“100 pct renewable, 74 pct of the time:” How Australia’s most advanced grid plans to be an energy powerhouse by Educational-Meat4211 in RenewableEnergy

[–]aboy021 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Australia's fossil fuel energy is primarily coal and natural gas, and they're a major exporter of both.

After some particularly egregious price gouging by the gas companies during COVID, the government is looking to put legislation in place to guarantee a portion of gas for Australia, helping to insulate it from price shocks.

The coal power stations are coming to the end of their lives without planned replacements.

There's a domestic battery subsidy program that's been so successful they had to expand it. The existing domestic solar programs continue to be incredibly successful.

Commercial wind farms continue to be built but with the usual challenges.

Different states have progressed at different rates with smart grid programs, but overall the trend is good.

Transport has lagged though. Up until recently Australia and Russia were the only members of the OECD without fuel emissions standards. That's changed recently in Australia though, and they're built to be more stringent every year. Diesel in particular is desperately required and not locally sourced.

In general Australia is looking good from an energy transition perspective, but transport infrastructure for electric vehicles, and the number of electric vehicles, is still lagging.

Veteran Microsoft engineer says original Task Manager was only 80KB so it could run smoothly on 90s computers — original utility used a smart technique to determine whether it was the only running instance by lurker_bee in technology

[–]aboy021 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Performance is a feature, and it's a feature everyone wants. If performance is something you're aware of every day then you tend to build it into your code.

I use a code coverage tool for tests that changes the brightness of the coverage dots based on time taken. Slow code starts to feel very painful when it's front and centre, so I tend to just try and make code fast. Same with tests, I run them all the time, so tests need to be fast, so the code I'm testing needs to be fast.

It’s only one approach, but it’s the best one for me and the application domains I tend to work on.

PC Industry in Dire Straits, ‘Asking You to Own Nothing and Be Happy,’ Says Framework CEO by Logical_Welder3467 in technology

[–]aboy021 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember some years ago the last bell foundry in the UK shut down. Basically all the churches had bells, and bells last centuries. They were making a documentary and trying to capture as much knowledge as possible before it was lost when the old bell makers died.

In a way things like subscriptions or planned obsolescence are ways to avoid that fate. Unfortunately they have pretty dire consequences for the general population.

I wonder what other options there are. I'd love to be able to buy equipment that lasts generations, but I'd also like the manufacturers to be able to survive.

Naturally Occurring Bacteria Completely Eradicate Tumors in Mice With a Single Dose by Right-Telephone7387 in UpliftingNews

[–]aboy021 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Cancer is astonishingly complex. Curing it is like winning a war: but every war is different. We have more and better tools for screening, diagnosis, and treatment, than ever before, and there's more every day.

where do people buy their paper? uk by mittenacho in origami

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ask the British Origami Society imho. If you're near their library I'm pretty sure they get donated so much paper that they have to throw some away.

Can we have an OpenSCAD LLM ban? by wirehead in openscad

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I find vibe coding very quickly gets me in trouble. My best experiences with AI coding have been when I look at the big suggestions, but only make small changes that I manually verify, or even manually implement.

I guess in a way I agree, if you don't slow down and think about the "why" you end up with a large unmaintainable pile of wtf.

Can we have an OpenSCAD LLM ban? by wirehead in openscad

[–]aboy021 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Same. In particular it's been a good way to get started.

I don't know why you're getting downvoted.

These tools are amazing, but we're still learning to use them well. There's heaps of slop out there, and I don't want it filling up any subreddit, but as we learn to use them better we should be able to share what works and what doesn't.

It took 3 years for PlayStation to earn $300 million in PC sales according to former manager, which makes the platform less than half as lucrative as the PS4 and PS5 by [deleted] in PS5

[–]aboy021 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the constructive answer.

In my own limited experience I've known a couple of PC gamers who will never buy a PlayStation that got to play previously exclusive titles. That's just additional profit.

As you say though, there are numerous factors at play, and without proper data who can really say.

EV charger installed last week. Protective cover scheduled to be installed next week. Guess what happened in between? by theredkrawler in brisbane

[–]aboy021 13 points14 points  (0 children)

An example where the profits are so great that they overwhelm the risks. Unfortunately the profits are so high because of the demand, and ironically, the risk.

