How hard would it be to replace the software on these devices?

This sounds attractive but what I've seen on their site and reviews is not very clear on how good it is as a phone. I don't care about most cell phone apps. I either don't need the functionality or I do it on my Linux laptop. I want a voice phone on which I can text, take photos, and run a browser. That's about it. The option attaching a keyboard is attractive as I find typical virtual keyboards very slow and error prone. So, how well does it work as a telephone? Is it limited in which services it is compatible with?

Remote places here in Northern British Columbia, reached by logging roads. There are now chargers along some remote provincial highways (e.g. highway 20), but I have yet to see one on a logging road. Some of the places I drive, there isn't even a gas station. You have to carry a lot of gas yourself.

It's much less likely to crash than other software, and nobody will try to forcibly update it.

If you talk to your car about deep stuff, you should probably consider a visit to a psychiatrist. :)

I want a car that runs GNU/Linux or FreeBSD.

Interesting. Given some of the places I drive, a pure EV is not an option for me, but a hybrid might be.

Exactly. Using AI to edit the piece is like using a spellchecker. She's using a tool to do what she could do by hand. It has no bearing on the fact that many of her students have not learned basic math.

I definitely do not want a car with a giant touch screen. I have a 2014 Ford Explorer. The touch screen for that is modest in size but even so I would prefer some of the controls to be mechanical. I have driven a 2024 Ford Expedition belonging to a client. In many ways it is nice, but it has a knob instead of a gear shift lever, which I hate. It's distracting to have to look at a knob in the center console. Worst of all, it has a very large touch screen. It looks awful, but more important, it is very distracting to have to turn to it. Touch screens are okay for settings that you don't adjust while driving, but mechanical controls and gauges in front of you are much better for things you manipulate and look at while driving.

Yes, and the point you quoted still stands, they are a starting point.

The always relevant XKCD comic explains it well enough: those laws in that order are essential as the starting point. Different order or missing entirely is guaranteed bad. But as pointed out through all kinds of science fiction writing, there are many ways we can understand they are insufficient.

Right now I'd agree they're exactly backwards, or as the XKCD comic described, on track to become a "killbot hellscape". We need even more rules and regulations than that, but as a set of fairly obvious first steps penned 80 years ago, they're pretty blatantly an essential first draft of baseline rules that are missing today.

It is not obvious to me why a water system needs to be on the net. I understand having remote controls of various valves and pumps and so forth, but can't all of that be on a private local network?

Yes but also no.

The regulation isn't about "taking a cut", but primarily about financial crimes like money laundering and insider trading. Generally there are age requirements, as minors can't buy stocks or enter into futures contracts, though custodial accounts where the minor is authorized to use it are allowed. Every transaction is also associated with registered brokerage companies, every transaction tied to a taxpayer ID and account information. To participate the government requires documentation with a full legal name and government issued ID, and assorted other information to verify the person's identity.

In regulated markets every step has a paper trail can be tied back to a responsible human, the person who could potentially be jailed or fined for financial crimes.

There needs to be accountablity, but there almost never is.

The police and prosecution tend to get consequences casually dismissed, "you win some, you lose some", or "mistakes are human, live and learn." Sometimes lawyers have a professional repremand, very rarely fines, but not time behind bars.

If the man is lucky, he might get compensation for the time locked up, and maybe some of the legal costs. Most likely it will be only a small portion, if at all.

If there is any compensation it won't restore his job, his relationships with friends and family, it won't compensate for the negative experiences in the legal system nor behind bars, it won't compensate for the lost opportunities and missed experience in the time he was detained, and it probably won't be enough for the lifetime of therapy he'll need, and that his family may need.