Email systems have a tendency to flag mass mails as spam. By sending them in batches, it stops other email systems panicking as much.

It also lets a human check over things, and limit the effects of a screwup.

Fully agreed on that. There is also a balance of allowing them to explore an idea space, while keeping them clear of risks and negative problems.

E.g. my minion is currently obsessed with Minecraft. They are actually getting quite good at the design part too. They want to play online though. I’m not happy with that, so I am setting up a private server. It will be whitelist access only. They will be able to play online and talk with their friends through Minecraft, but not random players online. When they are older, I’ll allow it, but only when I am in the (physical) room, keeping an eye on things.

If you try and shoehorn your kids into only what you think is acceptable, then you will have problems. If you have shown you will help them explore their own interests, they will come to you with them. If you regularly shut them down, they will go behind your back, where you have no control.

Most modern desalination plants use a “reverse osmosis” method.

You have a barrier that water can pass through, but salt can’t. Normally, water would be drawn across this barrier, till the salinity is the same on both sides. This is osmosis, and how things like plants draw in water.

Reverse osmosis works by using a high pressure on the salty side. This effectively forces water against the osmotic gradient. This is generally done with relatively small amounts of salt water at a time. The end result is fresh water on one side, and extremely salty water on the other. If the salty “brine” is discharged too fast, it can mess up the local salinity levels in the sea around the vent. The process is also very energy intensive (though a LOT less than boiling the water off).

You also have the problem of the membrane being very sensitive to getting damaged or blocked up. You need to clean the sea water up a lot before you can desalinate it.

This new process would help avoid the brine issue, as well as likely being less sensitive to contaminants.

I read it more as, if your kid is intent on something, rather than slap them down, try and work with them to turn it into a positive experience.

Most kids adore doing stuff with their parents. It lets them practice adult skills, with the safety net of a trusted adult behind them.

With something like streaming, it would be down to the parent to keep them safe and let them explore their creativity. It sounds like this dad screwed that up, but is trying to at least own his part of that.

There are nuances between feral parenting and helicopter parenting.

It’s definitely in the “lies to tell children to help them learn” category. The concept of length Vs counting is only just being taught here. The difference between dimensional cubes is a bit beyond most of them.

It lets them use a consistent reference for counting, as well as 1D, 2D, and 3D measurements. They also give something to learn with tactilely, rather than just an abstract set of ideas.

Basically lock the idea of measurements in with the cubes. Then, only when they are confident, split them off into counting and the dimensional concepts.

It works very well for a lot of children.

I have issues with face recognition. While I’m not face blind, I have issues with remembering faces. This also cascades into remembering information about people.

A local face matching system, that can flag pertinent facts to me would be life-changing.

I refuse to let the likes of meta data mine me however. I also don’t want to be in the same boat as the people currently abusing the glasses already.

A lot of it is a storm in a bottle. There are periodic discussions about it. It tends to be when the central government (based in London) gets to South East England centric.

Right now the numbers wanting independence are higher than usual, but not into the realms of breaking away imminently. However, it’s also worth noting that a lot of England is also pissed off with parliament for various reasons. We seem to have a similar capture issue to America (excessive willingness to please big business/money over the people from both sides).

Basically it’s a shot across the bows to the UK parliament to do their fucking jobs, not just line their own pockets.

Randomly this appeared in my feed.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Qpyd7TsH14Y

Doesn’t say anything about the receiver side, but shows the mechanism quite well.

Speculating, but I would guess they applied a band pass filter to it. You can then either take a simple threshold value, or look for a rapid change and trigger off that. 4 buttons means 4 sets of filters, each tuned to a different frequency.

That said, the analogue electronics engineers of yesteryear were insanely competent and making analogue circuits do interesting things to save money or space.

I think the Minecraft modders got there first. That would push doom to 3rd at least.

I believe it was old school analogue electronics, but I’m speculating there.

I just looked it up, it was ultrasonic signals. The main one was the Zenith Space Command.

Not fully related, but early TV remotes used sound rather than IR. The buttons made a distinctive “click” noise, from a mechanical mechanism. The different clicks were detected in the TV and used as input.

Plus side, no batteries to deal with.

Down side, about as (un)reliable as you would expect.

I need to jump back into that story. 😁

Tbh, I would love an appropriate pair. I have issues with memory, particularly regarding faces. A set of smart glasses would be an almost perfect aid to me.

Unfortunately, I don’t trust any of the manufacturers not to abuse the hell out of all the data they generate. I’m also fully aware of the idiots abusing them, and ruining things for everyone else.

I’ve actually got one myself. I would have to get creative to get it recharged from my solar panels. The inverter is grid tied, and would need to be bypassed.

The original comment was talking about having a server up. That, and the networking kit to make it useful, would draw quite a bit. A lot more than you would get with a portable solar panel in the UK. To keep that up would require significant panels and storage capability, which implies fixed solar. Hence my comment warning them.

I know a few people who thought they would be fine in a power cut, due to having solar. I set them straight on that, before it caught them flat footed at least.

Supermarkets rely on just in time deliveries. We learnt during COVID that even a slight delay can cause problems. Enough people then panic buy to snowball it.

It would take remarkably few road closures to leave towns isolated from supply chains. A 72 hour buffer is very useful in those cases. Even if it’s just to relieve short term pressure on those supply chains when they reconnect.

FYI, most home solar setups are grid tied. This lets you sell power to the grid, as well as supplement it with grid power, when required. The downside is that it goes down with the grid, so not to back feed and electrocute linesmen.

To go independent you need a more expensive system with a fail over mode. It drops out with the mains, but then fires a switch that disconnects you from the grid. It can then fire up again in off-grid mode. The reverse process is needed to reconnect to the grid.

A lot technically are electric motorbikes (or would be under UK law, where I live).

To be an ebike, it needs to have no more than 250W peak power, have a power assist speed limit of 25kph (15mph) and require pedaling for power assist.

If it goes outside any of these, it becomes a electric motorbike, and requires a numberplate, insurance etc.

These rules seem very reasonable to me. Though I can see an argument for a slightly higher power limit for electric cargo bikes (400/500W). They are also starting to be enforced more critically now.

I’ve no issues with electric dirt bikes, but they belong with the road traffic at that point, not on the cycling infrastructure.

It’s a mix here. Those in private businesses tend to be open and easy to grab. The ones in a box on a street corner are code locked.

I suspect it makes sense. The slight delay would be fairly minimal. You are likely on the phone to emergency services already.

It’s quite effective at stopping people messing with them however. Unfortunately, it only takes a few idiots to ruin things. Both thieves and bored teenagers could take an interest in them, and render them useless. A simple code lock makes it clear it’s not to be touched without need.

I’ve not looked closely enough to see if any have a “break glass” type access system as well.