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180409119
comment
by4im
025 @03:36AM
(#65863491)
Attached to: Volkswagen To End Production At German Plant, a First In Company History
In my eyes, one of the main issues pretty much all automakers have is that they are selling cars that don't really fit what their customers actually want. Where have the small cars gone? Where have the family vans gone? Where are the simple, no frills cars? Which customer actually wants anything like automated driving, which they seem to strive for? Any features requiring some sort of subscription? Why oh why must almost every new car be a SUV?
For VW, in the european markets, an example of a car dearly missed is the Sharan - a family van with sliding rear doors. It fits 2 adults, 3 kids (including special kid's seats), the family dog and the luggage for the holidays. Frills if you actually wanted them, but not required. They were selling like hotcakes. For used Sharans, prices have gone sky-high, as they have an excellent - well merited - reputation. But VW decided not to build them any more. There is no replacement in sight. The Buzz is an electric bus, but not a family van. The Caddy, while nice enough, is still a glorified, smaller delivery van. The ID.7 looks like a nice electric replacement for the Passat, but won't fit the 3 kids with their seats, as pretty much none of any maker's station wagons nor SUVs do.
Ford discontinued their well-selling Fiesta, Focus, S-Max, Galaxy for instance. They try to sell SUVs, and it looks like they are pretty much disappearing from the market.
Instead of running after fads and only trying to maximize their profits, thus only tending to the high-margin categories, maybe all these automakers should try to listen to what people actually want to buy, so they can actually sell numbers.
Note: going electric is not the problem. Only selling hugely expensive, over-equipped, partially unreliable cars (software!) is a problem, though.
180122627
comment
by4im
5 @09:24AM
(#65802653)
Attached to: Valar Atomics Says It's the First Nuclear Startup To Achieve Criticality
If you think of "valar morghulis", the combination with "atomics" sure gets scary...
180044022
comment
by4im
5 @02:51AM
(#65787354)
Attached to: What's the Best Ways for Humans to Explore Space?
The answer is quite simple: human experience. And, not having all our eggs in the same basket.
As for the first part: you can look at wonderful pictures of Saturn or Jupiter, as taken by Hubble, JWST or one of the probes that went there. You can also look at these planets, using your own eyes, through a telescope. Pictures are nice, but that live view is something totally different. Same if you look at a cloud cover from above vs. the pictures you can get from a drone. Space exploration goes far beyond pretty views, obviously.
For the second part: of course we're, for now, still far away from being able to survive off Earth without resupply. But we really should work on that, if we want to have a future. If only because we know for a fact that Earth will become unlivable - maybe not through our own foolish actions, but latest when the sun has burnt enough of its hydrogen and starts changing its structure. I know long-term planning isn't everybody's thing, but there are people thinking that far ahead.
180025594
comment
by4im
@08:30AM
(#65785458)
Attached to: What's the Best Ways for Humans to Explore Space?
1) Robotic probes. To explore "far away" stuff, there is, for now, no reasonable alternative.
2) Manned missions to the Moon, later to near-Earth asteroids, including a permanent habitat.
The reasoning being, unlike for the ISS in Earth orbit, there are local resources to be used,
and these habitats would be close enough for help from Earth if things go sideways.
Once we've learned how to do #2 properly, we can go on to places farther away, such as Mars.
You've got to learn to walk before you run.
179689808
comment
by4im
@01:44AM
(#65708682)
Attached to: Ubuntu Linux 26.04 LTS Officially Named Resolute Raccoon
I've been using (K)Ubuntu for a very long while - maybe 15-20 years (Linux user since about 1995). I recently upgraded my desktop from Kubuntu 24.04 LTS to "normal" 25.04. Note that I was already quite unhappy with those effing snaps of Firefox and Thunderbird - seriously, I hate being regularly warned about having to close a program for an update, when I expect to do that precisely for the moments I do an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade. Now, it looks like even things like graphics don't work properly any more, as I get to see spurious horizontal lines depending on my mouse clicks. Seriously? This is sooo basic stuff. Chances are I'll bite the bullet and reinstall, switching back to the base of Ubuntu, i.e. Debian GNU/Linux. Unless I move straight over to Devuan, for that matter. Now get off my lawn.
179571312
comment
by4im
5 @12:10PM
(#65688416)
Attached to: BYD's All-Electric Hypercar Hits 308 MPH, Becomes Fastest Car in Production
Even the boast of "fastest car, period" is BS. The ThrustSSC achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph), breaking the sound barrier.
179308754
comment
by4im
2025 @01:09AM
(#65664942)
Attached to: Consumer Reports Asks Microsoft To Keep Supporting Windows 10
There's machines out there which actually do have TPM, but it's turned off via BIOS. How many people will throw away a perfectly good machine just because they don't know they could turn on TPM in the BIOS?
178874114
comment
by4im
@04:38AM
(#65616176)
Attached to: New Book Argues Hybrid Schedules 'Don't Work', Return-to-Office Brings Motivation and Learning
As for the commute - I live in a place lucky to have free (i.e. paid from the taxes) public transport. Public transport is also much more comfortable and hassle-free than driving and finding a parking space. Those "remote" days do cut down on the pretty horrific traffic on the roads, which in turn makes for less CO2 emissions.
