Eric Carroll

This is *exactly* what I suspected was going on.
The tell was the high GDP equipment capex but low physical datacentre & electrical capex build spends.
Data centres take time to ramp up.
Electricity takes even longer.
You can't wish or "disrupt" this away.
"Dark GPUs" at Amazon show the limits of the AI buildout: chips are easy to buy, power is not
https://www.techspot.com/news/114315-dark-gpus-amazon-show-limits-ai-buildout-chips.html
> AWS is reportedly buying billions in Nvidia GB300 racks every month and storing them in warehouses
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/507/467/060/096/242/original/c0bce853e8304913.jpg

2026-10-24 15:37:57 UTC

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I will post my test drive results shortly and ongoing experience as it evolves.
The MB salesperson is trying to convince me on the soon to come AMG CLA EV @ 650 hp. 😲

2026-10-24 15:35:03 UTC

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Thanks!
Got one more BEV coming.
By March we will be a Zero Gasoline household.
I figure solar + BEV conversion is one of the most impactful things I can personally do.

2026-10-24 02:24:35 UTC

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I looked hard at IONIQ 6, but the ICCU failure rate caused me great pause.
EV 4 was good but not sporty enough.
I didn't like the CLA 250 EV.
I gave up on the EVAP rebate as a result.
The CLA 350 EV was better.
However, the Polestar 2 was *awesome* and with current CDN pricing, almost affordable.
I made a decision... YOLO.
https://cosocial.ca/@EricCarroll/117493254321113137

2026-10-24 01:19:43 UTC

Just bought a #Polestar #polestar2 as the next stage in my #electrification journey
Free “gas“, 81 kWh #battery, ~596 km range, 680 Nm of torque, 350 kW of power & 0-100km of 4.2 sec. All provided by my #solarbattery
Hoo-rah
I have wanted to buy an #EV ever since I was sent to Research in Motion on a consulting engagement & saw the row of Roadsters & chargers at the front of the office. I knew right then #BEV were the way of the future
Took me a while to get there
One more car to convert...

2026-10-21 03:33:24 UTC

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I just sent my tape drives to recycling 2 years ago because storage was so cheap. 🤦‍♂️

2026-10-19 02:05:27 UTC

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Issue: Reliability
10 years with zero major manufacturing defects spoiled me. ICE tech is at keast mostly reliable depending on manufacturer.
Can I get same again?
What are the big new product introduction risks for BEVs?
Any reliability track record?
Hmm.
Issue: HVAC
Has to have a heat pump. Nice to have it process battery heat for efficiency.
I despise resistive heating especially in cars. Makes me nauseous. Hard to avoid until now. Also terrible for efficiency in 🇨🇦 winter.

2026-10-19 02:05:27 UTC

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Budget
Hard one.
I looked first under C$50k to qualify for federal $5k CY26 rebate, including trade in, assuming a willing dealer.
BEV. Anything qualify?
Yes.
- Ford Mach-E
- MB CLA 250+
- Kia EV4
- Suburu Uncharted
- chevy bolt
- volvo ex30 rwd
- kia niro
- kia kona
- nissan leaf MY27
Hmm.
Maybe I can't get sporty, fun to drive non SUV in 50k rebate range?!?
Lets add IONIQ 6, Polestar 2, MB CLA 350.
Lets look at used...
Lets look at Chinese coming to Canada...

2026-10-19 01:42:10 UTC

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Issue: Accessibility
Low to the ground sports car is no longer viable for me.
BMW i4 was on the maybe unaffordium short list, but sadly too low.
Also suffers from a very busy distracting console (but lots of buttons), and the latest car industry plague: feature subscriptions (aka auto paywalls).
Drives like a BMW, very highly rated.
Seems like I need a sedan.

2026-10-18 23:18:01 UTC

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Issue: Physical
North American cars became biiiig & a SUV monoculture, in the last decade.😠
Anyone who has had the sun blotted out by a F-350 while trying to make a turn knows how big.
I have to accomodate my garage dimensions.
~4900 mm max length, 2300 max width. Less is better.
FRS is 4234 mm length, 1775 width.

