My EV sits in the driveway and soaks up excess production from my PV setup.
My main problem is it's never really empty enough.
If I'm on the road, a high voltage DC charger gets me from 10% to 50% in about 10 minutes. Barely enough time for a coffee and a leak, then it's another 2 hours of driving. Rinse, repeat.
Sure, you can't barrel down the Autobahn for 10 hours straight without stopping but who wants that?
Oh, they're putting a lot of thought into it I'm sure.
That thought being "Money, Money, Money, Profit, Profit" of course.
No actual technical solution here, but it smells slightly of XY-Problems.
From what you described it seems the main issues are
Maybe you could look into solutions like setting a custom ringtone for important callers or having the phone announce caller names so your mother can decide if she wants to make the effort to get her phone.
I'm speculating a bit here but I can imagine that getting up and answering the phone is exhausting for your mother. Also if her mindset is " a ringing phone means it's important" that could make it even more stressful.
Maybe you could find a way to let her silence all calls except caregivers and ICE contacts. (On Android DND exceptions could work for that)
That way she doesn't feel pressured to answer the phone every time it rings and stays reachable.
If it's actually just the physical issue of reaching the phone in time, does she have a convenient way to carry the phone indoors like a lanyard?
Hope some of this helps you
Coconut at least...
That feature is right on the border between real neat tech and deeply unsettling.
"Hey, my phone uses its last few electrons to turn into a bluetooth beacon to stay findable" sounds like sci-fi "reserve power emergency mode"
"I can't turn off the locator chip in a device that holds half my life and memories" is just dystopian.
I'm wondering if there would be a way to keep it useful while minimizing impact for people who stay off the grid. A hardware switch would probably be a good start but they won't fly with current all-touch designs.
They occupy a strange niche full of contradictions.
Entering the code on the device itself should increase security as opposed to entering it on a compromised computer.
But plugging it into a compromised computer means the data is compromised anyway.
Their security is way harder to audit than a software solution like PGP. The actual "encryption" varies from actual decent setups to "entering the code connects the data pins with no actual encryption on the storage chip"
Not having to instal/use software to use them means they are suitable for non-technical users which in turn means more support calls for "I forgot the pin, it wiped itself, can you restore my data"
They are kind of useful to check the "data is transported on encrypted media" box for compliance reasons without having to manage something bigger.
Decent writeup by Charles Stross:
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/01/worldcon-in-the-news.html
The mode of operation of WorldCon/the Hugos seems interesting as in "May you live in interesting times"
Edit: fixed auto-co-wrecked spelling of Charles Stross
JellyFed(eration) would be awesome. It should use an anonymous overlay network so federation is not limited to people you trust in copyright-zealous jurisdictions.
I didn't know you could hear a picture so clearly.
Ballistomancer
A big part of the cost is probably refitting the heating system. Radiators are designed for water temps that are not efficient for a heat pump.
The default for newly built heat pump systems is underfloor heating but that's not something you'd install unless you're ripping out all floors anyway.
The alternative would be large panel radiators or an air/air heat pump with air ducts.
They should not be worried, they should be educated.
If you worry a new user enough they'll go back to Windows or Apple because there's less scary warnings there.
We need to make the transition as pain free as possible. Learning about the joys of kernel compilation and SELinux can come later.
The first step is "Hey, this is as usable as Windows, without stupid ads in the start menu.