Robby

Recent Actions

• Commented on Announcement time!
  So essentially a TV or movie deal could provide a lot of money, but in order to get that money you have to spend a year doing things that you hate, and shaving more than a year off your life...
• Commented on Announcement time!
  Good luck on the TV film stuff. I'm not going to join in with any collective rubbishing of screen adaptations of books. They're always different, often wildly so. If I want to be a purist about it, I can read...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  As well as car ownership rates being likely to decline - and that's a nicely measurable thing - car usage is likely to decline much sooner among those who own one. Various reasons, but some big ones are the cost...
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  The figure of ~£1000 installed is before any grants. When I had mine fitted about a year ago in England the grant was around £300, my total bill was £700. Some places have additional grants on top. You don't get...
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  ~£1000 for a home EV charger would be the fitted price, before any grants or other deductions. The charger itself is £300-500 for a special plug, some electronics to connect to the car, and some kind of computer to do...
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  For EV charging, we need all of it. Personally I think forcing charging points onto new builds is at the bottom of my list - and I have an EV, a driveway, and a charging point. It wasn't that expensive...
• Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
  I'm looking forward to the book. I'm not sure how this turned into another thread about food. Not even very interesting food, mostly just gently winding up Charlie about broccoli and an undercurrent of argument about whether or not food...
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  What I'm trying to understand is if any of this really matters. I am not a convention person, so I'm looking at this purely as a mostly uninterested lay person that likes Charlie's books. The awards were messed up and...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  The low birth rate and general economic environment has even more hidden pitfalls. I'm somewhat younger than the majority on this blog, being a hair under 40. That makes me a millennial. I'm also a parent with one child and...
• Commented on The coming storm
  I'm a big fan of comparative religion classes, having done them myself at school. I was brought up CofE. I never believed a word of it, and most questions were brushed away with poor answers. Comparative religion gave me enough...
• Commented on The coming storm
  On the renewable energy storage problem, this is one area where hydrogen could be useful. It's also something I haven't seen from the fossil fuel industry hydrogen push. A starting point would require significant excess capacity of renewable generation, to...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  The sorted of houses in questions were likely listed. This makes any changes difficult - we quite often see news stories about people being taken to court, and losing, because they painted their front door the wrong colour. This could...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  When you do finish the laundry files, what are you going to do next?...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  If it's any consolation, you've got a lot better at this over the years. I found The Annihilation Score to be a bit of a slog, it read like a male author really trying to write a female perspective. In...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  The issue of recognition, guilt or reparations for the crimes of our ancestors is always going to be a thorny topic, because it's hard to agree on the right response. There is a big gulf between a senior politician apologising,...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  The US vs UK food discussion is interesting. The US view tends to boil down to "yes a lot of it is shit, but you can find good food if you know where to look", and thinking this is a...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  So that's a way you could lose your licence, with a closely managed and essentially internet-connected medical condition. But if you're not under such close observation, such as a lot of people in the early stages of dementia, I understand...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  Last time I had to help an older relative renew their driving licence, it was all self-certify. There was a question around "Are you healthy enough to drive", but nothing that require getting the doctor involved. Click yes to the...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  It feels a bit attack-y to push for how to fix the system, and suggest obvious failure modes. This is what I was trying to call out at 30. It is perfectly feasible to deeply dislike the current system, but...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  It's a tricky one. I would rather not have the monarchy. I just don't know how to remove them and fill that power vacuum with something suitable. It would have to be something worked out carefully over a long time...
• Commented on Upcoming blog outage
  Ooh, something I know about for once. UK water supply is designed for things to go wrong and avoid having lots of little bits of infrastructure that rely on electricity. Generally you pump from the treatment plant to service reservoirs,...
• Commented on I can't even
  I'm just hoping that when labour do get into power, they don't fall into their usual trap of letting the perfect be the enemy of "good enough". Whilst labour under Starmer may be Tory-lite, I'm content to stomach that for...
• Commented on The gathering crisis
  One comment on the whole question of what to do about electricity generation in the UK. Going all-in on one thing is a bad idea, because you get a single point of failure. Even worse when you go all-in one...
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares
  I normally ask you to share a picture of your cats on new book threads. Can I see cats?...
• Commented on Omicron
  Going by my very simplistic maths, a doubling time of 2-3 days would infect the entire population of the UK by the end of January. Probably overwhelm hospitals around the end of December. Why are we not in ultra lockdown...
• Commented on Central Banking on Mars!
  I'm assuming that the purpose of the MuskCoin is to encourage investment into the Martian economy to grow it quickly. It is also coming under the control of a man who seems to prefer to own the assets and sell...
• Commented on Covid on Mars
  So we have a society where the majority of the people made a very conscious decision and a huge personal sacrifice to live and die on mars. Everyone is under constant surveillance/tracking. Decompression drills (shelter in place) will be frequent....
• Commented on Normal service will be resumed eventually
  Find cat, stroke cat....
• Commented on Upcoming events
  Seeing as this has become a thread on domestic appliances. I highly recommend a dehumidifier for the bathroom, seeing as it's a flat with (presumably) fairly crap ventilation. You would be surprised at how damp and musty the place is...
• Commented on Ask me anything!
  Who looks after the cats while you're away, and does this person send you daily pictures of said cats to keep your spirits up?...