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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • I switched to working out at home and saved a whole bunch of time I used to spend getting to and from the gym, plus all the faffing about waiting to get on the stations I wanted to use. Its not going to work for everyone but if you can do some sort of workout at home or at work if you lucky enough to work somewhere that has facilitates, then you can save a whole bunch of time.

    As others have mentioned switching to high intensity can give you as big an impact in a lot less time. Unless you training for endurance events spending a couple of hours working out everyday can actually be counter productive. I used to train twice a day six days a week, an hours weights in the morning then two to three hours of BJJ/Kickboxing and I never made the same strength gains as when I toned that shit down.

    Two hours is pretty excessive, you should be doing 10 minutes stretching tops, unless its an actual stretching workout such as yoga or you are working out an injury. Spending an hour on a stair master or a runner is only good if you actually challenging your heart rate during that time, and then only if you working on endurance for a reason.




  • What most people are describing here as an improvement is actually HDR rather than a straight resolution upgrade. Not all 4k downloads (or even actual streams) include HDR for all films, so concentrating on films with HDR and preferably Dolby Vision, assuming your TV supports it, is what I would recommend.

    Obviously, not all films are going to be better just because they now have HDR. Even if they have good HDR, there might be other issues such as the green tint for Fellowship of the Ring or the recent problems with the Aliens AI remaster.

    Final thing, if your TV is only average at HDR, then it might not even be worth seeking them out. I went from an average 7 year old LED with basic HDR support to a top of the range LG oled, and it’s night and day better with HDR for good material.


  • Tesla have a CVT gearbox? Like actual gearbox that ice cars have? First, I’ve ever heard of them having a proper gearbox. First production ev I heard of with an actual gearbox is the taycan, that has a two speed, fully auto gearbox. Nit aware of any others with an actual gearbox.

    You know how regen works right? And that the brake pedal on modern evs don’t engage regen as fully as they are engaging the brakes as that’s what that pedal is for. Engage the brakes and you aren’t going to get anywhere near the energy back from regen as a ton of energy is being wasted by friction and thus heat of the brake pads.

    I’ve owned a lexis 400h, i like the idea of them, but cvts are garbage to drive, even in hybrids. They also completely unsuitable for evs due to their wide torque band, they work best for ice engines have have narrow torque bands as the entire function of a cvt is to adjust to a narrow rev range to optimise that narrow torque band.


  • Any decent car in the tesla price bracket has configurable regen from all the way off to progressively more regen all thr way up to one pedal driving that will apply the brakes for you to come to a complete stop without touching thr pedal.

    Vast majority of these it’s switched between the modes using the paddle shift. If you can understand changing gears on a modern ice auto using the paddles, then it’s not beyond the average driver to quickly get to grips with using it for regen.

    I’d you feather the throttle as you start to slow down you can moderate the amount of regen dynamically without having to change modes. However that requires more skill than the average driver seem capable of.

    Cheaper evs tend to have off, on, and may be one pedal driving modes, but they have to cut things to be cheaper as with all cars.

    I get between a fifth and a quarter back of my energy consumption from using regen. Learning how to use it is essential for good economy, and it makes you safer as you plan ahead more for where you want to slow down. The least safest way to drive is emergency braking 10m before a stop sign as your default driving style



  • I just use my Google Home Max for timers, it’ll display three timers at once on the screen and I can get the status of any or all with voice at any point. Plus it’ll do all the usual assistant stuff of conversions, cooking temperatures, and has a big enough screen for me to read recipes or follow along with a recipe video. Bonus feature is that its a reasonable loud speaker as well so I do not need a separate radio in the kitchen.

    Sure its not as pretty as the clock but its a whole lot more useful for cooking.


  • So Blade Runner, Alien, and Predator franchises are linked, but I also a believer that the Terminator franchise is linked into the same, shared universe. Obviously Terminator has many different endings depending at which film you look due to timey wimey shenanigans, but if you pick one of the ones that the war is averted (I pick T2 as the sequels are not my favorite), it kinda makes sense. In this universe Dutch is the special forces ace that is picked (probably unknowingly) to be the model for the T800.


  • Both my kids have had Zoes, one of the original model and one of the latest one. They have been great cars, particularly the newer one that my son has, he does about 15k a year in his. Reliable, great economy, although my daughters replacement Fiat 500e for her Zoe gets a higher miles per kWh but it has a smaller battery.

