2021 – asty.org

How a Better Routeplanner (ABRP) eliminated my EV Range Anxiety

Posted on October 6, 2021October 6, 2021 by chrisa

Plus a clear-eyed look at the state of non-Tesla long distance driving for EVs in the US

I have a huge secret. First, I’ll say I’ve loved being an EV owner the last 4 years. I took my vehicle to and from work 5 days a week, 70 miles round-trip, no issues ever. No need to stop and recharge, as my Bolt’s 238 miles of range was always enough even in Massachusetts winters. I occasionally got stuck on the ice, sure, but gas-powered cars can have this problem at times. Never slammed into a wall accidentally, ran over something (or someone!) on the road, and never needed a jump start.

No my secret is much more embarrassing because it’s so …

Trying out the Qubes 4.1 beta on newer Intel and Ryzen devices, and the FrameWork Laptop

Posted on October 1, 2021October 4, 2021 by chrisa

A quick post since I have seen various folks ask online whether their laptop is supported by Qubes OS. I decided to grab the beta of the 4.1 release from July and try it out on some laptops (and my current desktop) where a new release would be most helpful, especially on some Ryzen-based systems where the previous 4.0 release did not work well out of the box. Since I also recently got the wonderfully consumer-friendly FrameWork laptop, I would try it out there as well, since I plan to use it as my daily driver OS.

You can see from the table below that there is some decent support for even relatively recently Ryzen CPUs. In fact at …

“All Crypto is a pyramid / ponzi scheme”

Posted on September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 by chrisa

I wanted to write up a brief article about this to point people at when they inevitably parrot the uninformed ‘attack’ they heard from someone else on the Internet: “Cryptos are just ponzi schemes”. In my earlier article I tackled the silly notion that “only criminals use crypto”, so I wanted to specifically address the ponzi scheme angle.

Let’s start with the basics, or we have no basis for having a useful discussion. What is a ponzi scheme? According to Investopedia, a ponzi scheme is “a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors. …

Pandemic car buying redux: How CarMax beat Carvana for the best touchless delivery experience in 2021

Posted on September 8, 2021September 9, 2021 by chrisa

My experience of buying from CarMax without ever visiting the dealership, and where they have room to improve

[Some up front disclaimers and info: I am not affiliated with any auto company or dealership, directly or indirectly. My employer probably owns some self driving companies somewhere along the way but I don’t deal with any of them day-to-day. This article is just based on my experience buying a car in summer 2021.]

As you know from my previous post, I had a really great time buying a car in 2020 from Carvana just as the pandemic started. Unfortunately just 1 year later, due either to staff turnover, trying to expand too quickly due to increasing online sales demand, or …

Carvana’s car buying experience has gone into the toilet in just 12 months

Posted on August 15, 2021August 16, 2021 by chrisa

[Some up front disclaimers and info: I am not affiliated with any auto company or dealership, directly or indirectly. My employer probably owns some self driving companies somewhere along the way but I don’t deal with any of them day-to-day. This article is just based on my experience buying a car in summer 2021.]

Background

Since the pandemic started I’ve actually bought two vehicles. My first experience was with Carvana in Summer 2020 – we wanted a car to someday tow an RV, and I thought I’d also use it to occasionally visit my family out of state. Overall I’d say our first Carvana experience was very good considering the pandemic was raging; some bumps along the way but overall …

Forget Savings Accounts: Earn double digit interest with $FLAME on Tezos (currently >80%!)

Posted on June 14, 2021June 14, 2021 by chrisa

[pre-disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of these currencies or exchanges, and am not being compensated in any way for this article. No one is being given copy approval, and all spelling mistakes are my own. No affiliate links are used in this article as I believe strongly in individual privacy when using cryptocurrency, especially my own. I am not a financial advisor; never invest more than you can afford to lose.]

Before we begin, there are of course many ways to earn interest at rates better than even the best bank nowadays using crypto platforms. One of the most common is of course Pancakeswap on the BNB chain. At this point however, per my previous post, I’m …