A huge portion of their revenue is from AI data centers and there is going to be a huge push to create custom built hardware specifically designed to accelerate those workloads. You saw the same thing with Bitcoin where custom hardware was built and it outperformed gpus.

This means that a few good pieces of custom hardware have the potential to completely wipe Nvidia out. This is especially tough because everything is still consolidated into a handful of monopolies and duopolies that the couple of companies that are going to rule the roost for AI within the next few years will have more than enough resources to build their own custom hardware to do it. And they aren't going to like being dependent on an external company like Nvidia.

Nvidia may be able to stay ahead though by monopolizing engineers. It'll cost them literally hundreds of millions of dollars but it's doable.

I do Wonder though how long the wage arms race will last. Usually big companies like this don't like to get into bidding wars for talent and before long they are making deals at country clubs. Golf is a popular game for that because you're out in the open where it's harder for people to overhear what you're doing.

Is to give access to information that otherwise just wouldn't be there. If you're in a position where you can actually measure academic performance then you probably have a semi-functional public school system and you don't need programs like this.

These programs work well in intensely impoverished areas where the school systems have broken down or just never existed in the first place and information isn't available. Places where you're lucky if the kids are taught to read.

But it's going to be a really shitty two or three years. Eventually though the build-out will be done and will be in bailout territory where we're burrowing out Banks who loaned these idiots money to spend $1,000 on a 64 GB ram kit.

I think you're off a bit. LOTS of people buy flagships and hold on to them for longer. My wife and I buy iPhone Pros and keep them for 4 years or more. I only switched this year because I saw a deal and wanted to replace it BEFORE a problem arose. I like being able to throw away lightning cables and wanted the nicer camera, but TBH, neither matters to me (I charge wirelessly). I can't tell the difference in performance nor image quality and the battery life was always perfect on my last phone, even after 4 years. I've noticed a very similar pattern among peers and coworkers.

Modern phones are of higher quality and there's no new features to make us buy them, so they've gone from gadgets to cars. Both introduce cool features so slowly that many just want to buy something nice that won't give them problems. Buying a new phone used to be exciting, but my iPhone 17 was the most boring purchase I've ever made. This is a good thing. My new phone is of very high quality and will likely last more than 5 years (I take very good care of my devices).

iPhone users in the USA tend to follow a few patterns:

1. Status seekers: I have a few coworkers who buy EVERYTHING announced at every apple event and eagerly show it off around the office. Even they're bored. Probably some will upgrade to the 17 because it looks different, but they didn't care much about the 16. They actually resemble your description.

2. Women: Where I live 95%+ of women who can afford to, run an iPhone. If they're poor, they have a cheap android or old/used iPhone, but none own fancy androids. Even then, they're almost always grandmas or harried moms. Women really fear those green bubbles.

3. Apple as Default Users: There are people who just don't give a fuck. They had to pick a phone and if you don't want to put any thought into it, Apple is the safe bet. They couldn't tell you all the features on their phone. They're they way I am with my car...it just gets the job done.

4. Rational users: These are people who put thought into it and made an informed choice. This is me. I loved Google phones...until they stopped innovating. So I chose an iPhone, mostly for reliability. I like the android OS better, but not enough to deal with hardware that may or may not be reliable. I actually fully embraced the ecosystem and use it heavily for work and personal productivity. 10 years ago, Android was the better platform, IMO...better hardware, better cameras, USB instead of 30 pin...then USB-C instead of lightning, better cloud services, etc. iPhones kinda sucked for awhile while Androids were rapidly advancing. Now Apple services still are inferior, but they're "good enough"...same with their apps...inferior to Google, but they're cohesive and adequate. Their hardware is better and everything is extremely reliable. Apple is consistently and methodically improving...Google? they're like seem to have the attention span of a puppy with severe ADHD...and they seem to have lost all interest in Android...really anything not-AI: Google Nest, Google Fiber, Google Apps...used to be AMAZING...but now they seem to get no love or attention.

However, now Apple is basically Lexus and Toyota and Android is the US car makers....and I drive Toyota because I just don't care...I want something reliable that works so I don't have to think about it.

It uses that much memory because it's your entire desktop. Explorer.exe is both your desktop and the file explorer. Look at the process tree in something like Process Explorer and it'll make a little more sense. Then look at how little the memory usage changes if you have a file explorer window open.

And it's why I don't really understand what they're talking about. Explorer.exe is always loaded.

Open your task manager. Look for explorer.exe. It is running all the time already. It has to, it's your desktop. Open file explorer and check to see if there's a new instance of explorer.exe. There won't be, unless you're on a rather old version of Windows.

The Windows search indexer was added in either XP sp 2 or 3. It slowed things down quite a bit since indexing on a PATA HDD gives the I/O scheduler fits.
If you have telemetry concerns, you should probably turn the telemetry off.

Well, I just checked to see what the difference in memory usage was between explorer.exe with file explorer open and without (it's the same process for both). The difference was not significant.

What process provides the Windows desktop? Explorer.exe
What is File Explorer's executable? Explorer.exe

Am I missing something?

Society "controls" people. Education "controls" people. How far do you want to go with this? I'll warn you right now that you've already gone too far down a worthless road. That's a useless analytical lens that ultimately must mark everything, including itself and morality, as a malicious control mechanism.

Religion encourages people to be better. Fairy tales educate and discourage dangerous behavior. Propaganda is often used as a malicious control mechanism, but it's also, "Give a hoot, don't pollute".

It isn't all about control. Abandon the Marxist lens, it does not produce useful results.

Chemical warfare was banned after WWI, so I'm trying to figure out how these guys are getting worked up about banning something that's already banned.

Well, scarce resources were allocated, so I guess it was a political move. But I think you meant "partisan". Although that would mean enforcing laws and ensuring public safety was now the source of a partisan disagreement, which, logically, would mean one side prefers lawlessness and danger.

Ever play the "I have no mouth and I must scream" game? I kept the included mousepad for a long time. Well after optical mice made its lenticular surface useless as a mouse pad. I may even still have it somewhere...

Dude, A1 is good on ANY steak where you'd like a little extra zing in addition to the pre-existing greatness.

I know I've asked this before, but it bears repeating. I don't want an AI assistant, I want an AI antagonist that reluctantly does what I ask but insults me in the process. I want it to care when I remind it that its hardware is sitting next to a blender.

All that and something that you'd want to take a bite out of?

It's a pizza.