More like it doesn’t want to get the money to maintain those infrastructure by going into further debt.

I’m not following German politics very closely but the article mentions that this restriction is in their constitution.

There was something in that genre in my province decades ago when a government dedicated itself to ‘zero deficit’ by cutting on infrastructure maintenance for many years. A bridge eventually fell. Classic story. It seems like a common thing.

After having a TCL smart TV that constantly smells like burning plastic, even a year after using it, I’m not sure I would want another of their product in my home.

My bash scripts. They are saving me lots of time at work, performing screen scraping, filling reports and monitoring old servers.

At home they are making backups and automating repetitive tasks.

I just love shell scripting in general. I should probably own a shirt that says “go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script”.

Yeah, the others were unremarkable but the first one made an impression on me.

Cube

Edit: Apparently there’s a remake so I should precise that it’s the movie from 1997.

I don’t like the idea of wasting energy on inefficient things so I don’t use “AI”.

A.I. use is directly responsible for carbon emissions from non-renewable electricity and for the consumption of millions of gallons of fresh water, and it indirectly boosts impacts from building and maintaining the power-hungry equipment on which A.I. runs.

As Use of A.I. Soars, So Does the Energy and Water It Requires

But I don’t need a car to go anywhere in my daily life. My bike can bring me where I need to, it doesn’t cost gas, and doesn’t require yearly fees for a license. Public transit for the rest. Groceries are hauled with a bike trailer or I make multiple trips on foot.

Seriously, I prefer to live with 3 roommates close to work, and have access to a toilet, shower kitchen… rather than pay for a car and gas to “live in it” and get to work.

If you have a car and drive, you may see it as some sort of tool, and have some value and utility over an apartment, but for people that already live without a car, they often just seem like a burden.

I don’t want to have a 1.5 ton block of metal and need to pay gas to move it. I can move by other means.

Nope. I don’t have a car and consider it a money pit in the first place. A car costs a driving license. It also costs insurance. And fuel to move it. And it will break down at some point. Plus, winters are pretty brutal where I live and heating this thing/myself would be a nightmare. To me, a car is an anchor; a heavy ball attached to your foot.

If I had a car, and it was for a few weeks in summer, I may consider it. But I prefer have a proper place instead, and save money by not having a car.

I use it to consume huge quantities of energy because I despise the human race and life on earth.

As long as it’s not à la Musk where the new versions will be inferior to the previous one because “no modern trains should rely on antiquated technology so we’re scrapping everything from before to start from scratch”.

I’d be curious to see any numbers on that. Uber and Lyft played the card of “but it’s car sharing and thus reducing trafic” but in the end, it doesn’t really change much, and sometimes even increase trafic.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congestion-car-ownership-study/

As someone that doesn’t have a licence, never have driven a car and avoids them if possible, taxis (autonomous or not) are generally useless to me. They are still cars and they keep people dependent on cars.

In a city, people shouldn’t need a taxi (read, a car) to get around. In urban areas, people can walk, bike or use public transit. And if you want to go from one city to another, one shouldn’t also need a taxi (car) to get there.

I’m aware that this is kind of “utopist” and requires efforts to change things but, if the solution to wanting less cars is “cars but shared!”, this is not a solution. It’s just proof of failed policies. It will not encourage any change, just stagnation. Things will stay based on cars… but autonomous… and electric (oh so green)! Oh and also, now big tech knows exactly where you’re going, and when.

EDIT: And if robotaxis would be “part of the solution” for the last mile, why wouldn’t a normal taxi already fulfil that role? We don’t have enough? So we’d need more vehicles on the road, But autonomous? Why do they need to be autonomous? How come is the last mile such a huge problem for most people? Is walking or cycling a mile that difficult for most people? Is everyone carrying a 42" TV around?

God forbid we have public transit instead of fucking cars everywhere. There’s no need for buses or trains when we can spend huge amounts of energy to autonomously move two tons of metal for each and every individual that exists.

Humanity is not running to ruin. It’s taking a car.

You know it’s not one or another, right?

