They all continue to work just fine as a thermostat

They do not continue to work "just fine". The product you bought was called a Nest Learning Thermostat. The remote control function by app was always a critical part of the product, and the reason you paid $300 for a Nest instead of $10 for a mercury switch t.stat.

An API change is an arbitrarily unnecessary change specially designed to create incompatibility to use as an excuse.
As noted: the functions of a thermostat have not changed. And if in fact an API change had been necessary would ordinarily
be introduced end to end for any thermostats regardless of model number - Google controls the software at both ends, so
they are fully capable of ensuring all thermostats they ever made would have a compatible interface.

This is the standard usage pattern where a manufacturer changes the Functions of the "Smart" product after sale so that you have to start paying more for the smart function.

In this case; the $300 Nest lasting 5 years before Google turns it off amounts to an equivalent of a $60 per year sub.

Let me stop you right there.

You presuppose that we know what a good desktop is. I don't think we do. I think trying many different variations to find out is exactly how we some day will.

In which parallel universe? Windows has shown what a barely passable desktop needs, one that is just about good enough to stop people from escaping from the lock-in.

We agree.

But it is not a problem the Linux crowd can solve. Because it's not a technical question.

We had this discussion in 2023. And in 2021. 2020, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007 and I think 2005. Or so.

Oh dear, poor users don't know where to start. I'm sure that is the one and only thing that stops the entire world from switching to Linux. Certainly not the lack of games, business applications or compelling reasons to switch from the shit that they currently run and know is shit but at least they know that shit.

Linux has won the server OS wars. When's the last time anyone had a serious discussion of using whatever the last windows server OS version is for anything critical? When's the last time you logged into a Solaris machine?

The desktop is a different game, always has been, always will be. It's a game run not by technical excellent. I mean, exhibit A: DOS and Windows, who were never, ever, the best OS - just the most popular one. But on the desktop, what matters is if the users can use it (it's right there in the word) and that hinges on two things: a) familiarity and b) availability of applications.

a) is a lot more serious than most of us nerds realize. Think about any random corporation. Let's say 5000 office employees currently using Windows. Re-training them to use Linux instead might take just a few hours for the tech-savvy ones, and let's say a day for the less so. Add twice that as a period where productivity is at least somewhat hampered by them having to look up again or ask a colleague how to do X. Suddenly you're looking at something like 30-50 thousand hours of lost productivity. And these are not minimum-wage people. So your bill is what, half a million?

b) this is the applications the business actually uses, not some Open Source alternative. If the graphics designers use Photoshop, they need that, not Gimp. Tons and tons of enterprise software is windows-only. And there we are with the chicken-and-egg problem.

Seriously, "the Linux desktop is too fragmented" is bullshit. All things considered, that's the least worry of anyone. And one of the greatest strengths. I know that I would've given up completely on Linux a lot sooner than I actually did if there had only been KDE and Gnome, and not Enlightenment and other interesting options pushing the boundary of the possible. Heck, E would still run circles around almost all UIs today.

a non-functioning traffic light is always supposed to be treated as a 4-way stop

Supposed to. But I can guarantee this is not the case, As I have seen actual power outages.

And try getting onto a major thoroughfare from a side road that normally has occasional traffic light protection.
But literally 99% of the people on the main road in massive numbers just ignore the downed lights at the intersections entirely.

And at the main junction where Major roads intersect Is complete and utter chaos for the half hour before a police officer gets there to deploy portable stop signs and manually direct anyone to stop.

Think the current ownership even knows about ThinkGeek?

ThinkGeek is more like a historical footnote, and the counterexample to show geek gifts have not been a viable demographic.
And I'm not sure where the article is going with that. The Oregon trail is iconic among old people who were never geeks for nostalgic purposes as a famous game played when kids. Game Enjoyer and Nostalgic gamer are true demographics though, and these demographics are Not related to geekdom; any more than gift for Movie enjoyer puts one in a geek demographic.

Firefox merch and to an extent Github merch are not even gifts for geeks anymore, as these products are simple common items for general audiences and more widely used by non-Geeks than by geeks, but hey. The $55 Github magic ball has a geek theme without much appeal. It's just maginally geeky at most.

