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Comment You said "cheap" and "Wifi", but... (Score 1) 30

So this isn't at all what you asked for, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway: Ubiquiti. You'll pay more and they're all PoE rather than wireless, but if you spend the money and run the wires (hey, you have to run a wire for power anyway, might as well use it for data, too) you won't regret the results.

Comment Re:Now we're just haggling over the price (Score 1) 92

Biden tried and failed, because it wasn't legal.

Actually he tried and partly failed because it was only partly legal.

But he definitely cannot create a new revenue stream and direct it however he chooses.

That might not stop him from trying, and unless Congress or the courts rein him in, it won't stop him from doing it. As I pointed out above, in this case it's unclear that anyone would have standing to sue (not taxpayers; it wouldn't be tax money -- maybe nVidia or China, but they like the deal), so stopping him would probably require Congress to act. And what are the odds that the Republican Congress would grow a spine?

Comment Re:Now we're just haggling over the price (Score 1) 92

It may have been more useful to have already known that it would not be possible for Trump to do what you described.

"Not be possible" is too strong.

It's clearly possible unless Congress or the courts prevent it, even though it is clearly illegal. But Trump is doing lots of things that are clearly illegal, which is why the courts keep issuing injunctions to stop him (and then SCOTUS keeps staying the injunctions to let him go ahead and do it anyway, at least for a while). In a sane world, the fact that an action is illegal would be a stronger constraint because the president would have to be concerned that Congress would impeach and convict him, and he would have to be concerned about potential criminal liability. In the world that exists, the GOP leadership in Congress refuses to do their job to rein in the executive, and SCOTUS has declared the president above the law so there are few practical limitations on his power.

So far, the only thing that seems to really make Trump back off is when the stock market crashes.

Nevertheless, a slush fund of several billion dollars per year that the president is truly able to spend with complete discretion would be a significant additional increase in power because it's not clear that anyone would have standing to sue, so courts could not intervene regardless of constitutionality. Congress would be able to intervene, of course, but, again, the GOP-led Congress has almost completely abdicated. I had to add "almost" only because they actually did stand up to him on the Epstein files (sort of; the bill left Pam Bondi with near-total freedom to withhold anything she wants, not legally, but practically).

Trump is more open than other Presidents.

No, Trump is more secretive than most other presidents. You're confusing "unfiltered and disorganized" with "transparent". I do have to grant that he's incredibly transparent about his corruption. Well, maybe. He has been transparently corrupt in lots of ways, but it still seems likely that there's more corruption which he's keeping hidden.

Comment Re:Now we're just haggling over the price (Score 1) 92

But last I read of it, it goes into a fund controlled by the President -- a slush fund, in olden terms.

Where did you read that? If it's true it would be momentous. A totally discretionary fund of $2-6B per year (based on nVidia's projections of selling $2-5B per quarter to China) would give the president enormous unchecked power.

I've spend some time searching and haven't found anything to substantiate this claim. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to see where you got the idea from.

Comment Re:Wayland? Who cares. (Score -1, Flamebait) 41

Well, I am still on fvwm and I have been for the last 30 years. I see not need to go to any other desktop as it works perfectly well and is customized to exactly hat I want. There are tons of other good and sane window-managers out there.

KDE? Gnome? I could not care less. This is not Windows, where you can be forced to use a specific broken desktop.

Comment Re:And the stupid doubles down (Score 1) 32

There are a number of problems with LLM-type AI being rushed in this fast. It can take jobs where the occasional massive screw-up does not matter much. Callcenters are probably one of those. The second one is that there are still not enough real applications that would generate profit and the number of failures is rising, while the number of successes is not. Hence this thing has gotten way too large and basically must collapse and the only question is when. Also, many are in denial and think they have a success, when really, they have a failure.

This could, for example, lead to a scenario where a lot of the workforce gets replaced (10% would be a lot) and then LLMs go away or become massively more expensive because the flood of investor money has run dry. Another one is LLMs finally find enough useful use-cases to justify the expenses of running and maintaining them, but the mistakes they make eliminate all profits by expensive lawsuits being won. And some more like that.

 

Comment Re:Ransomware Payments (Score 1) 92

Yep, that is part of the money-laundering. The only reason ransomware payments went up dramatically is that with crapto you could finally launder large amounts of money. Before they were laughably low, like the $200 demand a person I know got. On that you cannot grow a larger criminal enterprise.

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