Right off the bat updates are constantly crashing it because Microsoft is using shitty vibe coding to do critical updates and then acting like they can have people just check the code. Any idiot can realize quickly that's not going to work because there's going to be enormous pressure to check the code quickly in order to realize the cost savings from the AI bullshit.

Meanwhile Windows 11 is slower and more crash prone because it's filled with AI spyware designed to let Microsoft train their chatbots and whatnot on everything you do.

It is the most user hostile software in existence but because we don't have any antitrust law enforcement it's all we've got.

I keep seeing people talk about Linux but the fact of the matter is unless and until we start electing politicians that will strictly enforce and to trust law and begin the process of breaking Microsoft up Linux is not going anywhere.

The reason Linux is perpetually stuck at 2 to 3% market share on the desktop is because every time it starts to have a breakout moment Microsoft does a couple of nasty little anticompetitive things that are obviously illegal and that's it.

People have to start deciding what's more important when they go to the polls. And I think people here know how they've been making their voting decisions and what they've been giving up for it.

A Japanese game developer has started making recruits draw in front of them because they had so many people sending in fake AI slop and a few slipped through.

the funny thing, I could see AI being a game changer for Manga. A lot of Manga is simple brute force work adding shading and the like that could be better done in software. Though I don't think you need AI for that, good software could do it.

But a lot of it's still done the old fashioned way, which is a shame because several of my favorite manga ended because the author was so overworked they almost killed themselves...

Then again the publishers could just not take all the money for themselves, that works too. Japan needs more worker protections, but they just elected Trump in a dress so that ain't happening.

but if you kill the dog it's just $100 bucks. Unless it's some kind of special dog.

If the dog lives I think you're right, they might be able to sue google in small claims court to recover damages and would probably win. Though it can be hard to collect on judgements like that.

as it stands Waymo won't even be held responsible for that. Those sorts of penalties are waived for self driving cars in the cities they operate.

They have to be because they commit traffic infractions so often that the cops would be pulling them over and ticketing them constantly.

Rules for thee but not for me.

I'm not so sure there have even been enough incidents to decide if Waymos are more or less likely to run over an animal, but I *STRENUOUSLY* object to trying to soften it with 'made contact with' in the press release.

Last I checked the local government said so. They have indemnified waymo in every market they have launched their taxi service. I don't think that would hold up if they killed a human being, at least not one that isn't homeless, but so far it's held up for the more minor stuff that's happened.

Basically waymo cannot be cited for traffic violations and killing a pet is just a traffic violation. The most they could be held responsible for would be the value of the pet which is usually under $100.

First Street very likely doesn't have some magic model that can predict the future better than anyone else.

When you get a mortgage you have to pay for a flood survey. Even my house 700' above the village where the bank is.

Your flood risk is absolutely predicted by the flood history of your location. The bank writing the mortgage has the skin in the game which is why they make the buyer pay for the flood survey.

It sounds like First Street might be liable for damages based on pseudoscience if these Realtors bring a case. It would be interesting to see them present solid evidence that they prospectively beat the existing flood models and survive a cross-examination.

If they've published a peer-reviewed paper then I missed it.

It's that we all know this is a grift and we're all trying to figure out how the grift works.

I can think of a few possible things but I don't have enough of a finance background to really say for sure of what they are up to, but I know damn well that billionaires don't just hand out billions of dollars for the hell of it. There is a reason that Bill Gates is still one of the wealthiest people on the planet despite telling us 20 years ago he was going to give away his fortune.

Billionaires have been lying to us for as long as we've had billionaires, some of us just figured that out

But given this administration's history of corrupting everything they touch it's not something we should get behind from this administration because it's almost guaranteed to turn into some kind of scam that puts money in their pockets.

There is nothing wrong with a sovereign wealth fund per se if your government is relatively uncorrupted. Ours is not, the Trump administration is without a doubt the most corrupt and criminal administration in American history and that is saying a lot.

Simply put you cannot expect good things to come out of this administration even if the underlining ideas are fine. And I don't think that's any kind of exaggeration or partisan bickering. The Trump administration is openly murdering Venezuelan fishermen in the lead up to another war for oil without even the slightest pretexts. That alone should tell you we are in for a bad time. You don't have to be a genius to extrapolate from that data point and the dozens of other data points like the illegal tariffs or the huge bribes like the cryptocurrency or the jet Qatar gave the Trump or the fact that the taxpayer is going to be retro fitting that jet for his use...

Hostile design is often a sign of libido dominandi, not just laziness.

SmartTube has probably hundreds of settings you can tweak to improve usability and accessibility. The developer clearly has a user-first philosophy.

If I had to guess, and it's just a guess, I would say that they are positioning themselves to profit from the money put aside for the kids. Probably sitting themselves up to redirect the money being invested in the companies that they own.

The one thing we can be sure of though is that this is a scam and the only question is what are the details of the scam.

You don't become a billionaire by being altruistic. People who genuinely care about society at Large stop accumulating wealth long before they become billionaires. To become a billionaire requires a certain level of sociopathy. There's a reason why the old phrase, never ask a Man how he made his first million, exists. That phrase has been around so long that a million dollars isn't a lot of money anymore but you get the idea.

You have Revanced for Android but Apple doesn't allow such things.

It has some excellent accessibility improvements over stock.

The supreme Court has overruled 94% of the lower court rulings Trump has lost. It's painfully obvious they will just rubber stamp anything Trump wants. More importantly anything the heritage foundation and Peter thiel wants. Trump can't stay awake through an entire cabinet meeting so it's not so much that he wants anything but he would like to stay in power because he is making billions of corruption and bribes.

Meanwhile the Republican party does not have a viable candidate for 2028. Vance is a joke and a couch fucker and the rest of them are so mired and scandal they are completely unelectable. None of them have Trump's Teflon because they aren't perceived as outsiders.

So the Republican party is going to run Trump unless Trump is physically incapable of running. Meanwhile the news media will protect Trump and will convince the public that it is perfectly normal for Trump to run for a third term. We saw this in 2024 with sane washing. Which is the practice of crazy shit Republicans do, especially anything crazy Trump does being reported as normal and good in the news media.

This probably isn't enough for Trump to actually win a third term but the Republican party will use common voter suppression tactics to stop enough casual voters from making it to the polls in order for Trump to win.

It is possible the voters won't buy into this but at the same time they did elect a felon with 28 credible rape accusations for a second term because he promised cheap eggs and because trans people gross them out...

And of course if anyone can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory it's the Democratic party. They are on track to nominate Gavin newsom and he's fine but I could easily see them coming up with some scandal to take him out so they can put yet another unpopular woman forward. There is a contingency of the Democrat party that is obsessed with the first female president and will do anything to get it. And unfortunately they have a lot of pull in the party...

So yeah Trump cares because Trump is going to run for a third term. This is why he's backing off on some of his tariffs

Cheaper to just pay the bribes.

In America it's known as K-street. Or "donating" to an Inauguration Gala. Or hosting a high court judge in a European palace for a couple of weeks. Or giving decision makers absurd private sector salaries when they 'retire'. Or giving the Governor's wife a $200K no-show job. Pick your branch, there's a way.

In India the system is less formal.

Also good luck getting that check. It can take years.

Florida in particular is a mess right now and nobody is doing anything to fix it. We've got a fuck ton of retirees who can't afford to move, aren't dying any time soon and are stuck in condos we know are likely to fail without expensive retrofits they can't afford. It's a miracle there hasn't been another collapse and we're just hoping they drop dead of old age before it hits them.