Recent submissions

Comment · 27 days ago
> I thought as an outsider to the sport that F1 was all about engineering the best possible car and putting the best possible driver in the seat

The clue is sort of in the name; you make the best car within the "Formula", that's why its called "Formula One". The "Formula" is essentially the set of rules that sets constraints on what you can and can't build. You build the best possible car within the Formula. It's "One" because it's meant to be the pinnacle of single seat racing. It's been roughly this way since WWII.

Comment · 2 months ago
This for me is one of the last great unsolved problems on the internet. I've yet to find a book recommendation site/algorithm/social thing/whatever that actually works well enough for me to trust it and invest my time in logging my own reads to improve the results etc.

I've had far more success personally in growing my reading list with books I ended up loving by following a few people on Instagram who share their reading groups choices. Similarly, anytime anyone whom I vaguely trust recommends me a book I just order it immediately on Amazon and add to the input pile.

It's vitally important for me to keep the next read pipeline well stocked - I get through a lot of books, and if I run out for whatever reason it can take me weeks to get the habit going again.

Virtually every other form of media, I can find a recommendation system that works well enough, even if it's not perfect. Books have always been an outlier for me personally.

Comment · 2 months ago
I was genuinely curious to see what the legally mandated calorie/ingredient content labelling was in 1991 on a UK Mars bar, but sadly no pictures of the underside.

While I've no doubts shrinkflation explains a great deal of this, it would be interesting if increased mandatory food content reporting on packaging had even a small effect on reducing the calorie content of confectionery over time, as consumers could more easily compare etc and market responded with products in portion sizes to better fit preferences.

You can even see in the article photo, the more recent modern Mars bar has the calorific content printed on the front, in addition to the big label all UK food has on the rear. The 1991 example does not.

Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
KOReader is widely known to be less energy efficient than Nickel (the native reader on Kobo devices). It's a commonly observed issue.

It still lasts a long time! It's just not as efficient as Nickel on the same hardware.

Personally I prefer Calibre + Nickel over KOReader on Kobo devices (its trivial to convert DRM-free eBooks to formats Nickel will open, Calibre will do it automatically if you plug a Kobo in), although on Kindle devices I would still jailbreak and use KOReader.

Comment · 3 months ago
This is correct, the 256gb is substantially slower as uses fewer physical memory chips - less ability to read/write in parallel. The 512gb or larger models have substantially higher read/write rates, and typically performs 50-100 percent faster in benchmarks than the 256.

Was a primary factor in me buying a 512gb M4 Mac Mini, even though I planned to use large external SSD - I wanted faster spec boot volume.

Comment · 3 months ago
My only real complaint with KOReader is that the book browsing UI is file and folder based by default, while virtually all other ebook readers support some kind of cover based library view you can sort 20 different ways based on metadata rather than filenames etc.

It's not a huge issue, but I find just browsing my collection to find a read a lot more enjoyable on other ebook readers. IIRC there are plugins to add this feature, but it's not present out of the box.

On the few Kobos and jailbroken Kindles I've used it on, it also drains the battery significantly faster than the stock reader app, although not enough that I couldn't last at least a few days. On stock software I can go weeks between charges.

Comment · 3 months ago
I almost never see it now, but twenty to thirty years ago when there where far more cars on UK roads with no air conditioning, you would very occasionally see someone leave the window slightly open to try and keep cabin temps a little more sane in summer. In the 90s/early 2000s there where a lot of cheap cars (Ford Fiestas, Corsas etc) sold in volume on UK roads with no AC, and on hot days those things would turn to ovens if parked in the sun with the windows up. I used to have to do this occasionally myself with a crap Ford Ka I owned with no AC. It was a pretty normal thing to do back then!

I'm not even sure if it's possible to even buy a new mass-produced car with no AC anymore in the UK, or pretty much anywhere else for that matter.

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