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bkor

3,030 karma · joined December 8, 2008

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bkor··on Stripe said to abandon $50B pursuit of PayPal
iDeal/Wero is nicer I think. It just reuses your bank basically. And no need to trust Paypal. I've seen way too many bad stories about that company. Either dispute handling wise or how they handle customer data. With iDeal/Wero I do not need yet another account.
bkor··on Stripe said to abandon $50B pursuit of PayPal
It's basically the better version of iDeal, used heavily in Netherlands. They're slowly changing the iDeal name to Wero. Apparently it's mostly that, change of name coupled with a bigger scope.
bkor··on Show HN: 41 years sea surface temperature anomalies
As said by someone else, the temperature of the oceans rose significantly more after the low sulphur regulation went into effect. See https://www.imo.org/en/mediacentre/hottopics/pages/sulphur-2... for the regulation.
bkor··on Prompt caching for cheaper LLM tokens
It gives "D is not a function". This on Firefox 146. Various extensions including Ublock Origin but that doesn't seem to cause it. Also doesn't work in a private window.
bkor··on Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
> Productive and innovative businesses with really solid fundamentals (balance sheets) that were acquired and dismantled by PE.

You have way too much (unneeded) limiting qualifications. In Netherlands PE have bought loads of companies, then put the acquisition price as a loan on the balance sheet. Plus then sold the assets, made the company then lease those assets. Then those companies often went bankrupt as the leasing prices increased crazily.

> I would argue that moribund businesses who maintain a competitive moat but are otherwise extremely unproductive and inefficient are the real blight on society.

The companies I've cited weren't "extremely unproductive and inefficient". Businesses can be profitable and healthy without all the qualifications you think they need.

bkor··on PSA: Libxslt is unmaintained and has 5 unpatched security bugs
> Update 1: Apparently, GNOME bureaucracy is holding up the processing the application of a new maintainer for over a month now.

Could you explain this? You link to a closed bugreport where a new maintainer stepped up. A previously experienced developer said it'll take several months at least to get up to speed.

That a new person needs to be vouched for a critical library is pretty critical. There's been several examples where a malicious developer took over a critical project.

bkor··on Starlink User Terminal Teardown
> So, I find that it's highly unlikely that the ISP is officially required to support a user supplied modem, although I haven't consulted the EU laws on this.

Ziggo (called UPC in other EU countries) uses DOCSIS. The instructions on how to use your own DOCSIS modem are at the following link (in Dutch): https://www.ziggo.nl/klantenservice/apparaten/wifi-modems/ei...

Edit: it really is using your own modem. It's not about putting it in bridge mode.

bkor··on CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract
> The EU can accomplish it with diplomacy.

Agree. It'll likely happen that way. Still, dislike the initial incorrect assertion.

bkor··on CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract
> The EU has agreed upon programs in order to bring in, through an immigration policy, high skilled persons from non-member states.

Where in this is the option that the EU provides an option to immigrate because the EU owns something?

I'm very well aware of knowledge workers. It's not something the EU can provide as an option. What you linked to is the legal framework around how EU members can provide such a thing.

bkor··on CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract
> Not only that, but being owned by the EU gives the ability for MITRE employees to have the option to immigrate to the EU to protect against any retaliation.

According to which rule would "owning by the EU" result in an option to immigrate? Immigration is handled on a per country basis. I don't see how the EU provide such an option.

bkor··on Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp
> for those who do not want to watch a video like me.

Thanks! It made me read his other articles. I liked this one more: https://www.thestockpot.net/videos/3dprinteddownpipe. A 3D printed downpipe. Because that's what the solution he was able to do.

I don't entirely agree with the paint colour. Which is really nitpicking, or said in another way: I'm quite impressed!

bkor··on Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads
AliExpress highly encourages leaving a review. They also encourage taking pictures. As a result, loads of random pictures in reviews.

You can do an additional remarks later, but I often don't bother. It's drowned out anyway.

What I often do is read the reviews. What's usually done is a critical review and still 5 stars. The fake reviews are pretty easily spotted. It shouldn't be this way, but in my experience it's still better than Amazon. With Amazon more effort is made to fake a review.

bkor··on Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads
> Obviously YMMV, but I bought some Amazon MTB pedals rated 4.7 starts @ 9k ratings.

Every site is different, no? Amazon isn't AliExpress. Though lately Amazon if flooded with marked-up AliExpress stuff. I'm not fond of Amazon, their customer service is more of a hit and miss since various years.

That said, I've been watching Trace Velo. He reviews a lot of AliExpress cycling things. It's often bad after prolonged use. Meaning, yeah, their testing is lacking. But some brand do seem to be trying to become a trusted brand. E.g. Ugreen nowadays is often trusted. It used to be one of the many things listed on AliExpress.

bkor··on Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads
> For cycling there are now a group of trusted companies that many people purchase from - WinSpace, Magene, iGPSport, that stand behind their products.

Do you follow Trace Velo on YouTube? Any others you recommend (aside from China Cycling)?

bkor··on National Weather Service no longer translating products for non-English speakers
> if I go to France, I don't expect government announcements to be provided in English

In Netherlands they'll translate things in various languages. If you get stopped by the police and they need to communicate they'll get a translator; pretty much doesn't matter which language you're speaking (within reason). Easily 50+ languages.

The French are really particular. The USA often used the phrase "melting pot". So I find the comparison with France quite odd.

bkor··on I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
I noticed I made an error when remembering the memory type I saw a while ago.

I meant the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMM_(memory_module)

That's a way to have the memory close, but still being able to change it (without e.g. hot air station or something).

bkor··on I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
> Socketed RAM

CUDIMM is changeable and fast.

