We started driving a Tesla recently. I hate it. So many things are fundamentally wrong from a design-level, and the majority of it is about the touch screen.

First of all the sales guy was a doofus. He made the point in the process that we wouldn't have to do maintenance on the car except to change the tires. The the car would last 500,000 miles before needing a battery swap, so we were saving money over the long haul. I looked at him like the idiot he was; fortunately we weren't buying the car for this reason. Technically he's right, in that there is no major transmission overhaul required or fluid changes over time or whatever. But 500,000 miles? In a normal driving pattern, the average person does 12,000-15,000 miles per year. 500,000 miles would mean the car would be good for 30+ years. I have never once seen a touch screen, or sensors, or any form of electronics last that long outside of my old Gameboy. And all of those parts are $1,000+ to replace. What good is the car if the touch screen goes out? You can't control the damned thing!

Second was this exact issue about buttons. The first time I drove the car when it started pouring rain, I turned on the windshield wipers. Except it was just the single-use button. How do I turn it on permanently? Oh, there's a pop up menu on the touch screen, I can select which speed I want. Except I have to take my eyes off the road and look at that stupid screen, which is literally the last thing i want to do when it's pouring rain in traffic on the freeway. Why would you make this design decision!?! Oh right, because it's software guys designing a car. Literally the stupidest UI/UX design decision for a car; every important control should be available to the driver without them taking their eyes off the road.

We know we're going to sell the Tesla off in a few years, but unfortunately they depreciate faster than every other car. Sigh, thanks for nothing Elon Musk.

So... it's not the size of the nm that counts, it's how you use it?

Not really. If a Republican (not Trump) was in charge, they'd do the same thing. The Middle East is a powder keg right now, keeping the conflicts from spreading is key. Surgical strikes is more important than amputation. And while I'm not a huge fan of Biden either, he's smart enough to know that this also plays out with other players. The US is not affected by Suez Canal shipping disruption, but China and Europe are, but those regions are impotent to handle the economic damage of Houthi piracy. And no one is interested in destabilizing Iran, and no one is interested in giving any legitimacy to the Houthis by declaring war on those drug-addicted losers as the most powerful country in the world.

Biden and his administration isn't the smartest or best administration we've ever had, but what you're talking about is checkers while they're playing chess.

Well the good news is cooler heads than you are in charge.

Firing missiles at commercial ships is also an act of war. And yet we do not declare war on the Houthis, we just destroy their missile sites.

Providing arms to a terrorist group so it can fire missiles at ships is an act of war. And yet no one has declared war on Iran, even when they knowingly have a an intelligence gathering ship actively providing targeting information to the Houthis to direct their Iranian provided missiles.

Why is that? Because war has many consequences that spiral out of control. Particularly when it comes to hacking groups, who are basically criminals; by declaring war you destabilize the government, limit their ability to provide a meaningful economy, and set the incentives for more criminals to get into hacking because it makes money. No, war is the wrong solution to this problem. It's a murky, difficult problem but war is like trying to cure a cold by cutting off your nose.

Have fun being destitute.

Credit card companies do not make money on you. They make money on merchants. They charge you for being stupid and misusing the card.

But if used appropriately, credit cards are one of the most important pillars to financial success. Try getting a mortgage without credit history. Showing you're responsible with money is the fastest way to get institutions to give you money to buy assets and achieve financial independence.

Meanwhile if you're smart with your cards, you can get serious benefits. I know my regular expenses, so I often apply for a new card every year. The bonus miles or points for spending $X in 3 months or so are easy to obtain when you know what you're spending. Every year I apply for a new card, earn the bonus miles by spending what I was already going to spend, pay off the card so I pay no interest or fees (I had the money for my expenses anyways), and use the bonus miles for a free vacation, then close the card and start again. One or two new cards a year doesn't affect your credit, I'm not in debt because teh cards are paid off, and a free family vacation every year. Easy.

Credit cards are not bad. Rather they are bad for people who are already very bad with money, and therein lies the source of the problem. People don't want to admit that they suck with money, and blame their bad behavior on the companies. Heck there are even cards who will help people get out of destitution! But there is one thing a credit card company can't help with: fixing poor financial behavior.

Period.

Well I guess that depends on what you're doing. The Vision Pro and the Quest 3 might be quite useful if you need a distraction from the abject terror that is driving a Tesla on Autopilot, and maybe some people want to enjoy their last moments of life in a fantasy world before dying in fiery wreck.

Or maybe you're really into kitchen remodeling. I hear VR is great for that.

How about we focus on power generation first? Because thus far AI is set to destroy the environment with it's power needs before it ever achieves the lofty dreams that people are talking about.

It's all well and good to talk about these hypotheticals, but the resources simply aren't there to actually do this stuff.

I'd like to pitch my AI Neurotech magnetic bracelet startup, used to improve blood circulation and better sense of self. Note: may not have any real effect at all. Also note, we also use blockchain Web3 technology, if you still think those buzzwords aren't yet out of style and will make you invest.

