Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[Kasper]

I built a shed with a metal roof.  It gets too hot so I added 2 small computer fans.  Powered by a solar panel.  Every morning when the sun rises, 1 fan starts, the other sometimes does, sometimes doesn't.

When it doesn't start in the morning, I flip the power switch off then on and it starts.

I added a low voltage disconnect and that solved it.

I'm assuming the slow increase in voltage as the sun rises does not provide sufficient kick make it start.

I'm also guessing that's why my box fan dial is in this order: off, 3, 2, 1.

[helius]

"Some engineering reason" is just static friction which you are certainly familiar with. The torque required to overcome it is greater than the dynamic friction of the bearing, so motors always require greater starting torque. AC induction motors produce greatest torque when run at the highest "speed" setting, so it is natural to place that next to the "off" position.

[Analog Kid]

Or maybe it's just that manufacturers of things like fans assume that their users most likely want the highest fan setting rather than a lower one. Who knows?

My cheap 20" 3-speed window fan that I use for cross-ventilation in the summertime works that way.

[helius]

le sigh...

[PlainName]

the soupir...

[shapirus]

The "<whoever>'s reactions" channels popping up on youtube in my recommended videos once in a while, especially with the ridiculous "<whoever> hears <song_name> for the first time" type of videos. I mean, wtf, who would even care? But apparently people watch them, if the views counter isn't lying. Maybe all these folks are so famous that their reactions do matter for many, but I personally have never recognized any of them.

Good thing youtube's efficient managers haven't yet removed the "don't recommend channel" feature.

[RJSV]

   You are right about the videos that champion simply listening for first time.  Mostly boring, and often they spend, like 133 minutes first, asking you to ring the 'subscribe' yt bell.

   But I do find some to be educational.  One lady, a professional OPERA singer,  examines the Jimi Hendrix live presentation, to a 'stunned' crowd.   So,  she covered the dynamics of public demeanor,  interacting with audience and other band members.
   Plus,  she was spot-on when talking about vocal pitch and modulation.   Saying Hendrix was very accurate with the frequencies tuning of his voice,  and also goes off that perfect pitch, in artistic ways of expression.

   So,  yeah,  some RARE reaction videos do go pretty deep into technicalities,  (and without excess boring nuances.

Rick-Jack

[DimitriP]

Microsoft "sunsetting" Skype.

[Simon]

Microsoft "sunsetting" Skype.

Sunsetting? they bought it out to get rid of it and stop it from hampering teams which in true microsoft style is sub optimal.

[PlainName]

Skype:

Microsoft began integrating the Skype service with its own products. Along with taking over the development of existing Skype desktop and mobile apps, it developed a dedicated client app for its then-newly released, touch-focused Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems, which were made available from Windows Store when the then-new OS launched on 26 October 2012

Teams:

On March 4, 2016, Microsoft had considered bidding $8 billion for Slack, but Bill Gates was against the purchase, stating that the firm should instead focus on improving Skype for Business.[14] Lu Qi, EVP of Applications and Services, was leading the push to purchase Slack.[14] After the departure of Lu later that year, Microsoft announced Teams to the public as a direct competitor to Slack at an event in New York on November 2, 2016,[10][15] and was launched worldwide on March 14, 2017

they bought it out to get rid of it and stop it from hampering teams

Either Gates was unusually and suspiciously prescient (and history suggests Microsoft is actually anti-prescient) or you're very much mistaken.

[metrologist]

I built a shed with a metal roof.  It gets too hot so I added 2 small computer fans.  Powered by a solar panel.  Every morning when the sun rises, 1 fan starts, the other sometimes does, sometimes doesn't.

When it doesn't start in the morning, I flip the power switch off then on and it starts.

I added a low voltage disconnect and that solved it.

I'm assuming the slow increase in voltage as the sun rises does not provide sufficient kick make it start.

I'm also guessing that's why my box fan dial is in this order: off, 3, 2, 1.

[paulca]

Then again, it also does not magically save huge amounts of energy. Maybe one customer out of 100 is inspired to save energy or shift their consumption off-peak by better on-line services. And maybe that one out of 100 is enough to offset for the CO2 footprint of having those 100 meters manufactured and installed.

Smart meters are far, far more likely to cause an increase in usage ... because of dynamic tariffs.

Dynamic tariffs, charging less for electricity has nothing to do with "environmental" considerations.  The goal of those tariffs are to burn MORE gas and MORE coal when demand is low, so the power stations can keep running and making money at night.

When you tell people it's cheaper, that's all they here.

EDIT:  The other environmental issues these meters cause and inparticular "green tariffs" cause again, is over use.  They cause more fossil fuel to be burnt.  The reason is, people believe that when their retailer tell them there is "Green power available", they start stacking load onto the network.

There is a limited amount of "Green power" and if your retailer is buying it all for your use, then other people not on green tarifs are having to make do with more fossil fuels.

There is a finite amount of renewable generation.  "Making good use of it" when it's available DOES NOT WORK.  It does NOT help anything anywhere.   It just means that other people will use more fossil fuels if you start using more renewables.

All of these mechanisms and tariffs are based around supply and demand and trying to milk as much money out of the customer as possible ,which is only possibly by getting them to burn as much energy as possible.

[woody]

Smart meters are far, far more likely to cause an increase in usage ... because of dynamic tariffs.

Dynamic tariffs, charging less for electricity has nothing to do with "environmental" considerations.  The goal of those tariffs are to burn MORE gas and MORE coal when demand is low, so the power stations can keep running and making money at night.

When you tell people it's cheaper, that's all they here.