> The user being able to swap parts easily is _neat_ but it's just not an required feature

Mostly because people seem to have forgotten that it was possible. Often laptops are slow to due either a too full disk and/or not enough memory. It used to be more common to upgrade those. But apparently that knowledge/skill is forgotten and it's now more custom to buy a new device.

Being able to change those saves money IMO.

bkor··on I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
> My ThinkPad X1 extreme is still chugging along but gets hot

Not clear to me if you mean always or that it changed. Do suggest to check the thermal paste, plus clear out dust in fans and heatsink fins.

bkor··on Gnome / mutter triple buffering patch merged
It was merged Feb 14 2025. It'll be in GNOME 48 and Fedora 42. It's likely already in the Fedora beta branch.
bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> Because what is implicit in saying that solar (or wind) is cheaper than nuclear per W produced is that it is a viable alternative to nuclear.

I do not see that implication.

Solar and wind is significantly cheaper than nuclear. That doesn't mean it is a replacement. That implies that there's a great way to solve the obvious drawbacks solar and wind have because of the high cost difference, plus speed/time things can be built.

A country needs to figure out their TCO and the energy mix. Which means yeah, the volatility needs to be solved. Which means that there needs to be more than solar/wind. But at the same time, nobody wants to invest in nuclear. It isn't commercially viable. It is important to not have to high electricity prices. Wikipedia has quite a section on the newest nuclear power station in the UK and the kWh cost for consumers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_Point_C_nuclear_power_.... The cost was initially estimated at £24 per MWh but could now be £92.5.

Nuclear power stations have crazy cost overruns. The initial estimations are far too low (except maybe in China because they have recent experience).

> And if you need to do that then you need either a bunch of alternative on demand sources of energy (UK is using LNG) or some big storage capacity (+overprovision to fill them when it is sunny/windy). Nuclear doesn't need that.

Nuclear doesn't need a backup? UK built nuclear and has LNG. It's not so black and white as you stated.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> European grids have been connected for decades, way before new renewables were a thing.

Agreed, but not in the amount of capacity that they're aiming for now due to increased (expected) volatility. See e.g. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/infrastructure/electricit... which sets a 2030 target of 15%.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> "then it is" what? economically viable? He still needs 100% backup from other sources, so you have to factor that cost in.

Nope, you do not need to factor that in. If I put solar panels on my house, I check if it's worth the cost/investment. I am not intending to go fully off-grid, that is not the aim. Similarly for a solar plant. If it's economically viable it means if there's a good return on investment.

> He still needs 100% backup from other sources, so you have to factor that cost in.

Again, if you put solar panels up or if you have a solar plant it does not make any sense to factor in such costs to make a business case/economical sense. You're adding complications that aren't there.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> But in sunnier, warmer parts of the world

Though solar panels prefer if it isn't too hot. Still, any such inefficiencies are easily outweighed by their low cost. In Netherlands it is common to install practice (and advised) more Wp than the inverter can handle. Maybe also a solution if it gets too hot, make it up by having more panels.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> but it doesn’t scale up or down quickly.

The newer ones can. Though that's partly my dislike. There's always yet another new technological solution for the various drawbacks. Which often are unproven (e.g. SMRs) and that often results in crazy cost overruns.

Nuclear has a crazy high fixed cost so ideally you still run it continuously.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> Well as long as you have vast amount of storage capacity + overprovision

Why would that need to be? The full needs need to be taken into account. But that's a TCO calculation, not something to add to the solar cost.

Nuclear energy in Europe tends to be way more expensive than initially budgeted. Resulting in a crazy difference in the kWh cost vs solar/wind. And there's more ways to store "electricity" than just batteries.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
> Which it really isn't unless we're neglecting to count in the need for long-term backup power.

But that's not what the topic, no? It was about economically viable. It wasn't about fully relying on them. If someone can buy or place a solar panels/plant and it is economically feasible, then it is.

E.g. EU is finally connecting the various electrical grids together. So that electricity can more easily be exported/imported. Yet another way to deal with the fluctuations.

bkor··on Nuclear Fusion's New Idea: An Off-the-Shelf Stellarator
Have you also considered putting the solar panels straight up? This when using bifacial solar panels. Might help with getting the snow off. People started using them as fences, though you need the space/land for that.

Also, the various times I noticed talk about solar panels in the US it seems it is way overpriced, coupled with more expensive options being chosen. E.g. loads of micro inverters where a string inverter would make way more sense (economical).

Not affiliated, but e.g. https://www.solar-bouwmarkt.nl/ (use Google Translate), how do those prices compare to what you're seeing locally for panels and string inverters?

bkor··on Fixing a bug in Google Chrome as a first-time contributor
> Every once in a while, the browser detects I'm typing "±±±±±±+..."

Interesting bug! Not exactly following on what triggers the bug. Do you have a ± key on your keyboard (some international one)? Or does it occur after e.g. pressing "+", then "-"? Do you use compose keys? Does it do this randomly?

bkor··on Rye and Uv: August Is Harvest Season for Python Packaging
For those interested in uv (instead of pip), uv massively sped up the release process for Home Assistant. The time needed to make a release went down from ~2.5 hours to ~20 minutes. See https://developers.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/04/03/build-i... for details. I'm just a HA user btw.
bkor··on AI-powered cameras installed on Metro buses to ticket illegally parked cars
That's being done in Rotterdam for ages. Cars with cameras on top which determine which cars have a parking violation. I think they check illegally parked cars plus cars which didn't pay. It's anything but new technology.
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