    However Renault can be an absolute pile of crap to deal with. Our local dealer is so bad we would never buy another Renault as they are the only dealer within a reasonable distance (nearest alternative is 25 miles of traffic heavy city driving).

    Renault UK can be pretty shitty about denying expensive warranty claims as well from what I have seen. Anybody looking at buying any car should be checking out the reputation of their local dealer before buying but especially for Renault IMO

    We are looking at a MG EV4 to replace his Zoe next year, more range, more space, and cheaper than the Zoe/5 with a longer warranty.


  • We’ve had three EVs for a few years now and they been great, had four in total and replaced the first one a bit over a year ago as its lease expired, so no regrets.

    Lengthy road trips aren’t a problem if you plan out your route in advance I get not everyone wants to do this so if this you then wait till there are more charging stations for your region. We plan stops based on charging stations that have a lot of high speed chargers (over 100kw) so we are never waiting more than 20 minutes and never waiting for a charger. It is faster to charge twice to around 80% on one of these than it is to charge to 100% once due to how much charging slows down as the battery nears completion. I would not even consider a car that does not have a 800v architecture due to the slower charging speeds if you plan on road trips.

    We have done 1200 mile round trips, probably small fry for Americans but a lot for us, especially as we towing for all that. Its achievable with planning in most western countries. I want to stop at most every three hours as I want to use the loo, are people who are driving 6 more hours non stop peeing in a bottle or something?

    Cost per mile is stupidly low as we charge at home when not on trips over 280 miles, 8p per kwh, with a monthly cost between the three cars of £40 for around 2000 miles a month (more in summer, about that in winter). Good luck doing 2000 miles on £40 for an ICE car. Charging when out is more expensive the faster you want to charge, ultra rapids work out about the same per mile as high economy petrol ICE, rapids or lower a bit cheaper but nothing significant. Its only going to be cheaper if you can charge at home and your energy provider has a suitable EV tariff as we do.

    Absolutely zero chance I would buy an EV right now as depreciation is already horrendous and the rate of change for EVs is rapid unless you know the car will meet your log term needs and those will not change. We lease so that all the cost of the risk is with the leasing company and we know we want the improvements.

    Edit: Plug in hybrids are fucking useless BTW, you are either doing a ton of miles and using the ICE all the time, or you are using the battery all the time and very rarely the ICE. It means carrying around both a full EV setup and a full ICE setup, so you have more than twice the complexity of either and more weight than an actual pure EV with the same battery that impacts both EV and ICE economy. Plus recent studies have shown that hybrids are far harder on the ICE part than a pure ICE, which is fucking awful for long term ownership.

    They were only ever meant as a stop gap until battery prices dropped, which they have and its now possible to get EVs with over 400 miles of ACTUAL range not just promised range.








  • Hozelock adjustable long spray lance, absolutely unfit for purpose, disposable garbage that broke after 3 months.

    Last refund was a nightmare as it was a purchase from Amazon and outside their 30 day window, so initially they did not want to accept the return and directed me to the manufacturer. Hozelock just refused to engage, and directed me back to Amazon, endless loop. After going round this loop I then complaining to Amazon for a solid 10 minutes and they eventually agreed to pay for pick up of the item then refund when it was picked up.

    Replaced it with a more expensive Dramm lance that every part is user replaceable with available spare parts, and much less plastic components.


  • Super rich for me is being able to run a motor yacht that’s typically way over 100 feet with 4 or more crew on average of 100k each. Captain might be on anything up to 250k with a decent tonnage license and experience. High chance of a chase boat with its own separate crew.

    The running costs of that boat would bankrupt even a decently wealthy millionaire in a year or two.

    Rich is being able to run a modern 50 foot plus motor yacht for coastal cruising without a crew. Or a recent 50 foot sailboat with all the trimmings like an oyster.

    But those are just my definitions.

    I think idiots like bezos with his pathetic cosplay of a sailing boat that can’t even sail with more than one mast unfurled really don’t help the perception of sailing with the super rich.

    We need more boats like the black pearl that can actually sail and be off grid on renewables for proper ocean crossing. Shame that most super rich just fly to their boat rather than actually crossing the oceans on them.