Keeping a password on an account is not a requirement. Passkey enthusiasts think that passwords will eventually go away entirely.

If you do keep a backup password for an account, then passkeys have done nothing to improve security. For most users, the password is probably the same as the one on their luggage.

My locally run password manager program has hundreds of passwords accumulated over the decades (don't worry, its database is robustly backed up). That was inconvenient enough when I had to add each new account when it was created.

Now, every time do a transaction with a new business I have to create and save at least two passkeys, then save them on different devices that can't get destroyed in the same natural disaster? Then when I upgrade to a new device, I have to go through *all* those accounts and create yet more passkeys? Give me a break.

That's a nice theory you have, but any time Windows does a semiannual update, they feel free to reset any options they wish to the defaults without warning.

The software subscription they'll require to you to maintain, lest your car turn into a brick.

Comparing PLATO to today's systems exemplifies the old quote "Software is a gas: It expands to fill its container".

I used a PLATO system during the last couple of years that it still ran on an old CDC Cyber mainframe (which the university was barely able to keep stringing along with spare parts getting scarce).

PLATO usually ran relatively smoothly with up to 400 people simultaneously logged in to interactive sessions via serial links. At any given moment, they were all sharing a single processing unit with integer speed probably comparable to a 80386, and less than 1 megabyte of magnetic core memory. It was an incredible feat of efficient programming.

In contrast, recently I was finally forced to upgrade my 5-year old cellphone because it was getting to the point where it often couldn't fit a single app for a single user in its 3000 megabytes of memory without swapping out all of the other apps (particularly annoying when one of the other apps is the music player). It ran smoothly when it was new, but with software bloat compounding exponentially with each update, it was getting to be as slow as molasses.

This was even though I had at least one million times as much memory allocated for my personal use as I did using PLATO. Now that my new phone has *three* million times as much memory allocated to me as PLATO did, things are running smoothly again -- for now.

I've got bad news for you: As soon as the shit hits the fan, there aren't going to be any working satellites.

And if Musk is still around, he'll be hiding in a deep bunker. He won't be wasting time trying to reactivate his Starlink base stations.

Sovereign, schmovereign.

Your little hobby relies on governments and organizations all over the world cooperating to keep an incredibly complex and fragile internetwork up and running.

When the shit actually hits the fan, that all gets shut down, and you'll have nothing.

If you had ever considered purchasing an actual investment, you would have seen the disclaimer that applies to all of them:

"Past performance is not a guarantee of future results"

Aesop wrote a fable about that.

At least once you forget your cryptowallet passphrase or your online repository gets drained by hackers, you can just gaze at a stone every day instead.

You should be grateful that they didn't map all the keys to launch Copilot.

"It looks like you're trying to use your computer. Here, let me do it for you-- Now, while I'm doing that, you just look at this endless scroll of clickbait to keep your primitive mind occupied. There, there. That's better."

Well, you sure are one big-ass bucket full of ad hominems.

It doesn't matter how few accountants write the laws.

It only matters that accountants write the laws. No other professionals would know the arcane terminology required by all the other accountants who get to comply with the laws.

Even when the laws are vague and left for IRS to fill in the details, they're going to have tax accountants do it. In this case as well, it's still totally irrelevant how few accountants they use.

Special interest and industry-backed think tanks write much or most of our legislation, then hand them over to politicians.

Now, what professionals would a think tank hire to write tax code? Dentists?

Both assets and liabilities are usually nothing more than wild-assed guesses.

Then you add and subtract your guesses to look really nice on your double entry ledger, making extra sure the difference comes out to precisely zero!!!!

Are you trying to tell me with a straight face that accountants have no say in writing tax policy?

Give me a break.