Quicken already does this. Proscribed interfaces between banks and software services have been there for a long time.

It's the introduction of AI agents that navigate the web UX as a user that's got the banks worried. If they change the UX, for example, agents could royally screw up users' accounts and it's on the user, not the company that runs the AI agent. It's like giving a 4-year-old access to your brokerage account.

No, Google Workspace doesn't match M365 feature for feature. Today's example: I was working on some web site boilerplate updates and wanted to copy some text from the web page into Google Docs so I could provide commentary on the changes needed. Drag-select, context menu, "Copy" then switch over to the Docs tab and right-click to select "Paste plain text". What did Docs do? Told me I needed a friggin Chrome plugin to do that! Or use the keyboard shortcuts.

And people wonder why long-time Office users shudder at using anything else. Microsoft's strength and its curse is that it seemingly supports a wide range of methods (some really braindead ones, granted) to do something simple.

Back in the 1-2-3 days of the late 80s/early 90s there was a tiny segment of the DOS software market that made "spreadsheet compilers". That's right. The software would take your macro-laden spreadsheet, wrap a custom spreadsheet handler around it and turn it into an EXE with optional overlay files.

You could do some amazing stuff with them. I know of one engineer that built a whole cooling tower design tool, with textual graphics, that was "compiled" and distributed this way. Several others compiled reporting applications that'd go "screen" by "screen" (i.e. paging to different parts of a large sheet), much like you'd do in PowerPoint these days.

Sigh...pulls out CP/M floppies...

Truck rolls are mostly dependent on the local plant architecture. If you're stuck with aerial spans, you're going to be doing more repairs and maintenance. Underground spans are generally more robust. This is somewhat true for PON systems, but less so if it was installed properly.

FFTN with local coax distribution is still more expensive to operate than PON. You need to power bidirectional amps in the coax legs so your nodes need to have either a backup generator or a good-sized battery bank. Those amps also have a life span so you're replacing them on some schedule. PON aggregators require much less power and not as many POPs.

The other real issue with coax distribution into the home is that a lot of homes have old coax setups that can cause problems. Unidirectional splitters (or even taps!) and leaky cable (i.e. RG-59) can cause issues with installs. DOCSIS 3 pushes coax signaling way past what older cable installations can handle.

That depends on the where you live in the US and the age of your home. Plenty of homes (including all the ones I've lived in, the newest being built in 2003) don't have a 240/50 4-wire outlet for a dryer. They have a gas line and a 120V circuit.

Religious schools in more poverty-stricken areas scrape for every dime so subsidizing internet service via E-Rate is important to them. They don't pay the teachers that well, either, compared to the unionized public-school teachers. That 11:1 student/teacher ratio speaks more about the sacrifices the students' families are making (i.e. paying tuition, doing "service hours", etc.) than about being a posh learning environment.

Pirate streamers may use outsourced platforms that then use CDNs (think Discord). The stream originators may not be aware or care about the infrastructure. Going after CDN operators is valid as they carry the actual pirate traffic.

Going after public DNS providers is like going after the guys that deliver phone books to your doorstep (or used to, back in the day). The domain registrars are the place to go if you don't like certain domain names. After all, any bozo can stand up a recursing DNS server that directly queries the root servers and follows the chain of answers. No "public DNS service" needed.

He's waiting for his hosts file to load into vi so he can edit it...

It's hell of a lot easier to lug a few hundred pounds of "improvised gadget" in the back of a truck to your target. The rocket is a "nice to have" but not a "need to have" if you're looking to nuke someone.

Most of the world, including the EU, signed off on this deal. This is a global merger, not just a US thing.

This is a generational shift in the global entertainment industry, nothing more. It's happened several times over the past 100 years.

If you're so worried about a change in editorial policy at CNN and/or CBS, maybe learn to change the channel? ABC seems to be doing a good job defending themselves against the scary MAGA monsters. Or maybe subscribe to a newspaper or three? They sure could use the money to prop up the Forth Estate...

That's only because the FCC said, this year, that they would no longer automatically provide "bona fide news program" exemptions to late-night talk shows. 47USC315 applies equally to all candidates, regardless of party, so absent the normal exemption I'm sure ABC doesn't want to have to give, say, the Green Party candidate equal time. Or someone running on the Democratic Socialist ticket.

A number of US TLAs appear to be actively developing in Rust and requiring contractors implementing "high-side" systems to do the same. C++ seems to be on its way out now. Not sure if that's the smart move. There's millions of man-hours in C++ libraries and utilities that likely need to be converted, if the edict is "Rust only" for sensitive systems. Kinda reminds me of the Ada days.

While it's fun to point out components, I think the bigger story would lie in where the signal processing board(s) are coming from. Russia does have fairly modern in-house electronics design and manufacturing but without vendor support integration of things like Jetsons into bespoke designs is pretty difficult. I would expect that they're actually sourcing whole boards and sensors (cameras) and hacking together interfaces to their known missile control systems.

You know the nice thing about "expert witnesses"? They come in both flavors of a case, depending on the amount of money you want to spend. Who's got more money to spend?

Again, I'm not in either side of this merger. I think that the states' AGs are spending taxpayer dollars for the wrong reason. The mega-media market is going to change, like it did when TV changed the whole landscape of Hollywood. A Paramount-WB hookup is not going to save either company's influence on global society.