I think that is too bleak a view on dynamic tariffs.
 
Low tariffs occur when there is an abundance of electricity, not during the night, but typically during sunny and / or windy days. If you can tempt people to shift their large energy use at these moments this will mean there are less problems in balancing the net, and less shutting down (and thus pissing away the cheap and clean electricity) of these renewable sources. Dynamic tariffs are a great way to do this. For people like me, with a large battery on wheels sitting in front of the house, it is easy to plan charging the thing at low tariffs.

Smart meters and dynamic energy pricing will drive a much needed shift in when we use energy and not necessarily increase the total amount we use.

[paulca]

Smart meters are far, far more likely to cause an increase in usage ... because of dynamic tariffs.

Dynamic tariffs, charging less for electricity has nothing to do with "environmental" considerations.  The goal of those tariffs are to burn MORE gas and MORE coal when demand is low, so the power stations can keep running and making money at night.

When you tell people it's cheaper, that's all they here.

I think that is too bleak a view on dynamic tariffs.
 
Low tariffs occur when there is an abundance of electricity, not during the night, but typically during sunny and / or windy days. If you can tempt people to shift their large energy use at these moments this will mean there are less problems in balancing the net, and less shutting down (and thus pissing away the cheap and clean electricity) of these renewable sources. Dynamic tariffs are a great way to do this. For people like me, with a large battery on wheels sitting in front of the house, it is easy to plan charging the thing at low tariffs.

Smart meters and dynamic energy pricing will drive a much needed shift in when we use energy and not necessarily increase the total amount we use.

The only way these "save" anything is during period of potential curtailment.  At all other times they increase fossil fuel usage by encouraging over use of the the renewables.  They "Scam" people into believing that green tariffs come from green sources.  They don't.  Not in any distribution network I know of.  Not in the UK, Ireland or in Europe.

Renewables are sold on the market as ROG certificates.  They are basically "proof of generation of 1MWh".

It does NOT say WHEN it was generated.  It does not say it is CURRENTLY being generated.

So a wind farm sells a few dozen ROGs a day.  Theses bounce around the day-ahread, month-ahead markets for a while, hours, days, weeks.  They got bought and resold, speculation, etc.  Eventually an energy retailer buys them and sell them on as "Green energy".

This has literally NOTHING to do with what is or isn't being generated RIGHT NOW.

[woody]

The only way these "save" anything is during period of potential curtailment.  At all other times they increase fossil fuel usage by encouraging over use of the the renewables. 

Exactly that. And as curtailment happens more and more, both in big solar and wind farms and as well as in residential solar installations as can be observed on my own roof a dozen times a year, a push to using this energy instead of just pissing it away is not bad. IMHO that is....

Both solar and wind are quite predictable, as is the use of electricity at any given moment. This enables the setting to tariffs in the close future, which can be used to guide people when to use more or less energy.

[TimFox]

A pet peeve of mine about spelling:  the common filter or oscillator circuit is spelled Wien Bridge, not Wein Bridge.
English spelling is notoriously inconsistent on “ie” vs. “ei”, but German spelling is consistent on their pronunciation.
(Similar errors about wiener sausages.)

[themadhippy]

English spelling is notoriously inconsistent on “ie” vs. “ei”

[TimFox]

Out of curiosity, how does the UK Prime Minister pronounce his given name?

[NE666]

Out of curiosity, how does the UK Prime Minister pronounce his given name?

"Key - Er"

If you ask translate.google.com to sound it out (as English, obviously), it gets it right.

[RJSV]

Ahhh,  'Curtailment' !   I wasn't certain how the context of how that applies to renewable generation.

   For a second,  the image was of a 'Solar protest's,  of tariffs,  by wasting the power,  deliberately, in classic Tea party style...

   A solar bank run into a bank of resistors,  just to protest 'unfair' tariff.
  I do enjoy, and thank, the analysis of the certificate market, and phoney claims of a 'real' green industry.

[themadhippy]

how does the UK Prime Minister pronounce his given name?

messiah, although some of us pronounce it Billy Hunt

[TimFox]

My previous-millennium formal education’s economics component included the usual stuff on banking, metallic currency, fiat currency, debt, etc.
Can someone knowledgeable explain simply the difference between investing in cryptocurrencies and investing in poker chips?

[rsjsouza]

My previous-millennium formal education’s economics component included the usual stuff on banking, metallic currency, fiat currency, debt, etc.
Can someone knowledgeable explain simply the difference between investing in cryptocurrencies and investing in poker chips?

These two folks do a good job explaining the mindset of several of these high gain financial schemes (a classic from 2008)


From time to time the same pyramid schemes dressed as the new thing are replicated. Sure, some of the cryptos have quite the long run, but the yahoos and their short sellers are no different than the same instances of the past.

[calzap]

My previous-millennium formal education’s economics component included the usual stuff on banking, metallic currency, fiat currency, debt, etc.
Can someone knowledgeable explain simply the difference between investing in cryptocurrencies and investing in poker chips?

As long as the casino stays in business, poker chips won’t lose face value.

Most (all?)  cryptocurrencies have a fatal flaw which means they will asymptotically disappear.  Lost or forgotten passwords cause an annual loss year after year.  It been estimated that 20% of bitcoin is already gone.  And there is a finite amount that can be mined.
What should have been part of the design is a “access it periodically or lose it” feature.  For example, if the access it period was 10 years, any bitcoin not accessed within that period would go back in the mine.

Mike

[Ian.M]

If the casino goes out of business, the chips may gain value!
https://www.gipsyteam.com/news/05-10-2024/5-rare-and-weird-poker-chips