Without prior warning

Not only did they add a "no class action lawsuit" clause, but they locked you out of all your already-downloaded smart tv apps like youtube until you did so.

If you need a legally gray area (at best) third party website to use a service, i don't know how that's somehow a net positive

I saw a video by a photographer and he points out that the quality of photos is not the reason to buy a dedicated camera. After all, you can buy a $2000 Ricoh that only takes black and white photos now; the iPhone will, in most circumstances, take 'better' photos, or at least more true-to-life photos.

But a dedicated camera focuses your attention. If you carry your camera, you're concerned with photography. You're not distracted by texts or whatever. And so your photography is likely to be better--you're paying attention to the task in a way that you rarely will with your phone.

Nice, i posted prior art about this back in 2017 so lmk if apple tries to sue you over any patent on this

Apple et all stopped including charger, cable, headphones etc because it's tremendous amount of ewaste. I already have cables, charges, headphones. I don't need crappy earbuds, if i need them i will buy them. I think the EU explicitly banned pack in power adapter and cables like ~10 years ago? There's already probably 25 USB adapters on the planet for every man woman and child

Every time people hear what it actually involves is outrage and opposition, at least all the way back to when Intel first announced that they wanted to hardcode identity numbers inside CPUs in 1999. But the corporations involved have been relentless, and have sunk countless billions of dollars steadily forcing it forwards, and building front organizations to obfuscate and whitewash it.

With Windows 11, Microsoft was finally able to FORCE Trusted computing hardware into every new computer. Not just every new Windows computer, but every computer.

Every new Intel PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. Every new AMD PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. Every new ARM PC CPU has built in Trusted Computing enforcement hardware. The only processor lines that DON'T have it are the microcontrollers.

There are some unlocked smartphones available, but as far as I can determine it's literally impossible to buy a smartphone that doesn't have hardware trusted computing built in.

I specified that enforcing Trusted Computing at the internet access level is still a long term goal, they couldn't get away with it today. However they are well on the way to success. Virtually all new hardware supporting trusted computing, all the front groups rolling out standards and systems, and as it gets incorporated into things everyone is going to increasingly running into situations where they get locked out of stuff if they're not Trusted Computing compliant. Streaming already restricts you to the worst quality if you're not compliant, and it's only going to get worse as pre-Win11 computers fade out and as more things require it.

I own it, it's just the 25 years of hosting i bought for $12 a year at the turn off the century finally ran out

Generally people keep their solar installs for at least one year, rather than replacing your panels, wiring, controllers and batteries each year, attempt to get two or more years out of them. This should help keep your cost basis down as inflation causes prices to increase

The advantage of sodium battery means anybody can produce it, there's no geopolitical alliances needed to manufacture them. Lithium is super rare by comparison. Any and every country can domestically produce sodium batteries forever. The low temp operating envelope of sodium is interesting, but only 11% of the worlds population lives somewhere that is useful. The big benefit is any country can stick a straw in the ocean and build a battery factory regardless of sanctions. Go look at Iran right now if you want to understand why I keep harping on this point.

I dunno, people on boats and in vans buy this stuff and run it for a decade or more without problems. Name brands like anker and ecoflow have very solid track records and 5-8 year warranty on most of this stuff. It's not fly by night Chinese crap. All this stuff has a very solid track record at this point. I bought my first MPPT way back in 2017 it's still alive and kicking no problem

Well that was with i think 32 panels, breaker box upgrade, and i forget 10 or 20kwh worth of battery. Effectively fully off grid except dec and January for our climate

My roof is about 10 years from EOL so I'm not super eager to install it today as a full system is about $40,000 in my local market. By comparison I can install this in my backyard in about 45 min simply with hand tools. I will do both eventually but i can do this today and cut about 50% of my air conditioning and beat bill today.

California and Texas are some of the biggest adopters of industrial batteries, and the prices keep plummeting. I remember being near an executive power summit in Idaho back in 2016 and all the execs said industrial power was pie in the sky and would never work. It has virtually resolved all of Australia's power "duck curve" problems. Solar + battery is just phenomenally economical today. China is bringing on NaCl batteries this year and shipping cars with them by EoY. Solar panels are made from beach sand and batteries made from ocean water. Couldn't get any cheaper than that.

We have a sunny, south facing portion of our yard. Looking forward to hanging 4 solar panels on the fence and getting 800-1000w (1200w "nameplate" max but reality is closer to 1000w) to offset our daytime use. We both WFH and then the kids are home by 3pm so being able to offset computers, fridge, and part of our AC/Heat bill is huge.
 
A couple of mfg, Anker and Ecoflow both sell a system that you do the standard 4 x 400w panel = 1200w plug in, and then a second 2000w (+5 more panels) into a battery system that discharges a max of 1200w overnight as the sun sets. I think they want like $1600 for the system. That's an instant buy for me when california electricity is $0.50/kwh