@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

TechConnectify

@TechConnectify@mas.to

I'm that snarky, sometimes cranky YouTube person who told you about how dishwashers work.

I post many things which should not be taken too seriously (on account of the cranky snark thing). If you think I'm mad at you, I'm almost certainly not!

Friendly and helpful, if strongly opinionated.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

🧡
So, GM is killing the Chevy Bolt later this year. A lotta folks are upset about that, but as someone who knows a lot about the car and how it fits into the broader EV landscape, I'm not actually too bothered by this news.

There's a /different/ bit of news from GM that I'm much more upset about but honestly the Bolt's time has come.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Currently, the Bolt is a phenomenally cheap electric car. Bang-for-the-buck it's unmatched! And people are, I think rightfully, upset that we'll be losing such an affordable options.

But there's a logical reason for its affordability: its underpinnings are from 2016.

Is that bad? Not necessarily. But the car is flat out BAD at DC-fast charging.

The Bolt is a car that I could only recommend if you have charging at-home and are content with never taking on a road trip.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

This is the Achilles heel of the car that the broader public is probably unaware of.

Its long range is let down by the fact that you pretty much need - at minimum - a 45 minute charging session after every couple of hours of driving.

Some folks are gonna be OK with that, but many aren't. And honestly, a Bolt taking up a precious fast-charging stall for an hour is a meme in electric car circles.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Could the Bolt be refreshed with a better and faster battery pack? I mean, probably! But it's still a very compact car that is, like it or not, unpopular in this market.

I didn't consider one for myself because it's frankly too small for me. And the 800V architecture of the E-GMP cars from Hyunda/Kia was just too tempting to pass up.

Anyway, the Ultium platform that GM's rolling out is a much more capable platform, and it makes complete sense for them to abandon the Bolt's underpinnings.

loke, to random
@loke@functional.cafe avatar

@TechConnectify so I was watching the most recent episode by @TechConnectify about contactors. Interesting episode, and I learned a lot.

Now, in it it is said that the lights in the house dims when the AC turns on. I have never seen this in any house. Is this something that happens more often in the US which uses 115 V?

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@loke I doubt it's to do with our voltage - if you've never seen this, you might be from a place where variable-speed compressors are the norm.

They're not, here. Starting to get common but still quite rare in the grand scheme. When that contactor closes, you'll definitely see a disturbance in the lights for a fraction of a second.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@loke This does make me wonder, though - have you never noticed this with a fridge kicking on?

It's a lot more subtle and these days we see it less since fridges have their own circuit in modern builds. But if you plug a fridge into a circuit that has some lights on it, you'll usually notice the lights flicker a bit when it starts.

Given that motors are still motors no matter what voltage they run on, I'd imagine this is normal everywhere.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@loke Honestly this all goes back to how the systems start.

If you've never noticed an air conditioner come to life with a bang, then they probably have some sort of soft-starter or a variable-speed compressor.

Those are very, very rare here.

Another factor is that three-phase service in the home is unheard of, so every large compressor needs a start capacitor. That may increase apparent drop upon startup.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@loke Almost certainly.

Basically, if you've never noticed it go KA-CHONGGGGGGG, then it does. And given that it's a Mitsubishi, it's very unlikely to be single-speed.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

One thing I'm noticing here on Mastodon (mostly through observing experience of others, to be fair) is that there seems to be a point at which catering to people with, let's call it, overly-particular needs seems to embolden those people to foist those needs onto others and it devolves into a mess of opinions real fast.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

One of the reasons Trader Joe's is successful is that they limit choices.

Do you really need to have two dozen varieties of peanut butter? Probably not. So they just stock a few. Gets people in-and-out very quickly, makes the stores smaller, and it's a very enjoyable experience for many despite being objectively quite limited.

Choice-overload is a real thing, and I think those steering this ship need to sit with that for a while.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@EddiKat I'm using Trader Joe's as an example of this as it's a well-known case study of this very phenomenon! It is legitimately a huge part of their success.

I could also compare Linux/Windows/MacOS in a similar vein but I won't because dear god

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@edendestroyer So, Mastodon offers lots of tools for curating your experience. Content warnings, hashtags, etc.

You then run into a lot of folks who police others for not using those features "correctly" and it's a very abrasive experience.

