Erik Ramsgaard Wognsen

Thoughts & technology

Beware the Tesla Account Region

Picture shows the Tesla "Create Account" webpage and how its language setting affects the Tesla App "Edit Billing Address" page

I created a Tesla account to be able to charge my (non-Tesla) car at Tesla charging stations. When I tried to charge at a Supercharger, I had to add my credit card info, but then the Tesla app also wanted a billing address. The only problem was that the country selector was locked to the United States, where I don’t live.

Taming Python with Dataclasses

The Stack Overflow blog recently published the article Minimizing the downsides of dynamic programming languages (such as JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP) from which I’ll point out:

  • “Type hints are the most obvious way to make a dynamic language more static. In effect, you get the best of both worlds: you can write dynamic code but are required to be more careful about what types you expect to get and use at any point.”

  • “Dictionaries are for unknown data.” In other words, if you know while writing the code which keys are going to be in your dictionary at runtime, you should use an interface (TypeScript), struct (Ruby), or dataclass (Python), instead of a plain dictionary/object.

This reminded me that if you’re a Python programmer, you should definitely know about dataclasses (since Python 3.7, 2018) because they do both of the above, as fields of the dataclass are specified using type annotation syntax.

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II vs. Jabra Elite 85t

I’ve used the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II for almost a month and the Jabra Elite 85t earbuds for 4–5 months. Both are flagship products, with the Boses being released a few months ago, and the Jabras two years ago. This means that by now, the Jabras only cost around half as much as the Boses. That doesn’t make the Boses better at everything, however. Depending on what qualities you value, one or the other could be the better pair.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Picture shows a scene from "Avatar: The Way of Water" with Na'vi people and creatures on a beach

Back in December 2009, I saw the premiere of the movie Avatar, and was completely enraptured by this beautiful fictional blue world. I went to the cinema to watch it multiple times. I studied Na’vi, the language constructed for the movie (which has a real grammar behind its pleasant alien sound). I ordered the movie for pickup at Blockbuster at the midnight DVD release (yes, a physical Blockbuster store!) I just absolutely adored the movie. Fast-forward to the present, and we finally got to watch the sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.

Ioniq Efficiency

I’ve driven the Hyundai Ioniq Electric for two years now, and it’s time for some more stats. While the car model is not for sale anymore, it will exist on the used car market for many years to come, and I’m going to continue documenting my experiences with it here. Despite being discontinued, the car remains one of the most energy efficient mass market vehicles on the roads today.

Bedre elbilsladning i Aalborg [Danish]

Det er en ny æra for offentlig opladning af elbiler i Aalborg. Efter en meget begrænset udvikling i 2021 er der i foråret 2022 åbnet flere nye offentlige ladepladser i Aalborg og Nørresundby. Nu er det næsten altid muligt at finde en ledig offentlig lader, når man skal bruge den. Dermed er det blevet meget nemmere at kombinere elbil med at bo i lejlighed, samt at være plug-in-bils-gæst i Aalborg.

AAWireless First Impressions

My car supports Android Auto which lets me connect my smartphone and use the phone’s apps on the car’s infotainment system including touchscreen, speakers and microphone. Examples include Google Maps for navigation and Spotify for music, as well as Google Assistant voice commands.

It normally requires a wired USB connection between phone and car, but AAWireless is a device that acts as a wireless bridge between phone and car while the device stays plugged in to the car, so your phone can stay in your pocket or bag. I’m happy so say it works well so far.

Bedre hurtigladning i Aalborg [Danish]

Foråret har bragt bedre muligheder for offent­lig opladning af elbiler i Aalborg, til glæde for både gæster og os der bor i lejlighed eller af andre årsager ikke har egen ladeboks. Situa­tionen er blevet bedre både når det gælder hurtig­ladning og destinations­ladning. Dette indlæg handler om det første.

Motorvejsladning [Danish]

Offentlige ladepunkter for elbiler --- de orange punkter er hurtigladere. Skærmbillede fra [PlugShare][plugshare].Offentlige ladepunkter for elbiler — de orange punkter er hurtigladere. Skærmbillede fra PlugShare.

En elbil oplades typisk i et roligt tempo mens den er parkeret hjemme, på arbejde eller ved en offentlig destinations­lader. Men når man skal køre langt benytter man ladere med høj effekt, så man kan komme hurtigt videre. Dette indlæg handler om hurtig­ladere i Danmark, med fokus på motorvejen mellem Aalborg og København. På de 416 km mellem de to byer er der 64 CCS-stik langs motor­vejen til hurtig­ladning, og nogle flere i byerne omkring motor­vejen. Dette er et rigtig godt udgangs­punkt når man kører turen, men for at optimere rejsens tid eller pris kan man med fordel benytte nogle ladere frem for andre.