This may well be one of the dumbest questions ever asked on /. as it ignores the entirety of human history.

In the end, it's still a somewhat better search than Google (If it gives you links to original sources, which a lot of the LLMs do).

Imagine having such an immense vocabulary, and using it that weakly.

The capacity of the government of a large jurisdiction like California, or more particularly the US, could bankrupt someone like Musk, so I say, bring it on. Within a decade Musk would have abandoned all efforts, or, even better, be stone cold broke (frankly billionaires shouldn't exist at all, and we should tax the living fuck out of them down to their last $200 million).

We're too afraid of these modern day Bond villains when we should be aiming every financial, and probably every real, cannon straight at them and putting them in a sense of mortal danger every minute of their waking lives, so that they literally piss themselves in terror at the though that "we the people" might decide to wipe them out for good.

Even if the prediction of comparatively controlled impact is accurate; I think it's worth considering just how grim it is likely to be; not in purely economic terms; but in the character of the work.

Maybe this is a personal peculiarity; but I that there's something exquisitely dispiriting about beating your head against people who are stubborn or clueless enough that every conversation is just a baffling sequence of different confusions, some of the repeated from previously. It's a totally different thing from dealing with someone who is merely ignorant; but learning, especially if they are enthusiastic about it.

Even if everything is fine in terms of job pace and security and all; that seems like it is shaping up to be a really hellish aspect of dealing with bots. The experience is sort of a somewhat weirder simulation of dealing with a chirpy, people-pleasing, very-junior type; except they are far more likely to lie than to admit ignorance; and they never learn(possibly the SaaS guys hoovering up your interactions in the background will make the next iteration better, possibly not, progress seems to have slowed considerably after only a brief period of improvement; but a given release is more or less full groundhog day).

That seems like a nightmare. Everything that sucks about teaching or mentoring; but precisely none of the rewarding aspects.

Wow have you looked around lately? People have to spend more on basics. Despite Trump’s lies, the average consumer pays for tariffs. People are spending less on nonessential items. Guess which company gets less business: Walmart where people get food or Amazon where they get nonessential goods? Amazon. That is a direct effect.

Secondary effects are that the Trump trade wars have greatly impacted industry like tourism. As local businesses suffer they start layoffs. Guess where those laid off people don’t spend money: Amazon.

As public company that must report earnings every quarter, to ensure increased profits for shareholders, Amazon must cut costs like staffing costs.

Spying, I mean AI assistance needs to be added. How else can they sell your data—er, help you with computing tasks?

I have seen more coworkers using Macs as Windows specific requirements have slowly disappeared. I asked someone in IT about the cost difference. Macs cost more but they generally require less maintenance. For example these core Windows functions being broken have generated a lot of support tickets. On the backend, more and more servers are Linux with Windows only for Microsoft specific things like Office servers, Windows AD servers, etc.

Unfortunately it is becoming harder to not buy from Amazon. Many times I have found that only Amazon has an item that I need within a few weeks. Other places might have it if I am willing to wait a few weeks.

Generally someone claiming they are a "Professional Engineer" or PE is where people can get in trouble if they have not passed certification. People who have engineering degrees cannot use that title until they pass certification tests. To get a certification requires passing 2 tests. The first test is administered near or immediately after graduation. The second test is after 5 years that but the engineer must have worked under the supervision of a licensed PE for those 5 years.

I have known people who have been fired for falsely claiming a PE license. And the problem is they are generally black balled from any future engineering jobs. There are certain tasks that only a PE can do like sign off on engineering plans. Not having a PE license limits tasks but engineers can still work in the industry without one. Faking one is silly and stupid.

I would speculate the whole part of not starting trade and tariff wars with other countries especially allies would have helped the situation. While it might not have stopped Amazon from 0 layoffs; Amazon may not feel the need to layoff 14K people.

If Nokia has a valid patent and HP paid up for years then why would they not continue to pay? Despite what you heard, HP is only disabling it on some laptops. This sounds more like a cost cutting move.

Apple added AV1 hardware decoding starting with M3 and A18 chips. AV1 hardware decoders have been on Intel GPUs since 11th generation. For AMD since Radeon 6000 series GPUs. NVidia has had it since RTX 3000 series. Encoding is another matter.

Yes and no. Linux itself does not have HEVC drivers built in; however, it will load third party drivers like in FFmpeg or gstreamer.

It is per device. But it is an additional cost. Cynically, I can imagine that accountants factored in licensing cost when they sold the laptop. Now an executive has found a way to save the company money by screwing over customers. That executive will get a nice bonus this year.

I think the license is $1 per device (per year?); however, I do not put it past HP and Dell to have added it to the cost when they sold the laptop. They just want to cheap out now.