Notable

Posted 4th Jul 2024 @ 16:06

If we can't laugh at the last 14 years, what can we do? It's really on the Brexit and pandemic years that are covered and with this much content from them it feels like today's election has been a long time coming.

So go out and vote today, vote tactically if you have to. I hope we see the back of the Conservative party but more worryingly, I hope Nigel Farage fails yet again to become a MP. Please, Clacton, don't fall for his bullshit.

Update:

Clacton fucked it. Not only did they vote for Farage, but the second candidate was a Conservative.

Posted 4th Jul 2024 @ 09:00

I always feel like a dinosaur when I talk about progressive enhancement, but the truth is it is how the web should work. As in, everything should just work. Andy Bell's article is worth reading twice.

Posted 3rd Jul 2024 @ 14:45

A few weeks ago I posted about different cities at similar latitudes which held a few surprises for me. This latest project from The Pudding puts it into perspective with the different classifications and the sub-classifications and how they could change over the next 50 years.

London spefically is on course to move from 'no dry season, warm summer' to 'no dry season, hot summer' but the truth is it has felt like we are there for a few years already. Summers feel short here but they are sometimes unbelievably hot causing humans, animals and vegetation to wilt in the heat.

Posted 28th Jun 2024 @ 10:27

I had shared the HWA EVO II on Good Gear Club back in January. It's an amazing restoration project for the chassis of a classic touring car brought up to modern standards and this walk around from Top Gear goes into more details on the technical details of the car.

Posted 20th Jun 2024 @ 09:05

Posted 14th Jun 2024 @ 10:58

Maybe it makes sense alongside the announcement for visionOS and the wider release of the Apple Vision Pro, but I'd have thought this would have been something that would have opened up the whole vision concept to the pro market more than just having to use an iPhone to capture content.

Posted 11th Jun 2024 @ 12:46

If nothing else, this is a policy I'd back in a heartbeat:

tripled parking fees for SUVs

But the overall health benefits of reducing the reliance on cars for transportation in a major city are becoming more and more impressive. Paris officials claim they've seen a 40% decline in air pollution thanks to a closure of streets, reduced the number of parking spaces and increased the amount of cycling lanes.

ULEZ has been a contentious issue in Greater London over the past year or so and has caused plenty of havoc through those that continue to oppose it's implementation. We also have a park nearby that charges based on the emissions of your vehicle.

I believe in most of the changes being made in favour of lowering emissions, but that unfortunately puts me at odds with a lot of people it seems.

Posted 10th Jun 2024 @ 14:55

Posted 6th Jun 2024 @ 14:56

We own a Toyota hybrid and have done for about a decade. Overall, the economy has worked out to be double what we would get from a regular ICE car and it really only has a tiny battery that is good for less than 2 miles of range on it's own. But combined with it's 'regular' engine we tend to get at least double the range. A great bit of engineering.

For the future, while I'd love to go all-in electric, a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid feel like the most sensible for now. I have less range anxiety than I might have pre-COVID due to changes in working arrangements specifically, but I have less faith in how the healthy of the battery will stand up to the test of time.

And I'm probably not alone in that thinking. This chart from CHARTR on Sherwood shows that Toyota hybrids continue to sell well. That will obviously level out and I am seeing more and more EVs out there in the real world.

I wrote about plug-in hybrids almost 3 years ago and it's worth watching the videos in the update to the post.

Posted 1st Jun 2024 @ 12:00