Reddit -> Beehaw until I decided I didn’t like older versions of Lemmy (though it seems most things I didn’t like are better now) -> kbin.social (died) -> kbin.run (died) -> fedia.

Japan-based backend software dev and small-scale farmer.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 14th, 2024

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  • I was in a big city recently and had business by their BYD dealership. I walked in as I had never seen any of the cars in person. Two of the models they had had physical controls (both the low(er?)-end ones). If I had planned on buying, that would have ruled 2/3 of what they had out. One complaint about my current vehicle is that it has touchscreen exclusively for all the HVAC controls (I have music controls on the wheel). I’m used to my older cars from (my an '83, '86, '95, '97, and '03 in order of model year) that I could adjust anything without taking my eyes off the road. I don’t mind ALSO having a tablet for navigation and the like, but want my main controls to all be physical.












  • Computer vision to track inventory and expiration of food in a refrigerator could be useful for busy households

    I don’t think this is a problem in a lot of the world. Commercial kitchens already have rules and inventory management systems. The only thing I could think of where it might be useful is looking for mold on things, but I suspect most people are using containers into which something couldn’t clearly see.

    A dishwasher could cut its cycle short if it sees that dishes are clean, saving water and energy.

    Maybe? It would still need to learn all the dishes the person has and what clean and nonclean versions are. That training and calling the model has its own environmental impacts and I don’t know that implementing it would save energy over the life of the appliance due to the extra costs in energy to train and call it.

    My washer has settings for heavier and lighter washes based on what’s going in (as does my clothes washer)

    In addition, robots are home appliances that require AI

    They do not.

    Robotic vacuum cleaners learn their surroundings and navigate using machine learning

    This could all be done with sensors and rules and, in fact, was. Unless we’re being super loose with what “machine learning” means here. We’ve been teaching robots to semi-autonomously navigate courses and return for ages.

    We’re also likely to see humanoid robots(or similarly flexible platforms) becoming household appliances in the near future.

    That’s so gross to me personally that I don’t want to think about it. Both from a security as well as environmental perspective. I also disagree that it’s close, at least for how I think you’re using “close” here.






  • I was in Houston for hurricane Ike. We had trees down all around making the roads impassible for a few days, so having a few days of food was enough for us to get them cut and moved enough to go anywhere. 3 days is also enough to get food/water distributions or drops set up. It’s basically enough to get out of needed or to get by until distribution logistics are in place. If bombings start, your stash could go up in smoke so 3 days or 30 wouldn’t really matter as much as a go-bag with more compressed calorie bars or something.

    Ah, and yes to not relying on the grid. Now, I have a battery backup that can run my well pump or keep the fridges going and recharges with solar. We have a cannister gas stove and a charcoal grill. I have a kerosene stove and several litres of fuel around for the colder months as well, but I think some of that is hard for those in small apartments and the like.