Hmmâ¦I read a lot of non-fiction and manage to never encounter the books you describe. Perhaps you have ideological blinders on when you walk into pretty much every bookstore (in the US at least)? This is not the world that most non-fiction book readers inhabit. I hope you can find your way to the hundreds of great non-fiction books written recently.

I recall reading somewhere that Ellison started commandeering the barge between Lanai and Maui for his development purposes, which has made it harder for residents to get the things they need...

My wife rented an EV from Hertz. They required that the car be returned with the battery at a certain charge level (like with gas tanks). This was in Palm Springs. She spent several hours trying to find a charging station that worked (many didnâ(TM)t), and then had to spend time waiting to charge and then charging. Ate 1/2 of a vacation day. Hertz was absolutely no help. Never again.

I may not be the demographic (61, but working in tech since 1987 so fairly aware of and interested in new things), but I do not know a single person who uses Threads. No one has ever said to me âoeCheck out this cool thing on Threadsâ. Is there a mysterious, exclusive club of 275M people I donâ(TM)t know about?

A great device for note taking. Combines the best of paper (feels like it, and the device is so innocuous I donâ(TM)t feel weird bringing it out at meetings) with simple yet valuable online capabilities (local and cloud storage, folders, email yourself files, some search ability, etc). It isnâ(TM)t a distraction device - no web searching, etc. you just take notes. I have 750+ pages of organized notes from meetings, etc over the past few years. Previously, I would have had multiple notebooks, scraps of paper, etc. This has changed/improved my life.

I guess I have to get my VCR out and record it OTA, as my parents did. To quote Rush: "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

One of the last three video rental stores just closed in my neighborhood (in Seattle). They had a ton of stuff, from all media companies, and I could walk in a get a disc any time I wanted to. It would play on my DVD player, and I could keep it for a few days and then return it for a nominal cost. As the streaming companies fragment, I will watch fewer movies/shows, and long for the days when I could walk into this store and rent what I wanted.

...focused on finding news ways to cart rich people around.

Sinofsky restates well-known book by Clayton Christensen written in 1997. News at 11:00?

"Courage" is what you have when you run into a burning building to save people, not what you have when you make a decision about whether to abandon a microphone plug. I hate how corporations in particular degrade the real meaning of words.

Paul Allen has a strong interest in old computer technology (Living Computer Museum), and science fiction. I hear he also has some money. They should approach him for help.

"It's expected to last until mid-day on Thursday when the weather looks likely to blow it away." Just a reminder...when it comes to air pollution, there is no "away". It all stays here on planet earth, in the air we breathe all over the world. Just saying.

I think the banks should pre-pay the eventual millions/billions of dollars they will eventually be fined for whatever nefarious purpose this will be used for. They can write it off their books early, we can avoid lengthy trials and endless bloviating about how "something must be done to rein in the financial system", and we can all just admit that it's going to happen anyway so why not get ahead of the curve?

Is it really likely that something good and beautiful can be created by people working under this kind of regime? A cheaper role of toilet paper that gets to your house really fast...is that what some of our smartest people want to devote their lives to? Increasingly we let technology companies drive culture, and I can't help but think that nothing truly beautiful and valuable will come out of people working in conditions like this. It is a lie we tell ourselves as we look at attractive devices and use amazing software...in the case of Amazon and companies like it, these things are born of bad soil. Beyond just not wanting to buy anything through Amazon, I don't want this kind of company in my city (Seattle).

The Internet Essentials program Comcast offers is $9.95/month, and to be eligible, you have to have a child who participates in the Free and Reduced Lunch program. No kids? Not eligible.