Does anyone remember when the US State of Massachusetts went to switch to OpenOffice and the ODF file formats? The MS-MiBs were all over the place making sure MA senators got trips to One Microsoft Way for a bit of the 'flashy thing'. Then the MS-MiB sent out worldwide to MS-ISVs with checks and scripts in hand to flood the ISO in order to vote MS-OOMXL( MS-Office Open XML ) format as an international standard so the Massachusetts government could vote it as their open standards format for public documents.

The MS-MiB were sent out worldwide to shut down the One Laptop Per Child initiative so that poor children around the world wouldn't be forced to use a Linux based laptop which could operate for 8 hours on a charge, be charged with a hand crank and was readable in full sun besides having built-in mesh networking. The MS-MiB have been instrumental in other things too. Like when school districts across the US were getting notices of required district wide licensing audits costing many $10s of thousands of dollars or sign new license agreements with the MS-MiB folks. When a couple of districts rescinded their licenses and switched everything over to Linux and started to show other school districts how they too could do it. Did the MS-MiB get recalled back to One Microsoft Way.

Tucked neatly under the MS-Marketing department lives the MS-MiB offices and if they've been reduced over the recent years, surely France has given them reason to throw a few hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrading the offices.

LoB

Why would they build a machine which just does what humans do in the field instead of building a stationary machine in a factory which builds 20' long sections which fit on a Semi trailer( 2 sections end to end and 2 sections side by side ) and then just have a standard crane on wheels run the sections out onto pre-installed posts? They are talking about "utility scale" installations so the ground has been leveled and prepped so it's not like the custom layouts needed for root-top distributed solar installations.

It seems short sighted when companies build robots which just mimic what humans do with our limited 2 short arms and 5 digit hands.

LoB

Were the product key labels fake? That wasn't stated in the brief, only that she was said to have "illegally trafficked MS product key labels".
It's more like someone purchasing a case of valid store product coupons for cheap, finding a way to market them to the public selling them for a bit more than she paid. Just look at what she was charged with, ie not providing the software with the product key labels.

This reminds me of when Microsoft send their goons after school districts across the US threatening license verification processes costing 10s of thousands of dollars or else relicense the latest versions of Microsoft software. They only stopped when a couple of school districts removed Windows and Microsoft software and installed Linux and open source software AND did a presentation at the annual schools IT conference on how they saved 100s of thousands of dollars annually by dumping Microsoft.

Hopefully she finds some lawyers willing to take up the appeal and expose how this is a corporate policy failure, not a criminal action.
LoB

So it would sink and harm a larger part of the population which voted for him like that Big Bowser Bill he told Congress to vote yes on.
Go for it, death by a thousand needles it is.

LoB

So you're telling me all those with good credit don't get those 19%-21% CC rates but instead get nice low rates? LOL
So the knuckleheads get dropped and they move to other options while the majority of the population gets 10% rates.
I don't think it will happen and I think Trump has other motivations than doing what will help the public.

LoB

"The American Bankers Association warned that such a cap "would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives."

LOL, I'm sure people would see that they now have a 10% cap on their CC interest rate and jump to one with an interest rate more than 10%.
Because that's the smart thing to do?

LoB

Does taking less qualify as putting money in their pockets?
Taking less give the belief that the amount not taken is then left in their pockets to spend but anyone who carries CC debt such that this would make much of a difference will be underwater so much that it only slightly increases the distance between them and the bottom of the lake.

But it would give Donald Trump a good number to spin to his voters.

LoB

I remember when they spun up and it was well understood that it was going to be an open source non-profit entity.
I'm not surprised the judge saw enough evidence to go forward.

Now, Not-OpenAI will do everything they can to show Musk is a nutcase and confused. But the jury will likely see that and recognize it but it won't change the facts that it was started and stated as being a non-profit open source entity. And everyone who bought into the profit route will be against this since they like to keep their stuff secret. Even the "open source company called Microsoft" LOL

LoB

Uh uh. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'Does this inject a security flaw or hazard?' Now to tell you the truth, I've forgotten myself in all decades just how insecure Microsoft software is. But being this is a Linux kernel, the most powerful kernel in the world, and will blow Microsoft's kernel clean off the rack, you've gotta ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya?

LoB

What goes out to 4Chan: It's all about being able to use ActiveX in the Linux kernel so that WSL will have better security and reliability.

LoB

So many purchases of non-physical items are a revocable license. There's a good chance they didn't use LaTex to create their court filing documents because that software too probably comes with a revocable license to use, not own.

LoB

If you look at what company owns LinkedIn you will understand why it has gone to sh;t.

hint on who it is: Their headquarters are at One Microsoft Way, Redmond WA

LoB

My bad, those were Telsa global delivery numbers, not US. For the US sales numbres:

Q1 Sales: 128,100 vehicles were sold and Q2 Sales: 143,535 vehicles were sold for a total of 271,635 which would mean a significant number of EVs were purchased from other vendors this year in the US. THAT's a big deal if you're a Tesla stock holder or employee.

LoB
 

Obviously stated by someone who has never driven a modern EV. Because they have the torque of a turbo diesel, the speed of an LS8 and at more than 2x the energy conversion efficiency. They get ~300 miles on effectively the energy of 3 gallons of gasoline.

But, if you REALLY like driving snow plow looking vehicles becasue they look manly have at it. But don't judge until you've pinned yourself into the seat a few times in one of the many EVs on the market today.

LoB

Google says Tesla sold Q1 2025, 336,681 vehicle deliveries and Q2 2025, 384,122 vehicles delivered.
I guess some of those could have been sold in 2024 but a full 100,000 unit difference and that's just Telsa so the 50,000 or so GM and Ford sold aren't even counted. Note, just guessing on the Ford and GM number since they are usually just a fraction of Tesla sales.

LoB