Seriously; this "Elemind" is just slick silicon valley advertising for snake oil. People have been doing this crap for decades. Being able to read electrical signals of the brain or nervous system, particularly in a non-invasive way, is pseudoscience at best, it's never been proven. I predict that this will be relegated to New Age shops and be sold next to the brain-calming crystals and the astrology books. But hey, someone's dumb enough to let Neuralink put a chip in their head when it's killed monkeys and rats like crazy, so as the gourd seller said in Life of Brian, there's one born every minute.

Your condescending nonsense is being modded up, which is sad because your ignorance is what's driving this.

DO you know how retailers work, like grocery stores? Vons, ALbertsons, WalMart, Target etc, they own only the shelf space. Producers of products pay for shelf space. The stores and the retailers know that shelf location drives sales, making it accessible for customers to buy. The producers of products pay more money for better shelf space , and as a result get more sales than competing products that are cheaper. LIterally the store charges for better space to promote products. On top of that, those same retailers put out coupons and ads. The companies pay those retailers to get in on their ad pages that go out in the mail.

Literally they are promoted by WalMart and Vons and Albertsons and Safeway to buy the products that the seller of the product is willing to pay the retailer to promote. The consumer could spend more time searching the store for competing products, but many consumers do not want to do that, and buy the more expensive Tylenol than the less expensive acetaminophen (generic Tylenol).

How is that any different than what Amazon is doing? Consumers could go search Amazon for cheaper alternatives, or they could Buy Now and pay for the more expensive product, just as consumers could spend time finding generic acetaminophen or they could run in and grab the Tylenol right next to the door, do self check out and pay more money. This happens all the time. At an early point in my career, I participated in

And you make a bold claim to call it illegal. How is it illegal? Point to the law they're breaking. It's actually called price segregation. No company is obligated to Clearly you've never worked in retail before, and I'm not talking about stocking shelves but actually selling products through grocery stores (I have). If you don't think there is a huge amount of sophistication in how retailers manipulate buying behavior in brick-and-mortar stores, and if you don't think that Kroeger or Safeway or WalMart or Target does not understand exactly how to make you buy things in their store, then I'm sorry you don't get it, please go sit down and learn how many strings are attached to you the moment you walk into a store.

I'm in a position defending Amazon, whcih is sad because they deserve valid critiques. This is in invalid critique, this is just retail pricing.

Seriously. Retailers do this in stores too.

This lawsuit and article should just be a news article, with the headline of "EXCLUSIVE! Amazon does what literally every successful retailer has been doing for 100 years, but in online format! Sears Roebuck rises from the dead and sues Amazon for copying their Sears Roebuck catalog strategy!"

See, the shocker thing about this is he must have disclosed it to investors. I have done due diligence on companies as an adviser, both to investors and to also white hat/stress test the company prepping for due diligence. First thing you do is if the company has certain assets in play, you own it, and if not, you look at the leases and who owns it. This takes like an hour's worth of work; it's not hard and it allows you to follow chain of custody.

Following that, the founder and/or Board members sign the reps and warranties saying that they ahve ownership over whatever it is they claimed to be assets in the companies such as trademarks, patents, etc., and to the best of their knowledge there are no independent claims to those assets. If it's found to be not the case, you as a person can be sued into oblivion; it's fraud.

The fact that the WeWork investors didn't find the arrangement that Neumann had personally with WeWork as an entity speaks to a high level of incompetence in Softbank and others.

So I know the default setting in this situation is "the government secret cabal is out to get you" and this guy is a "warrior of justice" or some lame anarchist fantasy nonsense, but according to his actual case, he admitted to the pornography.

He admitted that he saw child pornography as a victimless crime, primarily because he admitted to operating the server and letting people host whatever they wanted on it, and his charge is in distribution of child pornography, not actually committing it. However, some of the photos which include a passed out woman and a hand touching her were able to be deduced that it was him in the photos.

In fact, when you read that New Yorker article on him, they found his own writings as well as colleagues of his from college confirming that he had a weird fascination with pornography. Not to mention chat logs with others about his server. And not to mention his server's directory used his own name which others he spoke to in the broader community he conversed with advised him to change and cover his tracks.

Oh and how did they get his passwords? Through his phone, which he unlocked and handed over to them per his own defense counsel and the court records.

So rather when you look at the facts of this guy, he seemed very cavalier with his activity, and maybe he really was just a dirtbag.

They actually found an MS-DOS admin in a recently excavated Minoan tomb. He was buried with his bronze sword, armor, and his 386 processor in all it's finest regalia. His system admin documents were still intact, recorded on pottery. It's being hailed as one of the finest archaeological discoveries in the last decade.

I literally realized that after I posted; total brain fart. I meant to say RMB, but can't go back and edit :(