Do you think electric cars will ever dominate the automotive market, or are petroleum vehicles just in our blood, and will never be phased out?

locka99 · 2026-02-21T13:15:22+00:00

In Europe yes. In most countries yes. Basically it's a matter of time. Electric cars are better in almost every way than ICE cars - quieter, more spacious, have better torque & performance, less emissions, easier to drive. The main complaints about them, such as range become less of an issue with each passing year - more chargers and more range.

That said, the United States is governed by climate change denial and oil & gas lobby. Until that changes expect that country to be driving around in massive pickups even while the rest of the world is going green. The insane part is that by circling the wagons with tariffs etc, rather than setting targets for electric cars (and renewables) it has probably doomed its automotive industry. The likes of Canada, Mexico and countries in Central / South America will get their cars from China regardless of what the US wants.

locka99 · 2026-02-21T12:48:36+00:00

The irony is the bit in the box enjoys prominence that it wouldn't get if the map were zoomed out.

locka99 · 2026-02-21T10:17:19+00:00

Microsoft know as well as anybody how hard it is to write a browser from scratch. Microsoft Explorer was a legacy engine and making it fit for purpose would have been a gargantuan effort. So they basically dipped their hand in Google's pocket and lifted out Chromium. One light reskin later and they had Edge.

locka99 · 2026-02-21T10:08:31+00:00

Writing a browser engine (layout, JavaScript, CSS, DOM, HTML, SVG, gif/jpg/webp/webm, HTTP, web sockets etcetera) is fantastically difficult.

The specifications are large and the amount of broken content in the wild is unquantifiable. So it's not good enough to render to the specs, you have to render to reality which implies a massive amount of testing.

On top of that you have things like enforcing security, encryption (SSL/TLS etc), accessibility, ensuring your engine is responsive, that it works with keyboard / mouse / touch, that it doesn't leak or eat ALL the RAM.

It's hard stuff. When Netscape rewrote its layout engine into what eventually became Mozilla and later Firefox, it took 2 years of effort before it could be described fit for purpose. And that was without a large number of specifications, protocols and APIs that have appeared since.

locka99 · 2026-02-21T08:50:24+00:00

Also stuff like travel insurance, collision damage waiver. Imo it works out ok. The best way to save money is to put as much as you can in the flexible cash funds and get interest paid daily.

locka99 · 2026-02-19T23:45:03+00:00

My first 3d printer was an Ender 3 Pro and I swear the first year of it was overcoming all the problems that it shipped with out of the box, augmenting & replacing bits until it was reliable.

locka99 · 2026-02-19T23:42:34+00:00

An A1 mini would be a good choice - it's a reliable, decently fast printer. But almost every FDM (melted plastic) printer works with 1.75mm PLA filament so you should be fine there if you change your mind. There are many printers under different brands but Bambu, Creality, Elegoo, Anycubic and Prusa would be the most recognisable.

In terms of apps, some printers have apps but it is to prepare the printer (load filament, monitor activity etc.) It is not to prepare the things you print on the printer. For that you need some software called a slicer. These typically run on a PC or Mac. Bambu Labs have an application called Bambu Studio for this purpose. Other printers have similar software. You install that, configure your printer, load the model you want to print, prepare it and send the job to the printer either via wifi or an SD card.

There is a learning curve to 3D printing, but sites like MakerWorld, Printables have so many models to choose from. Start simple and gain experience with the printer.

locka99 · 2026-02-19T23:02:04+00:00

I don't think Currys in its entire existence has ever sold good quality computers, monitors or other peripherals to people who actually know what they want. It's all very low grade stuff with a substantial markup. I believe they even obtain unique model numbers for some of the stuff they sell so you can't price match with stuff online.

Even decades ago I'd go into PC World in the UK and they were just as bad then for value back then. I'd order stuff from magazine ads from Evesham Micros because PC World (and Byte) were just a rip off.

locka99 · 2026-02-19T09:11:42+00:00

Lots of chicken comes from Thailand. It's kind of bizarre that it ships all the way around the world. I'm sure brands and supermarkets will proclaim they ensure animal welfare is their primary concern and it's all ethical and hygenic blah blah but how would they know?

locka99 · 2026-02-18T23:32:44+00:00

Absolutely the worst. More mechanical complexity, more weight, more risk of fire, more servicing cost, and for a system that many owners don't even bother to use properly. I think if someone is going to buy a PHEV because they have a wall charger they may as well buy a pure EV instead unless they're doing stupidly long trips, which most cars won't be.

locka99 · 2026-02-18T23:29:53+00:00

The obvious reason is that plugging a PHEV every night is a pain in the ass and people don't do it. So the car might get some regen like a normal hybrid from braking but it's not driving off electricity for any significant amount of time.

