>>And also about the fact that a shitbox used car that only the poors drive today has stuff in it standard that only came on luxury models back in my childhood. Power windows? Keyless entry? AC and stereo?

This is the result of globalization and concentrated ownership of industry creating economies of scale for mass-produced gadgets. These are meaningless trinkets, not real wealth. In my fathers day a single bread-winner with no education could buy a home and support a family. Now it takes both parents working with college degrees. For the next generation a home and family will be entirely out of reach for anyone not born into wealth. This is not progress, it's regression.

1) The case's lack of merit was not my opinion, it was in the official ruling:

After thousands of hours of testimony (testimony of over 950 witnesses, 87 in court, the remainder by deposition), and the submission of tens of thousands of exhibits, on January 8, 1982 the anti-trust case U.S. v. IBM was withdrawn on the grounds that the case was "without merit."
https://www.historyofinformati...

2) The case wasn't dropped until 1982 by which point any monopoly in mainframes was increasingly meaningless.

3) IBM was a old boys club and the board of directors did not recognize the value of the personal computer market. The team developing the PC likely did but they were not given adequate resources by the board.

4) So you admit they thought the market was not super valuable.

5) It might be one reason but certain not the main one.

>>Microsoft was created when IBM split out their software from their hardware.

An antitrust case in 1969 accused IBM of having an illegal monopoly in computers (i.e. mainframes). The case was eventually dropped due to lack of merit.

Microsoft was founded in 1975, producing BASIC interpreters & operating systems for personal computers makers like Apple, Commodore, Tandy and (eventually in 1981) IBM. IBM outsourced the PC's BASIC and PC-DOS to Microsoft because they still thought mainframes were the future and didn't want to waste any of their own programmers on it. Neither the government nor IBM "split out their software from their hardware". Hardware clone makers reproduced the IBM BIOS which allowed legal, IBM-compatible PCs to be sold and created a market for Microsoft's DOS beyond IBM's official PCs.

Startup partnerships usually have one member focusing on the technical challenges and the other focusing on the business challenges (think Jobs/Wozniak or Gates/Allen). A solo founder, even if they have skills in both areas, is spread very thin and probably can't grow the startup fast enough for most VCs to be interested.

Really? You don't think defunding libraries, demonizing librarians, banning books and ridiculing authors as "elites" discourages people from reading for fun?

Must be nice to have the time and money to see every movie with an interesting trailer. For the rest of us, reviews (either official or word-of-mouth from someone we know) is how to avoid wasting an evening and $50 on a stinker.

>> It's an industry ripe for innovation, and I suspect we will see a new player come along (probably self-driving cars?)

I have a great idea for an alternative to airlines. Imagine a self-driving car but with room to stretch out, sleep, eat, etc. To speed them up and get out of traffic, you link a bunch together and run them on their own system of tracks. Innovation!

Does this mean more than half of all flights are bought with credit card points rather than paid tickets? Kinda explains why fewer people are complaining about the continually diminishing customer service (smaller seats, worse/no food, longer waits, shrinking luggage sizes, etc) if they think that they are getting the flight for "free".

No need to fly them in. ICE is out "recruiting" thousands of free "employees" every day.

>> The question here is, are they CHEAPER than the currently option? That costing is complicated, and it really starts on how the AI companies price each query.

That's the classic silicon valley scam:
- Burn VC money to undercut the existing options.
- Raise prices after everyone has switched over and the other options are gone.

The point I guess is that it still works if the GPS satellite infrastructure goes down, but yeah, that accuracy sucks. I imagine you could get close to that with simple dead-reckoning which also doesn't require any infrastructure.

>>Per TFA,, the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process. This is a higher end restaurant whose clientele is likely to expect personalized service, just as when they shop at a boutique that caters to their tastes; and the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet.

Yes, all businesses that cater to serving the 'unique' tastes of the rich and famous keep detailed lists on their clients. These lists are very important to the business; some might even call them an insurance policy.

Also, hiring someone away from your competitor not only helps you; it also hurts them.

>>[If] everyone just received $xx,000 a year. It just inflates the cost of rent, basic necessitates, and everything else.

Only if the supply of those things doesn't change. When more people can afford things, the economy will produce more of them. Henry Ford understood that the only way automobiles would be anything more than a toy for the rich was to pay his employees enough that they could afford to buy what they were building. More people with extra money = more demand = higher volume = lower cost.

So you preferred David Hasselhoff's version of Nick Fury to Sam Jackson's? The best actor for a roll should get it, regardless of their race/gender/etc. Hiring someone based on their race is a "DEI hire" right? I thought you MAGA shits were against that?