ivanvector

@ivanvector@piefed.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are plug sockets region locked?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The “modern electronics” you mentioned are very low-power devices in the range of things you can power from a household socket. They’re also low-voltage DC, which means that no matter what voltage/frequency you can get from the wall it is being converted, and converting AC to DC is electrically very simple. The difference in circuitry between converting from 110V or 220V is just a transformer with a center tap, and the frequency doesn’t matter at all since DC is 0Hz anyway.

  With high-power devices, pretty much anything with a motor or a heating element, the device is designed to match the voltage and frequency available in the region they’re going to be used. An AC motor’s speed depends on the frequency of the power supplied to it, and a heating element depends on voltage, which is why electric kettles and ranges boil water much more quickly in 220V regions. Travel adapters are basically just a transformer, which changes the voltage but not the frequency. The difference between 50Hz and 60Hz isn’t that big so most motors will still run but with impaired performance and maybe timing issues, but others will fail in spectacular and dangerous ways. Supplying a heating element with the wrong voltage will make it either not heat up, or heat up too much and start a fire. The different plug types ensure that you don’t plug in a high power device to power it’s not designed for.

  If we were going to standardize on one plug type, we would also have to standardize on one power signal. Ignoring the political issues, that would mean that any region that doesn’t already use that standard signal would have to immediately retool all of their power plants, their entire transmission system, every industrial facility, and adapt or replace every AC household appliance. And there’s not really any good reason to do it, other than convenience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don't urban/suburban streets and roads use a center storm channel?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not a civil engineer but did some civil engineering in university and have a bit of an interest in urban planning. Still, I’m mostly guessing.

  Regardless of where storm drains are placed on a street, they don’t have infinite capacity. In a heavy enough rainfall event, they will flood. The placement or frequency of drains isn’t the limiting factor, it’s the outlet capacity. In nature, rain falls on the ground and is absorbed, and finds its way into the watercourse slowly. In urban areas, storm drains gather up rainfall over a wide area and channel it towards the watercourse much more quickly, and if that outflow isn’t controlled it can lead to catastrophic flooding and erosion downstream. Look up 1952’s Hurricane Hazel and its effects on Toronto for what that looks like. If more rainfall flows into the system than the outlet can handle, there’s nowhere else for the water to go and the drains flood.

  With a crowned profile and drainage at the sides, excess water will pool only up to the height of the gutter before overflowing and finding ground or another low spot away from the road, so the road will only be partially obstructed at least until the flooding is much worse (and by then you’re probably well into an evacuation). If the road were sloping towards drainage at the centre, then floodwater fills the entire road basin before overflowing, and your road is blocked, and stays blocked until the drains can take the water again, long after the rain has stopped. Blocked roads make managing an emergency much more complicated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My Bluetooth is turned off on my Windows 11 pc but the Bluetooth mouse still works. How is that possible if Bluetooth is turned off?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re using the dongle that came with the mouse, that’s a proprietary wireless connection made between the mouse and the dongle. The device your computer sees is the dongle, which is connected to the computer via physical USB connection. It doesn’t use the computer’s Bluetooth radio, so turning off Bluetooth doesn’t affect it.

  If you want to test if your computer’s Bluetooth is truly off, you can probably find a Bluetooth device sniffing app and see if it detects your computer when you’ve disabled it, but I don’t know of one to suggest. You can pretty well trust that if you’ve turned it off in software, it’s off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you avoid AI music?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I only sub to Deezer, a French streaming service that actively filters AI music and blocks it from their algorithms and search results.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nvidia Announces DLSS 5, and it adds... An AI slop filter over your game⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ahh, I remember the first time I heard the intro music to Star Control through my Sound Blaster instead of through my motherboard’s piezo speaker. Like the audio version of The Wizard Of Oz switching to colour.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am only now discovering the sheer addictiveness of Sid Meier's Civilization.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you enjoy the original Civilization, be sure to try out Freeciv. Basically the original game but with expanded gameplay and updated for compatibility. It’s OpenTTD to Transport Tycoon, if you’re familiar with those games. It also has multiplayer features, and there are sites that run turn-per-day MMO events.