If I remember correctly, surveys showed that people use smart speakers to do a very small number of things:
1. Set a timer
2. Play music
3. Turn on / off lights (if they have smart devices)

That's really it. I've had a Google Home setup with a mini speaker in most rooms of my house, and a Home compatible smart display in the kitchen. My wife uses the kitchen one to set and check timers whenever she's cooking. The minis get used to mostly turn on / off lights (all lights are controlled by smart switches). We do play music, but fairly rarely since they don't sound super great. She tried using the screen to look up recipes, but it was too small to be really useful so we set up an old computer with a 21" screen for that use instead.

The annoying thing is that since I got "upgraded" from the previous Google Assistant to Gemini, the time to complete a task went from 1-3 seconds on average to about 10-15 seconds on average. They cost Google more now, they take longer, and they still don't do anything better for me. I regret performing the upgrade and wish there was an undo button so I could go back to the fast, but dumb, assistant as that worked quite well for my needs.

They're lying to their investors, and quite possibly, to themselves. I don't think they have some massive surveillance plans baked in to these datacenter build outs. To me, that implies they've thought that far ahead, and I honestly don't think they have. Instead, they seem to be in the "Field of Dreams" mode... "If we build it, they will come!"

Given how much screaming I've seen by the AI & DC boosters, how certain are we that this isn't a false flag operation created by those boosters to say, "See, all that outrage against AI / DCs is caused by Chinese / Russian propaganda and America is falling for it!"?

I think the part that bothers me the most is that seems just as plausible as China / Russia actually creating propaganda to do the same...

You misspelled "go fast" mufflers.

And it always makes me chuckle when there's a "go fast" muffler next to me at a stop light who tries to overtake my silent EV SUV. They get smoked, and I do it without having my car scream that my penis is 3 sizes too small in the process.

Interesting... So in most cases the government should stay out of free market and let things "just happen", but with the screwworm damaging cattle, the government must spend millions upon millions to save a relatively small number of ranchers.

Seems like a perfect description of governmental market manipulation, doesn't it? Where are the libertarians railing against this?

Which big oil company bought you? Seriously�

Sure they did. Trains, trollies, and other transportation options existed. They just don't help fulfill your ICE-only narrative...

Let me guess... You grew up seeing gas stations everywhere so you simply assumed that they have always been there, since the beginning of time, right? I mean it's not like there was a time, during ICE's history, that either a gas station, or gas itself, was a challenge to find, right?

And as you try to formulate an argument against what I said, realize everything you are about to say means EV chargers aren't an insurmountable problem any more than gas historically was...

Ohhh, I can play the many people game too! Many people drive less than 50 miles a day, which fits easily in a 120v charge cycle overnight.

I know, in 2011, I owned a Leaf which on a great day could do 80 miles on a full charge, and 60 was more realistic. I used that as my daily car for years.

Is that good enough for everyone? No... That's why other cars exist. But to borrow a phrase, that's good enough for "many people".

IIRC, aluminum also flows over time and that was a problem too. I believe you needed some sort of terminator that could account for that flow to prevent a spark gap. I'm sure that too is resolved now but I believe it was a similar problem when aluminum was first used.

I can't speak to all smaller communities, but in St Croix (approx 50k residents), finding an electrician can take weeks and costs quite a bit.

That said, I own two EVs in FL and am actively planning how to bring one over to St Croix when I plan to be on island longer term.

Oddly enough, public fast chargers are cheaper than home charging, electricity is about $0.50/kwh. The L2s charge between $0.30-0.40/kWh.

It's because the WAPA power company is awful and most of the public chargers blend solar in to reduce their rates. My place is too close to the ocean for most solar companies to be willing to install panels.

In FL, the fast chargers are all by rest stops with play areas for kids, relief zones for pets, and multiple places to eat.

It's not remotely hard to spend 20 minutes without thinking about it.

I wonder if people would have said the same negative things about "the good" unions that you ack helped change things that you are saying about "the bad" unions now.

For instance, unions were the largest thorn in the DOGE and Trump agenda and helped saved people from random and unnecessary cuts.

I made the same comment about Googleâ(TM)s SDK. If AI is so awesome, why not just write a single SDK in a single language, and AI build the others on each push? Then devs can use their preferred language and it already has full first party support. Seems so simple⦠and the fact that it isnâ(TM)t being done screams pretty loudly.

Certainly not defending bigotry, but there was, about 15-20 years ago, a big issue with Chinese drywall being used in home construction. The root cause of why it was used was a material shortage in the south east due to a severe hurricane season. For those who bought a house built with it, or those who remodeled before the issue was known, it was a potential financial disaster for them. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...