Considering ThinkGeekp ended up shutting down their online store, and their product line was absorbed by Gamestop. One of those retailers who caters to pretty much the opposite of geeks; Pop culture clientele and physical media-loving Gaming enthusiasts.

If the CO2 is somehow released, it will not be possible to drive away from the accident because car engines require oxygen to burn fuel.

Thank you, Bartoku, that is a very helpful explanation.

They know the things they are taught, but can not deal with new issues.

Not exactly a new issue. Power outages are a common problem.
Humans typically handle them worse than the teslas.. By treating the powered off light as a green light.

Yeah, one of the things I like about Claude (and Gemini 3 as opposed to 2.5) is that they really clamped down on the use of "Oh, now I've got it! This is absolutely the FINAL fix to the problem, we've totally solved it now! Here, let me write out FIX_FINAL_SOLVED.md" with some half-arse solution. And yep, the answer to going in circles is usually either "nuke the chat" or "switch models".

If ending support violates an "implied warranty for fitness" the seller or manufacturer could owe you a refund depending on what legal jurisdiction you are in.
So far We don't see any lawsuits against the manufacturers doing this that have done this, And they keep getting more and more brazen.

However, in most cases they do this on units they have already stopped sales for, and the products come with express warranties that have expired.

The warranties have "expired" as far as they are concerned a certain number of years after the purchase. Even when they stop updates for security bugs: security bugs they are patching which are defects originally present in the product at the time of sale; only hidden.

It's not that much of a change, though. The USA has only ever paid lip-service to its "allies" and always seen Europe as competitors. It's not a shift from "friend" to "enemy", just from "competitor" to "enemy".

There are also stealth subscriptions.

Example: Google arbitrarily bricking Nest thermostats 1st and 2nd Gen to encourage purchase of Updated version (while the old devices still do go online in order to upload your data; they are artificially rendered useless). . That new hardware cost is a disguised subscription.

IoT hardware vendors have been doing this for quite a while -- often by discontinuing updates to Fix security defects their product was shipped with.
Or pushing out a deliberately customer-hostile update to lock features the product had been sold with.

Yuep. The TLDR for existing US case law is basically that anything publicly available on the open web

Yes and Google probably benefits from this precedent more than any other company.. They're running a frickin search engine. They hardly ever Ask or Get proper permission for scraping anything. Companies who publish News in particular could have massive claims against sites like google News for pulling their articles and displaying it on Google's site. Not only unauthorized scraping, but appropriation.

If this precedent gets overturned, then I can file a big Lawsuit against Google for scraping my web server without specific permission, And then move the case to turn the case into a $2 Trillion class action.

Yeah, when thinking of the typical air fryer market, think "working mom with kids who wants to serve something nicer than a microwave dinner, but doesn't have the time for much prep or waiting". You can get those mailard reactions that microwaving doesn't really get you, nice crisping and browning of the surface that you normally get from an oven, without having to wait for an oven to preheat. I don't think anyone disputes that an oven will do a better job, but the air fryer does a better job than a microwave, which is what it's really competing against. They're also marketed as easy-clean, which again is a nod to their target audience.

How costs build up is really staggering. I'm getting into the business of importing 3d filament. In Iceland, it currently sells for like $35/kg minimum. The actual value of the plastic is like $1. The factory's total cost, all costs included, is like $1,50. If it's not name brand, e.g. they're not dumping money on marketing, they sell it for $3 for the cheapest stuff. Sea freight adds another dollar or two. Taxes here add 24%. But you're still at like $5/kg. The rest is all middlemen, warehousing, air freight for secondary legs from intermediary hubs, and all the markup and taxes on those things.

With me importing direct from the factory, sea freight only, I can get rid of most of those costs. Warehousing is the biggest unavoidable cost. If I want to maintain an average inventory of like 700kg, it adds something like $5/kg to the cost. Scanning in goods and dispatching user orders (not counting shipping) together adds like $2,50. And then add 24% tax (minus the taxes on the imported goods). There's still good margin, but it's amazing how quickly costs inflate.