Viewing profile — rsynnott

Yeah, under most circumstances you're really going to struggle to hear much, because if they're going fast, well, there's a lot of wind, and _wind_ is noisy, too. They make _detect…

> 1.2B gives you a 1-1.5GW nuclear power station Er... That seems optimistic. Even in China, which is the current world leader and has significant advantages of scale, nuclear capa…

In rich countries, energy usage for a middle-class lifestyle isn't really rising anymore, and in some places is falling significantly (homes are _way_ more thermally efficient than…

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Power_Station#J.K._S... - chimneys are 218m tall.

They're certainly not silent, but unless you're actually standing right under one they're rarely particularly noisy. Modern ones should be about 35 decibels at 300 meters distance.…

Ah, sometimes it can look quite nice, or at least striking. Though usually after end of life. The Tate Modern in London is an old power station, and a disused oil power plant in Du…

This is, I suppose, what you get when you elect a guy who went bust running a casino. So much winning.

I have a smart watch; I still take a phone when running. It's not particularly inconvenient to do so. Lots of people don't have smartwatches, of course, and yet might still want to…

I have that turned off (I assume it would be even worse with that turned on)

It has a "less walking" option, which I don't have turned on. I assume that is for those usecases.

I suppose everyone needs a hobby...

> Transit App allows you configure both your walking and cycling speeds Oh, nice! Didn't realise they'd added this.

> My tips would be: check if it mistakenly thinks you can't directly walk to the station or something. no, it knows and will give a sensible route if you ask for walking directions…

> If I select public transport yes, it will suggest public transport ways to get there. I can't see how this is a bug in any way It will suggest completely nonsensical public trans…

The most egregious one, IMO, is the pay-for-attention 'feature' (bluetick replies end up at the top). _Everyone knows this is a terrible idea_. Dating sites have known it's problem…

I do, yes... from about 2009. Twitter was fairly reliable for a good while.

Some nightclubs (very common in Berlin, but you also see it elsewhere to some extent) require you to put (generally bright orange) stickers over your phone cameras on entry. Seems …

Eh, it certainly gets a lot of _attention_, and London is very, very big, so the absolute numbers are impressive-looking. The chances of it actually happening to any given person a…

While I am on the subject, Google Maps seems to be somewhat aware of big awkward train stations which take ages to navigate, and applies a time penalty. That's good (though also a …

Google has giant offices in NYC. Like, you'd think this would have come up.

I'd also be able to tell it "never suggest that I get bus routes A, B or C; they do not in practice turn up on time". > There are some routings in london for example where the best…

They have big offices in San Francisco, and also in New York, Dublin, Zurich, London, and various other cities where this stuff matters, though, these days (their Dublin office is …

Oddly, it seems to be okay at that in Dublin at least.

This is in Ireland. I’ve also noticed it doing very silly things in Germany and the UK. It’s fine for pure walking directions, but it gets unhappy about the idea of someone using p…

Adding “running” to the list of things that Google engineers apparently don’t do. Where it joins “walking”. Google Maps will suggest almost arbitrarily bonkers public transport dir…