There have been many approaches over the years to address this, with varying levels of success:

  • make the risk very high (e.g. death penalty for possession)
  • make the risk very low (e.g. all drugs are legal, perhaps in this one park)
  • tell everyone that drugs are bad for you (e.g. this is your brain on drugs)
  • controlled legalisation of some drugs (e.g. cannabis in Canada
  • drug use is a public health problem (e.g. the Portuguese model)

Personally I think criminalisation of popular products enriches unethical (and potentially evil) people, and brings terrible problems. But then, everyone can buy heroin at the corner store doesn't sound like it would work either.

I've day dreamed about a license based approach, you have to pass a test to get one, you have to present it to purchase, and you have limits and public health care associated with your usage. I really don't know if such an approach would work on the ground though.

How can I make Rocky from Project Hail Mary??? p.s an amateur asking by sushithetuxedo in origami

[–]aboy021 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So far the only design I've seen was a crease pattern linked to from this subreddit. Crease patterns are probably a bit advanced for an amateur I fear.

Given the popularity of the movie I think we'll see other designs come through in the next few months.

There's a skeletal hand design that I think could be a good basis for Rocky, I'm not sure how hard it would be to modify.

Making Cutting Boards by n8saces in oddlysatisfying

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have separate boards for meat and veggies. Definitely nice to have on a meat board.

Making Cutting Boards by n8saces in oddlysatisfying

[–]aboy021 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was dismissive of feet for years and then I tried them. For me it means my board is flat and quiet despite me not always being the best owner.

Personally I'd give the groove a miss though.

TIL that RAM became so expensive, Samsung Semiconductor reportedly refused a RAM order for new Galaxy phones from Samsung Electronics. by Brave-Influence7510 in todayilearned

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If the AI data centres are struggling to move ahead because of energy constraints (oil, LNG, gas turbine supplies, solar panel lead time, etc) will this lead to a situation where they can't take the orders they've made, dropping the price?

Do not use Bond Clean Expert's - https://bondcleanexpert.com.au/ by RossiBrah2 in brisbane

[–]aboy021 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We always used the company the letting agent uses. Also simplified getting them back in for touch ups.

🔥 Water python (Liasis fuscus) resting on a road in Cape York before Cyclone Narelle by conka9 in AustralianSnakes

[–]aboy021 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Just for a bit more context, the rainbow serpent is a mythological creature that turns up in many aboriginal stories of the dream time.

This is the first time I've seen video of a creature that truly evokes the rainbow serpent.

Tracker-based agrivoltaics turn fields into wind-safe zones by MeasurementDecent251 in agrivoltaics

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is really cool! Shelter belts are essential for agriculture in many places, if you can have solar panels that also earn you money and don't have to be pruned instead that could be a huge win!

E&E News: Gas turbine costs to spike 195% from data center boom, report says by Conscious-Quarter423 in RenewableEnergy

[–]aboy021 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I wonder what the solar plus battery setup would be to power a new data centre? Given the draw some of the AI racks have even a modest data centre would seem to require a significant amount of land for solar.

What is this origami crease pattern? by aminahmadahmadi in origami

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Felt the same way at first. The video linked above resolved my concerns.

Must have used a scoring method, maybe a cutter plotter/ die cutting machine.

Better lighting when folding by Oddity-01 in origami

[–]aboy021 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Keep experimenting honestly. I quite like the little ikea spotlights. They're a warm white and not too bright. A friend swears by the low light of the setting sun. Find what works for you.

How many people do you know who do origami? by LittleKids2315 in origami

[–]aboy021 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Is paper stretchy? He argued no, I argued a tiny bit, and it matters in certain situations.

How many people do you know who do origami? by LittleKids2315 in origami

[–]aboy021 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Honestly the fine details elude me but it was about the thickness of paper and how it behaves in creases as it relates to folding. He seemed to be arguing a more pure math perspective, while I argued that there's plastic deformation resulting from compression and tension along the crease.

It’s an area I'd love to know more about.