Posts by Surreal Estate

Win a slice of XP cheese if you tell us where Microsoft should put Copilot next

What could go wrong?

The new, improved regedit, now with CoPilot...

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

AI Alexa

AI enhanced Amazon Alexa is so effective (outperforms "Her") that human males opt to procreate only in the metaverse leading the the extinction of humanity.

Vote now on who should take the lead in Musk: The Movie

Some great options, but I'd suggest Rainn Wilson. Maniacal absurdity assured.

GM: Seeing as all y'all like our electric cars, we'll double output next year

I have a GM Bolt, bought it the first year available and have to say it is the best car I've owned. My only real complaint is the seats could be more comfortable. I primarily use it as my in-town commuter car and it serves that purpose perfectly. I installed a Level 2 charger at home (myself) and have rarely needed commercial charging stations.

The Bolt was never going to compete with Teslas, rather the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3... It is an entry-level EV, not a luxury car. As for the battery issue, GM gets credit for committing to replacing all of the batteries in the early Bolts (mine is already replaced and my son has had his replaced as well). To be fair, a very small number of batteries have outright failed, but GM didn't abandon the early Bolt owners. It's not like GM (and LG - the battery manufacturer) deliberately made defective batteries, but they owned the problem and are in the process of fully replacing them.

Will I buy another EV? No question. Consider a purely ICE vehicle again? No. Thought I would never own another GM car after the crappy Chevy Nova I had years ago. The Bolt changed my opinion of GM.

Aerobot designed for hell-world Venus first braves something worse: Nevada

earthquakes

I suppose "seismic activity" would have been a better term. Besides, "venusquakes" seems mildly pornographic...

Tesla has a lot of work to do on its Optimus robot

"Liability"?

Musk said. "We've also designed it using the same discipline we use in designing the car, which is to say to design a form of manufacturing such that it is possible to make the robot in high volume at low cost with higher liability."

I hope this was a typo. Seems "liability" should have been"reliability"... Maybe foreshadowing?

NASA scrubs Artemis mission yet again because SLS just can't handle the pressure

Re: Third time's a .... ?

Assuming we actually start mining ice on the moon, and split it into hydrogen and oxygen, won't we be using mostly hydrogen/oxygen propulsion engines for further exploration/trips? Seems this sort of engine is necessary or am I missing something?

Mars helicopter to take a breather, recharge batteries

Re: Solar panels are in the wrong place

That was my thought. Or, how about one of those piezoelectric doodads like used on vinyl records to neutralize static cling? Or maybe Teflon coated solar panels?

Bipolar transistors made from organic materials for the first time

Re: rubrene. .... Lets call it the "Beer Run" project (That is a good enough anagram for the Icon)

I'll be waiting for Evolution to sling some bacteria or fungi capable of eating rubrene to bring the whole house down...

Amazon shows off robot warehouse workers that won't complain, quit, unionize...

Actual cost?

Will this lead to lower prices?

No, I thought not.

Mars Express orbiter to get code update after 19 years

Re: I am not surprised at all that such a mission is still in flight after 19 years

Sounds like my cantankerous mortal coil.

When the expert speaker at an NFT tech panel goes rogue

Devil's Advocate

Professor/Boffin: "Let me play devil's advocate…"

More like "reality's advocate..."

Proprietary neural tech you had surgically implanted? Parts shortage

Re: Late 70s cultural awareness?

Must say I prefer the original "Electric" version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZcjvRe3pNw): more frenetic, less ponderous.

"Pretty soon every repair shop engineer will be sucking their teeth, shaking their heads and saying such disparaging things such as "Oh dear oh dear oh dear", "You can't get the parts" and "Toc"."

Reminds me of my dear mother who yet has a cochlear implant in her head, now rendered defunct because the producer stopped supporting the hardware and repair options are unavailable. Only solution is to rip it out and start over. Not to her liking as she nears her 90's...