It wouldn’t be dumb if ICE vehicles were also taxed the same way but they’re not. There would be nothing to stop the UK government abolishing fuel tax and slapping 6p a mile or whatever on ICE vehicles

I own an EV (in Ireland). I would not say by any stretch I save that much as running a petrol car. It’s probably in the order of a third perhaps and that’s with a nighttime electricity plan where a kWh might cost 20c which works out about €4 at 15kWh/100km. A petrol car doing 6L/100km would cost about €12 at the moment. If somebody was using public fast chargers they would see very little savings.

There are other expenses like motor taxes, wear & tear (tyres, brakes), servicing, oil changes etc. which might affect the cost. The UK also has a really dumb excise on EVs where they get whalloped with 3p per mile of extra tax. So 100km (62.5miles) is £1.87 of tax to add onto the charge bill. Luckily Ireland doesn’t get it but most other expenses are comparable.

EVs cost about the same as petrol cars these days. The two cheapest cars on sale in the UK are actually EVs. Not good EVs, but still capable of being city runabouts.

Why do you need glasses at all for a version with no camera? Can’t someone just wear earbuds in that case? Can’t someone’s regular bluetooth (or even tethered) earbuds just talk to the phone in their pocket to do everything?

The easiest way to regulate the AI industry - and any industry for that matter - is to make the board personally liable for any crimes committed by their product. Not liable in a corporate sense with a fine and a slap on the wrist, when their AI hacks into a water reservoir and causes 500 million of flood damage, but in a 20 years in federal prison sense. Same goes for self driving cars, or any other computer, machinery or combination thereof where humans are placing trust in its safe and legal operation. There should be a corporate negligence law of sorts that says if a company is not following the law, industry best practice, including auditing and implementation of all safeguards, safety and other mitigations then they are exposed to criminal liability.

This comes from the people who run GrapheneOS e.g. https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-devices-lacking-standard-privacysecurity-patches-and-protections-arent-private. Maybe they’re opinionated for some reason that extends beyond the hardware/software.

Fairphones seem okay from a hardware POV but the software is a bit lacking in terms of security and support.

Gaskets are a thing. Many, many, many watches would brag about their water resistance up to 10, 50, 100 meters depth. So I don’t think the excuse is credible.

Unfortunately there are some exemptions. Flexible / folding displays are not covered. Fitness trackers and watches are not covered.

There is also a battery regulation coming in next year to require phone batteries to be replaceable with no tools but that has loop holes too - long life batteries aren’t covered, IP67 rated phones aren’t covered. So you can bet your boots those two reasons will be what makers use to bullshit their way out of it.

I can’t see any useful application of AI within Reddit although I could see AI companies salivating at the prospect of hoovering up data from the site which could be monetized in all sorts of unimaginable ways.

If hypothetically you’re going to destroy a camera, consider the determination of police to investigate and the criminal charges before choosing your method. Spraying them with varnish is a lot more low key than shooting at or burning them, both of which are likely to attract investigations and felony charges.

The purpose of a duress code is plausible deniability.

There is an encryption product for Windows called VeraCrypt (aka TrueCrypt). You can create a hidden decoy volume inside an outer encrypted volume which has all your stuff in it. When mounted an observer cannot tell the difference between the hidden volume and the real volume since they are mounted the same way with different passcodes. You can put files in the decoy for plausibility but not the things you actually want to hide.

The same should be true of a duress code in a phone. It should be possible to put files, apps and stuff in the decoy that show activity e.g. email, pictures etc. Providing the other profile is wiped while this screen is showing then there is no immediate way of proving it was a duress code.

It would have to at least convince the border guard, but it should withstand forensic analysis too. So it might be necessary to do what VeraCrypt does.

I really want one or more of these AI companies to fail hard. I think their only strategy is literally to burn through billions hoping it’ll be another company that goes to the wall first and they’ll somehow reap the rewards by hanging on longer.

If the duress pin makes obvious it’s the duress pin then it’s not really doing its job. It should instead open a profile with not much in it while erasing the other profile and files in the background.

It’s not just that people are “perverts”, it’s that they’re wearing a camera on their face constantly filming people who have a reasonable expectation to privacy. Even in public most countries would protect that expectation in a lot of cases.

So unless somebody wants to be violently assaulted and their glasses ripped and smashed off their face, then it might be best to not buy them at all, or only wear them in private.

I will happy when this bubble bursts. OpenAI, Grok and several other companies offer nothing substantive and if they’re burning cash and disrupting economies then just die already.

Satellite internet is a last resort. People shouldn’t be using it if they have fibre broadband or 5G options that provide the same speeds. It’s a lifesaver if you’re on a boat, or live off grid, or just a few miles from where the broadband ends. But if it’s anywhere with other people then it’s going to max out with horrible contention. At the point the only option is “moar satellites”.

I’d prefer it over whatever that thing is. I assume that’s a concept car because it wouldn’t survive a single trip on a public road.

I don’t think the car looks bad at all. The outside is a little bland tbf but it’s not ugly. I think the interior is incredibly tactile and well thought out. I think when we see people tearing around tracks that preorders are going to be extremely strong

While I don’t begrudge them trying to make money from their service, the deleterious effect on people’s lives, careers cannot be overlooked. I think it’s obvious that most AI companies are incredibly unethical so governments need to impose the ethics onto them and companies tempted to use AI. They should never be considered as powerful as a utility nor invaluable. Never.