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Comment Re: Correlation still isn't causation (Score 1) 37

You're not helping your case by quoting a quack like him. He's a pop sci author that specializes in junk science. Exactly the kind of guy that I would expect to do a lazy study pointing to cell phones bad.

Like I mentioned on other comments I'm still not at all convinced and correlation is not causation.

I keep coming back to the fact that these same studies have been done with every new form of media and they always find a correlation.

The problem isn't the New Media the problem is we don't support parents and kids enough so the parents plop their kids down with Penny dreadfuls or radio or TV or Internet and now cell phones and screens.

In another hundred years these same dumb studies will be done for cyberdecks.

Comment Re:Correlation still isn't causation (Score 1) 37

So I'm aware that the abstract says that they controlled for socioeconomic factors I'm just dubious of that.

It's far more likely that kids spending a bunch of time on screens is a symptom of other problems.

That said on the off chance that the phones are a problem they are a miniscule problem compared to everything else kids are up against in 2025.

Taking your kid's phone away isn't going to magically make them get better grades or take up sports.

Even so I think it's far more likely that you're seeing the same basic problem across different economic groups. And because of that you could replace the phone with basically any form of media. Which is why you get the same little panic every time a new form of media comes out and the same group of social scientists running the same experiments blaming the New Media for causing the problems.

I'm not a huge fan of folk music but having listened to a little bit of it just because I'm a lefty and Lefty's tend to blare the stuff I can tell you that the same problems that we had a hundred years ago or more we're getting sung about in folk music back then and are getting sung about it and folk music today. We haven't solved any of the problems. And it's the same damn problems. The only thing new is obesity and that's just because we have reasonably reliable access to food for most people... Most people. There are still several million kids having sleep for dinner every night...

Comment Correlation still isn't causation (Score 2, Informative) 37

It's entirely possible even likely that what we are seeing here is just that latchkey kids are more likely to have smartphones at an early age.

The problem isn't the phone itself it's overworked parents with low pay and no social support.

The abstract at least says that the account for socioeconomic factors but I'm not able to read the actual study past the abstract.

Also I guarantee that these exact same studies can be found for television, the internet and if you go back far enough you can find the 18th century equivalent of these studies for Penny dreadfuls.

Every time a new form of mass media or a new device for mass media shows up you can bet somebody is going to find a correlation between everything bad and if. Meanwhile we never actually do anything about things like child hunger or forcing kids to get up early to go to school when we have plenty of studies indicating the teenagers need more sleep and it needs to be later in the morning...

Comment Re:They are using AI to code core Windows function (Score 1) 62

You know whether people should or not they do. I've more than once come across somebody using Excel like a database application. It's exactly as bad of an idea as it sounds but people do it and for the most part despite time spent debugging problems it does work.

I guess what I am saying is the answer to, there isn't a tool that can do what the customer wants to do, should not be, tell the customer to knock it the fuck off.

Antitrust is mostly how Microsoft stays in power but they do one thing. It's called the 80/20 rule and the idea is that 80% of your features are used by 20% of your customers but it's a different feature for every single customer. So you can't just take features out because you will rapidly start losing customers even though on paper very few customers are using those features. Basically when you have a sufficiently complex application it has a ton of features only used by a small group of people but you keep adding those groups up and suddenly you've got market dominance.

Before the industry consolidated that was part of what put Microsoft on top. Of course nowadays they just don't let anyone compete

Comment I'm so sick of clickbait (Score 4, Interesting) 24

Headline is they refuse to give up Instagram reality is that they refused to gag order.

I just got a article in my feed that the lead actress for the Asoka series at Disney refused to do another season because she wasn't paid enough.

The actual facts are that season 2 filming is already done and one of the other less important characters didn't come back because they didn't offer her enough money to afford to live in London where the shooting was.

I'm so sick of clickbait. Lately it's being written by shitty AI so it's gotten even worse.

Comment I suspect competition from other modes (Score 3, Interesting) 16

In the last decade, we’ve had massively improved cycling infrastructure and also the rise of scooters, e-bikes and Lime and similar bikes, along with Uber. I think each of those will have eaten away at Zipcar rides.

A shame, bc Zipcar filled a niche, but if they can’t make the number add up, then not a surprise

Comment Re:unattainable tech (Score 1) 63

As much as I like to live in your fantasy world, the reality is pointing to singular incidents doesn't help. If what you said was remotely relevant the war would have been over as soon as we hoped. Unfortunately in the real world it seems Russia is perfectly capable of manufacturing.

Sorry, I really really want to get behind your delusion. I too would love to think that Russia only exists because of the brilliance of the people they are attacking, but there's just zero evidence to back that up, and plenty of evidence against it.

Comment Re:Yep (Score 0) 97

The last 15 years or so they could only keep up by doing unsafe and insecure things and because of superior manufacturing.

Oh yeah this debunked bullshit. Sorry but literally everyone was doing "unsafe and insecure things" because that is how modern highly optimised CPUs are designed. AMD, Intel, and ARM have all been hit with a variety of these lab-only "exploits".

The fact that you need to dig back to that ol' chestnut shows you've really not paid any attention in the industry for the past decade. Intel has done so much shit, and the only thing you fall back on is the one thing they actually didn't do badly / differently from anyone else.

Comment Re:Core Competency: Lobbying, or engineering? (Score 1) 97

Maybe if he instead invested his time in engineering?

CEOs don't engineer (nor do you want them to). Their job is to fund engineering and put in place management to ensure engineers are able to work at their best. Under Geisinger's time Intel massively increased it's engineering workforce, restructured the entire management chain, and ultimately looks like he brought the company on plan to deliver 18A.

I'm really not sure what you're complaining about here.

If your business model is predicated on government bail-outs, you don't have a business.

Intel wasn't asking for a bail-out, never has. Intel was asking for a hand-out. There's a difference. It's a CEO's job to source money. If the government is willing to provide it then it's your job to lobby for it.

Comment Re:Not a recall (Score 1) 46

It's not a recall when you do a firmware update on our phone or laptop.

It would be if your firmware update addressed a safety issue on your phone or laptop.

E.g. The Google Pixel 4a was very much subject to a "recall" for a firmware update.
Here's the UK government on that phone: https://www.gov.uk/product-saf...
Here's the Australian government on that phone: https://www.productsafety.gov....
Apparently the CPSC didn't give a shit in the USA, but Google still sent out a recall notice to all Pixel 4a owners.

Comment Re:Good for Airbus (Score 1) 46

That's not context. That's a conspiracy spurred by a coincidence. Airbus has addressed multiple hardware issues since 2009 for a variety of issues. There's zero evidence that this is out of the ordinary, especially since for the most part it was a simple software update for the majority of their produced fleet that is quick and easy to apply meaning it doesn't make sense not to do it under any context.

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