Being green on Technology Connections

Of all renewable energy, solar has the least impact on the environment. But it is still not cost competitive without subsidies. If we want to be self-reliant on solar power, we also need battery storage large enough for night time.

It is often assumed once up, solar farms can run unattended — maintenance aside — for decades. Except on this timescale, we need to take into account catastrophic weather. Solar panels are fragile.

But it is the last part of the video that he got unhinged about events that had occurred in Minneapolis.

This is the outcome when rot has embedded so deeply. You need force to extract it. It will be painful. It will be ugly.

I'm not sure which part of illegal immigrant he — and others — does not understand. I L L E G A L.

Investigating people who may have committed fraud. F R A U D.

While I'm at it, I might as well say it: only citizens can vote. This is already supposed to be true, but you can't tell unless you check, can you?

The search for pure air

Six years ago, I started running a dehumidifier in a room to protect stuff inside from mold. It worked. I ended up running three dehumidifiers in three rooms (on a schedule).

Later, Missus bought two air purifiers for two rooms. I didn't see the value, though. The PM2.5 sensor readings were very low.

However, one of the rooms (without air purifier) was more dusty than expected. I finally wonder if it is time to get an air purifier to filter out all the dust.

An air purifier consumes very little power. It is a fan. It can range from 3W (lowest fan setting) to 50+W. 3W 24/7 is 2.16 kWh a month — 75 cents. A dehumidifier, on the other hand, is like a mini air-con. It is at least 200W. If it operates for 12 hours a day, it consumes 72 kWh a month — $25.

One of my considerations is whether I can get a Tuya-enabled air purifier. Apparently there are very few such units. In that case, I'll opt for Philips air purifiers since I'm already using them at home — it'll be more convenient to monitor all of them in one app.

Which ones then? Two come to mind: AC2936 and AC3033. Philips has stopped selling them, though. This caused me to do a quick check: are the filters still available? Yes, and compatible ones as well.

Filter availability is why I don't want to buy "random" brands. If the filter is not available, the air purifier is useless. I'm talking long-term here: 5 to 10 years.

The AC2936 with CADR of 380 m^3/h (up to 98 m^2) is good enough for any HDB room. The AC3033 with CADR of 520 m^3/h (up to 135 m^2) is good enough for the entire flat. This is at their highest fan speed, though.

(Philips has an even bigger model, the AC4231, that has CADR of 610 m^3, for rooms up to 158 m^2 in size.)

If cost and size is not a matter, I'll go for AC3033 — the filter needs to be cleaned half as often.

On Carousell, the AC3033 is sold cheaper than AC2936. Go figure.

Philips AC3033

Since they are relatively cheap, I got two of them, one for the Master room and one for the living room.

The units are somewhat dusty (one of them is pretty dusty), but the filters are very clean. Unfortunately, one of them is using a non-original filter.

Is compatible filter as good as original? Apparently Philips's original FY3430 filter (S$120+ each at retail price) filters down to 0.003 micron — though some people have questioned if this is possible in a consumer product — with an expected 3 years lifespan, but a compatible filter (~S$40) filters to 0.3 micron only and has 1 year lifespan only. The original filters are getting hard to find. I believe they'll be gone once sold out.

I found original FY3140 filter selling for 177 yuan (S$32.41) on TaoBao. It is cheap, but it is not identical to FY3430, despite what Google AI summary says. It filters down to 0.3 micron only, has one year expected lifespan, and from pics, lacks dust mesh and activated carbon layer.

Using deregistered cars

Apparently it has been happening for a long time. They are hard to catch, but LTA has caught more cars over the years — 40 in 2022, 39 in 2023, 75 in 2024 and 245 in 2025!

The growing number either means LTA is better at catching them, or there is a loophole that can be exploited.

Wow, obviously these people do not fear LTA.

I wonder how it works, though. The Achilles heel, as always, is the IU. How do they get a working IU?

Is it from another registered car? But that means that car no longer have an IU? Or are they able to register the IU for a phantom VRN (Vehicle Registration Number), or car plate in plain-speak — due to lack of checking on LTA's side? Surely LTA will not allow multiple IUs per VRN?

The promise of ERP2, same as ERP1

ERP2 will finally do what LTA has always wanted: adaptive traffic congestion control.

One of the goals of ERP 1.0 is to move from cost of car ownership to usage. It does not work, because ERP gantries are too sparse, too costly to build and they take up a lot of space.

LTA says 93% of vehicles have fitted OBU. OBU is now mandatory by 1/1/2027, and ERP2 will take effect then. ERP2 uses virtual gantries, LTA is free to place gantries at any location. The dream of ERP, after 30 years.

The next step is distance-based charging. This is pay-as-you-use, which is fairer. It is no wonder many drivers dislike it. :lol:

The beauty of ERP2 is that it can be dynamic, e.g. peak vs off-peak and even by total distance.

For example, 5 cents/km for first 10k km ($500), then 10 cents/km for the next 10k km ($1k), 15 cents/km for the next 10k km ($1.5k) and 20 cents/km after ($2k per 10k km). This is fairer than a flat petrol tax. The more you use, the more you pay.

Taxi is charged in reverse: 20 cents/km for first 10k, 15 cents/km for next 10k, 10 cents/km for next 10k and 5 cents/km after. 30k km per year is only 96 km/day (with one rest day per week), which is low for a taxi.

PHV is special. We need to make sure it is not abused. It is charged a flat rate of 30 cents/km, the driver will be reimbursed 20 cents/km based on the distance he is carrying passengers, plus 20% allowance — this information will be provided by the ride-hailing platform. This is to make sure PHV is used for its intended purpose.

Pritam's mistake

Did PS lie? I don't think so, but he could not prove his innocence either. It's a he-said, she-said scenario and obviously his adversaries chose to take the other party's words.

Even before this incident, PS already knew RK was prone to hallucinations, so he wanted to vet her scripts. Her speech was vetted, but she did not correct it.

I don't think PS would tell RK to continue to lie, but he was too lenient on her — no doubt due to her family's clout.

PS is convicted of: (i) telling PK to "take her lie to the grave", (ii) "would not judge her if she maintained her lie".

The "taking to the grave" thing was later revealed to be from her aide — her two aides who gave her irresponsible advice, I must add. It turned out fine for her because PAP could use her to go after a bigger fish.

The second part "would not judge her", I can believe, but only that part, not the part about "maintaining her lie". I feel PS meant he would not judge her for lying, but he left it unsaid that it was time to correct it — too lenient, remember? She just filled in the blanks with what she wanted to believe — hallucinating again.

The G episode

Memory price doubled

Sky Rover Acuity 8x32 bino