sign

It is a sign that the system needs a redesign

by

Last Monday, April 28, Spain, Portugal and southern France suffered a mass blackout. Given this situation many questions arose and still There is no main cause clear. However, in the following days, a paradox became evident: on May 1, the price of electricity in the wholesale market came to mark € 10 per MW/h, that is, generating electricity cost those who produced it. In negative? Negative prices arise when the supply of electricity far exceeds demand. On holidays or weekends, with low industrial activity and favorable meteorology, renewables – especially solar and wind – produce so much energy that there is nowhere to place it. As the electrical system must be in constant equilibrium between production and consumption, the generators get to pay to turn their energy on the network in order not to stop turbines or panels. According to five daysthis phenomenon is not as rare as it seems: it happens when the market is “overflowed” by the offer and cannot absorb all the electricity that is generated. So what does it mean? At the wholesale level, a negative price indicates that generators pay to produce electricity. This does not mean that the domestic consumer charges money for lighting the light, although in some indexed rates a very low or even null bill can be noted at certain times, such as They have explained In the economist. Also, for private operatorsnegative prices are a headache: they not only do not enter to produce, but they can also have to assume losses. For the electrical system, it also represents a challenge: overproduction requires a very fine management to avoid blackouts or infrastructure damage. An increasingly common phenomenon. In countries like Germany, the Netherlands or Finland They have registered Negative prices, especially in spring and autumn, when renewable production is high but demand has not yet reached its seasonal peak. This excess supply, driven by the rapid expansion of renewables, exceeds the storage capacity and flexibility of the electricity grid. The result: producers are forced to pay to inject energy into the system. While it may seem good for the consumer, it actually raises a great challenge for the stability of the electrical system. The solution to this complex problem goes through a combination of improvements in storage infrastructure, How are they doing in Finlandgreater interconnection between countries, as with Denmarkand a more dynamic management of energy demand, as the case of France and loads them in its nuclear power plants. Can it be a problem for renewables? Paradoxically, renewables – clarity for energy transition – are also victims of negative prices. When they repeat too many times: Investment in new projects deter or force production to stop, which can damage equipment or waste resources. In addition, another technical challenge is evidenced in these scenarios: the stability of the network. The thermal plants contributed “inertia”, that is, a way of sustaining the balance of the system. Today, technologies such as Grid forming And synthetic inertia try to compensate for that lack of backup, but they are still in deployment phase, According to the economist. Symptom of something else. Negative prices are not an anecdote: they are a signal. They indicate that the electrical system needs to be urgently transformed to integrate more renewable without collapsing. It is necessary A storage improvement, Intelligent and flexible networksand A reform in the electricity market that adapts to the new paradigm. Image | Unspash and Pexels Xataka | We have just lived the first great blackout of the renewable era. The debate is now how to get the last one

It is a sign that security systems have worked

by

He Great blackout today He has aroused the alarms in the environments of some of the country’s refineries. The refinery of Repsol in A Coruña and that of Pentronor in Muskiz They have emitted blacks blacks during today’s noon. In both cases, from the refineries it has been called to tranquility. A security measure. As reported by the companies that own refineries, the smoke was due not to a problem but to the proper functioning of the security system of these centrals. “All security measures have been automatically activated, which has caused the output of black smoke through the three torches,” Petronor detailed In a press release. The cause of this incident has been in the blackout that, for hours, has affected the peninsular network, leaving almost the entire country without electricity. In the case of the Biscay Refinery, the blackout has forced at 12:30 to the off of all units. According to The company has detailedthe torches are necessary security measures when it comes to releasing pressure in certain circumstances in this type of facilities. The fact that they have activated is precisely a sign that everything has worked as it should. Constant monitoring. Beyond the proper functioning of this type of industrial complexes, the possible impact on health and the environment is, naturally, in the center of the concern of many. In this regard, the company has stressed There are several parameters They are monitored to ensure that the torches work at all times correctly: flows, temperature and even the appearance of the flame are among these factors. The flame of the torches is due to the fact that, precisely to avoid problems derived from the emission to the atmosphere of certain gases, these have to be burned. The peninsular blackout. The Iberian Peninsula has suffered today one of the most notorious blackheads In recent years In Europe. A blackout which has also affected some areas of southern France. While Spain and Portugal gradually recover the supply, there is little that is known about the origin of the cut, which began at 12:30 noon and from which it began to be left in some past areas 3:00 p.m. In Xataka | Light has gone throughout Spain: what to do in this situation and how to keep you informed Image | Petronor

