I have mine connected to a Raspberry Pi and a Google Chromecast. I can update the Pi myself and if the Chromecast fails, gets EOLed or just enshittified, I'm out $30 and still have a functional TV with the Pi. Then I just throw some other inexpensive device on it.

By contrast, the 'Smart' TV leaves me stuck. If it gets enshittified or EOLed, I don't have much in the way of options unless I can figure out a way to lobotomize it and make it a dumb TV.

Meanwhile, the all-or-nothing Smart TV removes real disincentives for enshittification.

So no, for the consumer, it really does NOT make sense. For corporate executives rubbing their hands waiting for enshitification day, it makes a lot of sense, unfortunately.

The thin is, the artists WANT to keep the prices down because they (or at least their managers) understand that fans able to get tickets and see concerts is a driving force for their fandom. You don't get big or even stay big by only being seen by a few wealthy patrons (or their kids).

Actually, they own a few and have a contractual lock on many many more.

The big problem with these "smart" things is that it's getting hard to avoid them. Several years ago I was looking for TV. A few dozen "smart" TVs to choose from but exactly 2 non-smart TVs. I don't mean 2 models, I mean 2 TVs in the whole store. Luckily one of them was suitable.

Some of it will take care of itself. You can only veg on the couch so long before you die from otherwise preventable disease.

The percentage affected may be smaller than it seems. Some want to veg and watch sports all weekend because they were forced to bust their as all week in a job they hate. Take away the job (and the need for the job) and they might get more active in their free time. The unemployed who sit and veg mostly have no money to do anything and have lost hope in getting a job.

Though I'm sure there are some di-hards that reallywould sit on the couch until they de-compensate and die. But that is a choice they make and it would solve the problem.

Much of the world's Capitalism...

Do you really think a significant portion of the U.S. Adult population really want to go to work?

I remember a fair number of people in the '80s getting fooled by Eliza, a collection of heuristics designed to create the illusion that the computer understood what was being types and formulating reasoned responses. Of course, it was doing no such thing.

Modern chatbots do a much better job of it. 'Good' enough that susceptible adults sometimes go over the edge into a full mental health crisis after a month or so interacting with them.

The constant affirmation and un-wavering support makes the chatbots the ultimate yes-man. We have all seen what happens when celebrities and people in power become drunk on their own yes-men.

It's worse than internet echo-chambers. At least those don't tend to let the conversation get that personal and specific. Chatbots will get as personal as you wnt and they are designed to never break engagement (how will the company keep gathering underpants if the chatbot keeps saying no?).

And all of that with adults. Now imagine turning all of that on a young teen that hasn't had time to mature enough to know better. YIPE!

Proven by the fact that a few have hacked Windows 11 to run fine on machines that supposedly can't run it.

I wouldn't trust those hacks in production, but they prove the possibility. Of course, I don't trust ANY Windows in production.

You're missing that both a bleed air system AND poor maintenance are required for this problem to manifest.

Presumably the other planes with a bleed air system are getting better maintenance, so haven't been a problem. No idea how the 787's maintenance is, but since it doesn't have a bleed air system, the problem of dangerously contaminated cabin air hasn't manifested.

More specifically, this happens when engine oil or hydraulic fluid leak into the engine while bleed air is being drawn.

Even if it seems to save some money (probably not THAT much in the end), it'll still cost them.

In 10 years, the Vibe coding kids will be middle-aged vibe coders, but the entry level engineers would have been senior level engineers. Eventually, once you were ready to retire or move to management, one or more of them would have been the new you.

Instead, now when you retire, they'll be swimming in a sea of middle aged vibe coders and nobody left will have a clue how to fix the horrors that they produce. They won't be able to hire a new you from outside because the other employers followed the same strategy. They will be no replacements available.

They might be able to eek out a few more years by paying someone a king's ransom to come out of retirement for a couple years, but for obvious reasons, that won't last forever either, even if they can afford it.

That depends on the product. In some cases the product is perfectly good, but the reviewer doesn't understand how to use it and apparently didn't RTFM.

There's a reason TIFF stands for Thousands of Incompatible File Formats. It's probably time to take TIFF behind the barn.

Vapes with replaceable 18650 tend to be higher quality and use safer IMR batteries (which also have lower internal resistance for a higher performance vape). Vape pens tend to be lower quality disposables powered by whatever was cheap when battery stocks got low at the factory. In part, that's because few will see the sealed in no-name battery.

Note that the popular 18650 is a little longer and thinner than a C battery and won't even fit in a vape pen. They're not absolutely impossible to short with keys but it's a bit of a challenge. The terminals are on opposite ends of a 65mm cylinder, not a quarter inch apart. They make silicone rubber socks that fit over the ends of spare 18650 batteries.

Many camera batteries are crazy over-priced and proprietary. To be fair, others are much more reasonable but still tend towards proprietary.

So yes, let's keep the red tape brigade on a leash for now. Let it get involved with SPECIFIC demonstrated problematic products.

I have not paid an ATM fee in years. My bank gives me free withdraws from three different nationwide ATM networks. People need to better comparison shopping.

We already have safer formulations. They fit the broad term Lithium Ion, but they don't tend to catch fire (or "vent with flame" as the industry prefers) even though some of them can actually provide more current to a dead short than regular Li-Ion can.