We had this issue several years ago. My school system leased high end laptops that were valued at $1500 each. They handed one of these to every student, and they had more than 100k students in the system. The assumption was that the failure rate, or rate of loss would be less than 10%. Turns out, the real number was over %60, and the getting families to pay for lost or damaged laptops (as they agreed to in a student contract) was not enforceable. After the lease was up for the original laptops, the school switched over to cheap Chromebooks and has used them ever since.

Not sure if you're trolling or if you live in an area that hasn't increased the minimum wage. Here, minimum wage has nearly doubled since 2009.

In 7 years time, the battery will be wasted, and the technology will be outdated. Not many people will hold onto the phone for that long, unless they are keeping to a strict budget, in which case, they are not paying the high prices the Pixel 8 requires. I kept my Pixel 2 for 4 years, and even with a new battery that kept it usable, the GPS started to fail, so I opted for an upgrade while it was still valuable. I know others who are still on older Pixels, and they will not update past android 11 because they hate the new interface introduced in Android 12. Security be damned.

The real trick depends on your local rates. Electric heat is considered 100% efficient, while at low temperatures, heat pumps can be 200% efficient (in milder temperatures, it can be 400%). Gas appliances tend to be between 83-97% efficient, so in terms of fuel to heat, they are better. However, that doesn't mean it will save you money. A few years ago, gas would have costs me less than my heat pump at lower temperatures, but since gas prices have spiked, that is no longer the case.

Won't people just use AI to remove the watermarks?

I would give the Corolla an avg MPG of 38. Let's say gas is $3.50/gal

Tesla gets about 3.5 miles per kW. kW is 14c delivered in my area.

Costs of driving 100k on the Toyota: $10k in gas/oil.

Costs of driving 100k on the Tesla: $4k in electricity.

You save $6000 per 100,000 miles, excluding any other repairs.

Price difference is $26000, so you break even at 433,000 miles. If you make it that far.

Average American drives 13,500 miles per year. So... 32 years?

The assumed maintenance costs can be considered questionable since they can vary depending on the specific car model and the driving habits of the owner.

I personally own a 2008 Honda Fit with nearly 250k miles on it, and I haven't spent more than $5,000 on maintenance and repairs over the past decade. This car has proven to be highly reliable for me.

However, I had a different experience with a used Subaru Crosstrek that I purchased in 2020 with 130k miles on it. In just 3 years of ownership, I have spent over $5,000 on maintenance alone. If it weren't for the inflated prices of cars, I would have considered swapping it by now.

I'm not aware of the exact repair costs for a Corolla, but my understanding is that Honda and Toyota vehicles generally share similar levels of quality and reliability.

There was recently an article about a company that made their coffee cups from clay, so that after you're finished using them, you can literally toss them onto the lawn and they'll break down. If I recall, they were a bit cheaper than $5/cup.

You must not disconnect it from the internet. You must not use ad blocker. You must use it as your main TV. You cannot open it or modify it. If you don't follow the rules, they will ask for it back or charge your credit card (so you must have one on file with them). Which I assume they will charge the estimated $1000.

The Xbox Series S/X is just an Xbox one with higher specs. It doesn't reset anything. Most saves are stored on the cloud, so you can continue where you left off regardless of what system you play on, so I'm not sure what you meant by that comment.

If the writers are on strike, wouldn't that encourage the industry to invest in AI writing technology to supplement the work that the writers aren't doing?

It's likely that CoD will generate more revenue by being available on multiple platforms. CoD is currently the popular franchise of discussion, but it's not the only one Microsoft will acquire. More than likely, CoD will be sacrificed by Microsoft to make the other acquired IPs become console exclusives.

Not in the USA. There are many adults who have never heard of the country of Georgia. It rarely comes into conversation unless something newsworthy occurs. Here, Georgia most always refers to the state, so there isn't a need to clarify.

300 percent is marketing manipulation, but it's technically not wrong.. Electric heaters are 100% efficient because all of the energy used is converted to usable heat. With a gas unit, some of the heat is lost through the flue, so the percentages are typically less than 100. With electric, you get 3.412 BTU per watt of energy used. When the temperatures are mild, you can get 10-12 BTU per watt with a heat pump, so that's why they claim "300%".

In my area, for a 1 to 1 mini split, it costs about $2k for installation alone. I'm not even talking about anything complicated. Just straight through the wall to the outdoor unit. So for a total install, you're looking at 3k-4k.