2026-10-18 23:18:01 UTC

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Issue: Battery Tech
I wanted LFP battery chemistry for the safety.
If you can get it here, its in the smallest, lowest range BEVs on the market.
Everything else is NMC. Safer than gasoline, but not as safe as LFP (eg ID.4, Tesla, etc).
Hmm. High capacity LFP like market leading BYD?
(you know the refrain) Not available in North America!
(at least not quite yet until BYD gets selling in Canada).

2026-10-18 23:18:01 UTC

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Issue: Range
Battery tech is in a massive technology revolution. It's come a long way since the Roadster! I could do a whole thread on that...
My FRS gets ~420 km per tank.
On current prices, thats a $100 tank. 🤕
I guesstimate is BEV is ~$10 a tank equivalent. Solar makes it even cheaper.🎁
The F-150 club must be losing its mind.
Downtown Toronto is 170 km.
Cottage country is ~470 km. There are fast chargers on the path.✅
500 km range would be a sweet spot, fast charging supports less!

2026-10-18 23:18:00 UTC

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Issue: Power Train
Why not mild hybrid or hybrid or PHEV?
Because its two worlds fused together in a parallel, complex & maximally nonoptimal architecture.
Literally the worst of both worlds.
I might have considered a Range Extender - a serial architecture with a gas generator charging the battery & pure BEV traction system.
But (sing along with me) mostly not available in North America.
I want a pure BEV.
(Not discounting the harm reduction benefit of Hybrid/PHEV.)

2026-10-18 18:11:49 UTC

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My dream car would be a Porsche BEV. 2 or 3 door, fastback, coupe, lift back, etc. Fast, sporty, handles well, engaging to drive.
Next lifetime maybe. I am unable to justify that kind of spend on a second car.
What I won't buy is a SUV.🤢
Let's go look, how hard can it be?
Lol it's complicated.
Tl;dr it doesn't exist in North America right now sub 100K and certainly nowhere near GR86/BRZ current price of C$36k.
Europe, China, yes-ish.
Here?
Gas SUV for you!

2026-10-18 17:53:43 UTC

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BEV RFP #2: Me. Complicated.
Last two cars were Acura RSX & 2017 Scion FRS, aka Toyota 86.
The FRS is the best, most fun, most reliable car I have ever owned.
No issues, I mean zero.
Good performance. Insanely fun to drive. A sports car for the value shopper.
10/10 would buy again.
Due to changing life circumstances my FRS has only 48k km. Some rear fender paint work needed. Otherwise, cherry. Oil change 2x/yr.
I have driven manual all my life. I will miss my FRS & manual drive.

2026-10-18 17:53:43 UTC

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👍/👎?
Console could barely handle a bluetooth voice call. Laughably slow. Dated tech even then. Toyota was slow to adopt infotainment.
Sound ok, not great. When 50% of your driving control loop is auditory, I only used it on long commutes
Limited safety tech.😱
0-60 @ 6.8s is fun, but not Porsche fast.
Loud interior & not particularly comfortable for long trips.
Strong road connection. High driving engagement. 💓
Biggest issue is getting in & out. Very low to the ground. I'm not 30 anymore.

2026-10-18 17:53:42 UTC

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A long time ago, in a lifetime that now seems far far away...
I went to RIM on a consulting gig and saw the line of Roadsters parked out front with their chargers.
I was enthralled with a real electric car. I knew *this* was the technology of the future.
I had to learn all about it. I knew it would benefit the world.
I wanted a Tesla very very much in my lifetime.
I was right, but it look a lot longer than I thought.
I learned alot along the way.
Now I won't be buying a Tesla.

