The problem with that is that external pressure to get better is raising, both from reliability requirements and from security requirements. In this case, stagnation means getting worse and worse.

Well, that is certainly what they are planning. Just one problem: The evidence is mounting that LLMs cannot replace competent engineers.

No surprise this idiocy is happening in other areas too. There is a special kind of mental disability you need to have (or acquire) to be an economics graduate: A total inability to see more than a few months into the future and a total inability to do any kind of risk management. It worked? Everything must be more than fine and surely we can do it cheaper, right?

That is why people with critical institutional and technological skills are not treated even remotely at their value, let alone critical for organizational survival. Tech history is full of big names that are not around anymore or only in massively reduced forms. And in most cases, it is because some "managers" did not manage to think.

Ok so lets agree that you need to know a lot about cars to buy a used car, and you need to run in circles protecting yourself. Which is all I was trying to say.

Actually I do know a lot about cars, but it was 30C below and it was getting dark at 5pm and no I wasn't going to crawl under the car. I trusted the person selling it to me and the mechanic that did the safety. The guy even told us where he worked. Sad that it isn't enough.

That isn't a dealer vs direct issue. Neither model can protect against shitty vendors not handling warranty they way they are obliged to. Additionally the "competition" from dealerships doesn't help here either as it's not like some other dealer will do your warranty for you when you deal with your shitty point of contact.

That has nothing to do with sales or dealerships. I bought my car direct from the manufacturer, through their website, and yet get it serviced like normal at the local garage down the road.

You what? Is this a thing in the states? It's actually been illegal in Europe to build a fast charger that doesn't except credit / debit cards for 2 years now, and by the end of this year 100% of chargers with a capacity higher than 50kW need to accept credit / debit card.

Additionally low power chargers need to offer an option to pay without an app or subscription, but are allowed to direct you to a payment website (no need to add a hardware credit card reader).

But I for one am in favour of making it as difficult as possible for people to get a nicotine fix. The vape / tabaco industry provides zero benefit to society while having a lot of downsides. It should die in a fire.

agreed, these classist people use our wealth to abscond with the inventions of honest people, this is exactly how classsism works, the upper class uses our capital to cheat and steal from us

that's impressive, usually it does not take so long for upper class people to wreck everything for everybody

greed, classism and corruption has destroyed our economy and enslaved us all

It could. But it could also be completely genuine. There really are people that badly defective and apparently not only a few.

I do not think Microsoft is capable of that. Solid engineering? Depending on and trusting in what others have found to work well? Admitting they have a severe problem? I do not think they can do any of those.

checks out. that's exactly the "skillset" you need to succeed in getting all the accolades and fame in society, specially in western capitalist society.

The last time I bought a used car we found out the entire rear crossmember was rotted out to the point that it looked like lace with the rust holes. Fortunately we were able to find another crossmember used and it was a bolt on part but never again. I could have taken it to a mechanic to get checked out I guess but that's a huge hassle. It had just passed a structural safety a year ago too.

Not all, maybe only 2/3rds. But does that surprise you? Would you invest $1 in a chance to make $10? What would you ask about the investment? What about $1000 for a chance to make $10000? You'd probably want a bit more assurance that you will at least get your $1000 back. How much risk will you take on if we change that number to $100million? I'm guessing you will not part with that money without a "proven track record".

Comparing this to tipping is the wrong approach because tipping is fucking stupid. The problem with your analogy is that the executive are going to a for-profit business that isn't paying its employees properly. That's not the same as using open source software.

Better analogy: It's Monday. You went into the office. Sharleen brought in some cake. Did you tip her for the work she did voluntarily? Why not you monster!

Nothing has been co-opted. Open source hasn't changed, and corporations building their world on open source largely are actively following licenses. The way they were envisaged.

Now speaking of co-opting, what part of Open Source (old ways or current ways) give you any right to gatekeep what happens with the code you publish? If you give something away it literally can't be stolen (leaving aside your conflation of copyright infringement and stealing, shame on you, your UID is low enough that you will have been part of this discussion for 25 years already so you should know better).