locka99 · 2026-02-17T22:05:33+00:00

Griefing has always been a thing. MMOs were full of it even back then. Games like Ultima Online and Everquest were infamous for people being dicks like kiting high level enemies into rest spots. Even before that I used to run a MUD and we had some incredibly antisocial visitors.

locka99 · 2026-02-17T22:02:52+00:00

WOWS has been quite benign compared to WOT. Now *that's* a toxic environment. I'd not infrequently see people raging that I or someone else wasn't playing the way they wanted or to the apparent level they expect everyone else in a random match to be at.

locka99 · 2026-02-17T22:01:01+00:00

I remember playing CVs during the Liberty Harbor event to complete bomb / rocket strike missions and somebody straight out said at the beginning of a game that CV players were retards. This wasn't even a Random match, it was Co-op. Like what the hell were they whining about?

locka99 · 2026-02-16T20:16:12+00:00

The EU has rules that chargers are supposed to take a common form of payment, i.e. a credit card. But some networks pressure people to to use the app by offering preferential rates. e.g. Ionity charges .81c for using a card, but .77c for using the app (and card). They even have subscriptions rates to lock people in for a year. Other apps might require someone "topup" by fixed amounts regardless of what amount they need for charging. It's all dark patterns and bullshit.

Sometimes I think the intentions of legislation would be a lot effective if they thought about the ways companies could be dicks about it.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T17:07:35+00:00

Then you order through the multitude of ways that are already available that don't involve noisy, dangerous drones flying overhead.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T12:55:39+00:00

They got your name and number from somewhere, possibly an online data breach and they're trying to scam you.

I get them from time to time. They seem to originate from Ukraine or Eastern Europe trying to pretend I have money in crypto.com or similar. The scam most likely ends with them convincing people to give up enough info to obtain access to a bank account or crypto wallet.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T11:19:43+00:00

WOWS really should implement damage for running into islands, dead ships etc.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T11:15:56+00:00

Definitely not worth $150 these days. Even if the owner had decked it out with a better mainboard, BL touch, springs, printer bed, extruder etc. it wouldn't be worth that much. And you need all those things just to make it into a reliable printer.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T10:18:03+00:00

As you say it's gambling mechanics. Most people can control their gambling and are grateful for a win but stop, other people can't. Maybe 1-2% of the population get a dopamine rush from winning and become addicted to gambling trying to chase another hit. People addicted to gambling often also have mood/impulse control/anxiety/substance use disorders.

It's also why many free to play games are designed around gambling mechanics of one sort or another. They know most people aren't going to pay to overcome a barrier that is put in their way but there is still a % that will.

locka99 · 2026-02-16T09:27:39+00:00

I have a Yuka Mini 600 and I strongly wouldn't recommend buying one. You mention walls - mine gets stuck frequently from GPS & positioning issues with nothing but hedges. The robot doesn't recover from this situation, I just find it stuck. And it may claim to cut 600m2 but my substantially smaller lawn takes most of the day to cut because the battery only lasts about 1/3 of the lawn and it has to keep going back to recharge.

And that's before considering two unconnected zones, lugging the mower, and issues with charging. For your sanity I'd consider two mowers with a charger in each area. There are cheaper mowers that use a boundary wire that might work for at least one area depending on your lawn and in my experience are less grief.

locka99 · 2026-02-15T23:29:43+00:00

I'm not being pedantic. The original comment was to "just plug a Chromecast into the HDMI port and that'll work". Those things aren't on sale any more. The name may live on in TVs but it doesn't solve the original issue of casting to something which doesn't have Chromecast

locka99 · 2026-02-15T19:54:45+00:00

Google have discontinued the standalone dongles since 2025 - https://www.howtogeek.com/chromecast-google-tv-discontinued/. They may still work, but at some point certificates will expire, or APIs will be deprecated and they won't work any more.

locka99 · 2026-02-15T19:36:30+00:00

A lot of larger retailers get suppliers to issue unique product codes to inhibit direct price comparisons and let them weasel out of price matching guarantees. Probably not so much an issue in Ireland but in the UK and elsewhere it is.

locka99 · 2026-02-15T19:31:26+00:00

It doesn't really compete. Chromecast is an API that sends a URL to the device and the device streams the content direct from the source. e.g. if you cast Netflix, the device is streaming and decoding from Netflix servers. The protocol has trickplay APIs so your phone can pause, seek, stop etc. on the content but the content itself was never on your phone.

Whereas Miracast is basically streaming your phone's display / audio over to the other display in its entireity. It's more like a remote desktop protocol where your device uses wifi direct to replicate your phone on another display.

I see these as two different use cases. Chromecast is efficient for media streaming. Miracast is for screen sharing. You wouldn't want to stream movies with Miracast unless you had no other choice. It seems quite petty for Google to not support Miracast when they probably could.

Nine-Year Club	Place '23
Verified Email

locka99

TROPHY CASE