2026-10-18 17:53:42 UTC

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BEV RFP #1: Wife Requirements: Easy.
A comfortable SUV, like 90% of other North Americans.
She drove a Ford Explorer (aka Ford Exploder), MB ML500, B200, B250, all high km use.
We moved from ML to B Series because it fit our downtown car port & had good enough capacity. The ML was a costly maintenance horrorshow. B series was a perfect downtown car, excellent reliability.
She loved it.
Living in the Land of F150s we need a capacity upgrade.
Thus, GLC 400 EV is scheduled for test drive.

2026-10-18 17:53:42 UTC

My #BEV selection journey is now into its last week or so. Test drives have commenced.
This will be My First BEV. (Actually 2, we are going All In).
For Downtown City Boy a BEV was desired, but challenging. I never had the time to take it on.
But Country Boy completed his Solar Battery project, and now has a "free" electron pump installed. Of course, the EVSE was next. Done!
Next Up: Just Add BEVs.
How hard could it be, right? Right?!?
Lol.
Thus, a 🧵
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/463/188/437/897/932/original/41191fbf3743c515.jpg
https://m.f-h.co/cosocial-ca/media_attachments/files/117/463/188/821/748/783/original/d7321c946574c183.jpg

2026-10-18 17:53:42 UTC

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MB, a pretty staid brand, is infected by the glass cockpit, cell phone on a skateboard craze currently fashionable in car design, presumably because it returns a few bucks back to the profit line in a tight margin business.
While I am as techy as you can get, she is, um, ... not.
MB could lose this sale by being too tech forward or GenAI infected, too uncar-like, too hard to operate.
The MY27 GLC EV is about 2.2x the cost of the ~10 year old, 150k km B250.
Gulp 😥
Test drive Monday.

2026-10-14 01:16:06 UTC

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Thank you for your service.

2026-10-09 00:55:53 UTC

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> it’s a crushing criticism of my profession that it so rarely does.
So say we all.

2026-09-20 22:05:01 UTC

This article's behavioural science approach reinforces @npub1fdr…lvhs "reverse centaur" argument, & is similarly mind blowing
> Multiple studies show that offloading a skill to AI results in losing that skill remarkably quickly. ... The two skills most at risk? “Judgment and decision-making” and “problem understanding and framing.” ... people’s confidence in what they shared when using AI rose from 30% to 76%... When using AI, being actually correct dropped from 27% to 9%
https://www.fastcompany.com/91606446/ai-is-fast-food-for-the-brain

2026-05-28 13:49:57 UTC

Most of the #news accounts I followed in the Great Twitter Exodus have gone inactive. #fediverse

2026-04-13 11:57:33 UTC

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01100-y
> Within weeks of her uploading information about the condition, attributed to a fictional author, major artificial-intelligence systems began repeating the invented condition as if it were real. ... Even more troublingly, the fake papers were then cited in peer-reviewed literature. .. this suggests that some researchers are relying on AI-generated references without reading the underlying papers.

2026-02-19 16:42:39 UTC

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We have so many goldfinches this winter we have put up two finch feeder tubes. Easily over 30, maybe 40. Hard to count them because the flit around so quickly.

2025-11-25 20:49:43 UTC

~150,000 email messages deleted off Google.
Google Workspace closed.
GMail personal account forwarded.
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/115/612/303/025/864/354/original/bea2d1675540bbc8.mp4

2025-11-21 22:08:02 UTC

Ok. That's it. I'm done.
Google negative optioning my data for AI training *and locking GMail features that have worked since I signed on behind the genAI feature switch* is the *very* last straw.
Google has been the cloud provider I most admired. GCP has been my go-to service professionally. But that's over.
Google, I'm out.
My personal & paid workspace account, as small as they are, are in motion right now.

2024-10-26 17:16:06 UTC

”... if you do something dangerous and terrible long enough, eventually it becomes normal"
- The Bezzle by @npub1fdr…lvhs
Excellent book, highly recommended.
#RiskManagement

2024-10-16 02:04:48 UTC

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I really hate Rails.