Merit should always consider strictly value.

I still say BBK electronics was looking to break out of the Asian market and used OnePlus to do it. Carl Pei, the "founder" of that tiny little "startup" came up with a crazy marketing plan. Tell them you are developing a "top line" smartphone with a lot of features, rock bottom price. Use your "startup" website users forum and ads to spread the word. When the price is announced, it was WAY less than a flagship phone, so they called it a flagship killer. Oh! But since we are a poor startup, we don't have the money to make enough phones, so you have to have an INVITE in order to buy one. I remember the feeding frenzy in 2014 when this came along. Users on their website would almost give up a kidney to get one LOL. Phone was released, and lo and behold it was a pretty good phone but amazingly looked almost like the Oppo Find 7. And, people found out that the parent company, BBK electronics who owned OnePlus, also owns Oppo (among others). Then it was discovered that Oppo was the manufacturer building the OnePlus phones too! (guess that is why they looked like a mirror of the Oppo phones, minus a feature here and there. With each new phone, they got more expensive, started to look more "expensive" too. Flashy colors, all glass back, dumped CyanogenMod for Oxygen OS and on and on to the point, they aren't the "bargain" they once were. (especially the trade in value when you sell one). Now that BBK/Oppo/OnePlus are known more outside of Asia, from a business standpoint, it does make sense to dump the OnePlus, push everyone on the Oppo phone now. That is, if Oppo phones are approved for use in the USA and other countries, with all the bands, and, the carriers will allow them on their networks. OnePlus had a good run, but their time is over.

Guess they never saw that movie eh? LOL

Who do you think it funneling all of the anti AI Data center movement? Hey, I'm not 100% against them...they need to have their own power/water so as to not impact the population, but China wants NO AI data centers built in the USA for a reason. The tech companies want them, but if they can't have them in America, I'm sure China would be MORE THAN WILLING to let them build them in China. If you look at Google Earth, China has built a TON of solar, hydro power out in the middle of nowhere. That power has to be for something other than people. Once China gets the handle on AI data centers, they can pretty much dictate whatever they want. The only upside would be if the AI bubble bursts!

Brave is what I use. Along with AdGuard, it pretty much shuts down the ads on YT.

Use to be an awesome plugin called FBP (Facebook Purity) that you could customize to block the stuff you didn't want. But, it seems like the coder has gone MIA. Haven't had any updates in about six months. Either Facebook bought him out, he died, or just gave up.

The $5K a year just gives you a $300 per person per visit discount. So pays itself back in 15 visits or so.

Plenty of us nerds can afford this and want to see news about this.

Headline "suggests" it is the heatwave causing it. The biggest problem with our grid, is the bulk of it is ABOVE ground. Yeah, in subdivisions and what not it is usually buried, but the multi-thousand volt transmission lines are for obvious reasons above ground. Given how stupid people are when they dig, can you imagine if those were below ground.

When BBK, the parent of Oppo, came up with the OnePlus phone, pretty much anyone outside of China never heard of Oppo. Then they have Carl Pei develop a "start up" that is so pour, they won't be able to produce enough phones, so you need an invite to buy one. Come up with a phone that was nothing more than a knock off of the Oppo Find 7, minus a feature here and there, sell it DIRT CHEAP, call it a flagship killer and it created a feeding frenzy online. (remember?). By the time it was discovered that OnePlus was owned by Oppo/BBK electronics, the phone had taken off and they released another model, then another model building a base of users OUTSIDE of China. Of course they increased the price to the point now it's not worth being a "flagship" killer for what you get. I had 3 of their phones. OnePlus 1, 5, 7 but after that, I switched. Price, the OS, updates (lack of)... From a budget standpoint, since Oppo is more well known, makes sense to drop OnePlus IF people will switch to the Oppo. That also means figuring out a way to get approval (I'm talking USA here) from the FCC to get them to function properly on the cellular networks. The other problem, is since the Apple/Samsung duopoly probably has deals with the the carriers/government/politicians to KEEP out the competition, and carriers probably won't allow outsiders on their networks, unless you know how to wrangle some of these phones, they may not work on the networks. And, since a LOT of American consumers still continue to "buy on contract" with "free upgrades", walk into a carrier store and you pretty much see nothing buy Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola and maybe one or two others.

Or soon will be!

Times are different now, but the house I grew up in, in the 60's had these HUGE windows. The ones that when you raised them up, they had the ropes & weights in the side. We lived about 45 miles away from a Nuclear missile headquarters that also had an airbase and from time to time the pilots were either in a hurry or just wanted to "crack the barrier". When that boom hit, the words that came out of my mother's mouth, I can still hear. ;)

... sadly for the Americans, the rest of the world now knows they can't count on a US based provider for this kind of thing any more.

It was uncomfortable enough relying so heavily on American software back when it couldn't be switched off remotely on the say so of an idiot. Today it's an intolerable risk.

I remember when Windows 3.x came along and I got the error. On the dialup BBS boards, they said it was because DR-DOS wasn't allowed the beta of windows and MS probably wrote code to toss that error. I just waited it out until DR-DOS updated their OS and then installed Windows 3.x

Instead of a bunch of SUITS. Design some CARS that don't fall apart if you brush up against one. Design some cars for people that don't want or need an oversized SUV or pickup truck that is the size of a flipping tank!