If it serves something to sign up for the Robinson list

by

Unwanted advertising remains, in 2025, one of the great daily inconvenience. Text messages that interrupt the desktop, untimely commercial calls or promotional emails that sneak without permission. The advertising exclusion lists They seek to reduce that constant bombardment, And in Spain there are already more than three million people registered in them. You may have signed up for one of these lists waiting for peace of mind, but the messages are still coming. So what are exactly? Are they fulfilling their function? Or do we expect more than you can really offer? In this article we analyze, with the help of expert voices, how these exclusion systems work and to what extent they manage to fulfill their promise. What are advertising exclusion lists “They are services where you can register freely, and what they allow you is to stop receiving commercial communications”, He explains Beatriz RomeroICT law consultant at Secure & It. It details that the user can record the specific channels for which he does not want to receive advertising, such as email, telephone or even domicile, and those that companies must exclude from their campaigns will be precisely. It is very important to take into account a detail that can go unnoticed: As the consumer portal of the Community of Madrid remembersthese services allow to block communications of companies with which there is no contractual relationship. That is, companies that are not a client or that, even if they do not have express consent to send commercial information. The Robinson list It exists since 1993, when it focused exclusively on stopping advertising by postal mail. For more than a decade, however, it extended its reach to emails, phone calls and SMS messages. Any natural person can sign up for free From its websiteincluding minor representatives. Registration may take up to two months to become fully effective, and automatically renews each year unless the decline is requested. The Robinson list is managed by Adigital (Spanish Association of the Digital Economy), an organization that Promotes digital economy in Spain and represents more than 500 companies. Although the service is completely free for citizens, Companies must generally pay to access consultations. There are costs without cost for microenterprises that consult up to 30,000 records per year, but for those that exceed that figure, prices vary depending on the size of the company: from 1,900 euros per year for microenterprises to 5,500 euros for large companies. There are also additional bonds for large volumes of consultations, which can reach 37,500 euros per year for 2,400 million records. In addition, the list distinguishes between two types of entities: advertisers, who consult the list for their own campaigns, and service providerswho do it in third parties. In this second case, rates are, for some reason, higher: 6,450 euros per year to consult up to 600,000 records. Since the end of January 2025, the Stop Advertising listan initiative of the Spanish Association for Digital Privacy. Beatriz Romero points out that this new list “expands all those media in which you do not want to receive communications”, including social networks and messaging applications such as WhatsApp. In addition to blocking advertising in general, the Stop Advertising list allows Adjust the filter by concrete sectors: For example, you can avoid advertising related to insurance or telephony. By default, all sectors are blocked, unless the user indicates otherwise. Those responsible for the Stop Advertising list note that your initiative It does not come from the business environment, but is oriented to the protection of the citizen. They also underline that the Robinson list is managed by Adigital, an association that, they highlight, represents companies linked to the digital and advertising sector. Do they really work? José Manuel Sendíndirector of the Master in Digital Law of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR)recognize that “They work, although they are not infallible. Their effectiveness depends, in part, on the commitment of companies to consult them before launching advertising campaigns. ” The main problem, he points out, is that many companies subcontract third parties that work with unreliable databases, which leaves holes where unwanted messages sneak into. The main cause of frustration among users is that “large companies subcontract to third parties commercial work that in turn acquire large databases that will later be used in their commercial actions,” says Sendin. That causes it to be very difficult to know if the data is no longer included in the exclusion lists. “Although it is an obligation by companies, it is also true that many do not consult these lists or are not discharged. In the end, they are subscription services that have a cost for companies, then There are companies that do not pay that cost And they risk being achieved by sanctions, ”says Romero. When the lists are not enough If despite being registered in an exclusion list you continue to receive advertising, there are steps that you can follow. The first is to respond directly to the company indicating that you do not want more communications. If the problem persists, there are two ways: go to Self -controlthe advertising self -regulation agency in Spain, for mediation, or submit a claim to the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD). “We must provide evidence that we have indicated to the company that we are on the Robinson list and that we want them not to contact us again, ”says Sendin. screenshots, emails or call records can be key. From the Community of Madrid they also recommend Keep all high or low communication as support for possible claims. These lists are not a whim: they are backed by the Organic Data Protection Law (LOPDGDD), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the General Telecommunications Law (LGT). Article 23 of the LOPDGDD explicitly foresees the existence of advertising exclusion systems, Romero details. Besides, AEPD itself remembers that citizens can exercise rights such as opposition, suppression or limitation of the processing of their data before companies. The AEPD has sanctioned companies several times for … Read more

