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Comment Analogy to BMW Subscription Heated Seats. (Score 1) 102

...re trying to make so forgive me if I am out to lunch, but this matters naught to the consumer. This is just back-office dealings that either adds $5 to the cost of a laptop or doesn't. It's there vendors choice what licenses they pay or don't pay. Then they get to set the price on their laptop after it all shapes out.

If the hardware is still present, but is disabled, you're still carrying around the hardware. Most importantly, you're probably still powering its logic even if it's inaccessible to you.

BMW, like most German cars, is overcomplicated and overpriced garbage sold only to self-proclaimed car enthusiasts who wouldn't know how to change a tire let alone a timing chain. BMW got themselves into a bit of controversy by including heated seats which only functioned by subscription.

Now, say I had bought a BMW but didn't want the heated seats. I don't pay for the subscription. There's no additional cost to me, the purchaser of the car, because the profit from the people who do opt for the subscription are the ones paying the cost of the extra hardware in my car, correct?

Wrong. I am now carrying around an extra-beefy alternator to power the heated seats. I am now carrying around all the extra wiring to power the heated seats. All of this impacts my performance and my fuel efficiency. And all of this extra complexity adds a failure liability when something damages part of the heated seat hardware. All for a feature I specifically did not ask for by refusing the subscription.

With a disabled chunk of logic embedded in a processor, is it a negligible cost and a negligible risk? Maybe, but as the purchaser, it's crap that I didn't ask for, and you are imposing on me. If I have to carry it around and power it up, I expect to be able to use it.

If the manufacturer doesn't want to supply a feature then they should not supply the hardware. Leave the spots on the circuit board unpopulated. In the case of a chip, leave it off the die.

Comment Re:We're in the group (Score 4, Insightful) 209

Too many schools are underfunded and too many teachers are overwhelmed with large class sizes, behavioral and disciplinary challenges, lack of administrative support and in-class assistance, and disinterested, unhelpful parents (who are working 2-3 jobs, often at night, and are themselves exhausted and burned out)

The US already pays more per student than just about any other country on the planet for education and we do not get the results.

No, the problem isn't money......

Comment Re: We're in the group (Score -1, Troll) 209

I think a lot of parents are home schooling to get their kids out of the classrooms filled with green/blue dyed hair teachers who are more concerned with indoctrination than education.

The pandemic opened A LOT of peoples' collective eyes as to what was really going on in classrooms that parents didn't have a clue about.

Encouragement of trans....grade school kids exposed to information on anal sex and how a boy can give a blow job were the most egregious examples....but just sets values that didn't set with what parents in general in the US want to impart to their kids.

the US population is generally middle of the road and you screeching green haired instructor is pushing stuff from the far left in many cases.

Parent's saw this and are putting a stop to it.

Frankly I can't blame them.

Comment Re:Obvious answer (Score 5, Insightful) 210

I think because it is not dependable....it still quite often gets things wrong and gives wrong answers.

Hell, just the other day, it got the wrong songs on an album being discussed, info that is out there on the web for easy verification.

If you can't trust if for simple things like that, it's then a QC nightmare when you try to trust it for important code or design....where tolerances can mean life/death or at the very least....severe LITIGATION.

Comment Re: I'm so glad the government makes me safe. (Score 4, Insightful) 116

There's been ticket scalping since the days when I was a kid...

It was always, back then....illegal to scalp tickets, but they would do things like sell a Bic lighter for $200 and throw in a ticket free with it.

I imagine they'll do something similar to get around this law over there in EU.

Comment Re:Step 1: Don't own any BitCoin (Score 1) 85

"Your teeth will get through anything," Mr. Kayll advised. "But it will bloody well hurt."

Speak for yourself, my teeth will barely get through a cheese sandwich at my age.

There's nothing like a good smack to the beitzim to stop a would-be rapist. And there's nothing like biting someone if it's all the leverage you have.

Remember, this is not a video game or a sanctioned fight in a boxing ring. This is your life versus the life of a terrorist or other attacker. Kill or be killed. Learn to fight.

Comment Re:Planned economies (Score 1) 154

The rush is that burning it is buggering up the planet. If the US refuses, it becomes a security issue and we be dealt with appropriately.

Chicken little has been shouting this for waaaay too long....driving our ICE vehicles will not cause the planet wide DOOM scenario....certainly not in any lifetime soon.

We have plenty of time to come up with new and better vehicle power schemes.....

Comment Re:Planned economies (Score 1) 154

"making production decisions" is carrying a lot of water, business decisions are not made in a vacuum, they respond to incentives both from consumers, their competition and the state apparatus. Automakers didn't just decide to add 3-point-seat belt's or emissions controls into vehichles because of their own accord, they were either forced or incentivized to.

Actually the ultimate decision maker here...is the consumer at at least in the US, there just is NOT the market for EVs. The people that want them largely have them.

The general populace is NOT clamoring in mass to have EVs.

There are a number of reasons many involving lack of full infrastructure across the whole of the US....but whatever it is, the demand is not there in the US and well....a company is fucking stupid to build what the public is not demanding.....

Comment Re:Planned economies (Score 2) 154

The US, however, has PLENTY of oil...so, there's no rush for us to get off it.....and go full blown EV.

Besides, since there's not the full needed infrastructure here across the US, no one really wants them yet, at least not in mass.

Comment Re:Yawn (Score 1, Insightful) 154

Central planning is still better than the lack of planning we see in the USA

Well, never fear comrade....we'll soon see the new communist/socials utopia succeed in New York with Mandani!!!

And remember, in NY..if you can make it there, you can make it ANYWHERE, eh?

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