day and my mom called me to supper so I set Battle Chess on my Amiga to autoplay while I was eating. When I came back my friend had no idea I had left. Good laugh.
I think I had a 33,600 next and then finally a 56K before moving to a city where they were testing HFC internet which was hybrid-fibre-coax around 1997 and was 10 Mbit/s both up and down. It was screaming fast compared to dialup and I could download a CD ISO in under 20 seconds while my friend back home were still downloading ISO images via dialup. (Just did the math and it should only take 8 to 9 seconds, so I guess there was a bottleneck somewhere).
timbit42 commented on AOL to discontinue dial-up internet nytimes.com/2025/08/11/bu... · Posted by u/situationista
Winmodems. Bane of the Linux user’s existence at the time.
A decade after they went off the market I came across one still in the shrink wrap and gag gifted it to a couple of friends. Neither one wanted it for some reason. "Oh, gee, thanks". LOL!
timbit42 commented on AOL to discontinue dial-up internet nytimes.com/2025/08/11/bu... · Posted by u/situationista
I remember connecting at 56K. I couldn't afford real 56K modem, but there were cheaper ones that offloaded communication to the CPU. When parents weren't home I was rewiring the socket to connect my modem. So not ideal, but worked.
Explaining high bills was fun.
A friend of mine replaced the twisted pair from where it entered his house, to his modem with a piece of coax. He claimed it helped.
Sadly, filtering features seem to be only available for paid subscriptions of online services, or for self-hosted solutions. Or are there solutions I am not aware of?
Flym (Android)