Clojurians Log v2

That begs me the question: why did average car sizes go up? To fit the battery? Bigger car, more energy needed to move it? :)

Congrats with the upgrade!

Thanks! It feel like the Mac spinning disc -> SSD upgrade 😄 So far.

We didn't realise how big it was, and it actually is a little tight in our carport now... And sitting in it feels like being in a comfy, high class (and clean) cinema

nice! :)

We're getting electric car charger facilities soon in our apartment parking. Haven't had a car in 10 years but I use a rental one from around the corner every so often. But I do want the electric car charging option for when I get one maybe eventually

Seems to be the way things are going, inevitably. I like it.

Do you think electric car sharing will be popular in the future?

I have a Volvo car (14 years old) and I really don't want to buy a car when it breaks.

It's already a thing AFAIK, but whether you want to make use of it is something else. I have some family that didn't bother getting a new car when their old one broke down since they didn't actually need the car often enough to make it economically viable. They use a mix of cargo bikes, trains, and car sharing now.

That begs me the question: why did average car sizes go up? To fit the battery? Bigger car, more energy needed to move it? 🙂

profit margins: https://cleantechnica.com/2023/11/05/bloomberg-asks-why-electric-cars-today-are-so-huge/ tho smaller cars are coming now b/c Chinese manufacturers have been making them and putting pressure on European and US automakers (I'm looking at a Renault 5 as our next car)

Not really a big push for SUVs here in Denmark, fortunately. EVs may be bigger, probably to accomodate batteries, but people are also getting bigger overall (fatter and taller), so we should probably expect cars to get bigger over time.

I couldn’t sit in many of the cars made in the 90s and early 00s, you know, but it’s definitely less of a problem today.

But maybe, subliminally, that’s why I don’t have a car or a driver’s licence thinking-face

yes, Chinese small EVs are coming, but Europe is imposing a minimum price, so they don't undercut european brands too much 🙈 we'll be paying multiples of what the chinese pay for these cars

I have a small petrol KIA, we don't drive it much. If I replace it with an EV this year I can put it 100% on the company, from next year that percentage will drop every year. So I've been considering going the full shebang, EV, solar, and V2H so the car acts as the battery for the house. The thing is that we already consume relatively little energy, so I'm really not sure if the whole investment would pay off.

cars have been getting bigger like forever... a VW Polo 15 years ago was already bigger then a Golf Mk I.

there is a site somewhere where you can compare car sizes.

A quick search brought up this one, neat site! https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/skoda-fabia-2004-5-door-hatchback-vs-skoda-enyaq-iv-2025-suv/front/

that looks the one

Yeah, nice site, @erik.a.jakobsen ! The difference looks even greater in person

I'm on the small side height and width-wise, but the 2006 Fabia felt cramped even for me.

I am not into cars, but aren't bigger cars safer?

... only for the occupants, not for pedestrians

Indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--832LV9a3I

My girlfriend commented that the bigger car also is more sluggish when breaking. Naturally, since it weighs so much more. Feels a bit weird, though

The owners of big trucks are compensating something...

idk if we're in that group, but if so, we're only compensating for lack of space 😄

Specifically, we want a rear-facing childrens' seat. Apart from our old car being generally cramped, having that seat in the back meant that the front passenger's seat was pushed all the way to the dashboard. I could only just squeeze in there for a short ride.

@asier.galdos there are some test online where they take an older and bigger car and crash them into a smaller more modern car and the new one does better. Have look on YouTube and then look for 5th gear.(I think).

I like old cars! the ones that appear in Once upon a time in Hollywood.

You can easily spot the (few) European cars over here in America: they're tiny by comparison to American cars! And on the freeway, I wouldn't want to be in a small car -- the semi trucks (tractor/trailer) are absolutely enormous!!! 😞

We are so different. I am watching NBA playoffs these days and it's shocking how different people behave.

Despite speaking "English", Americans can almost be a different species at times...

...and it can feel like 50 different countries here, sometimes, instead of one nation under one government!

It's too big to be "one thing". Makes sense that you have distributed federal governance.

I think two really good examples of cars getting bigger are the Mini (compare a 1955 model to today's!!!) and the Honda Civic. My wife had two different Civics, about 10 years apart in age, and later I had one, another 10-15 years older. They were like three radically different cars.

Do you have a Level 2 charging system at home @reefersleep?

