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Comment Re:Thank you, taxpayers (Score 1) 108

Permits, Drawings, restoration, meeting the requirements for the right-of-way access and dealing with the glacial deposits of rocks etc, trenching can take over a year to return to the original condition, not accounting for the fact that the soil may not settle back the same way if there's any moisture.

I can tell you that boring is the standard by which you optimize many of these items.

Pole attachment costs can be the same or more than underground/boring if you need to upgrade or replace the poles, and it can take up to 180 days to get all the utilities on a pole to relocate, hence why google wanted one-touch make-ready rules to become the norm. They're not wrong, but the issue also is many people are illegally attached to poles, and in some of these rural areas the poles are actually the ORIGINALS from the REA expansion dating prior to the 1940s.

Comment Re:Why not use amplified WiFi for half a mile? (Score 1) 108

The goals of the county gap project and funding was to provide service to these areas. The problem is the tower may be 2-3 miles away and to hit these speeds, it requires more spectrum than is available, even if you use the RF Elements horn based antennas.

If the farm properties along the way are subdivided they can be connected for much lower cost in the future with this.

Comment Re:Starlink... (Score 5, Interesting) 108

but that fiber run is a much better investment long term, as the max data transmission of the fiber line itself is much higher than the 1gb currently offered, and all that is needed is upgrade it is better fiber transmitters and receivers at each end, as long as the ISP can also handle the increased bandwidth. As the national and global networks improve, so could the existing fiber infrastructure.

There's also this thing known as a "pole denial" - aka no, you can't attach to that pole, which requires then doing something else, either setting your own pole or doing something alternative as a result. Just like mixing technology or environments (eg: Ubuntu vs Debian, or worse a RPM vs DPKG or Windows vs *BSD) having a mix of construction types can make your life more complex. I'm trying to optimize a lot of variables at once.

Submission + - SPAM: brainfuck compiler for the PDP-11

An anonymous reader writes: The PDP-11 is, altough kind of old, still in use in some places. Via the 'simh' emulator or even the real deal. A c-compiler has been available for ages for it, but brainfuck there has been not. That void has now been filled. I've created a brainfuck compiler producing PDP-11 assembly code.
Link to Original Source
Transportation

Ford Says You Can Never Own Leased EVs (thetruthaboutcars.com) 257

schwit1 shares a report from The Truth About Cars: Ford Motor Co. will be suspending end-of-lease buyout options for customers driving all-electric vehicles, provided they took possession of the model after June 15, 2022. Those who nabbed their Mach-E beforehand will still have the option of purchasing the automobile once their lease ends. However, there are some states that won't be abiding by the updated rules until the end of the year, not that it matters when customers are almost guaranteed to have to wait at least that long on a reserved vehicle.

The change, made earlier in the month, cruised under our radar until a reader asked for our take over the weekend. Ford could be wanting to capitalize on exceptionally high used vehicle prices, ensuring that more vehicles make it back into rotation. The broader industry has likewise been talking about abandoning traditional ownership to transition the auto market into being more service-oriented where manufacturers ultimately retain ownership of all relevant assets. But it may not be that simple as this being another step in the business sector's larger plan to maximize profitability by discouraging private vehicle ownership.

[...] While leasing customers will not be able to buy their EV, Ford Credit will allow them to renew an expiring contract in exchange for a brand-new model. Amazingly, the manufacturer is trying to frame this as environmentally responsible. But it smells like planned obsolescence and desperation from where I'm sitting. Ford knows that electrics require far less labor to produce. By also retaining/recycling the most-expensive component (the battery) it can effectively maximize profitability on a three or four-year turnaround. For now, the updated leasing scheme is limited exclusively to all-electric products (e.g. Ford Lightning or Mach-E "Mustang") sold in 37 individual states. But the long wait times for new EVs and Ford's desire to expand the plan through the rest of the year effectively means it'll be national by the time most people take ownership.

Comment Re:I sure wish we had a functional government (Score 1) 281

Check the representations and warranties of the company (Article 4), particularly 4.6(a) and (b), which relate to the accuracy of its financials and SEC filings.

The accuracy of the representations and warranties are incorporated in 7.2(b) as a condition of the sale--so the buyer can use this to opt out.

Twitter has represented the number of bot accounts in its SEC filings (e.g. page 24 of its 2021 annual report).
   

Comment Re:Give me a break (Score 1) 75

You asked the right question, essentially, "which position benefits the rank and file users more?" I come to the opposite answer.

Vendor lock-in rarely benefits users. In this case, the creator proposal would allow rank and file users to switch social networks without having to rebuild their network from the ground up. It helps creators, but it also helps users.

I am more skeptical that it is feasible than that it would benefit users.

Comment Re:I sure wish we had a functional government (Score 1) 281

Unless you've seen the actual contract, I would be hesitant to claim that there is no due diligence provision.

(A due diligence provision is a provision where the purchaser examines the company purchased to see if the purchaser is getting what the seller claims. Determining the number of actual active users and users who are bots would normally be part of due diligence.)

Because due diligence provisions are standard boilerplate and don't get mentioned in news stories about contract terms. But they're omnipresent.

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