Yes, from the employer's view, they can't cut down on office space as much, and they need to provide the means for remote work. For the worker, yes, they need to be close enough by the office. Working from abroad is problematic in that if it's more than a certain amount of days / year, it changes taxation entirely (taxation in the country of residence instead of the country where the office is), which can be quite penalizing.
178855422
comment
by4im
07:55AM
(#65613878)
Attached to: New Book Argues Hybrid Schedules 'Don't Work', Return-to-Office Brings Motivation and Learning
The rules here where I work (IT, but it's the same for other office workers): you have a maximum of 2 days / week of remote work. The rest of the time, you come into the office. Also, remote work needs to be requested in advance and needs to be approved by the team leader (pure formality). When at the office, you badge in and out using your personal badge, so it's very easy to track who's in and who's not. If the rules are not followed, you'll get a ruffle from HR.
The reasons for mandating time at the office are obvious, e.g. being available for meetings, seeing the rest of the team, so the team as such can properly work together (teams with a good routine were a key factor for keeping things running smoothly and efficiently during Covid lockdown with quasi 100% remote work, with only minimal staff on-site). We went from 100% home office during lockdown to a minimum of 2 days / week at the office and on to the current ruleset, which seems to hold for good.
I know other places around here are much more strict with remote work, where you can't change your schedule short-term, or it's only a single day of home office. I feel those employers still haven't measured the positive impacts of home office. Otoh, I don't understand this "remote only" thing that seems to be described. Apparently there's even entire recruitment processes without any physical interaction? Around here, that's pretty much unthinkable. I feel I'm blessed with the proper middle ground, best of both worlds. From the article text, it seems the author of this book also hasn't heard of "middle ground". It isn't all or nothing, or at least, it shouldn't be.
178324564
comment
by4im
02:40AM
(#65509118)
Attached to: Record-Setting Dark Matter Detector Comes Up Empty -- and That's Good News
Lamgda Cold Fusion Model
If you need to troll, please get the basics right. It's called Lambda CDM - CDM for cold dark matter. Check here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda-CDM_model.
177936266
comment
by4im
10:22AM
(#65429598)
Attached to: California Court Says Holding Phone For Maps While Driving is Illegal
There is such a thing as a hands-free kit. Fix that phone someplace accessible with such a kit, and you're good to go. But hold it to your ear for phoning, and you'll get fined. At least, that's pretty much it for most, if not all of Europe.
177630995
comment
by4im
15AM
(#65386433)
Attached to: Since 2022 Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough, US Researchers Have More Than Doubled Its Power Output
Those are claims. What's the actual reality of the facts?
Hartmut Zohm, a german plasma physicist who's deep into fusion research, regularly provides updates on the status of fusion research. While not saying it in so many words, he is quite clearly giving impression that the claims by all those fusion startups are overly optimistic and basically a "give me all your venture money" call. They may have specific partial solutions for certain problems, but are nowhere near a full-scale operation.
177630263
comment
by4im
03AM
(#65386361)
Attached to: 'The People Stuck Using Ancient Windows Computers'
Too many people still don't understand that, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Newer does not mean better.
That's certainly right, but only up to a point. When you're e.g. running a mainframe platform and losing the last people that still know it, and all the code running there, to retirement, and even the maker of that (non-IBM) platform obviously has less and less people who know how to keep that platform running, it's definitely time to move on. Unlike Elon / DOGE want to make you believe, no, it's not a 5 month job to migrate, even 5 years won't suffice to do it properly. It's not simply about knowing COBOL.
176759157
comment
by4im
02:13AM
(#65241677)
Attached to: Huawei To Pivot To Linux, HarmonyOS as Microsoft Windows License Expires
You're obviously joking, but...
With the way Trump is alienating the classic US allies, they are indeed turning away from everything american. We've seen the signs in Canada, e.g. with US Whisky being pulled from the shelves, I also see it over here in Europe. Now, both Apple and MS are american too, so they'll also end up in the crosshairs. I do see more GNU/Linux in our future - and I'll say, good riddance for the proprietary vendors.
I can see Germany retracting the contract for F35 in favour of Eurofighters, Tesla sales have already cratered, Trump may want to activate the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, but no-one in their right minds will buy russian gas coming through there. And that's only a very small part of what's happening. Face it, Trump is running the US right into the ground - it doesn't even matter whether he actually is a russian agent "Krasnov" or not, the result is the same.
175974685
comment
by4im
@09:19AM
(#65100785)
Attached to: Why Fires Spread Quickly in Modern Cities
I guess you missed the news about the one house that's still standing amid the smoking ruins of its neighbors... yes, brick & mortar, specifically designed to be earthquake-proof, and obviously much less flammable than classic constructions.
You have the winner right there.
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4im (181450) 
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Days Read in a Row
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Member of the 10010 Digit (binary) UID Club
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Got a Score:5 Comment
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Wrong product palette
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Re:Who is Valar Atomics?
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Re:2 different things
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2 different things
(Score:3, Insightful)
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Hope they get their act together
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