Previous comments have been drawing analogies to Black Mirror, but this "idea" goes back much further...

...This is an episode of Max Headroom (US version).

Specifically, S02E02: "Deities." A company claims to be able to bring past loved ones back to "life" as an AI, for a modest recurring fee. But Bryce (the creator of Max Headroom) opines they can't possibly have the compute power to do it, as it requires a large mainframe just to run Max's highly flawed, glitching bust.

Wouldn't surprise me if the "visionaries" behind this saw that episode, and saw an opportunity to fleece gullible rubes.

A problem with limited-time spectrum licenses is that it costs companies large amounts of money to deploy hardware to utilize the spectrum, so they're not going to want to do that if they face uncertainty about continuing to use the spectrum. Now, "use it or lose it" rules make sense, where if a company (e.g. Dish) is just sitting on unused spectrum, they should either be required to return it to the government or auction it back off under the same rules as the government auctions.

Ahh, thanks, memory is fuzzy.

IIRC a bunch of the Dish spectrum was formerly Sprint spectrum that T-Mobile was required to sell as part of their purchase of Sprint. Dish claimed they'd set up a new "4th carrier" for competition, which they never did - it seems like T-Mobile should have the right of first refusal on the spectrum, at least the formerly-Sprint part, rather than have it all go to a competitor (and at a profit for Dish, who did nothing but squat on a valuable resource).

Yes, buying. I lived in Cedar City Utah and first encountered Linux in a RedHat 2.0 beige box at a gaming store in Red Cliffs Mall in St George. Probably in 1994 or 5. Came with a couple of manuals, a boot floppy, and a CD. Had the 0.95 kernel. Getting dial-up configured was interesting since the ISP only knew about Trumpet Winsock... Then leaving it running for a few hours in the evening to update everything.

Within a week I was at the local BN buying O'Reilly books.

I may not have a PhD in thinky stuff, but someone running Windows7 is on outdated software even if their word processor is current.

"Grocery store in the arctic goes out of business. Residents now have two choices: move or live in harsh conditions."

LOLwut? Like... a history book? I know those are hard to find and read these days.

Remember that the people who wrote/signed "We the People" were mostly rich white men who owned not only property but also people. All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others.

Nah.

Iâ(TM)m 51. Iâ(TM)ve had health insurance continuously for 35 years and have used it exactly ZERO TIMES.

I am self pay. For everything but true life threatening emergencies, which Iâ(TM)ve had zero.

Even the ER is cheaper when negotiated self pay.

My urologist is stunned that I pay $85 for his visits. Self pay. Including labs. My colleague goes to the same urologist and his insurance pays $550 for the same visit and naturally it comes out of his deductible lol.

Insurance is a scam. All insurance is legal gambling and gamblers never win.

Supply and demand dictate this is exactly the case.

If something is valuable to everyone, it should only be accessible to those who have enough saved value to acquire it.

The poor fucked themselves. My parents are poor but worked hard so I wouldn't be.

Or better, don't buy from Amazon. Since they single-bin all supplies of the same product number, even if it's "sold by Amazon" you can still get a fake sent in by a reseller.

Being compensated for it means it wonâ(TM)t get wasted and will always have a fair valuation.

Compensation is as cooperative as it comes because nobody can hoard it.

I'm a weak man... a weak, petty man...