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Comment Re:Times Have Changed (Score 1) 95

My local Starbucks used to be a warm, inviting, wood-toned mecca for caffeine-adled worker-bees and wanna-bees. The recent remodelling makes it look alot more like a McDonalds. I don't know how I'm going to feel when I walk in a see Commander Data bending Rosie the Robot over the expresso machine.

Here's the thing about robots... they're not necessarily going to be Androids. An android is a robot or automaton in humanoid from (from the greek Andro, meaning man, also where we get terms like androgynous which combines the prefix for woman, gyno, so a female android should be called a gynoid).

But I digress, Rosie the Robot in this scenario will be the espresso machine. A lot of coffee chains already have swapped out the old manual machines for automatic ones because ultimately, if you care about good coffee you're not going to a chain.

Comment Re:Drug Dealers. (Score 1) 95

..as the 55-year-old coffee chain tries to reverse several years of struggling sales.

1. Realize you're a drug dealer. People come to you for a fix of that drug. Not a shot of politics. Not a chaser of liberalism. Just the puro.

2. Realize there are other drug dealers. Namely me, myself, and I, who can make one hell of a cup of coffee for many times less.

3. Realize you're in a Recession. In a Recession, people have plenty of time to make a cup of coffee while looking for the kind of job that supports $8 coffees. If there are no jobs to support $8 coffees, you ain't selling no $8 coffees. Price is your pain. Probably because you promised a barista a living wage without realizing the cost of living shouldn't be tied to a cup of coffee.

Here's the thing about drugs son,

When I buy drugs, I don't want shit drugs. I'm not some strung out addict, I can afford decent drugs. It's the same with coffee, when I want a coffee I want something remotely decent and when I order a coffee at a cafe I want something at least on par with what I can make at home with my sub £200 espresso machine. Hence whenever I go to a Costa, I order and iced chocolate. Starbucks doesn't have a "coffee flavoured" free iced chocolate.

Comment Re:in the US (Score 1) 108

I'll tell you why: because he's afraid of Lola. If you're old enough, you've heard the song Lola by The Kinks. It's a song about a person "who walks like a woman, but talks like a man," and Republicans are afraid - terrified - of falling for a guy in drag, because that would mean they're gay, and that's bad, m'kay? So if women are clearly women, and guys are clearly guys, then they don't have to worry about getting suckered into kissing someone they wouldn't normally kiss. Hence, culture wars focused on disproportionately stupid things.

Which really tells me that Republicans have difficulty telling the difference between a man and a woman.

That would explain why I see so many man-like women in the Trump pressers.

Lola is a classic song BTW, a lot of songs around that era would address taboo in the same way, completely outwitting the rather strict censors at the time. Although I'm glad we don't have the religious police vetting what is allowed to be published/broadcast any more I do feel a little bit of creativity has been lost as artists no longer have to get around them.

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 45

Good? Glad youre happy that these costs will just be passed onto the consumer.

That's the way it works sunshine.

Introducing the $2000 Iphone... same as the $1000 Iphone you bought last year but twice as expensive... and the fanboys will still buy it.

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 45

Youre the typical low ID number slashdotter whos become an asshole in his middle age.

Don't worry, in a few more years it'll make more sense to you. What you think is an insult, really isn't.

His user ID isn't far off mine and I joined /. in the mid 00s. The really low UIDs will probably be on their way out of midlife by now.

P.S. you're welcome on my law, just pick up after yourselves.

Comment Re: modern cars are less safe (Score 1) 153

Better structural design, seatbelts, airbags, and collision avoidance systems make cars safer overall. But those stupid door handles need to go, we don't have to take the bad with the good.

Better design bought on by better regulation (notably from Europe), seatbelts becoming mandatory were both huge improvements in safety, airbags are debatable as in some situations they can be more dangerous (I.E. if you drive with your hands in the "douchebag" position, meaning one hand at 12 o'clock, airbag goes off and you will eat your radius and ulnar and be lucky if it doesn't cause a lot of damage). If you take your car to a Run What You Brung track day, it's advisable to disable them (as you will be wearing a skid lid and possibly a HANS device, negating the airbags function).

Collision avoidance systems are something I believe will eventually be shown to cause more harm than good with the way people treat them. It's called "risk compensation", as we feel safer we start to take more risks. The introduction of seatbelts resulted in more dangerous driving, this is why in some cases deaths went up because a lot of cars still didn't have seatbelts to begin with nor was it mandatory to wear them, however over time it was shown that the safety benefits of a seatbelt outweighed the additional risks being taken, with collision avoidance systems people will start treating them as "the car will automagically save me" if they haven't already done so. This will lead to even more inattention on the road which in many western countries has already overtaken alcohol as the biggest cause of collisions.

You are right that these handles have to go simply because a car is expected to last 20+ years and these things seem like something that will break easily.

Comment Re:Light passenger rail... (Score 1) 72

This is for heavy rail, not light rail. Light rail, including underground, is already electrified, at least in the UK.

