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.

The important thing is that all of the solar power remains in control of the same people who currently control our energy supply.

That's really what this is about. Power. Not electric power the power to tell you what to do by controlling whether you have electricity or not. Whether you can drive into work.

The cause is that we are in a deep deep recession that is being masked by ridiculous amounts of AI spending and a news media that is dedicated to propping up this administration at least through the midterms.

There isn't a single serious economist who will tell you that we aren't in a recession if you take out AI spending and AI spending doesn't create jobs. The work is almost entirely automated except for a handful of highly specialized construction jobs that don't last very long and the typically are done by people brought in from out of state because they require specific skills that your average electrician or Carpenter doesn't have. Companies could of course train but fuck that give me give me give me that cheap labor.

You have not been able to get ahead in a company by schmoozing in a very long time. The way you get ahead and the way you have gotten ahead for the last two decades is you go to another company that pays you more than you come back to your old company with a higher salary and you keep bouncing from company to company. That's because companies stopped promoting from within and stopped training ages ago. They will only train you and give you new skills for a brief period of time during your new hire period so to move up that's what you need to do. That's exactly what my kid had to do in order to move up and it's why their income kept going up.

Networking doesn't work when companies randomly bring the ax down or hell the motherfucking chainsaw every few years when there's a blip in the stock price. You don't know who did not work with because you never know who is going to survive the next round of layoffs.

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.

They created Verily Health a long time ago, and Debug came out of that. It's one of their moonshot projects, hoping to develop the next big medical profit centre.

Governments and corporations will pay for this service if it works. Back when I was in an office, my employer would pay for flu vaccinations, because the cost was much lower than the lost productivity if I got sick.

Pumped storage is a good option. Nuclear won't be economically viable, ever. It will be cheaper to use gas and capture the emissions, assuming you care about reaching net zero.

For all the whining, in the end renewables will win on economic grounds.

It's not exactly a controversial position. Most of Europe at least partially funds education through taxation, because capitalism doesn't deliver what the country needs. It's the tragedy of the commons, every company wants to use the pool of existing skilled labour, none of them want to contribute to maintaining it.

It's always been the case that 99% of stuff is crap. We occasionally have periods where there are multiple good shows airing, but they are rare. It only looks better in the past because we remember the good ones, not the rubbish.

There are a few current shows that are worth watching.

Thanks to streaming shows often get cancelled 5 seconds after the last episode of the season airs. They have all the metrics instantly, and don't wait for DVD/Bluray sales figures.

I do buy physical media, but I've given up treating it as a way to support shows. As you say, too little of the money reaches the creators, and it has no impact on the renew/cancel decision. If there is other merch that helps the creators more directly, I'll go for that.

It's the usual failure of the capitalist system. There is little benefit to investing in younger staff and training them. Once they gain skills they want more money, so either you pay them or they leave. Companies prefer to just hire experienced staff, and now can try to replace the graduates with AI.

It used to be the norm to train people out of skill and employ them for decades. Now they expect the graduate to train themselves, at their own expense, and treat them as disposable.

I like the idea of supporting creators to whatever extent I can. As an anime nerd I know that Blu-ray sales are the main metric whether a show gets another season or not. That and merchandise sales but I don't really have space to set up merch and I don't like buying it just to put it in a corner of a closet. Plus buying blu-rays gets me high quality video on a pressed disc that will more than likely outlive me.

I have no illusions though about how the people who make anime get treated. I know only a tiny fraction of the money I spend ever makes it into their pockets and more often than not they are run out of business repeatedly by rapacious corporations. So at the same time I don't really begrudge anyone who doesn't want to buy into that literally.

I think the correct solution is to buy the official release to support the creators but also change how you vote so that workers stop getting exploited. Worker exploitation is a political problem after all not an economic one.

Of course I have to live in the world the way it is now not the way I wanted to be so again if you're not buying blu-rays I don't be grudge you in the slightest. Although it's an anime fan like I said without the blue ray sales and the merch sales you're not going to get more of that show you like... And it really is the Blu-ray sales the drive the next season even more so than the merch a lot of times.

Dell can't match Apple because Win 11 wants 16 GB RAM to boot to desktop and 32 to be useable.

MicroSlop designed the os before the AI boom. They can't fix that without giving up their spyware and they're not gonna do that.

Mind you Apple really need 16 GB but that's still half Windows