...m...

…i think the early stages will be fuzzy over the next four years but the `states will be fully engaged within six…

…that’s okay; in star citizen the vapid simulator download service is called electronic access…

…good call, that camry gets infinite FPS at infinite resolution and dynamic range; enjoy!..

…i’ve only done urban installations, but recently i’ve been giving a lot of thought to the localised effect of high-albedo reflective roofs (and other materials) and transpirative tree canopies (and other vegetation) being replaced by low-albedo solar photovoltaic arrays: it measurably increases heat load on the local environment, reduces radiative cooling at night, and drives up overall cooling demand, which presents a deep rabbit-hole of cost-benefit analyses in the tradeoff between reduced grid use during the day versus increased grid use at night, the potential net reduction in carbon emissions therefrom, the added carbon emissions from manufacturing and maintaining solar photovoltaic infrastructure, and the loss of ecosystem carbon capture and biodiversity services from decreased solar exposure and increased heat island effect…

…it’s a poorly-understood subject of ongoing academic study in both urban and natural environments, with the largest arrays i’ve read subjected to that sort of rigorous analysis measuring on the order of 1/300,000 the scale of this proposed project…still, apples-to-apples, that larger study was performed in desert scrubland and measured about 4°C increased local temperatures, which is significant but not a good proxy for the weather effects one would see generated by a 750 square-mile convection cell over truly barren desert…

…back to your original question, most solar photovoltaic panels loose somewhere on the order of ¼ to ½ percent efficiency per °C incease in panel temperature, but like most things in the real world it’s actually much more complicated than a simple multiplier…the short version is that investors wouldn’t be building desert arrays if they didn’t present a short-term economic gain, and they certainly do provide plenty of power despite the increased heat, but the long-term environmental impact of radically altering surface albedo at such a large scale isn’t well-understood relative to the implied let alone actual changes in carbon-intensive energy generation…

…ye gads, just imagine the heat island generated by 750 square miles of black glass: that’s a weather-creating convective air mass…

…do three strikes laws apply to simultaneous convictions?..

…that’s pretty much my improvisational style, everything eyeballed, nothing measured: sometimes things turn out amazing but of course the cost of those happy surprises is that i’ll never make it the same way again; couldn’t if i tried…

…i dated a girl who dogmatically followed published recipes, considered any deviations anathema to the authors’ labor developing them, and she was horrified to watch me cook…

…let me introduce you to single cask-strength malts: one drop, drawn delicately through your lips, let diffuse across your palate by capillary action, that’s how i learned to appreciate alcohol for the first time after four decades of not getting it…

…the great thing about cask-strength sipping whiskies is that one bottle can last years if kept properly sealed between pours…

…in my experience, polyester teabags never really took off stateside: it’s only imported british mass-market teas which did the fused-pyramidal-bag thing as a product differentiator…stateside,i occasionally see boutique teas with fused polyester bags + strings, but i expect they’ll change in short order based upon this controversy…

…if your tea uses folded-paper bags stapled or tied-off with cotton string, you’re safe…

…their first-generation cards were poorly received, but intel kept at it and recently achieved parity with low-end offerings from ATI and nvidia as a respectable selection for a budget machine…

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/12/review-intel-arc-b580-is-a-compelling-if-incredibly-tardy-250-midrange-gpu/

…if they stay committed to the effort, i think intel might stand toe-to-toe on midrange cards within a generation or two…

“Freedom is a scary thing. Not many people really want it.”

…body count!..now that’s a name i’ve not heard in a long, long time: a long time…

…two-faced rarebit…

…multi-whole-grain sourdough and way more dairy than i should be eating…

frog fractions

…trump’s trivially manipulated: the next four years are china’s best shot and they know it…

(ha - getaway car)

…maybe they like charge up at some lush port with a cheap grid surplus, sail across the atlantic to like, i don’t know, maybe texas during a polar vortex, supplement that grid for a couple of days, return + repeat for a tidy profit?..

…seems tricky to get the timing right; offshore data centers might be a better deal…

…NCSA mosaic won the web, absolutely; in truth i think it gave a lot of us an excuse to upgrade from terminals and shell accounts…

…i remember going to our computer lab in the early nineties and seeing a flyer about this new protocol called the world wide web, thinking to myself in what way is that better than gopher?..