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Comment I'll tell you what will cost Microsoft billions (Score 2, Insightful) 26

Fed up customers fleeing in droves.

Nobody likes Microsoft. Nobody has ever really liked Microsoft. But everybody puts up with Microsoft's low quality products and abuse because Microsoft is a monopoly that's hard to escape - particularly in corporate settings, and for gaming.

But they've really cranked up the abuse to 11 recently, with Windows becoming a terrible advertisement platform, requiring new hardware when people's old machines were still serviceable, the constant privacy invasion, relentless push for online accounts, for their cloud offerings, and now their godforsaken AI shit that literally nobody likes nor want. Not to mention upcoming price hikes for the privilege of getting all that enshittification thrown at your face...

Microsoft has gone too far for a lot of people, and people react by going to Apple or Linux. And quite frankly, personally, I desperately want Microsoft to continue shooting themselves in both feet like they're doing so they make themselves irrelevant as quickly and as thoroughly as possible, and we're finally, at long last, rid of them at last. 50 years we've been waiting! That's like half a century dude...

Comment Stop buying from the carrier (Score 1) 46

In the USA, a lot of people are still "conditioned" to buy from a carrier store, going back over 20 years which is where people started buying phones. Plus, people think they are getting a good deal for a "free" phone by a carrier locked phone, but actually pay MORE than if they had bought it outright. The last carrier phone I bought, was the original Samsung Galaxy on AT&T. I switched to straight talk not long after and did some calculations of using an MVNO, vs a carrier locked phone, over the course of the contract. I've been on an MVNO ever since.

Comment film to digital (Score 1) 28

started with an old brownie camera in the early 70's. Went to SLR in the early 80's. First digital in 2006 (still have it! Panasonic FZ-50) Upgraded to d-slr in 08, and another d-slr in 12 and still use it. Multiple lenses, flashes, filters but it is still the best camera out there. Hey, nothing against smartphones, but those super TINY image sensors not to mention there are too many of them.

Comment Charging in the U.S. (Score 1) 169

Unlike say South Korea, Japan, Europe...you can drive across the entire country in a day. In the USA it takes DAYS to cross the entire country. Not to mention a lot of places are out in "the sticks" and are 20-30 minutes or more between towns & cities. To "build out" a nationwide charging network would not only be expensive, it would be impractical, not to mention our charging grid can barely handle the load today. In cities, EV's are more practical than ICE. But in the more rural areas of the United States, hybrid and ICE vehicles are way more practical.

Comment Re:Dumbing down (Score 2) 118

PBS is primarily (85%) privately funded. It will continue to produce shows like Masterpiece, Nova, Frontline, and Sesame Street and people in places like Boston or Philadelphia will continue to benefit from them.

What public funding does is give viewers in poorer, more rural areas access to the same information that wealthy cities enjoy. It pays for access for people who don't have it.

By opting out, Arkansas public broadcasting saves 2.5 million dollars in dues, sure. But it loses access to about $300 million dollars in privately funded programming annually.

Comment Re:Crrot and Stick (Score 3, Interesting) 131

Industrial R&D is important, but it is in a distrant third place with respect to importance to US scientific leadership after (1) Universities operating with federal grants and (2) Federal research institutions.

It's hard to convince politicians with a zero sum mentality that the kind of public research that benefits humanity also benefits US competitiveness. The mindset shows in launching a new citizenship program for anyone who pays a million bucks while at the same time discouraging foreign graduate students from attending universtiy in the US or even continuing their university careers here. On average each talented graduate student admitted to the US to attend and elite university does way more than someone who could just buy their way in.

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