This is an interesting observation, but not entirely false. There are edits on Wikipedia that basically amount to "wiki link every word in the article". IMHO this could well be in violation of potential laws against algorithms. I'm not sure if Wikipedia should get a pass because it is "free" or whatever.

Tesla's done test drives for years, even here in Texas where they're not allowed to do direct sales. Due to state law they call the storefronts "galleries" where you can check out (and sit in) the different models and take them for test drives, though they're not allowed to discuss price or help you order the car.

In 2020 I tweeted about my folks' test drive of the Model Y as they were deciding between getting a Model 3 like mine or the larger Model Y. They ended up buying a Y.

You can schedule test drives ahead of time, or do so while you're checking out the cars at their storefront. In 2023 we checked out the Cybertruck and ended up taking a test drive of a Model X that we hadn't originally planned to do.

Sure, you don't want to pay full sticker price, because that's the sucker price. You have to waste a day of your life haggling with the dealer so that he can charge different prices to different customers. If you buy straight from the manufacturer under a no-haggle system, they have to offer the same price to everybody. So it's likely to be quite a lot less than the sticker price of a dealership-sold car. The manufacturer still wants to segment the market and milk more money out of less price-sensitive customers, but they have to do it by selling more luxurious trim levels.

Orange man says solar, like windmills, doesn't work. So he is going to ban it from installing solar and make it drill for oil instead.

Wrong, âoeslopâ means excessive amout of AI content. It can be quite accurate and correct and still be called slop.

This could also be fake, designed to make people like that look stupid by basically satirizing their rants

Much better expressed as 5 Kelvin -- who understands Fahrenheit when you are describing temperature close to absolute zero ?

Long story short, have you tried the VLC app on your Apple TV for media on your local network?

I bought a Vizio PX75-G1 back in 2019 and originally used a Mac mini to drive it. I have HDHomeRun tuners and used the mini for OTA content - live TV and DVR functionality. The mini was also my media server with my content stored on a Drobo 8D and organized in iTunes.

After Drobo went under I ended up getting a Synology NAS that replaces both 8D as well as the Drobo 5D I used on my Mac Pro. I then learned the Synology could run the DVR software, as well as serve up media, so use the Synology for that now instead of the mini. I migrated the DVR software and setup Plex (I have a Lifetime Plex Pass from before they started to make all the changes). I was still using the mini for playback.

My physical media includes a lot of content from Europe - there's a major benefit of importing older European shows as PAL content is 576i whereas NTSC content is 480i, so a 20% increase in picture resolution which is quite noticeable on modern TVs.

I picked up an Apple TV 4K after learning it could play back 50 Hz content at 50 Hz provided the TV supported it, which the Vizio does. This eliminates the normal judder seen when watching 50 Hz content played back at 60 Hz - this judder is quite noticeable during scenes that pan the camera.

While I don't use it often, I have used the aforementioned VLC app on my Apple TV to play back content that wasn't in Plex. While not as nice as the Plex interface, VLC can drill down thru the Synology's filesystem to find and play content.

Especially with the upcoming M5 Max (and Ultra?) Mac Studio the Mac Pro with its eight (pretty much useless) PCIe slots is the odd one out. It doesn't make sense with the tightly integrated Apple Silicon chips, and unless they were going to make a whole separate line of more modular M-series chips for the high end it really doesn't have a place in the lineup that makes sense. I guess they could have considered putting M5 Max chips on daughterboards and made a motherboard with multiple slots for them, but it would have been even more ridiculously expensive to do that.

Given that the Roberts Court is one of the most corporate-friendly in history, this decision comes as something of a surprise.

Nonetheless, it appears to be largely concordant with the so-called "Betamax case" from the early 1980's which established the principle of significant non-infringing uses as a defense and, despite passage of the DMCA, still largely informs the contours of contributory infringement.

Some states are not allowing RealID that has an address outside the voting precinct. This is why Student IDs are needed. Certainly when I was at school my driver's license indicated I lived in a different state.

ReadID does not include an indication of citizenship and non-citizens can get them.

It is unfortunate that some of the items that can be used to get a RealID are also proof of citizenship and thus they could have added this information to the card at that time. I'm not sure what to do if somebody thinks they are a citizen but lack any of the acceptable proofs, they may have to get the RealID without the citizenship indicator if they need it soon, and there will have to have another option than a RealID to register to vote.

None of this has anything to do with using RealID or any other license or card at the polling station. That is ONLY to prove you are using the right name, you have to be registered in order to vote.

You need ID to register to vote. Stop lying.

Do you carry your birth certificate with you because you needed it to get your passport?

The ID at voting is supposed to confirm that the person is a particular registered voter. If they are not allowed to vote then they would not be registered.

I do agree that people would feel more comfortable about the voting system if voters produced a physical object rather than the current scheme of saying a name that is registered and they can assume nobody else will say. If they allowed a few obvious things like Student ID's or utility bills the number of disenfranchised voters would be small enough that it would not effect the voting results (it would not be zero though so there will always be sob stories for opponents of ID). Crossing names off in a register is still going to be done since that is the real prevention of fraud (including stolen IDs), but public comfort even if it can be proven that the IDs do nothing can be considered a useful goal.

The Republican attacks on the ability to register to vote are pretty serious. IMHO anything done by the government that happens to know if you are eligible to vote should automatically register you, in particular getting a RealID drivers license, and quite a few methods of applying for benefits. The attacks on mail-in voting are also blatant, mail-in votes are a good deal more secure than any non-biometric ID since they require the voter to have access to the mailbox that the numbered ballot is delivered to. I also personally know I will be out of the country on Election Day so I am personally disenfranchised by this. The continuous claim that the only thing in that bill is ID at voting is a LIE, stop doing it.

Having lost a spouse to a (much shorter) battle with cancer, I feel bad for his family.

That said, there is no way to operate that kind of business at that scale ethically. No matter what safeguards you put in place, there will be CSAM that makes it through, or material made with adult trafficking victims, which he profited from. I don't know how one can rationalize that.