>"People under 18 should not be permitted to enter into contracts without parental permission."

Parents and their agents should not give unrestricted internet-connected devices to their children, or allow them access to such devices, without direct supervision.

It isn't about not allowing a contract with minors, which would encumber every site out there to force every user (adult) to "ID" themselves and then be tracked, striping everyone of their privacy. The parent(s) gave a minor a device on which he could, apparently, load any app he wanted. Or the device was set up with a blacklist instead of a whitelist, which simply isn't enough.

>"If it because the cultural norm, they won't be encountering unlocked devices from their friends or at school."

Typo. That is "If it became the cultural norm,"

I will also add- if they do encounter, randomly, some non-locked device on the way to school or at a friend's house, occasionally, for limited times, that is an acceptable risk. It isn't the same as having access all day and night on their own devices.

>"And though parental supervision is THE TOOL, it doesn't apply when they're walking to and from school, on someone else's phone, or even using a laptop in a playground. Trust me. I know."

If it because the cultural norm, they won't be encountering unlocked devices from their friends or at school.

>"Don't make / allow kids to use unsuitable tools, and AI companies should be offering a "child-safe" AI that simply isn't trained and can't discuss anything it shouldn't be able to discuss with a child unsupervised."

Agreed, make child-friendly apps and versions sites that can be whitelisted on the locked device by the parents/guardians/schools. But don't lock down everything on the internet for adults.

>"If Linux was as much of a supported platform as Windows is, Linux's market share would be much closer in parity to Windows."

How exactly would that be possible when almost all non-Apple computers come with MS-Windows pre-configured and pre-installed? That isn't a function of consumer demand, consumers don't really know they have any choice, other than an "Apple" computer or a "PC".

>"Consumer Reports has urged Microsoft to keep supporting Windows 10 beyond its October 2025 cutoff, saying the move will "strand millions of consumers" who have machines incompatible with Windows 11."

And every one of those machines is almost certainly compatible with Linux. Throw Mint on there and have a free, mostly familiar, easy-to-use, easy-to-update, stable, secure, high-performance, robust, privacy-respecting, and supported OS for many years to come.

Or continue to whine at Microsoft "This isn't 'fair', I deserve to be locked into your platform for longer for free."

>"We know this is a privacy compromise for adults"

At least they are aware of that

>"but believe it is a worthy tradeoff,"

Well, it is not. It is a dystopian hell that every adult will have to be challenged, ID'ed, and tracked on every site because parents (and their agents) refuse to protect their children.

>"OpenAI introduced parental controls to ChatGPT earlier in September"

The correct parental controls are that parents should not give unrestricted internet-connected devices to their children, or allow them access to such devices, without direct supervision.

>"Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly likely that every other damn site on the internet is going to make you show ID, all because parental control settings are too much of a hassle."

Which is why approval to access a site or not needs to be under parental control on the devices, themselves. It should not be the responsibility of every single site on the Internet.

The "solution" is *NOT* to pick a few sites and force every adult to "ID" themselves. Children should not have access to unrestricted Internet-connected devices when not supervised by a trusted adult. That needs to be the new cultural norm and expectation. In my view, the parents (or their agents) allowing otherwise are guilty of possible child neglect or abuse.

>"Too many people major in a subject they like, instead of ones that are in demand."

It is more complex than that. Also, too many people major in a subject that is in demand FOR WHICH they ALSO have no interest and no talent. They end up dropping out, or getting by and hit the workforce and are pretty much useless. I have seen it. Having a "degree" is not a golden ticket to a happy and productive career. I am not sure if ever has been, but it is especially less so as each decade goes by.

So:

1) Determine what interests you.
2) Determine what your skills and strengths are.
3) Determine where #1 and #2 overlap.
4) Determine what the jobs market is like.
5) Determine the overlap between #3 and #4.
6) Determine if a college degree is even necessary for #5
7) And if it is, match your realistic ability to pay now/later with which school/college/whatever.
8) Do it.

>"Problem is few high school seniors are informed enough to make this decision, and we are seeing the results."

Bingo

It is a lot of work, and it is something high-school guidance counselors and parents are not doing enough of or well-enough. And we need to start holding colleges at least partially financially responsible for the real-world outcomes of their offerings (which degrees, which subjects, which students to admit to them, how well they actually learned, and what assistance was given to get a job in that field).

>"The lawsuit says that Juliana was using the app without her parents' knowledge or permission."

Let's be real about this. We all know that the parents very likely had NO KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION about ANYTHING that child was doing on those devices. They probably gave her a phone and/or tablet and/or computer with full (or nearly full) access to the Internet to do whatever she wanted and install any app she wanted and communicate with any stranger she wanted. This is THE NORM right now and has been for many years. **THAT** is the main problem.

