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Comment Re:Deserve what you get (Score 2) 181

The big problem with these "smart" things is that it's getting hard to avoid them. Several years ago I was looking for TV. A few dozen "smart" TVs to choose from but exactly 2 non-smart TVs. I don't mean 2 models, I mean 2 TVs in the whole store. Luckily one of them was suitable.

Comment Re:We are so screwed (Score 1) 197

Some of it will take care of itself. You can only veg on the couch so long before you die from otherwise preventable disease.

The percentage affected may be smaller than it seems. Some want to veg and watch sports all weekend because they were forced to bust their as all week in a job they hate. Take away the job (and the need for the job) and they might get more active in their free time. The unemployed who sit and veg mostly have no money to do anything and have lost hope in getting a job.

Though I'm sure there are some di-hards that reallywould sit on the couch until they de-compensate and die. But that is a choice they make and it would solve the problem.

Comment Not new, but getting worse (Score 1) 62

I remember a fair number of people in the '80s getting fooled by Eliza, a collection of heuristics designed to create the illusion that the computer understood what was being types and formulating reasoned responses. Of course, it was doing no such thing.

Modern chatbots do a much better job of it. 'Good' enough that susceptible adults sometimes go over the edge into a full mental health crisis after a month or so interacting with them.

The constant affirmation and un-wavering support makes the chatbots the ultimate yes-man. We have all seen what happens when celebrities and people in power become drunk on their own yes-men.

It's worse than internet echo-chambers. At least those don't tend to let the conversation get that personal and specific. Chatbots will get as personal as you wnt and they are designed to never break engagement (how will the company keep gathering underpants if the chatbot keeps saying no?).

And all of that with adults. Now imagine turning all of that on a young teen that hasn't had time to mature enough to know better. YIPE!

Comment Re:Poor Boeing. (Score 4, Interesting) 37

You're missing that both a bleed air system AND poor maintenance are required for this problem to manifest.

Presumably the other planes with a bleed air system are getting better maintenance, so haven't been a problem. No idea how the 787's maintenance is, but since it doesn't have a bleed air system, the problem of dangerously contaminated cabin air hasn't manifested.

More specifically, this happens when engine oil or hydraulic fluid leak into the engine while bleed air is being drawn.

Comment Focus on industrial harvesters in China (Score 3, Interesting) 41

If the thieves don't have industrial scale partners to "launder" the phones, they become worthless.

It's very difficult to do anything at that scale in China without the government being complicit. That trail shouldn't be particularly hard to follow, but nobody seems willing to confront the obvious corruption problem and government complicity in the criminal behavior.

Comment Re:Up next (Score 1) 52

Even if it seems to save some money (probably not THAT much in the end), it'll still cost them.

In 10 years, the Vibe coding kids will be middle-aged vibe coders, but the entry level engineers would have been senior level engineers. Eventually, once you were ready to retire or move to management, one or more of them would have been the new you.

Instead, now when you retire, they'll be swimming in a sea of middle aged vibe coders and nobody left will have a clue how to fix the horrors that they produce. They won't be able to hire a new you from outside because the other employers followed the same strategy. They will be no replacements available.

They might be able to eek out a few more years by paying someone a king's ransom to come out of retirement for a couple years, but for obvious reasons, that won't last forever either, even if they can afford it.

Comment Re:Should be a CPSC order (Score 1) 29

Vapes with replaceable 18650 tend to be higher quality and use safer IMR batteries (which also have lower internal resistance for a higher performance vape). Vape pens tend to be lower quality disposables powered by whatever was cheap when battery stocks got low at the factory. In part, that's because few will see the sealed in no-name battery.

Note that the popular 18650 is a little longer and thinner than a C battery and won't even fit in a vape pen. They're not absolutely impossible to short with keys but it's a bit of a challenge. The terminals are on opposite ends of a 65mm cylinder, not a quarter inch apart. They make silicone rubber socks that fit over the ends of spare 18650 batteries.

Many camera batteries are crazy over-priced and proprietary. To be fair, others are much more reasonable but still tend towards proprietary.

So yes, let's keep the red tape brigade on a leash for now. Let it get involved with SPECIFIC demonstrated problematic products.

Comment Re:Should be a CPSC order (Score 1) 29

That depends on the formulation of the battery. There are several.

The problems tend to happen with the batteries that maximize capacity over safety crammed into a too-small space with cheap or absent protection circuitry.

Let's not roll out the red tape brigade prematurely here, it harms innovation and makes everything more expensive. For example, you can greatly reduce costs and regulatory friction with little effect on safety by exempting removable batteries (for example, camera batteries, flashlights with 18650 batteries). Those tend to be better quality and be better protected from damage. They're also avoided by the manufacturers that want to pinch every penny even at the cost of safety and reliability.

Meanwhile, 50 incidents only seems like a lot until you consider how many million person-flights there have been this year. That's not a call to do nothing, but most of this can be handled by air liners having a small metal box and an oven mitt on board. Also a place for the box next to an air outlet.

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