If you read the summary, it points out that Google is in fact ready, it's the UK Competitions and Markets Authority that is causing the delay. Google's already-deployed alternative doesn't allow them to track you, all data is local and the API sites can use to target ads is properly designed to prevent it being used for identification.

I recommend you turn off third party cookies manually. This is just for the default off setting. I haven't noticed it breaking anything.

Probably just a case of them not really thinking about it, like we didn't before Snowden.

People seem to forget that most sites didn't bother with HTTPS and most apps send data in the clear before Snowden's revelations. That was when the push really started to encrypt everything by default, and browsers started warning about non-HTTPS etc.

China just hasn't had their Snowden moment so is like we were 10 years ago.

The most popular route in Japan is Tokyo to Osaka, which is two hours on the high speed train. The new maglev will cut that down to 45 minutes.

I note that even in the US, those routes are covered by flights. With a train you could even take your car, like the Channel Tunnel does.

Shouldn't wide open areas make it even more suitable for trains? High speed rail is ideal for long distance cross-country. It is faster than flying for anything under about a 5 hour flight, sometimes more if the airport has traffic issues etc.

I think the bigger issue is that so much of the US is built around cars. But rail can help there too. In Japan they often build a new railway line in conjunction with new towns along it. They are ideal for commuters and people who want access to big cities without living in them. They are designed around the railway and public transport, and are relatively affordable.

Interesting, thanks. In Japan they had some legal issues with the new maglev line. First there was a big fight over the route it would take, because several smaller towns wanted stops that would massively boost their economies. Even without a stop, the route dictated where the construction would be, sure to be a benefit to local businesses.

They also had some issues with potential noise, which is partly why most of it is in tunnels.

Not all of it is resolved, but construction has already started anyway.

Seems like some of the NIMBY issues could be resolved with some incentives. Place solar along the line, maybe vertically oriented to help block noise, and give people living nearby some credits from the energy produced.

For the underground, China built over 10,000km of metro lines using tunnel boring machines. They built them faster than anyone else too, having perfected some new techniques to make it cheaper and quicker. It's possible, but for some reason not in the US or UK... Musk tried, but the Boring Company ended up just using conventional methods.

There is certainly an element of that in the UK, but even after they resolved it there were further issues.

For example, to protect the highly overrated "green belt", much of the High Speed 2 line was going to be underground. The tunnels needed air vents to the surface, but some local politicians insisted that they be disguised as barns using local materials like stone. The buildings themselves cost about 3 million, seemingly not huge in the scheme of things, but it also delayed the project and was one of a thousand cuts that ultimately doomed it.

That claim contradicts your earlier one.

Thunderf00t is a jackass, and I haven't seen the specific claims made in his video, but The Boring Company is actually a joke.

The tunnel is completely normal, nothing special about it at all. No magic low cost boring machine or special construction techniques. The Chinese dig them much, much faster for their metro systems.

The idea of using cars instead of trains is also dumb. Worse capacity, a lot more staff because Full Self Driving doesn't work even in a carefully controlled environment with one single file lane of traffic. As a novelty ride it's pretty mediocre.

Plausible deniability? You could claim you use it for the tasks they list, not a home defence system.

What's the legality of owning a flamethrower, and of using it on a suspected intruder? They seem to be readily available in the US, but would there be any issue with burning someone instead of shooting them?

That's true, current UK political leadership is some of the worst we have ever seen.

But still, infrastructure projects should be able to succeed due to skilled civil servants running them. I think a major issue there is that we do so few big infrastructure projects that the civil service lacks of the skills and experience.

Maybe you missed it but I was talking about TikTok, which despite ByteDance's protests I'm sure you will agree is just a branch of the CCP.

Your claim that "foreign bashing" is the cause doesn't make sense. If it was, why have sales falling 19% after years of growth? You said it's being going on for years, i.e. the time when sales were growing.

And by the way, Chinese phones are popular in Europe. Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor... Which should tell you something about this "foreign bashing" you are projecting. How many European phones does the US buy?

That's certainly part of it, although I note that other countries manage to build this stuff in the lifetime of a single parliament, and certainly within the lifetime of a single ruling party. For example, the Tories have been in power in the UK for 14 years now, and still haven't built HS2. In that time other countries would have built it and been operating it, and I mean European countries.

Some countries just can't do infrastructure. The US and UK are prime examples.

Then you have countries like Japan, which take a long time to do infrastructure, but they do it. Maglev starting around 2030, 90% tunnels through mountains. And then you have China, which went from zero to 2/3rds of the world's high speed rail in about 15 years.

What we need to understand is why we can't build stuff. In the UK it's down to a combination of incompetence and lack of continuity. Every project is a one off and there is no steady supply of work for contractors, so even if it does get built any lessons learned tend to be forgotten.

In the UK, broadcast TV is the lowest quality. YouTube is considerably better, and Netflix is on another level.

OLED is good for other stuff too though. For photo and design work, it can be calibrated very well and offers HDR without the haloing.

The main issue for computer use is the non-RGB pixel layout, which makes text look poor compared to LCD. Subpixel anti-aliasing breaks. As soon as someone makes a reasonably priced 28" 4k OLED with a compatible subpixel layout, I'm upgrading.

Nah, this is a direct response to the US ban on TikTok on government devices. China mirrored it by banning iPhones for government use. Just like how many US citizens took the innuendo about TikTok and Chinese phones as a signal not to buy them, Chinese consumers switched to domestic brands too.

The US probably expected that, but was likely hoping that they had weakened Huawei and Chinese chip production enough to prevent Chinese brands making competitive phones. That failed quite dramatically.

Reap what you sow.