How to translate a sign, sign or any text with chatgpt, even asking you to explain it to you

by

Let’s tell you How to translate texts and posters with Chatgptand thus take advantage of its image recognition characteristics. This is something that better or worse you can also do with other alternatives, such as COPILOT, Gemini, Grok either Deepseekbut we are going to focus on Openai’s. We have done the tests in the mobile version, but you can also do it in chatgpt in the browser or in the computer application. In addition, it is a function that is available for both free and payment users, although perhaps payment receives more advanced summaries and explanations. In any case, now that artificial intelligence is becoming a tool that we get used to carrying with us, in this context it can be very useful when you travel. You can translate texts with a large amount of languages, and even ask for summaries of them. All you need is have Internet connection To be able to use it. Translate texts and signs with chatgpt The first thing you have to do is click on the option to attach content to the message you are going to write in Chatgpt. Here, you can Add the photo of a text or poster or use the camera To take it out in the event that the text is in front of you. When you add an image, do not send it directly to the chat. You have to accompany her from a petition Or prompt asking him to translate what he puts. Remember that you have to use natural language, you can ask you to translate what you put in the photo in several ways. When you ask him to tell you what he puts in the photo you have sent him, Chatgpt will explain everything. It will give you A translation of the textand depending on the version you use will give you context and will detail everything you see necessary for you to understand it well. You can also Ask him to make you a summary Fast or detailed what it puts in the text. Thus, in addition to translating it you can also summarize it in the event that it is a very broad text, and you will understand it well. In Xataka Basics | Seven tips to take advantage of the chatgpt photo editor

Manus is the Chinese startup of AI that has just launched a 200 dollars a month. It is a bad sign for the industry

by

Some called him the other “moment Deepseek“From China. This new model, called Manusquickly became viral for its ability to do deep analysis looking for sources of information and then synthesize clear but detailed answers on any issue. It was a direct competitor of OpenAI and its “Deep Research” modeand after being available limited and free, now its creators have decided to market this product big. With subscriptions, of course. Manus. Although its creators describe it as an AI agent, in reality Manus is fundamentally aimed at giving more meditated responses and after a deep analysis of various sources of information. It is true that this process automates, but does the same as Other “AI agents” such as Openai Deep Research mode and also those who also offer Claude or Gemini. Its performance, of course, is comparable to that of these services, and was initially available (under invitation) for free. That is over. Face subscriptions. As they point out In Bloomberg Manus now offers a public version of payment for $ 39 per month to be able to use its benefits with 3,900 credits, but also has a higher plan of 199 dollars per month for version with even less limits (19,900 credits) when it comes to exploiting those deep research modes. Taking into account that the service has just appeared, those prices of course They are aggressive and even controversial. Be careful with this. Manus’s decision is surprising for several reasons. To start, it is a company with hardly any market penetration and practically unknown to the general public. Come from good 200 dollars a month It seems to risk sinning for excess confidence. Not only that: the worrying thing is that this can be the canary in the AI ​​mine. This is: a precedent of what comes to us, with subscriptions of business companies that ask us for true monets for services than more reputed ones (such as Openai) also offer and without a clear differential factor. Committed virality. With the Internet boom and social networks virality was achieved with free massive products that were monetized Through advertising. Google and Facebook nurtured those models, but AI seems to depend on the freeemium model: we can access basic functions, but we do want to take advantage of the models, we have to go through a subscription model. And there is a clear reason for it. The generative AI is very expensive. The cost of each consultation we made to chatbots of AI is comparatively much greater that for example have traditional search engines. Training these models is also exceptionally expensive –It is estimated That GPT-4 training cost about $ 100 million-and you have to try to recover the investment. IA companies know how to do it: increasingly faces. And we are getting used to subscribing to everything. With the “era Google” We did not pay for the product but we were the productbut little by little payment subscriptions have been taking force with the rise of content streaming. We are already very accustomed to paying for services we use, and AI wants to take advantage of that trend. The problem, as is the case with the aforementioned streaming segment, is that There must be differentiating factors to bet on a payment service and not for another. And there Manus has it especially difficult, because he competes with very reputed models and that can be perceived as more confidence for users. No own model. Manus is a “Wrapper“, a platform that is built from the functions of other AI models such as Claude, from Anthropic, or Qwen, from Alibaba. It does not depend on itself. Its creators do not seem to have their own model, but even having the problem is that they will not be able to invest in it the amount of time, money and resources (as talent) necessary for the models to be especially remarkable. Too much competition. But Manus faces true giants. It is a situation analogous to which Anthropic and his chatbot claude livethat do not have the financial muscle of Google, Microsoft or even OpenAi. Manus has both that competition in the US and especially important rivals in China. There Deepseek is the main protagonist, but Alibaba, Baidu or Tencent They will not let a newcomer steal their wallet easily. In Xataka | Now the competition to overcome Depseek is also fought in China herself: Alibaba has just announced QWen2.5-max

