The drive is the razor, and the tape cartridges are the blades.

When was involved in the design of tape libraries back in the late 90's and early 2000's, the cost of the tape cartridge was significant. The bulk of the cost was the license fees paid to the designers of the tape cartridges due to patents. Although it's been quite some time since then, I'm sure the same model holds. Heck, there could even be technical "genuine" tape cartridge authentication methods used (in the same manner as ink cartridges) as even at at the time I was involved, the there was discussion about using near field RF tags in the cartridges in conjunction with bar codes.

When you have a tape library with 100's to 1000's of tape cartridges in it, the costs add up fast.

And the TV manufacturers love Arbitration Agreements which you have to agree to when you plug the TV in for the first time. Arbitration agreements contain clauses which limit class action lawsuits, as well as deny your right to a public trial without a jury. Yes, they force you to give up your 7th amendment rights. They are an abomination.

But not like the Romans practiced it for the unfortunate soul. The person was randomly chosen by a lot draw, and then clubbed to death. That was barbaric.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(punishment)

The part about getting barley rations instead of wheat does survive in the form of unemployment insurance.

leads to that resource being used in inefficient ways. They KPI'd the wrong thing. They should have monitored work product quality and quantity instead.

Severance deals are better outside of the United States where they are regulated by statute. In the United States, this isn't the case, and most severance deals either require signing a strict NDA, or training your replacements. It used to be that severances were given in exchange for you indemnifying the company from any legal action due to a loss on your part.

Not only but you could also be limited to only working outside of your field by noncompete agreements in the severance or what you signed previously depending on your state of residence. Some states are have very loose restrictions on noncompete agreements. Some states ban them outright.

but in the USA, not the UK. I'm not advocating for any of this, I just want to show how disgusting it could really get given the right circumstances.

From Wikipedia:

The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which imposed the death penalty for a wide range of crimes, many of which would be considered minor by later standards.

Nowadays, it would likely be used for "Contempt of Billionaire" or "Contempt of Corporation".

The only sticking point would be the US Supreme Court, again from Wikipedia:

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is primarily reserved for the crime of murder, and it has limited its application to certain circumstances, such as the severity of the crime and the defendant's role in it. Cases like Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia have shaped the legal landscape surrounding capital punishment in the United States.

But what's to stop the current regime from packing the court to get this precedent overturned?

Trump would be all for imposing the real deal of Draconian Law. From Wikipedia again:

The Draconian laws were an early written Athenian law code traditionally credited to Draco, created around 621–620 BCE, and they were known for being extremely harsh. In particular, death was prescribed for almost all criminal offenses

But the feds could preempt the state. US constitution's supremacy clause.

for a proposed 400 Megawatt data center near old town.

voiceofsandiego.org/2026/10/15/manchester-group-pitches-massive-data-center-at-the-navwar-site/

Trump would surely sign off on it from the federal side.

The plan would be for the federal government to give a 99 year lease to the Manchester Group, then since the land is under the control of the federal government the city's hands would be tied.

The only way out of it would be for the city to find a way to prevent that 400 megawatt transmission line from being built, but not sure if the city could stop it because it will certainly have a "National Security" benefit.

Since federal law supersedes state and local law due to the supremacy clause in the constitution, Manchester could get away with it.

There also might be 400MW worth of polluting gas turbines located on site for backup power.

Board rip-out is a superb idea, the only issue is the amount of reverse engineering required to design a board to interoperate with all of the other boards in the TV could be a tall order.

Speaking of board rip-out, it has been done with another product: Electric Vehicle Chargers. A few years ago, a company called Juicebox decided to stop supporting their electric vehicle chargers and left all of their customers high and dry. Another company founded on open hardware principles called OpenEvse came along and designed 100% complete replacement board which fit in the Juicebox enclosure thereby breathing new life into an otherwise useless EVSE.

Or George Orwell's "Telescreens" in "1984"

will be the response to this. The manufacturers won't stand for it, because they lose the potential revenue.

Likely methods:

1. Proprietary Non-linux os's which have a smaller memory foot print.
2. Signed bootloaders with E-fuses blown in the microcomputer.
3. Potted CPU electronics.
4. TV hardware subscriptions (Now tou don't own it) Click wrap contract provisions which prohbit modification of the hardware.
5. Mandatory network connections. TV won't work unless it is connected to the internet. This will allow security patches to stop jailbreaks and expoits.

Memory recording devices are harder to find with bug sweepers unless you audit all emi radiators in a room and sweep with something like a spectrum analyzer, rf preamplifier, and b-field probe. You also need access to the room twice. Once to install the device, and then to remove it.

Transmitting devices are easier to find unless they are very sophisticated. Simple ones use an always on carrier modulated by FM or AM. These are easy to detect with low end bug sweeping equipment. The more exotic ones store the audio, then compress and encrypt it, and use below the noise floor spread spectrum techniques to send the audio on a periodic basis.

2 reasons that usually doesn't happen unless you are a very large company.

1.Offices cost money to lease and staff with the necessary recruiters, HR, and other support employees.

2. Employment laws tend to protect the employee better in most of the rest of the world, unless you are in a poor and very small country. The USA is known for it's "business friendly" employment laws and is an outlier when compared to the rest of the world.

I worked for a Fortune 500 who had offices in India, but they could absorb the cost.

"laid-off employees will receive 20 weeks of base pay, one week per year of service (capped at 30 weeks), five months of COBRA and Modern Health healthcare benefits, and they will be allowed to keep their laptops."

Most small tech companies gave much less than that to employees affected by a layoff.

Heck, after 27 years at one company all I got was my back pay, and vacation pay when the reaper finally came for me. The company was on the decline so I guess that was to be expected. Had to live off savings for a while.

Putting them in cities which mostly vote blue is going to be harder for a few of reasons.

1. Land costs more in the city than out in the country.
2. Democratic voters tend to be more concerned about the environment.
3. There are transmission lines which need to get built. This is going to be difficult to get approved in a large city.