Car prices are still insane.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I haven't run heat a single time since I turned it off in May. I've been opening the blinds and letting the sun heat the house during the day up to about 75 degrees, and by morning it has cooled down to 69. I may be able to get to October without running heat. One year I managed to November without running heat.

That's good!

It's been getting down to below freezing here. I've been running the heater for a the past couple weeks. I figure it's better to lose some money on natural gas than for my wife to divorced me.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

That's good!

It's been getting down to below freezing here. I've been running the heater for a the past couple weeks. I figure it's better to lose some money on natural gas than for my wife to divorced me.

Yeah, I say I might get to October without running heat because I have 3 females in the house to keep warm. 69 is about the lower limit they will tolerate. When I was living by myself, I set 50 as the lower limit.

I might cheat a little by lighting the 2 pilot lights on the fireplaces. Pilot lights aren't considered heating, right?

[freebeard]

hotair.com: As UAW prepares to expand strike, they announce Tesla as their next target

But the NY Times published a story today suggesting that while Tesla may benefit from the strike there may be a hidden downside as well. And that downside is that Tesla becomes an even more important target for unionists.

The U.A.W., which has failed to organize Tesla’s factory workers in the past, is gearing up for another attempt, a top union official said.

“There is a group of Tesla workers who are actively talking about forming a union and creating the best representation they can for themselves and their co-workers through collective bargaining,” said Mike Miller, the director of the U.A.W.’s Region 6 .... but Mr. Musk seemed to acknowledge the union threat last week, saying on X that his workers were better off than employees of G.M., Ford and Stellantis. “We pay more than the U.A.W.,” he said, although he added that “performance expectations are also higher.”

The traditional automakers quarreled with Mr. Musk’s math, saying that they pay their workers substantially more and that a big raise would only widen the gap and undermine their ability to invest in electric vehicle and battery factories. Ford says its hourly employees make an average of $112,000 per year including benefits, compared with about $90,000 at Tesla.

The Ford figures do not include stock options that Tesla grants employees, and that can be worth a lot.

Not linking to NYT because they pop up a window about their terms of service.

[redpoint5]

Wish companies would offer no benefits, and simply pay more. There should be no tax incentives to employers for offering "benefits", because things like insurance should not be dependent on employment at any particular place.

Anyhow, if Tesla is paying more in straight wages, I consider that to be higher pay than including all the other nonsense fluff companies often throw in (how is pet insurance even a thing?).

Being the type to see the positive out of most any situation, increasing UAW labor costs simply speeds along development of automation that will drive down production costs, making goods more affordable for everyone.

...as a tangent, I have suspected for quite some time that the US would onshore manufacturing again due to diminishing need for a labor market due to automation. The pandemic seems to have speed up that process.

[freebeard]

Sped is a word. Use it with confidence.

sped
spĕd - noun
A preterit and past participle of speed.
verb
Simple past tense and past participle of speed.
The Century Dictionary.
More at Wordnik

(Now I know what a preterit is)

My situation is not so benign. This time of year I have to turn off the (1500kW) heat in the morning and turn on the whole house fan (one of three) in the afternoon.

[redpoint5]

Try a truly infrared heat lamp. No headache-inducing visible light, but lots of radiant warmth.

I often mention the 100w one I've got mounted below my monitors in my office.

Didn't end up using it at all last winter as the 100 watt server keeps the office warm. In the summer I shuffle the server into the basement. Getting close to needing to shuffle it back upstairs again.

I am interested to build a new mid-tower PC though, emphasising compute efficiency. My aim is an average 40w consumption. Every continuous watt I run amounts to about $1 a year in electricity. 60 watt reduction saves me $60 every year.

[freebeard]

Last time I made the bed I slid in the 400 watt pet warmer between the mattress and box spring.

What is a mid-tower?

https://www.ecoenergygeek.com › raspberry-pi-power-consumption
Raspberry Pi Power Consumption Guide (2023) - Eco Energy Geek
30 Aug 2022The power consumption of the Raspberry Pi 4 varies - when idle it tends to consume around 3 to 4 watts, with an increase of 0.5 watts for each core that is then busy, up to a maximum of 6 watts when all four cores are working. So, the consumption of a Raspberry Pi 4 will depend on how hard you're working it.

Raspberry Pi Cluster Ep 1 - Introduction to Clustering

(Sorry for the video thumbnail. Click it and pause and it gets better)

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Last time I made the bed I slid in the 400 watt pet warmer between the mattress and box spring.

What is a mid-tower?


(Sorry for the video thumbnail. Click it and pause and it gets better)

Mid-tower is between full tower, and mini PC. Enough 3.5" drive bays to stuff my spinning storage, but not an imposing size.

Thing is, I need an Intel proc to take advantage of the efficient QuickSync decoder, which handles h.264 encoding/decoding. Handles multiple camera streams efficiently. Also like the integrated graphics capabilities should I venture into games at some point. Finally, I don't know anything other than Winderz. Got Winderz '95 in '95, and never played with anything else.

[freebeard]

I still think Bill Gates is out to get me.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I still think Bill Gates is out to get me.

Evil believe they are justified.

I don't consider Gates evil. He's indisputably intelligent, and his wisdom is so-so. Somehow god and nature saw it fit to distribute both attributes independently.

He does good, very well. He does bad, very well. On the net, he's still in the plus by my estimation.

I'm most excited about nuclear prototyping. Gates could play a significant role.