What is needed, besides a massive outbreak of common sense is to have a 3rd party. that way, the religious zealots can stay with GOP, while "regular" conservatives operate the third party.

GOP really needs to lose the Religious Right that Nancy Reagan brought in, at this point that contingent is a serious turn-off for any logical-thinking person.

Do that, and Conservatives may do better, free of the influence of those who belive in a magical sky daddy.

I'm a conservative in many ways, but i"m not for theological control of anything.

It's only fair. The Left has all the crazies that think there are 3307 different genders, that think men can give birth, the GOP can be the Religious Nutjob pushback against that, leaving the Third Option to just... do the right thing, without kowtowing to either the kooks on the left or the Right.

The problem with Regan wasn't so much Reagan, the problem is his wife stocked the GOP to the rafters with religious freaks.

Someone in /. came up with "Augmented Idiocy."

I like it.

A lot.

Already exists, and has for centuries.

Today it's TikTok, Facetwat, Xitter, Youtube, Discord, this dump, Reddit, and bunch of uncharted spots.

Yesterday it was CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX

Before that, it was ABC, CBS, NBC, sound only,

Before that it was Hearst and Pultizer both, dragging us into a war (spanish-american war) just to sell more papers.

And, I bet if you go back to Greek and Roman antiquity you'll see it too: Playing the public to elicit a certain outcome.

You don't need chemicals or AI. You just need gullible fools, fed the correct propaganda and the correct triggers and stimuli.

To wit: 100 years ago, two countries bamboozled 2 generations of their people into being raging Nazis and Japanese Imperialists.

And they gave the German film a fucking Palm D'Or at Cannes when Leni showed "Triumph of the Will."

Today, in the US, the indoctrination is "White man bad, everything is White man's fault, Women good, BIPOCS are gods, LGBTQIAPS+++ NO CARRIER are untouchable and can do no wrong, Israel bad, Palestine good."

Like Germany and Japan 100 years ago, the young are being taught in ways that most assuredly are going to end in war. Whether it is a war among countries or within, it remains to be seen. Way I see it, it'll be a coin-toss between WWIII or simultaneous civil wars in the US, UK, France, Germany.

A "Master Race" thing is being set up in the young, and it's the anti-white thing being pushed. It's a reverse Master Race thing.

Last time two idiots got ideas of being Master Race, WWI and WWII happened -- and one of those idiots did it *twice*. Germany, yes you!

Mod me into oblivion but you all know I'm speaking truth.

You're just *terrified* of being called Nazi and Racist for saying the truth.

Fuck the peanut gallery. Speak the truth.

It is even theoretically possible that by aligning pro-Islam against White Man, the table for a new Crusade is being set up. I hope it's secular, therefore not a Crusade, but... the point stands.

I replace when they die, or the battery has an "event."

My Star Tac? Died after I dropped it one too many times... parts.. everywhere. It was done.

My T720? Ok that I replaced almost instantly, easily Motorola's worse effort.

My Razr? (the black Razr from 2004) I got 5 years out of that. Inside LCD just quit one day.

iphone 3GS? Got 3 years out of it. Battery went to shit real fast. Probably 2 years.

Iphone 5? Got 5 years out of it. Battery turned into a spicy pilow

Iphone 8? Ok, that was hot garbage. Replaced after only 2 years with my current phone, a 13 Pro.

That 13 pro should still serve me well. it's almost 4 years old and still working fine.

the 17pro is tempting just on its thermal management vapor chamber thing.

I bet most of you are the same. Replace when it breaks, not because it's "fashionable" to have a new phone.

These "experts" are going to do, upon seeing all the warning lights that are starting to light up, what every goddamned moron that has a car, and doesn't understand cars will do when faced with a lit Christmas tree, some of it blinking:

Derrrrrr... look, a blinking red light on the dash.. should I stop? Eh, it's probably nothing important.

  -- some time later --

*BANG* Motherfucker, I just lost the engine... why? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?!

Because the Experts are as stupid as the average "motorist." They will ignore the signs and run the bitch ragged, then sell it and move on.

Now.. if this time the investors *listen* and dont' fall for the AI hype, maybe the trouble will be averted. But, there is rare evidence of there being prior acts of common sense, so.. I expect this too will be a huge bubble that pops and takes down many with it.

I, for one, am too old to welcome our new AI overlords and their attendant economic crash, now with added social upheaval. This one will likely take me down. The others (2008, etc etc) have nearly always indirectly or directly wiped me out, and i'm getting tired of it.

One can start from near zero only so many times.

I don't even have a TV. I have a dumb projector. And a 7 foot screen, measured horizontally.

This setup doesn't even know what the internet is, let alone "AI".

And the day my apple TV device starts mouthing off to me in AI, it will find out just how close to a hockey puck it is in size and rough shape.

We make a stand now, or AI will become our unwelcome, unseen overlord.

