Last night netflix movies would simply get to 20% (of the way to starting the movie) and stop, meaning the movie never actually started. In every case it got to 15% or up to 23% and...no further. I tried several times on each of several movies.

Switched to amazon prime and no delay, fast response, worked fine right away.

I was asking myself how I could check on comcast (the only ISP available here).

It's a TV, so no obvious way to run a speed test on it.

All the crumb (etc) things the introduction mentions seem obvious to anyone who has used a keyboard. If any of it gets a patent...it would be crazy.

If you believe (as I do) that it is crucial to be reducing carbon emissions you immediately grasp why the subsidies exist. When sufficient sales volumes are achieved the subsidies may not be needed to encourage sales, but can still matter (even if smaller) to push down carbon emissions. (yes, we generate enough electricity to charge our Tesla and more: solar).

If you don't think Carbon matters...never mind.

When the batteries are poorly managed (as on Leaf) then 2-4 years use
can reduce the battery capacity 50%. That large a drop in capacity does
not happen to everyone. But it happens. Depends on the use
of the vehicle and the temperatures it is used and recharged in.
Or so I gather from comments by owners.

But if well managed (as in Tesla) the batteries last a long time.

Our 2014 S had 100% battery capacity after 3 years (we traded
it in for a 2017 to get an even bigger battery and more
sensors).

In other words, battery life just depends. On stuff.

Yes Teslas can be, and are, bought outright. We own our Model S.

The notion that Intel even has the capability of producing new fixed CPUs to match other than the latest packaging/pin requirements seems fanciful. In which case we'll just have to live with any slowdown. As buying all new systems is just too expensive.

Strangely enough a couple movie theaters in San Mateo County have cleaned the rugs and the bathrooms and now one can buy a reserved seat on line, so no need to get to the theater early. It seems much more pleasant than a few months ago. Still an annoying experience waiting in a slow line to buy the (unimproved) food though.

Well, higher throughput is surely correct. But the higher speeds (if achieved) of the mass transit are overwhelmed by the interfaces. The waiting time to get on. In SF Bay Area taking transit double or triples the total travel time. I took the train for years but it was clear it was slower...and much safer.

Just set your Tesla (or other modern) adaptive cruise control to, say, five car lengths, and just steer. It is far far easier than having to brake/accelerate and the hardware watches even when the driver has zoned out. No worries about hitting the idiot in front. No worries if someone merges into your lane: the car adapts.

Some folks with no love for the US have been experimenting lately. A recent incident involved corrupting some systems intended to prevent wide-scale power interruptions. One wonders if this was simply a proof-of-concept operation. One hopes this is thoroughly investigated. Not just written off as embarrassing.

As maintainer of a small open source library and program I have benefitted immensely from the efforts of a small number of volunteers running fuzzing programs and using Address Sanitizer to locate bugs in the code I maintain. These volunteers have found bugs and reported them and provided testcases useful for regression testing. I am profoundly grateful to these folks.

ShanghaiBill is right that ears are not necessary for safety as shown by another fact (I claim).
Many (most?) modern cars have such good soundproofing that outside noises are imperceptible.

Since the SSN only has 10 digits and there are 300 million citizens it means (ignoring any restrictions on numbers) that
one-third of the possible values [and possibly effectively many more] are used up. All you need do if you need an SSN and expect it
will not be checked by the Social Security Admin is... guess. And someone will get tagged with that data. With a high probability. That's not good.