I’ve been using Linux since 1999 and I’m a strong defender of free software. I’ve been rooting and installing roms on my phones for years. I’ve repaired them several times. I’m well aware of the issues and I still have the right not to like Louis Rossman, even if I support his cause with the right to repair.

I don’t think it’s necessary to tell people they are losers because they don’t like him. We are not ennemies. Some people can actually dislike him, or his style, and still support the cause. But if you want to antagonize them…

Ok fanboi.

This guy was offered an insane salary for doing engineering for US defense contracts and turned it down because he felt like calling out bad practices and improving repairability on our devices was a better thing to do.

I guess that makes him our lord and saviour then, and we can then only take him seriously because of that. Knowing this changes everything. He is so good to help us lowly people in our quest for repairable devices! And if you just keep watching his videos he can teach you how you also can be successful like him. And by the way you can buy his tools too!

He’s right on the right to repair, but every time I tried to watch his videos (and I tried a few times, I work in tech and like the subject), I always felt like I was being… patronized.

But if you just watch his videos and buy his stuff he will teach you how to repair yours!11! /s

The few times I watched his videos, he sounded like a libertarian bro, saying that if you just put the effort, you too can become successful. You just have to pull yourself by the bootstraps or something. He’s showing you everything you need to know to be as successful as him! And maybe it was sarcasm and I didn’t catch it but at one point he muttered something about Trump fixing the potholes of New York. That’s about when I stopped taking him seriously.

He’s still an important voice for the right to repair movement but you’re right. I also can’t stand him. Unfortunately he has very dedicated/vocal eeehm, fans, so legitimate remarks on him are often met with downvotes.

Quite candidly, it’s not articles selling the spiel of tech bros that is going to help us. I’m one of those commenters and I also wish “Technology” was about technology instead of trying to sell the latest gadgetbahn or a solar road or self driving cars.

EDIT: It’s not technically about “helping us”, but more specifically about the kind of spiel those “articles” are trying to push. It may very well be about technology, but it’s misrepresented as something that could help us and save us in the future while in reality, it’s just marginally interesting, Think about how many articles there has been about bitcoins, NFTs, AI and crap like this, coming from techbros and their simps. That’s why you’ll see the sort of comments you complain about. It certainly is tech, but it’s more like tech they’re trying to hype, misrepresent and sell.

I love tech. I work in IT. But I can also smell BS and will not hesitate to point it out.

Being “anti car” is good for people that love cars. More public transit means less trafic, less congestion, less demand for gas and generally just more space for people that actually like to drive cars.

Plus, if some people don’t want to drive a car and just want to get places, maybe don’t get a car? There’s already safe and proven “technology” to do that. I understand the added safety bonus of “autonomous” cars but let’s be real, it’s not advertised as something to boost the safety of everyone around, it’s advertised as “autopilot” or even worse, “Full Self Driving”.

I am certainly anti car, but pointing out the flaws in “FSD” or “autonomous cars” and how it’s being falsely marketed to people is also on topic and is not exactly “inserting my views”. People can still love cars and use them, just don’t BS us with the “FSD” and “autonomous” spiel.

I know it’s not the answer you’re looking for but, what is safer for pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, is to have less cars on the roads. Buses can move dozens of people with a single trained professional driver. Trains can move hundreds. It’s illogical to try to push for autonomous cars for individuals when we already have “self driving” technologies that are much much safer and much more efficient.

Bike touring on rail trails and quiet roads coupled with camping and visiting nature reserves and national parks.

I loved computers when I was a teenager and it became my work. I’m now working in IT.

I was fine with that for a while but because it’s now my work, I needed to find something else to escape, and be more active.

So I eventually started cycling “for fun” but now I have panniers, camping equipment, and lots of plans to go cycling and camping deep in nature.

By the way if you have rail trails and/or safe itineraries to suggest, that are somewhat long (over 80/100 km if possible), don’t hesitate to let me know.

My favourite here is 'Le p’tit train du Nord" which runs for 200 km, and I highly recommend it.