I don't know if you track this, but I am - and some SaaS companies love the annual renewal dance where they throw out eye-watering annual increases (25+%) and then graciously dropping it a bit like they're doing you a favour by only going up by 20%.

It doesn't have to be opensource, it needs to be feature similar and cheaper to attract eyeballs. The example in the summary (holosign) would be 1/50th or so the cost of our current sign solution. That type of savings has CIOs wondering whether they should chance the newcomers and risk nil real support or stick with existing systems that have a known support system.

And that's for a 5-figure system. When you've got 6 and 7 figure costs for a niche toolset, you gotta wonder whether it's worth attempting your own code.

Do you live on a south pacific island? Cause they can tell you that their homelands are disappearing under rising sea waters.

You may not notice but others certainly are. In the past decade there's been more cyclones coming my way than the previous 4.

It really depends on who's judging as to whether your argument might progress. For example, I very much doubt that any sort of criminal proceedings will progress against Donald Trump while the republicans are in power and can appoint their puppets to the DOJ - regardless of how good the evidence (if allowed to come to light) might be.

Meanwhile across the pond we're seeing considerable backlash and consequences to politicians and (now ex) royalty through mere association with Epstein.

IMO the primary difference between a civilised and uncivilised society is how they treat those unable to provide for themselves.

This currently seems to range from:
Throw them to the wolves, to
We'll clothe, feed, and house them, so that they have the opportunity to do the same for themselves and others.

Ahh the option of SaaS product 1 from company A or SaaS product 2 from company B - and once you've chosen, the 'competition' is how much it costs to move to another platform.

You're goddamn right.

Depends on whether consumers - including businesses - want locally running agentic AI on local hardware or centrally running in datacentres.

Owned hardware means potential for locally run AI, which can be open source and therefore no subscription costs for use. I'm not just talking PCs creating stuff, or a calendar wall display summarising my schedule, but robots performing household tasks.

Aren't we already seeing this - nVidia provide investment capital to companies ($100B to OpenAI for instance) they can buy nVidia AIPUs?

It's like McDonalds requiring franchisees to build McDonalds restaurants on land rented to them by McDonalds - one way or (and) another they'll get their ROI.

Our state coal-fired power generator has availability of somewhere between 50 and 75%. Wind is more variable, that's why for the same cost as one coal plant you build several renewable based generators in different locations.

We have to provide dedicated iPads to our kids in school now from year 3 up. I would expect something like this device to be a requirement from year 7, when they move from primary to secondary school. Apple gives an educational discount to students, and having a standardised walled garden ecosystem means teachers and faculty only need to know how to support one manufacturers quirks and features.

That's how we get The Matrix, we need huge solar sails to block out the sun.

Of course, the solar wind is going to push those into the earth, so we'll need something to keep them in place. Maybe some nuclear-powered ion rockets. The cool thing is when the nuclear fuel runs out, we can shoot it into the sun!

Flawless.

Several of the Jedi are Sith like anyway:

and then we get Yoda going

Seems pretty black and white to me dawg.

That's fine when both parties play by the unspoken rules, primarily - don't fuck up the country for your own gain.

The Trump administration has tossed that out along with their oath to upload the constitution, and there is no easy fix if the conservatives are ousted.

Australian COVID deaths per capita were 1/4 that of the USA. When it comes to gun deaths, the USA is more than a dozen times ahead of Australia per capita. On the Humanity Development Index, Australia overtook the USA back in 2000.

People migrate somewhere for a perceived opportunity to do better for themselves. They leave a place as there's better to be found elsewhere.

This tells us that the economy was good under Biden, and - with net negative migration under Trump - now an absolute shambles. After just one year! He really is the best at bankrupting what he leads.