Can anybody speak to the current best practices around running underground power lines? I see these types of articles about above-ground distribution systems from time-to-time, particularly in California. I feel lucky that my area has underground power, but that was installed back in the 1980s. Would it be prohibitively expensive for Boulder’s utility provider to move to underground distribution? I can’t help but think it could be worth the cost to reduce wildfire risk and offer more reliable service.
Think of it like this: overhead power lines require you to dig a 5-7’ deep hole that’s 2’ in diameter every 90’.
Underground power supplied through cable requires you to bury the cable minimum 3’ in the ground in rigid ductwork the entire 90’. Any time that cable runs under a roadway that ductwork needs to be encased in concrete. In urban and semi urban areas you also compete with other buried infrastructure for space - sewer, city/municipal infrastructure, gas, electrical transmission, etc.
While underground distribution systems are less prone to interruption from bad weather it depends on the circuit design. If the underground portion of the circuit is fed from overhead power lines coming from the distribution substation you will still experience interruptions from faults on the overhead. These faults can also occur on overhead transmission circuits (the lines feeding the distribution substations and/or very large industrial customers).
Underground distribution comes at a cost premium compared to overhead distribution. It’s akin to the cost of building a picket fence vs installing a geothermal heating system for your home. This is why new sub divisions will commonly have underground cable installed as the entire neighborhood is being constructed - there’s no need to retrofit underground cable into an existing area and so the costs are lower and borne upfront.
It’s more cost effective for them to turn the power off as a storm rolls through, patrol, make repairs and reenergize then to move everything underground. Lost revenue during that period is a small fraction of the cost of taking an existing grid and rebuilding it underground. This is especially true for transmission circuits that are strung between steel towers over enormous distances.
Germany here, never heard of any issues regarding underground power (or phone) lines. Ultra High voltage (distribution network) is above ground here, but no issued with that either.
Copilot in Excel is getting some significant updates. It can write Python now that Excel has support for that. There’s also a new “COPILOT()” function in Excel that works pretty well.
Thanks for the tip. That function sounds pretty useful. I've been meaning to automate categorising manual survey responses in an excel file. And trying to do it through copilot studio (at my work we don't have access to a simple API option like ChatGPT offers). But if I could put a copilot prompt in every row that would be amazing.
The same M365 Copilot app is installed for both “free users” and the premium licenses that have access to all of their Graph tenant data. From the sounds of it, you only have the basic Copilot Chat (web grounded) that comes with the E3/E5 license. If you have the full license for M365 Copilot, you’ll see a work/web toggle at the top of your chat screen.
I assume my company isn’t paying specifically for copilot and what you’re saying is exactly true.
I’m just not sure why that makes any bit of sense as a product growth strategy.
Instead of trialing an amazing experience they’re just showing their customers that copilot sucks. But if you buy a license it’s awesome, we promise!
Why not actually give me something useful and then cut me off from access when I hit a usage cap? Then uncapping my usage is the upsell. Literally copy what OpenAI does.
My wife had PRK done on both eyes over a decade ago, and it was great. At the time, she had the choice between LASIK and PRK (I’m not sure that everybody has both options given their particular conditions). After reviewing the long-term prognosis and possible side effects of both, she went with PRK. It’s been a fantastic decision for her, but that just one person’s experience.
Yes, as is OneDrive and Teams file sharing. Those, however, are part of SharePoint Online. SPO is distinct from this CVE, which only applies to the standalone SharePoint Server.
What I was kind of implying is that if the codebase is not that different maybe there has been a complete breach of office365 and Microsoft has stayed quiet about that.
This is what precisely why I willingly pay more to Google for their fiber optic service than AT&T for an equivalent, albeit less expensive, plan: Google readily allows me to use my own equipment. I am voting with my dollars on this one.
So many of the comments are focusing on Office products. Okay, that’s fair. People can talk Calc vs Excel for example, and that’s fair. What I don’t get is how you replicate knowledge worker collaboration without using a major commercial provider like Google Workspace or M365. How do you handle the use cases solved by collaborative document editing, SharePoint / OneDrive, Teams with DLP, document classification, etc.
I’m not affiliated with Google or MSFT, just genuinely curious how you replace the broader ecosystem around the core Office products using open-source solutions. Has anybody solved for this?
Since you asked, I use Cloudflare for my registrar. I can’t really say if it’s objectively better or worse than anybody else, but they seemed like a good choice when Google was in the process of shutting off their registry service.
It will probably be another 15-20 years before we see the pendulum swing back for education unfortunately since we're still in the fuck around part of FAFO. It will take at least another generation of poor performance and educational outcomes before we realize that the problem isn't public education but rather the lack of investment in early childhood development.
