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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • There was an article going around that explained how to disable internet connections on various smart TVs. I wish I could find it.

    For TVs with Roku built in, the solution was simply to select the option for no internet connection during initial setup. If you’ve already set up your TV, you go to settings and reset it like you’re getting ready to sell the device. That puts you back to initial setup where you can skip the network connection option.

    What you can’t do on the Roku tv is tell it you have internet, but then try to use some sort of firewall or network connection to phone home. The front light on the tv will blink, and when you turn the tv on it will complain that it can’t connect. You have to choose no internet on initial setup if you want it to act like a “dumb” tv.








  • I’d say auto stop features and multiple camera views on reverse are a good selling point of a car. I certainly regret not getting the overhead camera view on the vehicle I purchased (and the blind spot indicators which don’t apply to pedestrians).

    I’d also like to see the infra-red windshield overlays make it out of the prototype stage. This night vision/heat vision feature helps to alert you to deer, dogs, wildlife, and those dumb asses that insist on walking down the road at night in dark clothing in my neighborhood.


  • Nuclear might be better than coal or fossil fuels, but it’s still dirty and expensive.

    Spent fuel recycling costs a fortune. Only France is currently invested in it.

    “In 1996 it estimated that reprocessing of existing used nuclear fuel could cost more than $100 billion.”

    Most waste is stored in underground salt mines and requires special transportation, handling, and storage. That storage includes providing space between the spent rods to prevent interaction (you can’t just stack them compactly together). So while you may read that we produce half a swimming pool worth of waste, it takes a lot more space to store the spent rods than a “grocery store”. We produce about 2000 metric tons of spent rods per year. In addition, there’s all the other waste created when you run a nuclear plant — that includes garments and other materials. That adds up to “160,000 cubic feet (4,530 cubic meters) of radioactive material from its nuclear power plants annually”.

    Disposing of spent rod storage casks costs $1 million per cask.

    And then there’s the waste produced when decommissioning plants, or when plants go awry.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nuclear-waste-lethal-trash-or-renewable-energy-source/

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant

    There’s a great video DW tv did on reprocessing and still having to store spent nuclear waste here:

    https://youtu.be/hiAsmUjSmdI