Nope. We rent, and if we implement it, we'll have to pay to tear it down again when we eventually move.

Going to see a house on Sunday 🙂

Ah, okay. Yeah, we brought our L2 system with us when we moved. Still had to have a new electrical panel added in the garage, like we did in California, which was the largest part of the cost.

But more and more places have 50+ amp 240v outlets that can run an L2 for an EV.

We'll see if our next house even has ethernet... Some country houses we've looked at have been almost derelict.

Might shift our focus. We've been looking for 5 years and not really found anything suitable in the country.

Is mobile 5G an option?

They're really pushing 5G home Internet here -- but we had fiber put in before we moved in. Lucky to get fiber -- only one supplier covers our neighborhood and our intro price expired in March (after 12 months) so the price went up 50%(!).

I don't really know. I generally miss Ethernet. Can't have it in our rental, no outlets, and we can't "remodel". And wifi is nice, but always has instability built in.

Maybe 5G can be really good, idk

OTOH, if I tried Ethernet now, I might get annoyed with dealing with cables real quick-like 😁

I feel blessed to have the technology I have, don't get me wrong!

@seancorfield, Europe is also the same, every country and region is different, but when I stayed in the USA (three weeks) I realized I was European, very different from the average American, but then, I also have very good American friends from the USA with very similar values and mindset. The Artemis astronaut calls this "shared humanity".

That's a common change in perspective across astronauts who see the earth in its entirety, right? Suddenly they feel that we really are all one.

@asier.galdos Sure, but folks expect Europe to feel like multiple countries since there are multiple languages. America is both huge and (mostly) English-speaking. As a Brit, the culture shock of America is huge, because you sort of expect it to be "like home" but quickly realize there are so many differences. Menus can be a real minefield since Brits and Americans use the same word for completely different things 🙂 And driving... oh boy, driving is so different... And you park in your driveway but you drive on a parkway... pavement here is road in England (English pavements are American sidewalks). The hood of a car here is the bonnet in England, not the roof. And Americans have absolutely no idea what to do at roundabouts (which are slowly being introduced all across the US!).

I will say that I really like how (most) Americans are very open and friendly, which I wasn't used to in England. But I really don't like the "gun culture" here.

@reefersleep We have everything on Wi-Fi here. Fiber to the house and then a Wi-Fi hub for everything, including our 70" TV (178cm), our security system, our washer/dryer...

My partner is american, and I spent a lot of time there the last few years before she moved here. There's a lot that we like and prefer about Europe, but we do miss how easy it is to interact with people in the US. Just small friendly spontaneous chats. People are way more closed here.

I love British people, I lived there for a few years, probably my best years. Like the rest of the World, you are having a rough time now. I wish you the best.

@plexus, I agree. Americans are more open minded.

My wife is born and raised American, but has lived in Paris (for a year) and Bordeaux (also for a year) and had traveled all over Europe and the Middle East (as a professional belly dancer!). So she really gets the culture shock aspect of things. A lot of Americans don't travel at all. Here in N.E. Ohio, I often run into people who were born and raised in the Youngstown area and have never been out of the state (and don't have a passport -- even tho' Canada is only a short drive away). Americans are "open" in their interactions with other people, but often very small-minded in terms of how the world works.

My wife and I, both basques, did a genetic test a few years ago (23andme) and we are 99.99% basques. Horrible! apparently our ancestors did not have sex with Romans, Jews, etc.

re:driveway/parkway - In York (Old) the streets are gates, the gates are bars, and the bars are pubs. It is very confusing to tourists

@asier.galdos That's quite impressive! When I did 23andMe, I tested as 99+% English, which was dreadfully disappointing! 😄 I'd hoped for something exotic! Anything! My American wife has a lot of Scandinavian. Her father's side come from Southern Norway (Telemark), via Canada.

(her mother's side is generically European -- mostly German/Bavarian, but with some French, and nearly a quarter English, but also a little Finnish in there)

and also the mix makes your immune system stronger.

As was said in the documentary, rich and famous

Speaking of funerals: last summer I attended a funeral of https://chastell.net/who was a Rubyist. Only recently I learned (from reading https://pragtob.wordpress.com/2026/04/12/remembering-piotr-chastell-szotkowski/) that he had attended the first Heart of Clojure back in 2019, and was a friend of @plexus' too.

And what a great guy! He's dearly missed... ❤️

Looks cozy 😊