Being chastised for sharing something on the internet just because you didn't do it exactly how Joe Particular wanted it is a really fast way to lose interest in a platform, and the hyper-customizability here, I think, attracts people like Joe Particular.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@pmcg Trader Joe's is basically that! I rarely shop at Aldi but I'm never one to be brand loyal.

I will happily buy the generic version of almost any product (I only have a few exceptions), and TJ's has a ton of variety when it comes to frozen foods.

But when you drill down to one specific food item, particularly commodity products like flour, sugar, butter, they'll have just a few choices. And gosh does it make shopping easy.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@topher @edendestroyer In general, I agree with this principle. But there are people being extremely unreasonable here.

What brought on this thought was the experience I just saw someone have for not bothering to tag the picture they shared as black-and-white.

If you expect people to operate like that, you're asking them to do chores. That's not gonna work.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@topher @edendestroyer Yes, that's precisely what I'm referring to.

And my broader point is that if Mastodon is to remain a place where this kind of person can thrive, it will probably stay niche.

I think there is a point at which you can offer too many controls, and unfortunately there are people who will not be able to see when their needs are excessive. It's going to make this platform tedious for anyone with a few thousand followers or more. In my opinion, to the point of abandonment.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@edendestroyer @topher First, I don't mean to be narrowing-in on those features specifically. They're just what I think most people are familiar with.

Even just the fracturing of instances and rules for interacting between them presents countless opportunities for stumbling into a situation in which you're suddenly in a social faux-pas.

I certainly want to navigate the social internet as tactfully as I can... but I'm finding more and more people getting chastised for tiny infractions.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@edendestroyer @topher People are more than welcome to establish spaces with rules. And honestly, I think that's really cool and healthy! Mastodon has done a lot to make those spaces available.

But the flipside is that those spaces may not be where people want to be. If you start to feel like a post on Mastodon is stepping into a minefield, you're probably gonna stop posting so much.

That's really all I'm trying to get at, here.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@topher @edendestroyer Right. I haven't been posting for a while, I've just been observing.

I've noticed several people start finding this too much to handle. And to make matters worse, suggestions for how to improve the platform are often shouted-down as "against the spirit" or whatever.

Ultimately, too many people want Mastodon to be too many things. And I think that trying to cater to all of them will always keep this place niche.

And maybe that's OK! But it's something to be mindful of.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

hey everbody

i made video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsNHrAzx5_w

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Hello, this is the marketing department.

For your consideration:

"Mastodon's a Blastodon"

Could be big.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

In response to a troll, I shared the latest energy mix numbers. And folks - I didn't realize we were this far already!

Anybody who still says crap like "you mean your coal-powered car?" is just woefully misinformed.

I mean, I knew that, but I didn't realize it was quite this extreme.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@mcc The fuel-efficiency of a hybrid comes from three places: first, (essentially) zero idling waste, second the ability to recapture kinetic energy from regenerative braking, and third (and this is actually most important) the Atkinson cycle engines they use.

Atkinson engines are really quite anemic when it comes to their power output, which is why we don't use them in most cars. But slap an electric motor alongside it to make up that difference, and it no longer matters.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@mcc Still, though, their thermal efficiency is quite poor. A large majority of the energy they consume is wasted as heat.

Combined-cycle natural gas plants are able to turn a slight majority of the heat energy they burn into electricity, which leaves plenty of overhead for a pure EV to be more carbon-efficient in-use than the best hybrids (especially when you account for the emissions of refining gasoline)

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

@mcc The real argument for electrification, though, is that we can make electricity from many things - plenty of which don't involve setting fire to anything.

There's already a good deal of non-carbon-emitting energy on the grid, and that proportion keeps going up. As it happens, the time (or miles-driven) required to offset the creation of the battery pack keeps shrinking - and importantly, the minerals in the battery pack don't disappear when the pack wears out. We can recycle them.

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

Why shoot film with old cameras?

For the thrill that comes after the rewarding work crafting exceptional selfies like this one.

TechConnectify,
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

And here's an actually not effed up frame.

Also notable is that this is on my remaining stock of Lucky Super 200, which has hilarious quality control problems. Lots of rolls have weird color shifts at the start! But it has a gritty quality to it that I like.

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