It is a sign of all the problems that corner the Tagus basin

by

Yesterday, the Manzanares S riverIt could significantly The high risk threshold of overflow in Madrid. It is not just an “alert”: the river It has overflowed In the brown, the connection branch between the M-30 and the M-40 was cut for hours, but there are Almost another dozen roads that are still cut by the storm. As it happened In Seville a few days ago, In Guadalajara last week either It is happening in Toledo Right now, it is very striking. Above all, because it is something that goes far beyond Manzanares. What is happening? What are we seeing? And it is that the Manzanares is only a sign of endless problems that face the basins of the Tagus and that of the Guadiana: rivers that usually carry very little flow and that, suddenly, channel a huge amount of water. And, as we said yesterday, the problem is never just the water that falls: the problem is, above all, that water has to go somewhere. But it is not easy. For many reasons: the first is that ‘natural’, these types of floods are usually accompanied by landslides, phenological realignments and other geological phenomena. The rest, unfortunately, are of human origin. For decades, we have been building around the channels as if the water they carry out all the water they can carry. We have narrowed the alluvial plains, we have built In flood areaswe have raised concrete structures that today (with these accumulated) are unable to contain the strength of the rivers. Manzanares is news because it is in Madrid, yes; But it is also news because it will affect hundreds of thousands of people; And, above all, it is news because it is a very clear example of what is happening in the center of the Peninsula: problems, many problems. The great paradox, again. As We said a few days agothe great paradox that brings us climate change is that we have to prepare to survive periods of increasingly long and intense droughtwhile we plan infrastructure and plans against increasingly intense floods. Talavera is a good example. According to the Center for Public Works Studies and Experimentation From the Government of Spain, the average flow of the Tagus in March as it passes through the Toledo city is 188 m3/s. Right now it is 750, now has overflowed at many points and the City Council is convinced that it will be up For the rain. And what do we do? That is the big question. Because, As the meteorologist Jordi Carbó explained“We have fallen into a difficult dynamic to break.” Although it is true that the ECMWF Start drawing some deceleration of rainfall, “forecasts prologize the rains until the beginning of April.” That is, “it is very likely that in this month of March there will be excellent precipitation records” and, in a context in which March It is becoming more and more rainyit is crucial to take it into account. But right now it only remains to remember. Today the urgent is to take action, displace people who can be affected and contain the damage. Tomorrow the important thing is to take it into account and put ourselves to work so that the next flood caught us prepared. Image | ECMWF | CGM Madrid In Xataka | It has rained so much in Spain that the reservoirs are up. And still nobody wants to remove water restrictions

It is more expensive to buy it second -hand than order it and sign up for the waiting list

by

He Xiaomi Su7 Ultra The Chinese electric car market has placed up legs. It has double merit if we take into account that we are talking about the country where the competition for the electric car is the fiercest and because we talk about a company that launched its first electric car just over a year ago. But the arrival of the Sporting version of the Electric Berlina cHina has burst any type of expectation. Its price and benefits (it is sold by a fraction of what a Porsche Taycan is worth but, on paper, it offers better data) have made the reserves jump through the air. The company said they expected to sell about 10,000 units this year of the most sporty electric model. In 10 minutes they had added 7,000 reservations of the car. In two hours they had covered the quota of reservations. Now, speculators want to make their August with the new Deportivo. Skipping the waiting list The information brings it Carnewschina. The portal specialized in news about the Chinese car market explains that the Xiaomi Su7 Ultra can already be found in second -hand pages for prices ranging from 548,900 to 648,800 yuan (69,322 to 81,939 euros). Is it a lot? Very much, in fact. The car has been released by 529,900 yuan (66,935 euros) in its most basic version but there are ads that place the price some 15,000 euros above. That is, there are units that are sold to 122% of their departure price. The units barely reflect 10 or 20 kilometers of use, which clearly indicates that the buyer has put it on the market as soon as they receive the car and, in this way, to earn money at the expense of those who are interested in the car but have no intention of waiting for the waiting list. We already know this way of acting and only takes effect when there is a demand that the producer cannot assimilate. For example, in 2022 we saw how the newly enrolled Tesla put themselves on the market to 11,000 euros above of the original car sales price. The really striking thing is that it is in China, whose supply of electric cars is very wide, where this type of phenomenon occurs. The news is a blow on the table by Xiaomi that intends Put 300,000 units on the market of its electric cars this year. It is a very high figure if we consider that the company began deliveries of its first vehicle in April 2024. At the same time it reflects the very hard competition facing Western companies in China. The German luxury vehicle is no longer perceived as such And Chinese customers are turning their heads to the local market that they consider more innovative and interesting than vehicles that reach them from the outside. Photo | Lei Jun in X In Xataka | The Xiaomi Su7 also expires in autonomy: the first tests under real conditions place him above Tesla or Byd

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.