Los Angeles is moving to ban single-use printer cartridges that can't be refilled or taken back for recycling. Tom's Hardware reports:
What single-use printer cartridges can't be recycled?
I bet the folks in the Palisades and Malibu, well, the folks that used to live in the Palisades and Malibu, are happy that LA Gov't is focusing on the issues that matter most to Angelenos...
assuming launch cost of $20 per kg which is actually double the $10 per kg that both Stoke Space and SpaceX are claiming they will achieve with re-usable flight.
What? I can put a Kg in orbit for $20? That's close to first class postal rates, that seems a bit off... SpaceX Falcon Heavy costs $1,400 per Kg today they plan/hope to reduce that cost in the future...
The only leverage SAG-AFTRA has to implement this is if the other unions (tech crew, writers union, etc) back them up and go on strike also, but not sure this clear money-grab would be supported by the other unions. Also, studios could just ignore the unions and start producing films overseas, beyond the reach of US unions.
The union fund payments would almost certainly be cheaper than an actor's salary + residuals.
You realize this SAG-AFTRA "tax" actually gives the studios nothing, they still have to pay the AI team that creates the characters/personslities/renderings that they use in the movie/tv show.
Whatever savings AI promises to bring to movie-making, this SAG-AFTRA fee will just eat into it - I see no compelling reason for studios to agree to this, even if the unions (collectively) go on strike - there are lots of places around the world where a studio can produce a product without union labor, the savings could easily offset travel expenses.
If they put this into place, will they have to pay per CPU? Per MB of memory? Per GPU card? Will ComcastUniversal name all of their computers Wesley.Snipes and only pay for a single instance?
Per animated/simulated character - WTF does processor core count have to do with displacing actors?
In other news, the International Brotherhood of Buggy Whip Craftsmen is considering imposing a tax horseless carriages to compensate workers displaced by the new form of transportation...
If people started reading books instead of watching plays, tv shows or movies, I suspect SAG-AFTRA would want to tax publishers for the characters in the books.
I just read this list again, he says the same thing several different ways:
legalize jailbreaking - OK
allow alternative app stores/clients - isn't this the definition of jailbreaking?
force companies to offer repair tools - IK, this is kinda different
open firmware that break monopoly lock-ins - oh look, jailbreaking again
So now we just need to get the government to force companies to jailbreak their software/products? Riiiiight.
It's nonsensical.
Cory Doctorow suggests it sounds like like a good idea to ditch Bill C-11 and turn Canada into a "Disenshittification Nation" and go into the business of "disenshittify[ing] America's defective tech exports." Some of the specific ways Canada could respond include legalize jailbreaking, allow alternative app stores/clients, force companies to offer repair tools, and open firmware that break monopoly lock-ins.
Seriously?
...Some of the specific ways Canada could respond include legalize jailbreaking,
Wow, that sounds great - except when John Deere, et al, simply decide not to ship their product to Canada?
...allow alternative app stores/clients,...
Allow? Federal law prevents companies from offering alternative app stores? Really? The issue is that companies like Apple refuse to support alternatives, the gov't could, I guess, 'force' companies to enable/facikitate/support alternative app stores, but, really?
...force companies to offer repair tools,...
Force? How will Gov't "force" companies to offer repair tools?
...and open firmware that break monopoly lock-ins.
Again, how will this happen?
Let's not forget, Canada has a whole lot of issues that should repel someone like Cory - it wasn't that long ago when the Canadian government went after anti-vax protesters, jailing them, debarking them, etc...
If the items on Cory's "de-enshification" wish list were truly popular with consumers, upstart companies would embrace those ideas and steal market share from the "enshitified" companies whose business practices Cory finds offensive.
Loo at this title:
Universal Basic Income Could Be Used To Soften Hit From AI Job Losses In UK, Minister Says
"Universal Basic Income"? Really? Are we going to give "everyone" (AKA "Universal") income to help the subset of everyone that lose their jobs to AI?
As others have noted, isn't this what Unemployment Insurance for - helping workers that lost their jobs?
And finally, is it really news-worthy to revisit, for the 427th time, that people like getting free money, especially people who, for example, have just lost their jobs or toil in a low-paying job...
A reminder, the child walked out from between parked cars - he was likely unseen until he stepped into traffic.
To be fair, the kid is created the situation, the robotaxi did exactly what we'd hope any driver would do in that situation. The only thing it could have done would be to blare its horn as it drove thru the school zone - is tgat what we want? (Are Waymo robotaxis electric? Was it moving silently thru the school zone? I wonder if some noise should be made in a school zone, like maybe play ice cream truck music/bells? I kid.)
An injury collision is "the best possible outcome"? Are you trolling?
Well, it would have been better if the child stuck to the crosswalk, rather than walking into traffic from behind a parked car, but that wasn't an option.
The child got up, walked out of the road and waited for police to arrive... police the 'driver' of the car that hit the child called for.
There's no report the child needed medical attention, he probably 'bounced' (as small kids do) off the side of the slow-moving car (6 MPH is very slow.
Given that the child chose to walk into traffic, yes, this is about the best outcome possible, short of the child darting frogger-like between the cars trying to cross the road hot in a crosswalk.
If you want to attack the driver for going 17 mph in a school zone and dropping to 6 mph as soon as the child stepped out, that's your right, but you have (in my opinion) unreasonable expectations.
Let's try this again:
With the way Win11 keeps crashing on me (on two different computers that were entirely fine under Win11), I am tempted too.
"With the way Win11 keeps crashing on me (on two different computers that were entirely fine under Win11), I am tempted too."
See the confusion now? Win 11 "keeps crashing" on two computers that were "completely fine under Win 11"?
Apple selling $500 Mac Minis also make it very easy for people to drop Windows entirely even if they still need Office.
As a reminder, going from Win to Mac means the new Mac user has to buy/subscribe to Office for Mac, will likely feel obliged to get a proper Apple mouse/keyboard (that's a quick $150+), and if their old windows machine display was analog/VGA only, at least an adapter if not a new display (another quick $100)... so that "Screw them, I'll get a Mac" user is going to spend as much as $850 or more PLUS an MS Office subscription!
Tell me again how that's cheaper than a $500 Win 11 box?
Every person here bitching about being forced to upgrade to Win 11 is literally saying "I want to stay on Win 10!"
They seem to prefer Win 10...
People bitch about the fact that Windows 10 was optional and available as an upgrade but forget that this fact made it an absolute outlier in the history of Windows.
Win 10 was an "outlier"? It currently has about 45% of windows market share, it was 75%+ a year ago (Jan 2025)...
In fact they deliberately require RAM quantities and stop supporting video cards, etc. that aren't needed in order to upgrade.
If a video card mfg drops support for older cards on newer OSes, that isn't Microsoft's fault.
I gave no idea where you got this "deliberately requiring RAM quantities" BS. What is the minimum RAM requirement for Win 11? Four goddam gigabytes - that's it, those evil bastards require to install 4 GB of RAM to run Win 11!
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
