$10B divided by 218 miles is approximately $45M per mile. That's not pulling something out of an ass, it's just math.

As for how they came up with that - I would assume very costly studies involving consulting experts in rail, construction, land right-of-way negotiations, transportation permitting, and numerous other expertises involved in the process. The private developer behind this has done rail before, so in theory they know how to price these things out.

It's new technology that hasn't been built in the US. There are significant unknowns and new scenarios that will drive up price.

It's $45M per mile. That's less than 1/2 the cost of urban light rail, and less than 1/4 the cost of the high speed rail being built in the Central Valley. If they can do it anywhere close to that price it will be amazingly cheap and cost competitive with flights.

The article literally says they "must pass through fossil fuels". That's not bypassing fossil fuels to jump direct to renewals. I have no idea why you couldn't follow the comparison to India's strategy for telecom buildout.

Theft rates for iPhones has definitely gone down because the thief cannot fence it due to the lack of resale value. It's entirely reasonable to expect similar results from laptops.

Exactly. India and other developing countries have been able to make significant leaps in telecom and internet penetration in rural and poor areas by going straight to mobile services, skipping land lines entirely. Why they won't pursue a similar proven strategy in energy use is beyond me.

You are spewing nonsense. Guaranteed lockout if lost or stolen, and lower theft rate because the device can't be compromised would be a good arguments for businesses to use Mac.

Counterpoint: when I bought my 2021 MBPro, Apple gave me a $300 trade-in for my 2012 first-gen retina MBPro. That was a great deal for me.

10 years ago digital phone system vendors were demanding my employer let them install a Win2008 server connected to a public static IP without any firewall or antivirus software and with automatic updates disabled and RDC enabled.

I think you vastly overestimate the competency of companies who make their money selling installation of proprietary equipment systems rather than software services.

That's not really true. Because every state, no matter how small, is guaranteed a seat in the House, and because the total number of seats in the House is limited, 1 House member from WY represents far fewer people than 1 House member from CA.

The House represents the People, not the states. It is almost impossible to find a bill supported by all of CA's representatives. Many of them (including the current speaker) are Republicans in the state's minority.

This isn't about jobs with highly specific experience and trade secrets. This is about the abuse where even Jimmy John's was using non-competes to lock retail sandwich-makers into minimum-wage jobs.

litch, sitch

There is a significant difference between the government buying something to enable the services it provides, vs the government sending citizens to directly interact with a private company as a prerequisite to using government-provided services.

When you implement session replay you are given specifications for marking various fields to be suppressed from the recording. I believe most default to also mask fields of type="password" by default.

I've used personal checks more recently than a business card.

While my company still has a process for ordering and I'm entitled for my level, I don't thing I've requested them for at least 3 rebranding cycles