subignition

Reasonable and nuanced take, you love to see it!

A somewhat more hopeful take is that this strategy could be weaponized against misinformation too.

No longer do you have A: as a floppy drive, now it’s C: as a sloppy drive

Aircela is targeting >50% end to end power efficiency. Since there is about 37kWh of energy in a gallon of gasoline we will require about 75kWh to make it. When we power our machines with standalone, off-grid, photovoltaic panels this will correspond to less than $1.50/gallon in energy cost.

Meanwhile, an electric vehicle could go hundreds of miles on the same amount of energy input…

If a hacker can get into the device remotely it can be an entry point to your home network.

The much bigger concern is that the pathway used to send the remote kill command could very easily be utilized by nefarious actors.

“Secretly tested” meaning they didn’t inform users when they started doing it. Y’know, like any experimental feature is called out and explained? I hope you’re just having a bad day because this is some pretty rough reading comprehension

This reeks of manufactured engagement.

So, this magazine isn’t one of the ones that has a hard prohibition on rephrasing headlines, from what I can tell.

You could simply edit the title to better reflect the actual content of the article.

You’re right, it’s not a bad analogy, you’re just failing to make a cogent point. Even though you’re trolling, I’ll bite:

“Using a grocery store” encompasses everything from buying fresh ingredients and cooking your meal (assembling a computer from parts, customizing it to your liking) to buying entrees and sides you like at the deli (ordering a custom build with parts you picked, letting someone else do the legwork) to buying whatever TV dinners are on special in the freezer aisle (walking into a Best Buy or Apple Store and buying anything with a screen, because you need a computer and don’t care about the details)

“Hunting for all of your food and cooking it from absolute scratch” would be what, writing all your own software? Fabricating your own CPU from silicon? Obviously vanishingly few people are doing that, though there certainly are people with electronics knowledge going more granular than slotting parts into an ATX motherboard. But that’s not what myself (or anyone in this thread from what I can tell) is advocating people do. If you think it is, you grossly misunderstand FOSS. I’m genuinely curious what you think I’m getting at by saying some things are overly simple.

What I’m frustrated with, to use your analogy, are the companies making TV dinners who don’t even include the microwave wattage in their vague instructions on the box. And subsequently, the customers buying them, turning an already mediocre product into a disastrous result, and trashing the company on social media. Then reaching out to the manufacturer only to be told they just need to buy a new microwave. Sometimes the customer doesn’t even bother to read and puts the TV dinner in the oven instead, then gets mad when their kitchen fills with smoke and their dinner is inedible because of the melted plastic.

…No. I am saying that too much abstraction of how something actually works is detrimental to the end user. It’s not about making things intentionally more complicated, it’s about removing the need to understand key components of something ultimately causing more harm than good.

What are you even talking about? You’re trying to make an analogy here but it’s a really poor one.

Keep in mind this status quo is already the result of decades of oversimplification. I am not saying everyone needs to compile the Linux kernel in order to have a computer. I’m saying you should have a basic level of familiarity with the computer you’re using, same as any other tool.

You should know how to check and top up your engine oil, change a tire in an emergency, etc, if you’re going to own a car. You should know how to safely handle, operate, store, transport, and clean your firearm if you’re going to own a gun. You should know how to empty the chamber or bag, clean the filters correctly, what not to suck up and how to troubleshoot if you do, if you’re going to own a vacuum. You should know how to operate it, when and how it should be cleaned, and what not to do while it’s running, if you’re going to own an electric range. You should know the difference between a web browser and your computer’s filesystem, the difference between RAM and storage, and that you can Internet search most errors to judge whether you’re comfortable trying to fix them yourself or not, if you’re going to own a computer.

There will ALWAYS be a point where it’s more worth paying someone else instead of learning something yourself. But it’s about the cost-benefit analysis, and the threshold for what’s considered “intricate” is a depressingly low bar where computers are concerned. As I’m sure you are well aware.

You should not expect to use a tool (edit: competently) without spending time learning how to use it. Photoshop has a learning curve too, even if it’s an easier one.

Big tech designing their products to be overly simple is one of the driving forces behind the average user having poor patience and aptitude for tech.

That’s terrifying.

I also wonder whether this could let someone sing or speak outside their normal range. When I was young I was in the school choir - after puberty hit and my voice dropped, I still had the muscle memory for high notes that my vocal cords would not allow.

They’re called programmers, and it’s faster and less expensive all around to just have humans do it better the first time.

A surface-area maximizing structure like a radiator grille could probably be used if it’s anywhere near reasonable, but yeah, that could be a concern

If a “passive dehumidifier” is possible using this and a funnel/hose, that could be extremely exciting for basement and cellar owners everywhere