Andor shows that you can take a tired franchise and do something new and really interesting with it. I wish they would have at least tried.

I like to buy European products, but often they either don't make what I want, or the price is 10-100x what I can get it from China for. There are limits to how far I will go to support local businesses.

Europe is moving against China too. There is going to be a per-package fee of 3 Euro, to make it harder for sites like AliExpress and Temu to sell into the EU. I don't like that, it's just propping up middle-men who do nothing by add an extra zero to the price of things. Even with it, buying direct from China will still be cheaper.

They haven't gone as dumb as banning DJI drones and non-EU routers yet.

European and Chinese companies have electric tractors. Very simple to operate, very easy to maintain. Yes, even the battery packs.

And import bans to stop people buying Chinese electric tractors that have zero emissions and are easy to repair. For lighter duty work people have been importing them for a few years now.

They had big ideas for it, but as time went on the budget got squeezed while needing more CGI on screen to represent the advanced technology and galactic stage they were portraying.

The actors started to cost more too. One of the reasons why many shows are limited to 5 seasons is that the standard contract is 5 seasons and then a re-negotiation for more money. Amazon has another trick that they used with Bosch - can the show, and start an identical one with the same characters and actors, but a slightly different name and a big reset of everyone's salaries.

It's a real shame that Universe was cancelled. Lots of potential and an interesting idea.

Maybe Amazon isn't the right place for it though. Look at the final season of The Boys. Massive budget cuts were very apparent.

Wasn't this literally the plot of Nineteen Eighty Four?

Higher ranking Party members could turn the two-way Telescreen off for a short time.

Graduates have massive debts in most cases, right?

Back when we weren't so hardcore capitalist, people used to have a job for life and would stick with a company even after they skilled up. The company would reward them with better salary as they became more senior.

Nowadays the only way to get a decent salary bump is to move company, and people do that a lot because the cost of living is so high.

They are also one of the few parts of the electronics hobby that isn't toxic. A very welcome change.

I misremembered. It's been some years since I did it.

We found that submersion to 10cm was often worse than submersion beyond 1m. I think it was the lack of compression on gaskets. Our pre-compliance test was a drainpipe blocked off at the bottom, and string.

Samsung used to make waterproof phones where you could replace the battery. I'd give up the ability to fully submerge if it meant the battery could be swapped out.

For me it's a big deal. I had a hell of a time replacing my Pixel XL battery. I'm keeping that thing alive forever, because it has unlimited full quality photo uploads to Google Photos.

This is the usual way the EU does this stuff. They don't get too specific, they let courts figure that out and update their rules if necessary.

It is disappointing that waterproof devices are not included, like IP68 phones. Then again I wonder if IP68 rating is enough to claim that, because typically if they say IP68 and you submerge the phone, they don't want to fix it under warranty. IP68 means a water jet, so I suppose it's not actually submersion, but I think a manufacturer might have a hard time arguing it with a court that is likely to side with the consumer's understanding of words like "waterproof".

Some people get them for free, but most people do have to pay if they want them. Or not if their employer offers them.

Same with COVID now, those were free but now only certain people get them for nowt and the rest have to pay.

I think China is a combination of throwing money at the wall and seeing what sticks, and wanting a civilian nuclear programme for weapons purposes.

For the same reason the US won't abandon nuclear, it will be propped up to ensure that the US can always produce weapons, fuel for nuclear subs, medical isotopes, that kind of thing.