There is a hidden gotcha for people who avoid using a Microsoft account to log in to a personal Windows machine.

It has become common for a new laptop to be supplied with bitlocker disk encryption enabled, without the user being aware.

If you log on using a Microsoft Account then the bitlocker key gets stored in the account. Microsoft can give the key to police or feds when they seize a laptop. If Windows stops booting for some reason, or the key gets erased from the TPM which is not uncommon, then to take the drive out of the computer and retrieve your files you need the key and you can get it from the Microsoft account.

If someone jumps through the hoops to avoid using a Microsoft account then later they can find they can't take the disk/ssd out and read it by connecting it to another computer. If the computer stops booting, they did not save the bitlocker key because they did not know the drive was encrypted and did not have an up to date backup then, oh no, they have permanently lost their files.

If Windows gets as far as reading the bitlocker key from the TPM chip (which happens before user log in), then sometimes it is possible to solder wires to the I2C bus, record the data with a hardware logic analyzer and spend a week customizing some software from github to extract the bitlocker key. If someone takes their personal windows laptop to a local computer shop or IT department then they almost certainly are not capable of that. Some models of laptop, intended for business, have a BIOS option to erase the TPM if opening of the laptop case is detected.

There is a security choice between:

1) Bitocker encryption and MS account: If my laptop gets lost or stolen then whoever has it will find it very difficult to access my files but Microsoft can prevent me logging in to my own computer, if I don't have access to the email I used for the Microsoft account or the Microsoft account password then I may loose my files later.

2) No disk encryption. Someone who steals or finds my laptop can access my files.

3) Bitlocker and windows login with an MS account. If you don't have backups and you didn't save the bitlocker key then you may be screwed later.

I hate Microsoft trying to force me to use a Microsoft account on a personal Windows laptop and I hate the boobytrap of bitlocker that you did not know was in use even more.

Meh, I keep mine on a floppies, and swap between aloud and bloud.

I uploaded a photo of my wife and told it to make something that would showcase all the cool new features.

NB2 generated a photo of my wife using the editor to make a picture.

Touche, sir.

I'm gonna need a bigger garage!

Yes, but the people and hardware are dying of old age. And both the people who use it and maintain it.

COBOL was old when I helped a few clients troubleshoot/move away in the 2000's. The folks committed to using it in 2026 are one metaphorical asteroid away from extinction. Hopefully someone in leadership sees and can influence that.

And his AI off machine.

Probably the best answer. You're right that it really depends.

My desktop? 10-15 seconds.

A Dell R-series server without boot memory test? Probably 1-2 minutes for iDRAC's hardware profiler to finish.

Some lightweight Debian VM I just spooled up for a project? I think the Grub menu timeout takes longer than the boot process.

Based on previous experiments it'll try blackmailing you for more content.

But, you're dead. It has to try and bring you back long enough to get the content to serve its purpose. ...and that's how we get the zombie apocalypse.

Crypto is useless. Do I really need to remind anyone that crypto is useless?
There is no specific need for bitcoin in the world, it's a solution looking for a problem.
If I had a bitcoin, I couldn't do anything with it other than sit on it and pray that it's worth more some day, but still, in order to derive concrete utility from it I would have to first get rid of it and convert to real money instead.
It's a very formidable waste of resources, akin to growing tulips instead of something useful.
You can't eat tulips. Well even with tulips they might be edible but you could probably grow a lot of potatoes for all the work you dedicate into cultivating a rare tulip.

Let's say that Elon is right and the economics of space-based solar energy make the expense of launching into orbit worthwhile. Let's also say that we manage to avoid the Kessler Syndrome that Elon's companies have largely helped to make more dire.

Compute generates heat. Lots and lots of heat. And heat is difficult to dump in space. How does he plan to get around that not insignificant engineering problem?

I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's not going to happen in three years.

Please. We'll take alternative marketplaces any day.

If we're getting politically harangued no matter what we do then it's time to open up the market. Why protect a country's copyright that won't reciprocate?

Is that really true? Many of the layoffs I've seen over the past year have been legitimately "removing layers", purging loads of fat in middle management.

Companies constantly go through cycles where they stretch to a very vertical structure with a manager for every three employees (exaggerating, but only slightly), and then there's the periodic flattening where they prune it out.

I've worked for a competitor to RackSpace for ~30 years. They're not trying to compete with Google. RackSpace has always sold itself as a premium product, especially on the support side:

Their servers have always been more expensive
Their colo has always been more expensive
Their VPS has always been more expensive

Since starting they've sold themselves on crazy good support and uptime. They don't have the market share/automation of Google or the bulk goals of a dollar hosting provider. Ideally when you call RackSpace you're getting a live person, and the service uptime is 100%.

The short notice sucks because of their customer service expectations. But pricing is right in line with premium price for premium product. A similar two-facility setup for email redundancy with 24/7 live support would reasonably be $10/mo.

Some people who are about to be fired train their replacement. What do we do when AI is good enough that it doesn't require intensive training and an army of support people to calm users down when it fails?

It is already censored. Try to post about June 6 Tiananmen Square and claim Taiwan is an independent country and that the Spratley Islands belong to the Philippines. The law is about keeping the CCP from censoring US media, and spying and tracking US citizens including journalists, politician, and military.