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Comment Used them for many years ... (Score 1) 10

I have been using Sony phones exclusively for over a decade and a half, since they were Sony Ericsson even.

The flagship phones are good quality, rugged, water proof, and have excellent cameras.
I used to buy them used, so I pay a fraction of the new price.

But that came to an end earlier this year when I could not locate used ones at reasonable prices.

So I went with a Motorola Edge 2024 that was provided free by my carrier (Fido in Canada, a subsidiary of Rogers). It is as good as a Sony. The camera is decent, though it has no telephoto lens (only a normal lens and a wide angle one with macro). There is no focus hunting like my last Sony did (Xperia 1).

They sell them directly, and no carrier provides them. That is why they are on the way to extinction.

Comment Re:How is this an EO? (Score 1) 99

Could we just do away with EO's entirely? The seem more than a little outside the ideal of a government created with checks and balances in mind.

The president is the boss of the executive branch, and he has to be able to give orders to them to tell them how to do their jobs. Of course, those orders should only be about how they're supposed to go about executing the law, as defined by Congress and the Constitution. The problem isn't the ability of the boss to give orders, that's as it must be, the problem is that Trump is giving orders that tell the executive branch to do things that that exceed and sometimes defy the laws defined by Congress and the Constitution.

When that happens, it's the responsibility of the other two branches to rein him in or remove him. The courts are mostly trying to do their job to rein him in but their ability is limited. The intention is that when the executive gets out of control, Congress should give him the boot. Instead, the GOP leadership in Congress is cheering him on.

Comment Re:Time for some Boomers (Score 1) 99

It's value is inherited from the same basis that gives fiat currency its value, which is to say, pure magical thought.

Completely untrue. flat currency gets its value in that it is backed by the government and economy of a nation state.

To be more precise, it's backed by the enforceability of debt contracts, i.e. the judicial and executive branches of the nation state. But that's only what makes sure the value is provided, what actually backs fiat currency is someone's legally-binding promise to do some sort of productive work. Fiat money is created by banks when they issue loans (including but definitely not limited to the Federal Reserve bank), so every dollar created is balanced by a dollar of debt that is created at the same time, and when the debt is paid off, the dollar ceases to exist.

Suppose you want to build a new house. You go to the bank and borrow, say, $1M. Many people think the bank loans you $1M that they have sitting in their (virtual) vault, money that was deposited by people with savings accounts at the bank, but that's not true. What happens is that the bank invents $1M to lend to you. It's not quite that simple (but note that we've abandoned fractional reserve lending; there are no reserve requirements any more), but we'll gloss over the irrelevant complexities. The core point is, the bank creates (a) $1M and (b) a mortgage contract, which offset one another. $1M came into existence, but there's a promise to repay, and therefore destroy, that money.

You pay the money to the construction company, who pays it to their workers and suppliers and investors, and they build you a house. You move in and all is good, except now you have an obligation to apply your labor for the next 30 years to generate value so you can make your monthly mortgage payments.

That is what backs fiat currency: The future labor of borrowers. The exact nature of the labor is undefined, of course, but that doesn't make the labor itself any less of a very real, very productive (by definition!) asset, and it is that productive asset that gives the currency its intrinsic value. And, of course, the legal system is backing the contracts, so you can't just decide you don't want to pay, not without significant negative consequences. That's just one of a number of crucial roles the government plays. Another is the laws that mandate that all debts public and private be denominated in and payable with the nation's currency.

Obviously, crypto assets (they really aren't currencies; even ignoring their lack of intrinsic value, they suck as currencies) have nothing remotely comparable to that sort of solid foundation. Less obviously, so-called "hard" currencies don't either. The classic hard currency, gold, does have a little intrinsic value because it's pretty and has some useful physical properties, but the vast majority of its value is "pure magical thought". It has that value only because everyone believes it does, but there's nothing behind that belief but tradition, not even anything as abstract as contractual obligations. Unlike fiat currencies.

Comment Re: LG TV with WebOS (Score 1) 25

Not only is the UI shockingly bad their remote is a mess and of such poor quality that various buttons require 'Hulk Smash' level key presses.

My take for my device LGUT80 is that it sometimes stops listening to remote input. Sometimes I have to use the button to turn it off, and it only has one button.

Comment Re: Add some chip sanctions pls (Score 1) 95

bOtH sIdEz aRe tHe sAmEz!!!111!! amirite?

Both sides are part of the same group of fuckers selling out our entire future by avoiding substantive change. The Democrats literally spend money to make sure actual progressives get defeated. While you get slightly better human rights for now when you elect Democrats, their decisions are still dooming all of us.

Comment Re:What's happening is pretty unfortunate (Score 1) 88

There is nothing about ICE agents dressing as proud boys or vice versa in that link even if were from a credible source.

Your brain is cooked. This is the obvious result of making "democrats are pedos" your personality and then finding out Republicans will shut down the government to prevent you from finding out how many of them are pedos. The question is, why are you so pro-pedo?

Comment Re:Where’s the new Bottleneck now? (Score 1) 32

With PCI reaching these speeds, Iâ(TM)m left wondering; what is the bottleneck now? Is âoestorageâ on these systems a silly concept because itâ(TM)s essentially ALL high-speed cache in memory

PCI isn't reaching these speeds any time soon. But that aside, the limiting factor depends on the workload. Which kind do you want to know about?

Also, that whole backward compatibility thing? Stop it.

Are you seriously saying you want less compatibility? Weirdo.

Comment Re: Add some chip sanctions pls (Score 1) 95

Did the "oligarchs" vote for a black man to be President twice?

Yes.

No, it was the citizens, the people that did that.

Yes, keep telling yourself that the citizens organically wanted to elect Obama, and then wanted to reelect him so he could do more extrajudicial rendition and write profits for insurance companies into US law.

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