Sir_Osis_of_Liver

KTM did a thing on some models where electronic features, like cruise control, would all be unlocked for the first 1500kms as a trial mode. After that they’d stop working. If you wanted to keep them, you’d pay and the dealer would unlock them.

I don’t necessarily have an issue with that, as it’s a one time fee, and you only pay for those features that you want. I think people do get upset when they’ve had something and it’s taken away.

Any sort of subscription is an absolute dealbreaker though.

Edit. LOL at the downvotes. Reddit will never die.

Previously KTM had those features behind a paywall. If you wanted them, you’d go to the dealership and they’d unlock them. At least this way you had 1500kms to figure out if they were useful or not. The other option was to just include everything and bump the price up accordingly. KTM were going to get paid for their development work, one way or the other.

Just like assuming a perfectly spherical cow, or a frictionless surface, you can completely ignore the economics, the massive cost and schedule overages to make nuclear work.

Flamanville-3 in France started construction in 2007, was supposed to be operational in 2012 with a project budget of €3.3B. Construction is still ongoing, the in-service date is now sometime in 2024, and the budget has ballooned to €20B.

Olkiluoto-3 is a similar EPR. Construction started in 2005, was supposed to be in-service in 2010, but finally came online late last year. Costs bloated from €3 to €11B.

Hinkley Point C project is two EPRs. Construction started in 2017, it’s already running behind schedule, and the project costs have increased from £16B to somewhere approaching £30B. Start up has been pushed back to 2028 the last I’ve heard.

It’s no different in the US, where the V.C. Summer (2 x AP1000) reactor project was cancelled while under construction after projections put the completed project at somewhere around $23B, up from an estimate of $9B.

A similar set of AP1000s was built at Vogtle in Georgia. Unit 3 only recently came online, with unit 4 expected at the end of the year. Costs went from an initial estimate of $12B to somewhere over $30B.

Note that design, site selection, regulatory approvals, and tendering aren’t included in the above. Those add between 5-10 years to the above schedules.

As long as the operators get full rotary-wing commercial flying licences complete with annual physicals and certified log books, I’m fine with it.

The only other book I struggled with was Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The travel-log sections were entertaining, and the relationship with his son was interesting, but the discussions on the nature of quality were completely lost on me.

I did get through Zen on the second attempt because I thought it was worth it. I saw no value in Atlas Shrugged at all.

Dad had an interesting career. Started as an office clerk for a railway with only high school education. Then he got into using an IBM 650 (IIRC) for doing freight rate calculations. How he managed that transition, I have no idea. He didn’t care for being cooped up all day flipping switches, dealing with punch cards and tapes.

He switched to marketing and got on there very well and retired after 37 years as a regional director.

He always has a book on the go, even now at 83. He has an eclectic pile of them that he kept, from Zane Grey to an early history of the Civil War written around 1870.

Back when I was in junior high in the early 1980s, I found a copy of Atlas Shrugged on my father’s bookshelf, and started reading it. I can’t remember how far I got into it, but I do remember thinking it was just awful in just about every way: story, writing, pacing, everything.

I asked Dad about it, “Oh, that. It’s terrible, isn’t it?” A friend had given it to him. Neither one of us finished reading it and after that it ended up at a book reseller.
On the plus side, he’d gone through his books and gave me James Clavell’s Shogun to read, which was an awesome novel.

I rather like kbin and feel no need to go back to the other place.
At least not until it starts randomly logging me off.

That was a form of detention for us. They’d keep us until the buses had left, then let us go. We had the choice of walking home or phoning our parents. I did a lot of walking in the '70s.

Weak sauce. If they value you, they’ll get in touch. If they don’t, they never cared in the first place so what does it matter?

Setting aside the Earth vs moon mistake, much like religion, this is an illusion that uses a human creation to explain a natural phenomenon.

Cool photo though.

The Mazda system was a complete deal breaker for me. You have to locate the hotspot on the screen, then fiddle with the knob to get it over the right spot, then select. Way more aggravating than a touch screen.

If you use Carplay or Android Auto, it reverts to a touch screen anyway. The whole system was a muddle.

Lexus and Audi have both dropped their puck controllers due to customer feedback.

I’m single player, PVE only, for the past 5-6 years. It just removed a lot of shit I didn’t want to deal with when the whole point of playing was supposed to be for fun. That decision was made a lot easier with the stupid levels of monetization and grind being rammed into everything.

The second generation Ford Lightning EV will be out in late 2024 as a 2025 model. They also have a smaller EV pickup coming out not long after. The Ram EV will be out as well as the GMC Sierra.

Tesla was the first to announce and will likely be last to deliver.