[A Jedi]

Never going to a gas station again is all the reason I need for an EV. Come home, plug in, done.

 

[JamminVMI]

Yep, mine is a VW but the number of Audi logos on the parts is hilarious.

Funny, mine with the VW ones... The brand makes darned good cars.

 

[JamminVMI]

Speaking of combustion vs electric....I read today that Audi/VW is no longer developing new combustion engines.... They will refine and improve existing models, but new designs are focused on electric....

Maybe an electric Golf GTI with plaid seats will be on the market when i look for a new car in a year or two...

True. Better for the planet and our kids, long-term. But I still love my supercharger...

 

[A Jedi]

One of my favorite memes ever

 

[Ableza]

All of this talk about what technology is greener is all well and good if that’s important to you. It’s not important to me. I don’t drive electric thinking I’m saving the planet. I have a 14.5Kw solar array because I don’t want big electric bills. I drive EVs because I don’t like buying gasoline. I don’t care how the solar panels or the battery was made.

@AudioGal you might want to check out the Rivian trucks. In a couple of years when you start getting tired of your Subby it might be right up your alley. Plus they look damn good to my eye.

 

[filthy mechanical]

Funny, mine with the VW ones... The brand makes darned good cars.

I didn't buy one because it was a VW, I did because I had a list of requirements and that is where I ended up.

One of my favorite memes ever

I have run into the standard rollin' coal trucks around here. Would fit in well.

All of this talk about what technology is greener is all well and good if that’s important to you. It’s not important to me. I don’t drive electric thinking I’m saving the planet. I have a 14.5Kw solar array because I don’t want big electric bills. I drive EVs because I don’t like buying gasoline. I don’t care how the solar panels or the battery was made.

@AudioGal you might want to check out the Rivian trucks. In a couple of years when you start getting tired of your Subby it might be right up your alley. Plus they look damn good to my eye.

Yep, my long term goal is looking at the power company/gas station and not worrying about the price or stability (woo hurricane country!).

 

[yonson]

One of my favorite memes ever

Being in powertrain development and mainly doing calibration work, this crap made my life a living hell at times... SOOOOO many hoops to jump through now.

 

[tin-ear]

Ticketmaster is a middleman that can be eliminated. Imagine Tidal (Square) selling concert tickets directly and handling it exclusively for an artist. Also consider that Tidal knows what you listen to. That is just the beginning of what Square can do.

Some years ago I read an article on the internet about Ticketmaster's success.

One part: Very early on Ticketmaster had software written just for them, that actually worked to sell 100,000 tickets in live time in 3 minutes, and not mess it up. Well, it may not be 3 minutes; it might be 19 minutes. That's a good trick when 4 million (or merely 800,000) people all try to get on the site to see U2 or someone big at 9:58 AM, 9:59 AM, and Bingo! 10:00 AM.
The competition ran into problems when they tried to do the same with other software, or by hand: seats sold to more than one buyer (oops), people paying wildly wrong prices for seats, people buying 4 seats for a goup of 4 that are not remotely near each other, or the whole system just crashing.
I assume that after 37 years (guessing it's 37 years) it might be possible for competing software to be created it it doesn't already exist.

Another part of Ticketmaster's monopoly: 37 years ago they went around the country and signed agreements with a very high percent of live venues to be their exclusive ticket seller. If tickets are sold for anything at Any Coliseum of A Field or Big Theater in any city in the country, likely Ticketmaster sells the tickets.

Another another reason: If The Funky Nerd Band want's to go on tour of the USA, Ticketmaster offers one stop shopping for venues and ticket sales.
Their is a reason why Pearl Jam did a non-Ticketmaster tour only once.

There are more reasons, but the above gives some understanding that selling tickets is only part of the monopoly. And, some good places to start if a serious anti-trust breakup is made.

Third Law of Witches: Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Grimes aka Claire Boucher

 

[David Aldrich]

You may want a USB-C to USB-D. That's to get the USB to properly connect to a Flux Capacitor.

If you think that’s good you clearly haven’t experienced the USB-FU.

Apparently Jason has though...

2021, Chapter 4
The Second Circle
...
Wellllllllllll…except USB-C got even weirder than we thought, and also requires some resistors so that the interface can tell which way the cable is oriented.

Which didn’t get put on.

Yeah, do USB-C, they said. It would be easy, I thought.

Well, not so much.

