The second biggest determinate of cost would be "equivalent" competition. Only have a fiber provider, meh, only have cable, meh -- but if you can get fast internet from two providers (i.e. fiber AND cable) -- things get a lot more interesting...

If one was willing to sign on with Comcast for only internet and nothing else, their prices would be far more reasonable. Start adding all the over priced content, and Katie, bar the door. I have internet only from a pure play internet provider, an antenna on the roof and will soon be down to one streaming package...

In the 60’s, the federal government was paying 90 cents on the dollar to help localities to separate sewerage from storm water systems. Sewer lines have the most exhaustive treatment, whereas storm water systems need efficient, minimal treatment. Rochester, NY made the decision to spend the “10 cents” to buildout those two distinct systems, such that only home sewerage (i.e. toilets, showers, grey water, sinks) empty into the sewage lines, while storm water (i.e. street drains, sump pumps, etc) feed into the separate storm water systems. Lastly, cross connections between the systems is strictly prohibited (biggest point of concern being homeowner DIY work).

Let me know if they ever start creating content that would justify the majority of movie viewers caring.

I would argue that one should not bring electronic devices to nearly any "foreign" country on the planet given the current state of affairs (as an example, most European countries reserve the right to examine electronic devices, if they suspect the device contains information relevant to customs violations, immigration issues, or national security threats (e.g., terrorism, smuggling, or illegal content) -- any one of which is a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

Ford says that are only included on some models -- and when they are included, they want to upsell you additional services like mobile hotspot. It does not show up on my of the setup screens and no one has ever tried to sell me on the additional services -- which seems highly unlikely if they could.

The Ford FastPass Connect modem is an option only included on some of their models. There are no settings for this modem on our vehicle, which doesn't surprise me we got a fairly stripped down model which doesn't even include an automatic transmission.

The thermostat front panel is perfectly functional for all the non-learning (and remote operation obviously) features -- so not sure much would be gained by local off-device configuration. That being said, I do still have some very old AirPort Express(s) which can still be configured vi a local Airplay Utility (switch network, airplay toggle, etc.) -- but those devices were never designed to be cloud configurable -- which is where I think the problems will lie. If such a device does not provide a rudimentary HTML based configuration server, and where the configuration capabilities only exist in a cloud based service...

The settings screen does allow me to disable networking support (WiFi for updates, remote diagnostics, etc.). Now might they have "hidden" a 4g modem in the car, perhaps, but given it was a lower priced vehicle (less then the average new car purchase price) -- don't know why they would want to -- especially as they were more then happen to just configure their vehicle to my network...

Bought my first Nest Thermostat over a decade ago, and then ended up buying 2 more from Nest for different zones in my house. Was alerted yesterday (by Google) that they are going off connected support this fall, and they offered me a discounted price on a new one. The alternative being they will still be a great thermostat, just without the remote features and iOS user interface -- and that I would need to configure their settings from the actual device.

I'm a bit conflicted at this point, but as they are my only connected devices (I have devices that could be remotely connected/controlled like my stove, my microwave, my garage door opener, my wife's new car, my cameras -- but have purposely chosen to keep those devices "off the grid", my current thinking is just to let that remote functionality lapse, and have no iOT devices...

Dual simultaneous.engine failures are incredibly unlikely. What is a known problem resulting in a number of crashes and loss of life is a single engine failure where the crew shutdowns down the unaffected engine. While the crew are trained to not attempt to resolve engine out scenarios until further into the flight regimen -- it doesn't mean that all crews "follow" their training...

Back in the day, electronics as an example came with schematics, with the assumption that the user may want to service or have his items serviced. Spare parts for prior purchased items were also typically available for a number of years (for those manufacturers still in business of of course). So what changed? A couple of things come to mind:

  - more manufacturing has been moved to low cost, offshore entities
  - products have become cheaper while onshore labor has become more expensive -- making repair less realistic
  - more companies have been lured into the "subscription" model, even where it really makes no sense (i.e. why does my stove need to be connected to the internet?)
  - the product release cycle has been shortened considerably (for hardware, but particularly software) (back in the 80's, one bought a word processor on floppy and used it unchanged for years, learning to live with many flaws -- now, it might be updated weekly/monthly)

All of that being stated, physical items which are purchased, are purchased and the new owner should be able to modify or repair as necessary, and physical parts should be available for a period of time. There are a number of gotchas in this regard, such as timing, costs and lately, the desire to only provide replacements as "subsystems" as opposed to individual parts, unnecessarily increasing repair costs.

Regardless, some of these repair requirements will likely increase purchase costs. The days where only the rich could afford a color TV or take a airline flight are not coming back, so arriving at a balance of increasing purchase costs for some of the products in order to get longer life and easier repairability.

Certain types of apps will end up being regionalized behind new "great firewalls", particularly those which deal with news, anything social media, allow comments, etc. Think of a European TikTok, A U.S. TikTok, a Chinese TikTok, etc., which completely different content inside each region, some subject to heavy state censorship, some lighter or more targeted and some remaining uncensored.

In most countries around the world, a president can certainly wield significant power over the electorate, however, the citizens of the U.S. are blessed with significant rights as specified in the Bill of Rights (i.e. they can say and read what they want, worship who they want, they can provide for their own defense, they are afforded due process rights and juries of their peers, etc. In addition, unlike in parliamentary systems, the U.S. Constitution defines three co-equal branches of government (although the only judicial entity spelled out in the Constitution is the Supreme Court). Legislative functions (including the power of the purse) are assigned to the House and Senate, judicial functions to the judiciary and all executive functions are carried out by the executive branch, led solely by the elected president, with delegation to the Senate confirmed cabinet level officials (and who serve at the pleasure of the president).

When in the first 6 words of your reply, you allude to the democratically elected leader of a constitutional republic as a "dictator" -- the rest of your response can likely be heavily discounted.