Hacker News: dpierce9

New comment by dpierce9 in "EVs are depreciating faster than gas-powered cars"

dpierce9 — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 18:18:36 +0000

I wonder if the terminal value of an EV will be higher than ICE. This seems possible if there are secondary users for batteries, motors, or if the mineral content is more valuable (e.g., obviously rare Earth and lithium but also the frames tend to have more aluminum).

New comment by dpierce9 in "Translating natural language to first-order logic for logical fallacy detection"

dpierce9 — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:37:08 +0000

First order logics can be provably sound and complete when they do not express certain arithmetic operations.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Apple's Software Quality Crisis"

dpierce9 — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:17:11 +0000

Window placement with multiple monitors is broken beyond belief. I am hoping someone from Apple is reading this thread.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Pollution from Big Tech's data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn"

dpierce9 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:38:19 +0000

Without agreeing with the paper’s general point, imagine a coal plant that emits particles which cause asthma within a 25 mile radius of the plant that also buys legit offsets for all the carbon they emit. They aren’t buying offsets for the local harms.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected"

dpierce9 — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 04:57:22 +0000

There are two views of this.

The first is that at any given point in time, my instantaneous energy use is offset by renewables.

The second is that over some period of time (e.g., one month) my aggregate energy use is offset by renewables.

The second is MUCH easier. When people say things are 100% renewable, I generally think they mean the second thing. This is a bit of a fudge (not wrong but not 100% level).

New comment by dpierce9 in "Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected"

dpierce9 — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 04:49:14 +0000

Power is pooled. If I buy from a supplier or group of suppliers that (1) procures only from renewable resources (2) isn’t reselling power from non renewable sources, (3) hasn’t sold the power more than once, and (4) is capable of providing my energy demands at any given time, then I am buying green power from the pool. It doesn’t matter if the actual electrons come from Ng or coal because I bought enough for the pool (the electrons I added to the pool will be used by someone else if I am using ng electrons).

Not 100% sure this is how Caltrain works but the fact that everyone is physically using the same pool does not imply that you cannot be 100% renewable if you buy from suppliers to the pool with the above properties.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Microsoft Bob: Microsoft's biggest flop of the 1990s"

dpierce9 — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:22:55 +0000

Missed the part about XP. Question still applies to the 95 disk.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Microsoft Bob: Microsoft's biggest flop of the 1990s"

dpierce9 — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 05:22:25 +0000

Is this why there was a copy of Weezer’s Buddy Holly music video was on there too?

New comment by dpierce9 in "Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs"

dpierce9 — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:53:37 +0000

The fast charger is the expensive part, the dispenser is not nearly so. Just like a gas station, dispensers to chargers are many-one. I was being a bit glib when I said the dispenser is a fancy switch (esp if the lines are cooled) but only just a bit.

I see a report that has Tesla’s cost as 43k per installed dispenser. That is a fully load cost, not the marginal cost of dispenser but it is good enough.

Looking at listings for gas stations for sale (with a convenience store but no auto repair), I see about 150-300k per dispenser. That isn’t exactly apples to apples but suffice to say it isn’t exactly cheap and much closer to representing the cost than the cost of a pump (which is I assume cheaper than a dispenser).

New comment by dpierce9 in "Rivian is opening its charging network to other EVs"

dpierce9 — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:12:14 +0000

This doesn’t seem right to me. Is this 200k per dispenser? The dispenser is really just a fancy switch and a plug in a kiosk. If you are talking about the central transformer/switching systems, then yes that makes sense. But you can add a lot of dispensers to that.

A pump is only 25k to install if you don’t include the infrastructure to support the pump (tank, canopy, fire suppression, filters, etc).all that costs more than 200k.

Let’s say 25k is the marginal cost for an extra pump. What is the marginal cost for an extra dispenser?

New comment by dpierce9 in "FTC takes action against Gravy Analytics, Venntel for selling location data"

dpierce9 — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 14:28:21 +0000

Congress currently has, and always has had, control of regulatory agencies. There are many ways this works. In many cases, congresses created the agencies by legislation so they can simply change the powers of the agency. If they don’t like a regulation, they can pass a law overriding the regulation. If they didn’t like an agency using chevron a certain way, they can, again, pass a law. They can also withhold monies from the agencies or restrict the use of those monies.

I get that passing laws is hard but that is one of the reasons to have agencies!

Chevron was not carte blanche either.

New comment by dpierce9 in "FTC takes action against Gravy Analytics, Venntel for selling location data"

dpierce9 — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 19:48:40 +0000

Chevron eliminated discretion regarding how an agency interprets what powers it has been given if the law is unclear about such things.

It does not eliminate the ability to make and enforce rules if those powers/rules are clearly within the scope of the law.

I have no idea about this FTC decision on this second point but agency lawyers tend to be pretty careful about such things.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Show HN: Every mountain, building and tree shadow mapped for any date and time"

dpierce9 — Fri, 31 May 2024 13:53:07 +0000

At the time they had an advertising product they were offering to solar installers based on site quality that used this feature. If I had to guess they probably stopped offering it when that product didn’t take off.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants"

dpierce9 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:18:50 +0000

From the parent: “Political uncertainty about the future energy system is jacking up the rate of return investors are demanding of gas plant projects without contracted revenues.”

Your argument about lobbyists creating certainty doesn’t follow. Not all people in an industry have the same interests (gas generators and gas producers both like gas but price impacting regulation will create divergences). Lobbyists may reduce certainty because, for example, a super convincing lobbyist might instigate changes to an staid regime. The cumulative impact of different, less effective lobbyists over time may wash out or it may cause branches.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants"

dpierce9 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 19:04:17 +0000

I have lost the thread. The og parent said that political uncertainties were responsible for gas plant economic issues. You are now saying that gas plant lobbyists create more political certainty. I don’t know if that is true but it is beside the point.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants"

dpierce9 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 18:15:17 +0000

What? Gas prices in Europe are extremely volatile [0]. Neither lobbyists nor politicians control prices and even if they did it isn’t obvious the lobbyists would prefer smooth prices.

[0] https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas

New comment by dpierce9 in "Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants"

dpierce9 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 17:19:21 +0000

Sure, but why is that special for gas plants? CTs are expensive to run so if they run less that is generally good for people using electricity. I am not saying political uncertainty doesn’t exist or that the grid systems are apolitical or that building plants is easy. I don’t know much about the UK grid or rules which is why I was asking for specifics on what makes this specific case political.

New comment by dpierce9 in "Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants"

dpierce9 — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 15:23:40 +0000

Why call this political uncertainty as opposed to economic uncertainty? The future is intrinsically uncertain. The only thing that has changed is new entrants to the market. If gas plants can be replaced by something cheaper then they will be. If gas plants make economic sense, they will be built. The fact that gas developers have to model additional players in their markets to prove their economic viability seems fine to me. The fact that they are riskier investments means higher capital costs also seems fine (they are riskier!). Would you rather the politicians say no batteries because that would make financing gas plants harder?

New comment by dpierce9 in "Portugal just ran on 100% renewables for six days in a row"

dpierce9 — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 01:38:44 +0000

If I have a hybrid car and I make a trip that doesn’t use the engine, are you saying I can’t say I didn’t use the engine because I could have?

New comment by dpierce9 in "Cybertruck buyers forbidden from selling for the first year"

dpierce9 — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 04:04:11 +0000

Rivian made scalping extra valuable by freezing the price for early reservation holders and raising the price for later reservation holders. Further, vehicles purchased in 2022 may qualify for a tax break while most ‘23 Rivian purchased will be priced out (even if their buyers are not). These are stacked on whatever scalping premium exists.