Yep. "Do your own research" is the favorite slogan - which has come to mean "Form your opinion first, then make sure you can find another person on the internet that agrees with you. Once you find them your opinion is validated.".

People discussing things isn't the problem. The problem is that people don't understand the concept of professional consensus. This would still be a problem if you limited it to degree holders.

I guarantee you can still find someone with an applicable degree to agree with you. The problem isn't the credentials, its that if 97 out of 100 credentialed people DISAGREE with your opinion, the 3 that do agree are irrelevant and don't validate your opinions.

I think it really depends on the business model. It sucks when its a service you pay a recurring fee for for "buffet" content. MOST streaming works that way. Gaming has some options there but most of the content is still sold as individual purchases.

In that regard, I don't care as much. I don't want to feel like I have to subscribe to a half a dozen different services to play or watch a specific title, but if I'm paying a one time fee for it, I don't much care which one I bought it on. I mostly prefer Steam, but if I have to launch GOG to play one game it doesn't bother me.

There is no driver facing camera. It doesn't do it in response to the driver looking away from the road - it just pops the message up at random intervals.

My current vehicle is a GM - a 2017 Chevy Colorado. If this is the case I won't buy another. I have no desire to be locked into a proprietary system.

And you can't disable from the settings menu either. You can disable the warning that you might have left your kid in the backseat, but you can't disable the "Don't take your eyes off the road." message that is likely to pull your attention from the road.

Well, and even an iPhone eventually is out of date and needs to be replaced. I keep vehicles a long time. My current one is a 2017 Chevy Colorado I bought new back in early 2017. I've had it 8 years. My vehicle before that I bought new in 2006 and I kept it for 11 years.

Both have lasted much longer than any standard computing device will. All I want is a dumb screen a la Android Auto to sit there and adapt to whatever phone I happen to be connecting.

I don't want to navigate the apps using my tiny phone screen though - Android Auto gives a great car-appropriate interface to my device.

At the end of the day why someone wants to use the feature really isn't an issue. You don't explain to their customers how to avoid doing something they want to do. Its a simple feature thats already available that they're removing to try and charge more for their proprietary alternative that many don't want.

KDE has come a long ways too. I personally had been using Cinnamon for years now, after being a long time Gnome2 and MATE user. I hadn't tried KDE in probably 15-20 years. I recently installed Manjaro on an extra machine and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I still kinda prefer Cinnamon in general, but I think that's just because I'm used to it.

This has to have some caveats. I'm sure some version of instant coffee can beat some version of drip coffee, but there's no way that instant Folgers is gonna beat a decent quality drip coffee.

I'm not even a coffee snob - I typically drink something relatively cheap (eg Cafe Bustelo) with plenty of cream and sugar, but instant just doesn't taste right.

Here's the problem - the "increase" in cases led them to start blaming random stuff and throwing out all these bans.

If you change the definition now, you'll have a corresponding decrease that they'll say their actions caused and they'll take credit for.

If they don't have the critical thinking capacity the understand the increase in diagnoses, they also won't properly understand the decrease.

What I've found honestly as an occasional user of them, is the LLM's are great at writing small functions. One, small, discrete, easily describable task with clear inputs and an output. It sucks at doing things more complex than that.

You still need somebody who knows how to actually take all those functions, check them over, and then implement actual program logic to make something useful overall happen.

Samsung still has DEX (Desktiop EXperience) available for its phones. You can either plug it into a computer and use the phone like a program within a computer, or you can connect it to a USBC docking station with HDMI, mouse, and keyboard attached and use the phone in a desktop style.

It works decently well enough. I wouldn't want to use it full time but I've used it occasionally (typically when my home internet is out. My desktop doesn't have a wifi card since I use ethernet, so I can't really pair the phone as a hotspot - I just connect the phone and use DEX).

There is a concept in computing where a certain spec is good NOW, but will not be good in the future. Rather than replace the entire computer many would rather just increase the power of their current one where its lacking.

Also, by preventing outside ram installation, Apple is free to charge whatever premium they want on more RAM. If they're the only way to increase the ram on a machine then if they decide you're going to pay an extra $500 to go from 8gb to 16gb, then you're stuck.

Something isn't over just because it has peaked. While I wish there was more, compared to when I was younger there are a lot more shows available.

What I do kinda dislike though is these mini-abbreviated seasons that have been adopted on new shows. I know its due to expense, but 10 episodes feels kinda short for a season when the shows I grew up with would have 20 to 26 episodes per season. And while I can deal with 10 - a lot of shows have been trying to get away with "seasons" of 6 episodes or less. 6 episodes of TV isn't a season - its a long movie chopped into pieces.

Hell, my parents retired 3 years ago with 200k in savings. They still haven't touched it and are living solely off of their social security.

It all depends on what you want to do. Their house was paid off years ago, they cook all their meals at home, and rarely spend money on anything that isn't necessary. It just doesn't cost much to keep the lights on and food on the table.