localzuk

localzuk, 11 months ago to random

With the media so obsessed with the eventual "waste" from green energy production - end of life solar panels, turbine blades, batteries etc, wouldn't it be great if they provided context?

There are 9000 oil tanker ships on the planet. 10s of thousands of petrol trucks. 10s of thousands of petrol stations. 10s of thousands of miles of pipeline.

All of which are environmentally damaging to dispose of.

Yet, never discussed in the media. Its just the green boogeyman.

#Solar #Wind #GreenEnergy

localzuk, 6 months ago to random

I find it outrageous and incredibly offensive how often subtitles are censored.

I've experienced it on broadcast TV. On Amazon. On YouTube. And elsewhere.

Deaf people do not need swear words hidden. Those of us with hearing loss don't suddenly decide, "Ah, yes, because I can't hear fully, I don't want to experience swearing anymore."

Stop censoring our content!

#Subtitles #ClosedCaption #Censorship

localzuk, 1 year ago to random

The joys of modern gaming. Turning on your system for the first time in a short while, and having to download gigabytes of updates.

Turned on my SteamDeck for the first time in about a month. 29GB of updates.

FTTP is becoming a necessity for gaming.

The FTTC I can get at the moment just ain't cutting it. But there's no sign of improvement for a couple more years.

localzuk, 3 months ago to politics

One of the biggest flaws in modern technology is lack of diversity.

Not racial diversity. No.

I'm talking about class and wealth diversity.

How many working class people are involved in creating AIs? The answer is simple - not many. Simply because that's how our education systems work.

You can follow this lack of diversity back to government. Look at your representatives. Are they from the working class? Do they even understand working class people?

I doubt it.

#Politics #AI #Technology

localzuk, 5 months ago to UKpolitics

I have come to the conclusion that the problem with the right-wing is how they think about people.

On the left, people are generally considered to be equal. We strive for equality, and if there is inequality, that is seem as a failure of society and the state.

On the right, people doing well think they are better than everyone else. If you're suffering at the bottom, that's a personal failing and you need to fix it yourself. And your children are failures because of you.

#UKPolitics #Politics

localzuk, 7 months ago to UKpolitics

The only reason the government are so upset about the 4 day week, even when it is proving to be cost effective and efficient, is that their paymasters are worried that it could become a demand from workers that could spread to business.

Can't have the proles enjoying too much of their time, can you? They might get ideas above their station.

#UKPol #UKPolitics

Government says four-day working weeks should 'cease immediately' - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67232583.amp

localzuk, 7 months ago to random

The BBCare legally required to be impartial. So this policy, as distasteful as it seems today, is the right one.

If they didn't have this policy, and they call some other group terrorists and the govt disagree? What happens then?

A policy of proper impartiality is correct.

That said, the BBC could refer to Hamas as a prosecribed terror group, as the UK has indeed defined them as that.

BBC defends policy not to call Hamas 'terrorists' after criticism - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67076341

localzuk, 1 month ago to random

Recycling batteries isn't actually that easy, though. So many people will continue to be lazy and just bin them.

The onus is currently on people to take the batteries somewhere to recycle. Which means they need to store them until they do.

So, instead of bin lorry fires, we'll have house fires instead. Realistically, councils should start collecting them with kerb-side recycling.

Bin fire in Cornwall after batteries not recycled - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-68899020.amp

localzuk, 1 year ago to random

One thing that has become very clear to me over the years, is that when Americans enter any community, forum, or service, they are loud and demanding.

Rather than joining in with an existing culture in those communities, learning and collaborating, they instantly demand changes to fit what they want that community to be.

And when told no, that's not how the community works, that's when they start to attack.

It seems to be part of American culture.

Tbf, us Brits aren't too great at it either

localzuk, 7 hours ago to UKpolitics

Why would the nationalisation of Thames Water end up putting its debt on the public books? If a company goes bust, and the govt buys the remains, surely the investors simply lose their investment and the debt falls to zero?

They want water companies to operate as profit makers, so they should accept when they go bust too.

#UKPol #UKPolitics

Ofwat poised to refuse most suppliers’ requests for big price rises | Water industry | The Guardian
https://amp.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/28/water-watchdog-suppliers-price-rises-ofwat-bills-thames-water

localzuk, 1 year ago to random

First issue using PopOS as my daily driver. Dual monitor support is weird. It supports my 2 monitors, but games will randomly not use the right resolution. E.g. Skyrim, set to use 4k resolution will resize to about 75% of the screen. Is this because I have Fractional Scaling enabled so that text is readable on the 4k monitor?
The issue with it resizing is that if I go full screen, my 1080p second monitor goes all weird - and I lose half of the window open on it off the screen
#LinuxGaming #PopOS

localzuk, 11 months ago to random

Even with so many solar panels ending their useful lives, even if we scrapped all of them tomorrow, we'd still not be seeing the same amount of waste as its produced by coal mining each and every year worldwide.

