If nothing else, Kennedy and his cronies can duck behind really expensive equipment while flinging feces at each other. We can leave some bones amongst the servers for them to discover and perhaps use to beat each other.

Yes. It will deliver the complete and unabridged Harvey Epstein files.

Alternate lede.

While in general the hardware has been improving, manufacturers are experimenting more with deliberately making bad products at the lower end. I have a low-end Moto G Play, and the 2024 model's camera is a noticeable downgrade from the 2023 model. Presumably, they have to create some reason to get the pricier models.

But I would rather much be coerced into upgrading that way, compared to what Samsung does. They skimp their low-end phones so badly on storage that you only have 2 or 3 GB of space after their mandatory layer of crapware. It would cost them like $5 to add another 16 GB of storage and make the phone usable. They deliberately make the phone run out of space after you install a handful of apps.

The goal was to get me to move up to a higher-end phone, but I just went to Motorola. They still have an SD card, and the headphone jack.

I still use wired headphones. I have bluetooth earbuds I keep at work and other set I use for exercising, but at home, BT latency is unacceptable for videogames or making music. The absolute best set is always going to be wired and over-ear.

The horse is alive and kicking. I bought a new Motorola for $40 last year, would have been $120 unlocked. It's never failed to do anything I've asked of it. OLED screen is every bit as big and bright as whatever iPhone - I've used them all, working in tech support.

Samsung's main problem is they're emulating Apple.

Vast amounts of money flowing to companies that will leave precious little as they fail out. The rich who are willing to play the game will get richer.

Haven't heard much about DOGE lately. I'm sure they have an unbroken track record of success marrying disparate datasets of a scale that is microscopic compared to what's being proposed here.

Won't matter who wins in 2028. They're going to inherit sweet fuck all except for a half finished White House.

Most people get a new one annually and think of the price in terms of a monthly rate.

I've talked to people who really didn't comprehend that there are phones for less than $100, or phones that can be bought outright. He thought the prices on the tags were monthly rates, like for financing.

I have to question what these data centers would be used for. The guys at the controls don't seem to be angling to provide people healthcare, housing, jobs, or education in any capacity.

The same people who have been telling me my whole life that government can't do anything useful. Makes you wonder what they are doing with it, then.

Didn't Humane already produce and market an AI Lump? Do they think there's still room in the market after that amazing success?

I think the only ones waiting on "AI hardware" - in this context, seeming to mean a gadget saleable to consumers - were investors. Investors who believe that all OpenAI has to do is hire an Ive and they'll pop out an iRobot iPhone that people will want.

Their lack of understanding the technology doesn't surprise me. Their lack of understanding human needs and wants does a little, though.

48 months, and I just had Apple put a new battery in. Unless the actual protocols get deprecated, or it flies off my motorcycle to a grisly demise, I expect to have my iPhone 13 for another 4 years.

Ive used iPhones since the 4S and generally have kept them for 5-6 years. The upgrades were always payment free via the carrier promo.

Wut? Where did you get vomit from? Do you... "think" that people on these drugs lose weight through *vomiting*? As opposed to, ya know, blunting appetite and slowing gastric emptying?

People on this site get weirder and weirder, ISTG

Internet: "Google is using your email to train AI models!"

Google: "We don't use them to train our Gemini model."

Um... can we have more details? We suspect a devil infestation.

I think the increased cost here has to do with adapting the grid. They recently installed jet engines to generate electricity in case there is a peak demand that cannot be met. It rarely runs, but needs to be maintained. They invested in extra heavy power lines to better distribute the power over the country. Installed digital power meters on every home to measure injected and consumed power,... It is a small country, so it is easy to push these things out.

Of course it's nice to see the argument made with substantiation. That's far beyond my ability. But right from the first time I heard the moon origin hypothesis I imagined two rocky planets drifting into each other when clearing their orbits.

The only other thing that seemed plausible was a strike from a rogue planet from somewhere else, but that's just so spectacularly unlikely I never gave it much credence.

*shrug* So, yeah. The thing that seems intuitively right turns out likely to be true. Not a revelation... but checking your assumptions is never a waste.