You CANNOT approach this problem with a no-list or blacklist mentality. You can't expect the problem to be solved by pointing at a few aspects/apps/sites to be responsible or magically restrict things to be safe. It isn't just a "social media" problem, or "AI problem", or "violence/porn/whatever site" problem.

It has to be approached with a whitelist mentality- these are the few things that are safe to install/use, the few people that are safe to communicate with, the few sites that are safe to visit, and everything else is ACCESS DENIED without active adult supervision. Scale and adjust based on age/maturity.

Hmm. Lost the end of my sentence there somehow:

And, of course, the companies that are going out of business are also the ones who are least likely to spend time filing out a survey

The BLS monthly numbers are always off when the underlying economy is changing rapidly, because of the "birth death problem", meaning that when large numbers of companies are being created or closed (born or died), the surveys that provide the quick data are guaranteed to be quite far off because the surveys go to companies that are already establish, i.e. those that weren't just born and didn't just die. So when there's a lot of market change, they're sampling the part of the market that is changing less. This means the estimates are off, and the faster the economy is changing the further off they are.

A related issue is that the survey results are only a sample, but BLS needs to extrapolate to the entire population of businesses -- but they don't actually know how many businesses there are in the country, much less how many fit into each of the size / revenue / industry buckets. So their extrapolation necessarily involves some systematic guesswork. In normal, stable economic times good guesses are easy because it's not going to be that much different from the prior year and will likely have followed a consistent trend. But when the economy is changing rapidly, that's not true, so the guesses end up being further off the mark.

Second, it's worse when things are turning for the worse, because of something kind of like "survey fatigue", but not. The problem is that when lots of the surveyed companies are struggling, they're focused on fighting for their existence and don't have time to bother filling out voluntary government reporting forms. It's not that they're tired of surveys, but that they just don't have the time and energy to spare. And, of course, the companies that are going out of business are also the ones w

The phone thing is a red herring, because these BLS surveys are not conducted over the phone.

A new issue compounding the above is that the BLS was hit hard by DOGE cuts and early retirements. They've lost over 20% of their staff, and the loss in experience and institutional knowledge is far larger than that, because the people who were fired and the people who took the buyouts tended to be very senior. So a lot of the experience that would be used to improve the estimates has walked out the door.

Anyway, the core problem is that the economy is going into the toilet, really fast. The BLS didn't break out how much of the 911,000 fewer new jobs were added 2024 vs 2025, but I'll bet a big percentage were after Trump started bludgeoning American businesses with tariffs. Most of that pain won't really be known until the 12-month report next year, because the monthly reports are going to continue underestimating the rate of change. Well, assuming the BLS staff isn't forced to cook the books, in which case we'll just never know.

>"The battery heater in BEVs does NOT use water-based coolants at all because of the risk in case it leaks. Instead, they use glycol."

That generalization is not correct. My Ariya uses regular antifreeze:

"The cooling system is filled at the factory with a pre-diluted mixture of 50% Genuine NISSAN Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant
(blue) and 50% water to provide year-round antifreeze and coolant protection. The antifreeze solution contains rust and
corrosion inhibitors. Additional cooling system additives are not necessary."

There are two circuits and two tanks which both use the same type of traditional coolant. One for the battery system and one for the electric drive train. The battery coolant circulates below the battery pack and is used both for cooling and heating the battery pack.

>"Tesla even has a sensor that will disable the HV battery if it detects a conductive liquid in the battery loop."

Not all EV's are Teslas.

>"I recently got a mobility scooter. Its speed is limited to 4mph. Maybe e-bikes should be limited thusly. Slow everyone the fuck down."

Um, 4mph is unreasonably low for any type of bicycle. That is just brisk walking speed. Had you said 10mph, I would probably agree. One of the purposes of riding a bike instead of walking is save some significant time.

In any case, if it is a true "e-bike" then you can't really limit speed, you can just limit how much assistance to pedaling effort. So a 10mph limit would just mean it would no longer assist you if you try to go above 10mph. You can still go faster with human effort...

That is, unless you want the motor to be programmed to work AGAINST you after a certain speed. But regular bicycles have no such limits, so doing that would be strange. I don't think such a move/restriction would be accepted as rational.

>"In July 2025, Dongfeng and Nissan formed Dongfeng Nissan [wikipedia.org]. One of the products coming from its assembly lines is - tada! - the Nissan Ariya."

My understanding is it just means that Dongfeng is licensed the ability to PRODUCE the Ariya (or other CMF stuff) for their own market. It was designed by Nissan and the ones available/sold in the West, NZ, and Australia are built in Japan.

No, you just don't understand externalities and the necessary role of government in internalizing them.