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.

Just don't see many federal DA's prosecuting most of these of these fraudulent transactions. Might there be some outliers (say $5,000+), low on the intersectional hierarchy, etc. My opinion could be wrong of course, and the DA's are all primed up to file criminal charges against all of these folks, which would also involve the banks showing up in court with the appropriate evidence for each of these prosecutions -- I just have my doubts...

While I agree that federal DA's tend to be more strict in adherence to the law (compared to some localities at least) -- but if one is dealing with many smaller prosecutions (i.e. perhaps less then $1,000?, $2,500?), I suspect them to not associate much DA time to move those prosecutions forward.

Agreed, but I suspect it would fall under the "venal" category, i.e. pay it back, we will close your account and we won't press charges, if not, look at proceeding with civil/criminal charges (although in the case of criminal charges, the bank will have very little to say about that at the end of the day -- if the DA decides not to charge -- then that crime will not be charged).

Strong likelihood that their first step was to request repayment/restitution from the withdrawer (as agreed to in their customer agreement). Even if the withdrawal was malicious, assuming the customer had not spent the money, restitution could have been satisfied by returning the monies so obtained. Now whether you would call that "arbitration", I do not know, but certainly from a banking perspective, hiring lawyers is not a cost free exercise and typically not pursued by a bank without first attempting more cost effective strategies...

Let's be honest -- I upgraded an iPhone XS to an iPhone 14 Pro several years ago, and other then it being a bit faster with a bit more memory, there was no discernible difference between the two. The result is that the only time I purchase a new iPhone is when my previous phone is lost/damaged or when iOS is no longer upgradable, hence I have ever owned 4 iPhones (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 6S, iPhone 10XS and now iPhone 14 Pro) -- and I suspect this pattern is becoming more prevalent...