The technology thread

[Ragey Erasmus]

Mis-spoke my arse!

 

[Bada-Bing!]

I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV, says actor Rowan Atkinson

www.theguardian.com

 

[BrokenWing]

I've always had a bit of a feeling that EVs were an interim technology.

I thought the main issue with Hydrogen is it's storage. It's the smallest element and massively corrosive if I recall.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Even Hydrogen I have my doubts with the different types. Green being the cleanest but most expensive to produce.

Personally I think as RA says solid state batteries will be the next step because of the weight. Bit like with hard drives.

But the ability to recycle the batteries will also be a big factor.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Even Hydrogen I have my doubts with the different types. Green being the cleanest but most expensive to produce.

Personally I think as RA says solid state batteries will be the next step because of the weight. Bit like with hard drives.

But ability recycle the batteries will also be a big factor.

Yeah I think battery materials technology is due a breakthrough at some point to make it out of more easily accessible materials.

 

[Reiser99]

Even Hydrogen I have my doubts with the different types. Green being the cleanest but most expensive to produce.

Personally I think as RA says solid state batteries will be the next step because of the weight. Bit like with hard drives.

But ability recycle the batteries will also be a big factor.

Tbh, improvements in recycling and longevity of products would make a huge impact. The amount of waste just to have the latest product or because items have been designed to fail is appalling. Mobile phones are a prime example of this.

 

[dullonien]

The lifespan of the batteries used in EV's are a major concern to me. I don't see how an EV can be justifiably kept on the road once the batteries deplete below a useful capacity level. I've not checked if it's even possible to replace the entire battery pack in something like a Tesla, but even if it is/could in the future, who would want to spend the likely cost on an ageing car?

Coming from someone who runs an 'old' car (20y/o), I know the sort of wear and tear that all components experience over time. There's still issues with rust that's very difficult to avoid in the UK climate. Now if I had to replace the engine to keep my car going I'd certainly consider it, but that would be by sourcing a used engine. If that decision involved getting a brand new engine costing £8k+ (hypothetical) then the car would be at the scrap dealers the same day! That 'used' option isn't really there for batteries, as used batteries (unless sourced from a low mile write off) will have depleted capacity, affecting the usability of the car.

Will this change with different battery tech? Possibly, but unlikely imo. So if we go for an all EV approach, we also have to accept the max lifespan of all cars to be around 10 years at best, probably lower for cars clocking up average miles. Personally, that's not ideal, as the rest of the car would have at least a 15 year lifespan.

Atkinson's claim of a £15k car lasting 30 years is a way off though without spending a lot of money on preventative maintenance to ensure the car is still remotely reliable. But still, I think a lot of 'decent' petrol cars buit in the last 20 years are capable of lasting 15 years with decent maintenance before they start to become too unreliable or expensive to maintain, or just too tired looking for most. I'd say that's twice as long as the lifespan of current battery tech for a car covering average yearly miles.

Selfishly, I want to see synthetic fuels become a genuine alternative. I'm a petrolhead, and I'd hate to think that someday I may be forced to abandon driving a car with an internal combustion engine. For most people though, a car is either a tool for getting them from A-B and/or a fashion/status symbol - so for them EV/Hydrogen/Synth fuel, whatever is the most effective is great and the current EV push has allowed us to evaluate things properly, even if it may end up being thr wrong tech.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

The thing with any lithium ion battery is it will degrade over time. It depends on how peeps charge them. The batteries are happiest between 40-80%. If EV owners are constantly running them down to 0% and then charging them back up to 100% that counts as one full cycle and will degrade the battery faster.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Money: £9bn in old UK banknotes and coins not cashed in

Paper £50 and £20 notes have been unusable since October, but can still be exchanged.

www.bbc.co.uk

Start looking in-between the cracks of your sofa.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

And Apple's one more thing…..

Ski goggles.

Apple Reveals 'Vision Pro' Headset and visionOS

Apple today revealed the "Vision Pro" headset, its first mixed-reality headset device, and visionOS, an all new operating system for the...

www.macrumors.com

Kidding aside would definitely like try it.

Apple reveals Vision Pro AR headset at its worldwide developers conference

$3,500 headset allows users to ‘browse the system simply by looking’ and tapping their fingers to select, says Apple

www.theguardian.com

$3500 . So looking like for UK will be around £3,400 once VAT included.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

'Ducking hell' to disappear from Apple autocorrect

One of the most common swear words will no longer be automatically changed when typing.

www.bbc.co.uk

Thank Duck for that.

 

[ncurd]

'Ducking hell' to disappear from Apple autocorrect

One of the most common swear words will no longer be automatically changed when typing.

www.bbc.co.uk

Thank Duck for that.

Booooooo one of lifes amusements that.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

So BTTF2 got one thing right then. Still waiting for hoverboards, the Hydrator to hydrate a pizza in 10 seconds though…

 

[Bada-Bing!]

BBC, BA and Boots issued with ultimatum by cyber gang Clop

They say personal details of 100,000 staff at the BBC, British Airways and Boots will be published if employers do not get in touch.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped | Rowan Atkinson

Sadly, keeping your old petrol car may be better than buying an EV, says actor Rowan Atkinson

www.theguardian.com

Fact check: why Rowan Atkinson is wrong about electric vehicles

Last week we ran a piece by Rowan Atkinson casting doubt on the environmental benefits of electric vehicles. Here Simon Evans of Carbon Brief offers his response

www.theguardian.com

 

[McTallshort]

Anyone used a self service bag check in at an airport before? Flew from Luton to Berlin. Normal massive queues at Luton to check your bag in. About 3 desks for what looked like a million people all queuing and falling out. Flying back from Berlin and you have a self service check in. Go to a control panel (of which there are loads) scan your boarding pass, bag label prints off, you attach it to the bag handle, then take your bag to drop off point, put it on the belt, it weighs your bag, scans your label and off it goes. Took about 5 minutes. Has to be the way forward

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Anyone used a self service bag check in at an airport before?

Quite a few times, most recently at Gatwick about 9 days ago. Provided your have the brainpower to join the dots on the luggage label it's a no brainer that will work for 95% of people.

 

[McTallshort]

Quite a few times, most recently at Gatwick about 9 days ago. Provided your have the brainpower to join the dots on the luggage label it's a no brainer that will work for 95% of people.

They have it at Gatwick?

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Police warn Android phone users over 999 call feature

Forces say update that lets button pushes trigger calls is bombarding operators with "silent" calls.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...oris-johnson-column-***anic-sub-b2363439.html

Guess who are calling Rush and Co heroes?