 

[BRMSlash]

I've been keen to buy a Hel since it was released (for portable PC gaming), but it hasn't ticked enough boxes for me. I've been holding out for the next revision, but IMO it still isn't quite there. While I appreciate the upgrades to the Hel 2, the mic input appears to be untouched, so still wouldn't be as nice as the mic pre's on the ARC MK2 or Scarlett 2i2 (with xlr to 3.5mm adapter). Also still requiring a 2nd usb cable with psu for power kills the convenience & portability. I was hoping USB-C would give enough power over a single cable to do away with the two cable requirement. I'm after a high quality, medium power, portable pc gaming dac/amp that uses a single usb cable with great mic pre-amp that I can plug my PC38x into. Dreams can come true

 

[433521]

The EV vs ICE discussion is interesting. I bought a new car last October and was seriously leaning towards an EV. I have a 100 mile/day commute to work so the idea was very attractive. We have several Level 2 charging stations at work. So it was really tempting. Unfortunately I need a vehicle with SUV level ground clearance to deal with winter and mud season. Right now my driveway is entering mud season and has wet mud 6+ inches deep which will be with me for 3 or 4 weeks. Nothing under $50K would meet the ground clearance requirement in EV land. So, it was what I'm hoping is my last ICE car. Yet another Subaru - been driving them for 25 years. Always had minimal issues and gotten maximum life out them - my last Outback had a rust related fatal structural failure at 324K. This time I bought a Crosstrek with a manual transmission. The manual gearbox was mandatory, as was the all wheel drive. 30mpg is easy to hit, even with my over hill and dale commute. I'll either wear this one out in 8 or 9 years or before I do the EV landscape will have changed enough so that I can buy what I need at a price that is reasonable. Pioneers get arrows. Settlers get land. And all that.

Subaru OUtback / Crosstek are at the top of my most practical, sensible car list. A little pricey if you want the nice engines, but if you want 4 wheel drive and a good dealer, find a nice Subaru and buy it at a place with great reviews.

Since last October, we have the VW w/e and Ford Mustang ev's which are cheap and have the full $7.5k credit, so are looking extemely competitive.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I've been keen to buy a Hel since it was released (for portable PC gaming), but it hasn't ticked enough boxes for me. I've been holding out for the next revision, but IMO it still isn't quite there. While I appreciate the upgrades to the Hel 2, the mic input appears to be untouched, so still wouldn't be as nice as the mic pre's on the ARC MK2 or Scarlett 2i2 (with xlr to 3.5mm adapter). Also still requiring a 2nd usb cable with psu for power kills the convenience & portability. I was hoping USB-C would give enough power over a single cable to do away with the two cable requirement. I'm after a high quality, medium power, portable pc gaming dac/amp that uses a single usb cable with great mic pre-amp that I can plug my PC38x into. Dreams can come true

How do you think you'll get this much power without external power? Of course it has to be powered externally.

Type C can get a lot of power, but we're talking the possibility of drawing so much from laptops. It just wouldn't be a good design decision.

You want single cable use, get the Fulla.

 

[BRMSlash]

How do you think you'll get this much power without external power? Of course it has to be powered externally.

Type C can get a lot of power, but we're talking the possibility of drawing so much from laptops. It just wouldn't be a good design decision.

You want single cable use, get the Fulla.

I'm no power supply designer or USB expert, but it's my understanding that USB3.1 Gen 2 can provide 100W at 20V through a USB-C connector. I thought that would be enough power for a good dac/amp. Internal USB power supplies are typically noisy, so maybe there's more to be gained by using a secondary, external supply. My current work laptop runs solely off a usb-c connector (granted it's a fairly basic pc), but the tech is out there.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

The WSJ article was shown as an example of a comparison between EVs and ICEs. Where do you read it was being held up as the last word? More comparisons are welcome, from Scientific American, Technology Review, Science News, Popular Mechanics, or others. Do you have these to share with us? Or is your elaborate write-up the last word now?

That, my friend, is called a biased bla-bla intervention.
A bb-bi in short.

edit: After reading all posts it became clear that it was not intended a bb-bi.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Self driving will be an option in twenty years. and the insurance will be prohibitive.

Self censored stupidity.

Now for real.. I think you're right.
In the sense that people who want to drive themselves will pay extraordinary high insurances and people who let themselves be driven by the automatics of the car will travel much cheaper (and safer).