400kg of every tonne of coal mined is waste - not byproducts, waste. In 2020, the world mined 7.575 billion tonnes. That's 3 billion tonnes of waste. In a year.

Solar panels - an eco-disaster waiting to happen? - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65602519.amp

localzuk, 3 months ago to UKpolitics

Banning protest around parliament and MPs homes is anti-democratic, fascistic nonsense.

The idea that the very people who specifically should be the target of protests could be allowed to basically insulate themselves against it simply confirms that the UK is not a democracy. The idea that you can limit free speech to "protect democracy" is Orwellian newspeak to say the least.

If you can't take protest? Don't become a politician. Simple as that!

#UKPolitics #UKPol #Parliament

localzuk, 11 months ago to random

I don't understand this one... if the WhatsApp messages are personal, then either he was using private messaging to do government business, or was using a government account to do private messaging. Either one should be a problem.

What happened to the need to maintain secure, recorded communication in government?

COVID inquiry: Government stands by refusal to hand over Boris Johnson's 'private' WhatsApp messages following criticism | Politics News | Sky News
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-inquiry-government-stands-by-refusal-to-hand-over-boris-johnsons-private-whatsapp-messages-following-criticism-12893290

localzuk, 7 months ago to Israel

Not sure how Israel could possibly justify bombing Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital, reportedly killing at least 500 people, mostly women and children.

That's a plain and simple war crime.

#israel #Gaza #WarCrime

localzuk, 1 year ago to random

The Guardian running an article titled "How war in Taiwan could mean the wheels come off the UK economy"...

I hate to tell them, but if there is a war between China and Taiwan, the wheels will come off the world economy. Not just the UK. Especially as the USA has pledged to protect them.

#China #Taiwan

localzuk, 7 months ago to random

The false indignation of Israel is quite something.

He was very clear - the Hamas attack on Israel was wrong. He's also right in saying the current situation did not happen in a vacuum.

These are undeniable truths.

Israel complaining about this just makes the rest of the world look at them with a little less respect in my view.

Israel slams UN chief for saying Hamas attack ‘did not happen in a vacuum,’ calls for his resignation – POLITICO
https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-united-nations-antonio-guterres-hamas-attack-vacuum-comments/

localzuk, 9 months ago to random

Random thoughts. If Putin is deposed, will it be the change that triggers a reorganisation of Russian political systems back to a "Soviet"?

I doubt whoever takes over from him would be more moderate, so what direction would the country go?

Would Belarus join a new USSR?

localzuk, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to Titanic

Today, I learned that apparently, one of the biggest contentious issues in the amateur Titanic historian community appears to be the answer to the question "how many blades did the central propeller have?".

It looks to be a dispute similar in scale and ferocity as the discussion as to whether you should use spaces or tabs to indent your code when programming... 😂

Such passion! Love it.

#Titanic

localzuk, 1 year ago to random

Unpopular opinion. Ice cream should not contain lumps of stuff. No brownie pieces. No giant lumps of chocolate. Nothing to detract from the smooth texture of the ice cream itself. Ben and Jerry's is by far the worst major ice cream brand due to all the lumps.

The only exception to this is mint choc chip, but the chips need to be very small.

Doesn't include things like Magnum or other ice cream on a stick etc...

#IceCream #UnpopularOpinion

localzuk, 4 months ago to UKpolitics

Total and utter incompetence from our government.

They've ruined our military.

The Tories need to go, and stay gone for 20 years at least, so the adults can clean up their mess.

#UKPolitics #ToriesOut

Britain has zero active naval supply ships for first time
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-has-zero-active-naval-supply-ships-for-first-time/

localzuk, 4 months ago to random

I think my next phone choice needs to be based on having a replaceable battery.

The phones last fine, but battery life just gets worse and worse.

localzuk, 3 months ago to ai

How are so many people generating photorealistic images with AI? Every time I have tried any of the image generators, the outcome is a hilarious mess. Such as this nightmare from Dall-E.

The prompt? "A fleet of 5 British aircraft carriers in a large NATO taskforce at sea."

Its vaguely taskforce-y, but its hardly what I asked for...

#ai #aiart

localzuk, 3 months ago to random

There's a guy in the UK who accidentally threw out a hard disk with bitcoin currently worth a couple hundred million on it a decade ago.

He's tried everything to get it back. It is likely buried at a landfill. And has been for 10 years.

He is still trying to get it back.

Am I the only person who sees the problem here? 10 years in a rotting landfill? That hard disk is dead. Moisture will now be inside the case. The data will be long gone.

Why is he persisting?

localzuk, 26 days ago to linux

Looking for a way to rip BluRay discs so I can stream the videos via Plex, on Manjaro Linux. Every site on the net points to MakeMKV, except the BETA key for that expired at the end of April, and the site hasn't been updated with a new one... So, anyone got any ideas?

#linux #bluray #makemkv #manjarolinux