I can remember reading and watching science fiction that would include some element of weather control. Indeed there was a next gen episode that had it as a plot point. You're wrong about there being no evidence of catastrophic outcomes. We know that weather is likely to become more violent, particularly as a result of warmer seas. In addition to this, we're likely to see more parts of the planet becoming uninhabitable. This will lead to more migration and strain a lot of countries who already have concerns about migration. Hopefully we will understand the natural cycles better and why they occur. It's then possible to consider mitigation. What I'm leading to here is that we will inevitably need some form of climate control. Something primitive at the start but I can imagine it becoming more sophisticated over time. We will need to do more than just cut emissions, that much I'm sure of.

Your implication that Apple has somehow got a lead on other manufacturers is wrong. Meta is probably the most experienced and knowledgeable of the current generation of people developing VR headsets. I do accept that Apple is trying to develop new markets for this sort of thing but I seriously would question if that market really exists or will ever exist in sufficient numbers. As to Meta, I've no doubt they could produce a headset and s/w that would be a close competitor to the vision pro and it would be far more cost effective. I still find the idea that someone would spend $3500 on a VR headset to be absurd.

Not really correct. The game was developed by one of Nintendos partner studios. However, when Nintendo saw the game they did not like it. They scrapped the original game and have given it to someone else to develop. The main consequence is that it is very late. I think it will launch on Switch but could be after the new console is launched and would then be on both (as was BOTW).

We are talking about the future, not right now

Yes, we've had things we thought could show intelligence come up before. Computers beating grand masters at chess or at go are milestones. Assuming we don't come up against some fundamental aspect of technology that prevents us from building ever more powerful computers, we will get to the point where AI will be able to do more and more. I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that these AI will take jobs. It's up to politicians and the people behind the companies build AI to decide how they will be used. However, assuming nothing is done, I can quite easily see the 20% to 30% of jobs going. Everything we've seen with the development of computer technology shows us it will happen.

The switch is further down the cycle and is due to be replaced this year. However, 140 million units sold so far will be tough for anyone to beat.

I really don't see it as a gimmick and suspect the vast majority don't either. Having said that, I do wish they had settled on a controller and then continued to refine it (as Sony has done). I thought the combination of wii remote and nunchuck was great. I appreciate it can't work well with something like the switch though.

I really don't want this to be a part of Windows. I game quiet happily on Linux using steam and proton (when needed) and the last thing I want is for the wine/proton people to have something else to port. From my perspective FSR and RSR are just what I want.

The overall impact maybe insignificant but we're talking about pollution here. The impact of interest should be to you and those in the immediate vicinity when using the blower.

I really think that many businesses just fall for the hype.

No possibility about it. Even with wars prices have still stayed relatively sensible. It would take massive taxation to make a difference.

You're referring to what we call a mini-roundabout. They are legitimate roundabouts and are intended to be treated the same way as a regular roundabout. However, you're also right to say they can be cramped and lots of people do not treat them as they should. The classic being that they just drive straight over them. However, I do think they do work fairly well for roads that are generally not too busy. In this case, I think the previous poster is right, this could well be a situation where a roundabout or mini roundabout would be better. Worth mentioning as well that the UK does not have a situation like this. If we do have 4-way junctions, there is going to be a roundabout or traffic lights. However, also common is that one of the roads is considered more major and has priority over the other. In those cases, the access from minor to major road is via a give-way (yield).

No idea what things are like in Normandy but the UK has a whole load of SUVs. I suspect there is enough of a problem with them in Paris for them to bother having a referendum.

Whilst I've no doubt that lots of good work is being done at Fermilab, you really do feel that the home of particle physics research is very much at CERN these days.

I do find it bizarre that a country like the USA has so much automation in use for elections. It's not as if it's really that difficult to do using more traditional methods. I'm in the UK. Voting is by paper ballot. When it comes to counting, it's done by hand with appropriate oversight. None of this stops the result from being announced the day after the election. Indeed, for some constituencies, they've made the counting into something of a race to be the first to complete the count. Now, I can understand the practical issues with countries like China and India but the USA could easily follow the same reliable and safe method.

Trust might be part of it but it's not the only thing. One of the things that keeps the Oracle database relevant is that Oracle continues to develop the product. When I first started working as a DBA, there was the usual 'wars' over which DB was better. Sybase vs Oracle, MSSQL vs Oracle and even DB/2 vs Oracle. The reality is that Oracle has been successful because of substantial new features. Take Sybase and the biggest new feature of the last 20 years was an increase to the maximum DB size. The other thing to look at is the features that enterprises use/need. Where I am, we lean very heavily on both RAC and dataguard. If you want high availability then you need those. Now, I do realise there are plenty of alternatives now and they are increasingly good. But quite often, the advantages can create problems. Yes, you can redevelop your application for cockroach but then you have to deal with the problems that will create. Some people make that work but many are not interested in the work that is needed. You can also consider non-relational databases. The problem here is that you start to lose some of the more fundamental database features that you relied on (such as data integrity). At the end of the day, Oracle really is amongst the best of the RDBMS databases and that's unlikely to change.