I will definitely disagree, as you predicted, with your statement "people like Outlook." I'd be much more willing to say "people are familiar with Outlook, and lazy enough to not want to look for an alternative." Outlook is the definition of low-hanging fruit. It comes with the OS, is there already, you don't have to take any extra steps to install it, etc. Especially in a situation where a user is only using it as an email client, it's a bloated pig. But, it's a bloated pig they already have and will put up with. Would they still "like" it after trying a better client?

that's a lot of cards in that house of logic.

I'm with you this far.

More people having better lives is much more of an opinion than fact.

I'm not sure that's as good a thing as you think it is.

You're stating that as if there was a causal relationship between work on AI and low unemployment rates. It's far more likely that advanced economies have both work on AI going on and low unemployment rates than it is that low unemployment rates is a result of work on AI. Remember, correlation =/= causation.

it's been shown many times by companies opening up such job opportunities to everyone that most people don't want backbreaking jobs for little pay, which is what many immigrants take out of necessity.

PHP isn't the reason Magento sucks. Magento would still be a bloated pig no matter what language underlayed it. It was one of the first things I moved the company I work for away from when I was hired.

I used to work for a company that did all those things. We contracted with multiple geographically diverse datacenters, each of which had multiple redundant ISP connections, diesel generators the size of garbage trucks in case grid power was out, we ran replication software to keep the backup DC servers in (as close to) real-time sync with servers in the primary DC. At our office, we installed our own generator to power the entire office if necessary. Each server had 4 copies (primary in primary DC, backup in primary DC, primary in secondary DC, backup in secondary DC). The setup was HIDEOUSLY expensive to build out and to maintain, but we were in the financial industry and partnered with banks, so it was necessary.

I'm not arguing against cloud hosting, it can be useful and (economically) efficient for many companies. I'm just saying that I find it worrisome that AWS is so big that when it has a problem, it takes down a significant portion of internet-based services. Isn't that kind of the opposite of what the original internet design (DARPANET if you want to go back that far) was supposed to protect against? One node failing causing a cascade failure?

it's a GOOD thing that one company controls that much of the internet, right? I mean, super efficient.

why have the view that shows the original page at all? We don't have to *read* anymore.

I think this is the browser of choice at The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good.

all the time Amazon asked for tax breaks from municipalities in order to build facilities there, and the trade-off was supposed to be "but we'll be bringing lots of jobs, and that'll offset the tax breaks you give us?" I sure do. Turns out it was all a scam. Like we thought, but politicians gave them the tax breaks anyway.

It absolutely does not mean that. An INDIVIDUAL (such as a single landlord owning multiple properties in your example) by definition cannot collude alone. The definition of collusion when it comes to legal matters is when two or more parties secretly agree to defraud a third-party of their rights or accomplish an illegal purpose. It does require at least 2 parties to be involved, but does not require a majority.

It wouldn't be that difficult to detect or prosecute. If all the landlords are charging the exact same rent, it's highly unlikely that they all independently came up with the exact same figure. It's not about prosecuting the software manufacturer, so they could be anywhere. If multiple landlords use ANY method whatsoever to agree on non-competitive pricing, that's collusion. It doesn't matter if that method involves direct communication, or communication via a 3rd party human, or communication through a piece of software. It's the agreement on non-competitive pricing that's the illegal act.

It actually has nothing to do with AI. If multiple landlords all decide to agree to a 3rd party's figure as to what to charge for rent, then that's collusion, even if the landlords don't directly talk to each other. They're all agreeing on the same price, and that's what's illegal. Whether the 3rd party is a piece of software or a human individual is irrelevant.

It's not outrageous at all. Just because there's a third party involved (the software), who is telling the main parties (landlords/property managers) what to charge doesn't make it NOT collusion.

If the 3rd party was a human person, who was contracted to tell the landlords what to charge, then they charged those prices, that would be collusion, and just because they're not directly talking to each other but through an intermediary, doesn't make it any less so.

Just because it's a piece of software and not a human acting as the 3rd party doesn't change that.

"Most pop music is pretty rubbish." is a thought that every generation has had. People thought that about Elvis, the Beatles, etc., at various times. Now, I'm in my 50's and while I don't care for most contemporary pop music, I won't fall into the trap of thinking that it's *all* or even overwhelmingly rubbish.

I am very cynical when it comes to corporations, so I'm going to come down on to the side of the music industry embracing AI to make more profits (either by increasing sales or reducing costs by paying artists less or both). As with anything else, follow the money.

the movie RoboCop as a cautionary tale, not an aspirational one.

I personally never cared for it, it was always felt awkward to me unless it was a 2-in-1 folded over and I was using it like a tablet. I was just wondering how big the demand was, I don't think it's as big a demand as Apple management might think.

BTW, typing this on an LG Gram 17 (from a few years back). Love it. Super light (less than 3 lbs), tiny bezels, packs a 17" screen in a laptop only marginally bigger than most 15.6"ers. And with a numeric keypad.

but have users? I wonder how many people are actually using the touch screen outside of machines that are designed as 2-in-1s. Like, how many people are seriously using a touch screen in the standard 90 degree orientation of laptop on a desk or on a table?