I'll go you one better. Because of all the "AI"-powered surveillance, we will have created God. God in the sense that, paraphrasing from a song about a mythical entity:

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good....

"And Man created God in His own image."

Yep, we sure did. The best panopticon. Who's a good little panopticon? You are!

And dudes.. we keep feeding it for free.

Starve it. Poison it. Fill Slashdot, Reddit, and anywhere else that takes user posts as AI food and poison the fuck out of it, render it useless.

Apple, your focus groups led you astray.

Most phone owners that use them for work want a phone that goes all day long without having to charge, while shooting video, photos, using the Measure tool, etc etc etc. Not just banally and passively doom-scrolling and consuming pablum, propaganda and pornography.

Real users are not found in focus groups. All you'll find there is fashionistas doing things backwards -- form follows function, and you fools tend to do it backwards.

I love the iphone and ipad, but thinner, in this case, is not better. Thinner prevents us from having spectacular battery life, and thinner also compromises the design, thermally speaking.

The only place I would want a thinner device is in a watch.

So.. you don't do a quick walkaround of your car before you get in.. you know.. to check for flats, intentionally-placed tire-deflating objects, oil / coolant leaks.. and PETS AND KIDS BEHIND YOUR CAR?

Fuck. No wonder we ended up with nerf cars with Brutalist architecture for looks and full of every nanny I can think of.

Do a walkaround. Every time you get in your car. Takes less than 10 seconds.

But nooooo. Because of terminal terminal laziness from others, people who do the right thing are now saddled with comically over-complicated cars.

A word of warning about roof paint.

Years ago Florida Power and Light (FPL) offered rebates and encouraged people to paint their roofs white to reflect sunlight and lower bills. Many gullible people took the bait.

Then the problems started. The paint would shrink, damaging the roof, letting water in. it was a disaster. Even tile roofs were affected. Water leaks. Disaster. Ruined houses. Lawsuits.

I'd be very leery about doing any such thing to a house. Maybe if the material is engineered from birth to be reflective, but as a coating? Fuck that.

There's always someone (or large groups of someones) trying to gyp people using "The Environment" as bait.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/...

They are doing their jobs.

Their job is to post the stories that gets them paid. Seeing as 404 media is a nobody that no one's heard of except here, I surmise 404 is paying Slashdot for exposure.

A Slashvertisement, if you will.

Wow. You people really do believe he's some kind of mafioso.

I lived through the envirohippy movement of the 70's. That one died in the 80's and wasn't revived 'til Gore made it a thing again.

And all the tech bros fell in lockstep with that.

FFWD 26 years, and now you have a new scam to fleece the stupid with: AI. Like others here pointed out, AI and Environazism are not compatible, they are at odds with each others. So, they abandoned their environazi "friends" and now are making new AI-oriented friends. And I bet those "new friends" will be abandoned in similar fashion 20, 30 years from now when AI leaves a GDP-sized smoking hole in the ground when it too fizzles out.

This environmental thing of the last 30 years did nothing but raise an entire generation of climate panickers... as amply exhibited in this, and other, threads.

I got news for you. It was never about saving the planet, it was about making BIG money pretending they did care.

And you all bought it, hook, line, sinker and pole, even.

Who attacked Fort Sumter?

WHO ATTACKED FORT SUMTER?

That faction is responsible for the war.

Now... who was that? What side? The fucking donkeys from the south, right?

The governments you had elected decided to kill the middle class and the non-corporate businesses by shutting everything down, while the masked massess sung their praises.

Deal with the consequences now. Querian shutdown? COME SHUTDOWN, CARAJO!

Fucking people forget for every action (shutting the economy down) there is an equal, and opposite reaction (people stay home and won't come back to your restaurant.)

think on that next time. If there is a next time. I fear 2020 broke the world and it won't back together in a very long time, if ever.

I mean, how fucking stupid are people? There's this finely-running machine, and in 2020 people just decided to pour sand in to the gearbox. Fucking ridiculous. Eat your results.

I wonder who's getting the As, then, if not the top students.

Is it Asian studies, becuase "muh foreign money?"

Is it "BIPOC," because "muh Die-versity, and OMG what would the world think of us if we don't kowtow to the BIPOC crowd?"

Or is it the LGBTQIAP+++ NO CARRIER crowd? because "Muh social justice?" and not wanting to lose all that sweet, sweet Skilttles-haired-crowd donation money?

All part of why there's a growing discontent with our institutions of higher learning.

Were I hahvahd alumnus and rich, I'd shut off all donations 'til they purge the place from the top down to the teachers.

As I age I find myself less inclined to respect our institutions. They have turned to shit in my lifetime. All because of Muh Moneys and Muh Social Justice.

Arrrrgh, goddamn flipping of specs.. "HD is 2k on the horizontal, not the vertical."

Why'd they have to change how they measure? Assholes. Cabrones.