In what sense? Be specific? You just moved the discussion from growing economically to growing beyond the means of a planet (growing in terms of numbers). Yes it is not sustainable to grow our population. But the fact is that the population is growing. And if we use that population growth as basis to judge our economic systems (which we do), a lack of economic growth would point to a collapse in our society - people literally getting poorer, literally able to work less, literally able to produce less.

As much as I hate enshittification I'm taking their side on this. Spotify is a business that has never reported a yearly net profit. This is less "enshittification" and more "entitlement de-escalation". Tell me, how much were you paying for your free lyric service on your free tier to a company losing money providing you this service?

Yes and no. It's very well known that Spotify's ads don't even remotely cover the cost of licensing material for users. Heck even with ads + premium subscriptions Spotify has been completely unprofitable nearly every quarter of its existence, and still has been unprofitable every year of its existence.

Ads is not a viable business model for them, it exists as a trial to push people to premium subscriptions.

Because one of the several music services out there is making minor changes to your features you instantly revert to piracy? I'm guessing you are actually *wanting* to go down the pirate route and are simply looking for any excuse to justify it.

Person with undiagnosed mental health condition demonstrate a plea for help online.

No seriously. There is no sane reason to do this, which can leave only insane reasons. We have an entire field of medicine which deals with the insane.

Yeah.. I'm curious what the situation is they're applying the word counterfeit to here.

I know the vendors have a very dim view as to product resales, and it may even be that they consider a Resold genuine unit to be counterfeit if the reseller did not erase all the software from the unit before selling.

I also heard of "Counterfeit SFPs" which are absurd -- the SFP is a standardized module. They are generally all identical from the same suppliers, and Each vendor writes their ID on the chip, and then programs their switch to refuse to use SFP transceivers that were programmed with a different vendor's number.

forcing the IT professional to rely on the trained technical support they paid a lot for and expect to get at 2AM

If that is your plan, then you are kind of screwed. That might be what people think they are paying for, but if you call up Support after hours you'll be lucky if you get an engineer assigned to that case by lunch the next day.

The 2AM "trained" technical support from those vendors is basically useless unless what you require is a hardware RMA; what you need is a few CCIEs around or an on-call consultant, even then it's a next-business day response by the end of the next business day unless your company paid a LOT extra for the highest end support contract.

Sure they can help you get your core switch replaced. This wouldn't be an emergency if the network was designed with redundancy.

TAC won't help troubleshoot the whole network for you at 2 AM and figure out what software glitch or config is breaking your topology - they'll mainly work with you once you have identified the box with the broken part and need send things back for a replacement.

It probably ends up in government server rooms because some Internet Service Provider bought the needed equipment in a Pinch to meet an immediate need, and the official versions have like a 6 Month lead time to order a router, during CovID.

It's generally real working hardware made by the same factory line that produces and assembles the official version.

Meaning it is likely physically identical to the "real" version; Just not Legal.

The "counterfeit" bit is that it's Not created with Cisco's authorization, but it might have their name badge
stamped on it (even if they removed Cisco branding; the company still calls them a counterfeit though).
Also, it's shipped someplace else.

I've had my 11" iPad Pro for 5.5 years now, and for me it is a perfect laptop replacement-- it isn't a desktop replacement by any means, but I can get by doing just about anything from my iPad. I like that I can remove the keyboard to slim it down when just reading. I don't need thinner, lighter, or faster really; I never feel like those things constrain me.

I will upgrade when they release the new version, as mine has lived a rough life and it is time. I would rather buy a Linux solution, but there are too many simple apps that are refined on the iPad that don't have easy substitutes in Linux.

The iPad (Pro) could be so much better... but I can get by with what it is. Everything else I head to the desktop.

They solved effective AM radio antennas in cars a long time ago. The one in my car works fine. Why would they not make an effective radio now

Because your "effective" AM antenna on the old car is likely built entirely inside the body of your radio.

Your gas-powered vehicle doesn't have to be designed to drive a large amount of current through large magnets (motors), in order to propel the thing.

When the Vehicle is an EV, and no longer gas powered you create a new problem your old gas-powered cars never had to worry about,

The electrical system creates an environment with such EM that you are not able to run that radio from inside the dash, Nope... You are going to need an antenna that far from those electric motors as possible, And heavy shielding of your receiver.

It MIGHT actually be more practical to Have the AM radio somewhere in the trunk; controlled remotely, And send the audio stream over WiFi to the entertainment module.

Seems like a good idea, I think.. If the regulators complain that it isn't permanently installed, then add some Duck tape to tie the radio to the dashboard into the official vehicle specs.

Also, contrary to the mumbling about effective antenna systems: the pocket radio would have No trouble receiving analog AM radio stations, so long as they are broadcasting and you tuned your radio properly and are within a reasonable range of the transmitter.

So you have a unique situation where a product doesn't apply to you. Why does that make you angry? For the most households the entire household does not work from home, and smart thermostats have objectively helped people save gas and money.

Nope, no one is installing *these*. They haven't been manufactured for over a decade now, and the ones depreciated had no external control functionality for the power company.

like saying new laws requiring air bags to be in cars do not require them to be "effective"

The laws don't require airbags to be "effective"; there are specifications the Airbags must follow.
There are thousands of pages and pages of government rules about Airbags specifically.
For starters: 100% of the time they must not deploy when not called for, And they must deploy when called for.

Maybe you can write hundreds and hundreds of pages about radios, But it is not likely that they will,
because a radio is not a safety device. You can operate a car without a radio, and your safety is not any less.

It's immediately dumb to make dumb generalisations. Virtually all "smart home" devices are not "dependent" on the internet, this one included which will continue to function as a thermostat going forward. Secondly a large part of the "smarts" in a smart home device are dependent on connectivity. Without an external server manage a session for you your device instantly is not suitable for 99.9% of the population who don't have external routable IPs, or any idea how to configure port forwarding on a router, or what an IP address is. As such you've just locked yourself out of virtually the entire market. Not very smart of you just because you're worried your device may not work with full functionality in 2 decades.