More like an anti-solution to me. I almost never use File Explorer. On those rare occasions, it does not bother me to wait for a few seconds while it loads.

Me thinks that the real reason for making it resident is the greater convenience of Microsoft. Probably for some secretive tool that is harvesting my PI for Microsoft's greater glory and profit. Not visibly, of course, but using File Explorer in the background. (Any other comments along such lines?)

Better than the usual FP contribution from an AC, but I'm not getting your point and sure wouldn't moderate the FP interesting or funny (if'n I ever had a mod point to give). Perhaps you care to clarify (and even offer a more focused title)?

I do have some complicated thoughts on the topic. Maybe I'm even qualified as a resident of Tokyo to care about the problem? Calls for my ancient and little used sociologist's hat, however... But I really wish I had studied more psychology.

But I can reduce my answer to my stomach. I like Indian/Nepali food and I like trying new restaurants. I also like "atmospheric" coffee shops. (And sometimes I like to try something else.) I'm pretty sure I'm never going to run out of new places to try in Tokyo. However I'm pretty sure that would be true for many of the largest cities in the world... (AI angle via reviews?)

So how about the flip side of the coin? Why are so many people so strongly motivated to move into large cities? And on that side of the ledger things look really strange in Japan...

A few days ago there was a major fire that consumed about 170 buildings. That was in a small town far from Tokyo. However many of the buildings were empties. They call that an "akiya" for empty house. I've heard an estimate of around 100 empties destroyed in the fire. It's not just that no one wanted to live those vacant homes, and that there are places that will actively encourage people to live in vacant homes, but in this case it's worse. If those empty homes had been removed the rest of the community would still be there. Apparently they were the main source of kindling that made the fire so bad.

Another angle on the extreme demographic concentration. From the central part of Tokyo it is possible to walk to a suburb named West Tokyo. Takes about an hour on foot. Not long ago a bear was sighted in West Tokyo... Yesterday's news included a story about capturing (and killing) an extremely large bear near another town... Kind of like a war now, though I don't trust my (AI) source for this next item: Have the few remaining (and mostly quite elderly) bear hunters actually killed more than 4,200 bears in Japan this year? Actually seems quite possible. Nothing else to stop the bear population from increasing. They only look cute and fuzzy when they are quite young. But there was another story on the news about eating bear meat...

Combining the three branches? At least the bears rarely break into empty houses. No food smells. And so far I haven't heard of any bear sightings in the central parts of Tokyo... So in conclusion lots of people move to Tokyo because they like food and dislike bears?

You mean every 33 minutes.

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent

How is that even measured? Someone needs to tell us how not having the latest and greatest phone reduces productivity. The four basic uses are making/receiving calls, texting, checking email, internet. How can a 2024 model phone possibly be that less "productive" than a 2025 model?

As for PCs, the vast majority of people use Word, Outlook, and a browser (usually the memory hog Chrome followed by Edge). Again, explain how a PC which is three years old reduces productivity in this day and age.

This article almost sounds like an ad to get people to buy things to keep the economy rolling rather than a serious discussion.

Was that an AI generated joke driven by an old timer, or has the old timer (4-digit UID) passed away and the identity been hijacked by an AI generating it's own joke? Seems to be a lot of that going around these years...

It's the first name that reveals the joke. Aidan = AI Dan. The Toner-Rodgers bit might be some kind of joke about permission to laser print?

But it reminds me of another oldie:

Anything you can do, AI can do better. AI can do anything better than me. (There was a musical (later made into a movie) about a gun...)

YouTube at the top? Followed by Facebook? It's like a ranking of the worst in the world, though I'm surprised how quickly it tapers down.

Profits are right and might makes right, so might equals profits? Where does the 500-pound google gorilla sleep? With the fishes, but only if it wants to?

So much for the attempted humor. I'm innocent, I say. It's like attempted murder, right?

In conclusion, right doesn't make right, but the "winners" write the history books and they always write that they were right. Infinity money time infinity and have a nice incommensurable day.

Want the simplicity of what Notepad used to be? Mousepad is for you. Too bad it's not available for Windows.

Windows users will just have to suffer with whatever complex, bloated piece of yak manure Microsoft comes up with next.

Replacing the mouse has no effect. And this has happened over years.

Hmm... Does that sound like a feature I would want to help pay for? The answer may surprise me. I think it sounds like a "Maybe" or even a "Yes" if the description was fleshed out a little bit. However I can also see where it belongs in an optional category for people who want it... Seems to me like the real cost would be quite large, but for an "ancient" and kind of fundamental reason: The HTTP links only go one way. That means there's no easy way for Scrapbook to know the target webpage has changed...

So ancient that my memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure the original design of the WWW was supposed to involve bidirectional links. At least as an option.

But mostly Firefox updates these years just seem to be annoying stuff that I would not offer money for. It feels like there is a constant stream of annoying pitches for new features I don't want or need and almost nothing that actually improves my "browser experience". When did they add that "Open All in Tabs" thing? Must have been years ago. I use that feature about once a day to avoid the <Ctrl> key. But I wouldn't have chipped in ten bucks for it...

I think (hope?) the age of Donaldian Decadence will end soon. The YOB seems more likely to implode each day...

But not the joke I was hoping for. These days most of the crossovers or callbacks seem to depend on looping AI into the joke.

Rather shallow FP, but Subject is the joke I was looking for.

However the biggest jokes these days are explanations of why stock prices do anything at all. It's become a fantasy game. My newest joke along these lines:

Too many incommensurables.

Pretty good joke, but the story had lots of potential and this was the only official Funny.

Quoted against the censor trolls, though I actually regard it as a rather weak FP. More of a fundamental economic problem that America is not dense enough for trains to be profitable.

Maybe I need a disclaimer of some sort? I stopped driving when I was less than half of my current age. Quite happy with walking and local trains. Rather rare that I ride in a bus, car, long-distance train, ship, or airplane (in order of decreasing frequency) and I don't like any of 'em.

My point seems to have been missed on this branch. However doesn't seem worth pursuing the diversion, though I will note that The Anxious Generation by Haidt is informative on the topic of raising children.