> Communism is a classless form of socialism.

No need to engage with you any further. Thanks for saving me the time.

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That has nothing to do with socialism.

That has everything to do with authoritarianism.

"Ooga booga Socialism" is authoritarian propaganda. Unfortunately it's very effective against people who don't actually know what Socialism is, such as yourself... for example, you seem to be describing something closer to Communism (but still wrong).
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"Mathematics may be right or wrong, it may be appropriate or inappropriate, it may be useful or useless."
  -- Edwin B. Wilson, essay titled "The Bridge of San Luis Rey", Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 25 (March 1930)
    Reprinted in A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown, Prentice Hall Press, 1963.

A few months ago, asking "Alexa, pause" while the media was playing through a bluetooth connection started generating the non-answer "You can pause Bluetooth media by going to your tablet or phone." Meanwhile, "Alexa, stop" works.

Seriously. Nobody on Earth should ever trust him, give him anything, or publish his words again for the rest of jhis life. He should die alone and unloved, after a few decades of physical and mental suffering.

> AM radios in cars only cover the small intersection of people who don't already have an emergency kit containing an AM radio, but do happen to be in a working vehicle during a disaster.

I feel like the number of people with a working vehicle is much, MUCH larger than the number of people with "an emergency kit containing an AM radio."

The main point being that, if you happen to be traveling at the time in a potential emergency situation (either because bad luck or actively trying to evacuate), you can use the AM radio in the car to receive news and important information.

Just put the radio in the car where it's most likely to be used when needed.
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> The electronics that drive such powerful motors produce HUGE quantities of RFI

The electronics that drive such powerful motors are inside thick, cast aluminum housings, as are the motors themselves, and those two things are usually bolted directly to each other to form one massive lump. I don't think you appreciate how much RF shielding goes into all that already because, y'know, there are a lot of other electronics in the vehicle that might get fucked up by it. The $5 worth of metal" would be the shielding can around the radio itself, not the HV inverter circuitry that is already encased.

The "Electric vehicle electronics interfere with the AM radio signals" argument is complete horseshit. The AM radio in my 2020 Kona EV often works better than the FM radio for some reason. It's not an especially expensive vehicle so the cost of making it work certainly isn't a reason to not do it.
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It is well fucking known that iPhone Safari does smart quote "correction", changing normal ' and " to the curly quote equivalents without being asked. It is also well fucking known that Slashdot textboxes do not take Unicode input. And now you know, and I know further that you don't care to learn these facts that have been known well over a decade in the Slashdot community. So okay, I'll accept that you didn't know and didn't mean to send garbage punctuation.

But Unicode does not belong on Slashdot comments, and that fact won't recede from your ignorance.

And you just did it again:

> I typed directly into the websiteâ(TM)s text box from my iPhone. I have no idea why Slashdot mangled it, you incorrect and ignorant weirdo.

> This is the kind of âoedevelopersâ who are consuming 90% of the worlds computing resources.

And you are evidently the kind of API developer who pastes Unicode into Slashdot comments because you care more about what you see on your screen than what you're sending to the server.

I don't see this as performative bullshit, and I'm not sure anyone with a lick of sense would.

Let's say I'm a public official. I want to take bribes but I'll go to jail for that. Instead, I can mint myself a cryptocoin and people who want to bribe me can buy them, effectively giving me money in exchange for nothing. I mean that's exactly what Trump did, and there's no reason to think others won't try it if it goes unchallenged.

Whether or not it will be *effectual* as a law will come down to how it's enforced.
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> They already run a large web store and they could have done this anytime but it's clear they have not.

I mean, they have but whatever. The part you're not considering is the immediacy of buying at a physical location.

Browsing online has a different set of tools the merchant can use to FOMO you into buying it. If you see something online you can easily come back to it hours or days later and reconsider; if you're there in the store you're probably not very likely to come back tomorrow. If you're going to buy something at the store you're most likely going to buy it during that visit, which makes you more vulnerable to surge pricing.

> They'd be caught very quickly if they did this in a retail store.

And the consequences would be... what, exactly?

Personally I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop; sign up for WalMart Customer Plus for $19.99/mo and skip the surge pricing!
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There have already been improvements. The practice was banned outright, by everyone, 30 years ago.

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Why would that be *critical* information?

Would the problem be worse or lessened if it was from the US? Britain? France? Japan? It is more or less a disaster if it's military weapons waste or civilian power waste?

Or are you just upset you don't get to point fingers?
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> whereas normally you'd have to wait for the harm to happen to sue

False. You can file a suit for any reason at any time. You do not have to wait until any harm is done. This does not, of course, mean the judge has to accept your filing.

But in this case, the 'harm' is that they are slowing down development/improvement of a product you are paying for. If you buy into a service on the promise or reasonable expectation that the vendor of that service will continue to improve it, and then they declare that they will drag their feet, that's a type of harm because you're not getting what you reasonably expected to be getting for your money.

Ultimately it's up to the judge to decide if there's enough meat on that bone to proceed to the next phase, but it's enough to get the paperwork started.
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So stalking is constitutional, then?

'cause it's not just "recording in public" it's full tracking and profiling. Who you are, where you are, when you're there. A full record of your daily activities from the moment you walk out your front door to the moment you get home again.

If the government was doing this directly in the same manner as these corporations do (e.g. without a warrant) it would 100% be a violation of your constitutional rights. The fact that the government does it by proxy, letting a private corporation do all the dirty work for them, really does not change the fundamental complaint here.

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