This one is still light rail, it's an EMU (electric multiple unit) used for passenger services on a branch line. Many branch lines in the UK are not electrified and still run DMUs (Diesel/Diesel-Electric Multiple Units). The rolling stock in question is a DMU (British Rail Class 230) that has been fully electrified, so replacing the diesel engine with battery packs for the electric motors.

The Greenford Branch Line is a 2 mile line London with 5 stops between two major rail lines (Great Western Main Line and the New North Line). It's not a major line, but it's not out in the middle of nowhere either.

It's a good test to see if the tech is up to snuff as a lot of branch lines would benefit and it's easy to install charging infrastructure at stations. However I suspect it'll be a while before they replace the DMUs on the Reading-Guildford route.

Comment Re:FUCKKK YOUUUU!!!!!!! (Score 1) 47

In The Jetsons the aerocars are antigravity devices that operate effectively like cars only moving through the air. Notice for example a cop on a hover thing "pulling them over" stationary in midair while a ticket is being written. A conceit and premise in The Jetsons is that they live in the sky (for unspecified reasons) but has all of the properties of living on the ground for practical purposes.

Appealing to a fantasy antigravity vehicle that does function like a car is not a strong case in favor there.

This is something that has bothered me about the Jetsons... What the living fuck did they do to the surface that was so bad everyone had to live in the sky?

Comment Re:Probably one station per state (Score 1) 66

Just so they can say they are in 19 states.

There are over 4,500 Wallmart stores in America. Over 10,000 worldwide.

Do the per-state math. I'm pretty sure they're well beyond the playground look-at-me antics of "just so they can say".

Besides, it's a test. Walmart cares about profits. Every time. If it's not profitable, they'll get rid of it.

This is basically how it ended up in the UK. Charging stations end up in supermarket car parks. 3-5 of them owned by a 3rd party who rent the space from the supermarket, only 1 or 2 working at any given time as the 3rd party nor the supermarket give a crap once they've been installed (government subsidies were for installation, not maintenance).

Wallmart is likely making a deal with a 3rd party to install their chargers in Walmart locations and collect the rent. It's an easy win for Walmart as they don't have to worry about anything except collecting the monthly rent and passing customer complaints onto the 3rd party.

I spoke to an old friend back in Australia a few months back who's coming to the UK for a holiday and wanted to hire an EV (tried to talk him out of it) I warned him that Michael Portillo didn't do a series called "Great British Tesco Car Parks" for a reason.

Comment Re:Content (Score 1) 132

broadcast tv is still shit-tier bitrate 1080p (or even sometimes 720p/1080i still). streaming platforms are marginally better bitrate, but still rarely even have 4k content. there are 4k blu-ray movies. but honestly, im not sure i've seen any 8k content ANYWHERE!? im sure if i explicitly search for it, i can find it, but the casual content around me is 4k or lower.

And the average media consumer doesn't care as long as they get their reality TV.

TVs have reached the point of "good enough" that there isn't really going to be anything revolutionary, rather evolutionary. A panel gets slightly better colour, higher refresh rates and lower G2G times become cheaper, a new panel that uses less power. Nothing to make you race out and buy a new TV but enough over a few years that you might notice a difference between a new TV and your 8yr old model.

It's a lot like Blurry, sorry, Blu-Ray, all that money spent to bury HD-DVD and get DRM on everything and it turns out everyone moved to streaming and downloading. Not a care in the world for how "WOW" the Blurry was. So much so they're still selling DVDs because DVD was good enough and BluRay offered nothing new worth buying..

Most TVs I see these days are being sold on software features, which are solidly on the enshitification track.

Comment We joke (Score 5, Funny) 97

We joke about this happening to cars of course but it car manufacturers thought they could get away with it we'd be bombarded with the same kind of enshitification in vehicles. They're already trying in car advertising on for size, it won't be long before "we've noticed you're near a Turd Burgers, stop in for a double colon blocker now, we will automatically redirect your navigation in 3... 2... 1..."

Of course the part of me that enjoys driving will say that cars have been on the enshitification track for years. Automatic transmissions, soft suspension, computerisation, drivers aids with their useless bings, bongs and warbles, SUVs, cars getting bigger and lardier with each iteration. It's hard to find a drivers car these days, a nice, simple, RWD, lightweight 6sp manual (they don't even need to be that powerful, my 140 HP MR2 never failed to put a smile on my face). Kids these days have no idea of the unadulterated joy of nailing the perfect gear change (You are welcome on my lawn, just don't make a mess, K, I can still remember being young).

Comment Re:Apples and Oranges (Score 1) 57

Ask the average consumer to name five Android vendor options. I'll bet they'd struggle to name more than three.

That's the whole point. With Android, it does not matter for the average consumer what brand it is. It does not even matter that it is Android. It's just a generic smartphone, it can install the apps they want, and people will buy whatever fits their budget and their needs, ignorant about brand and operating system. For a single vendor, it is complicated to have one model sell in large numbers, because they are generic. Or do you know what farm your potatoes come from? It's potatoes. That's all that matters.

Yep, and this is one of those nice selective statistics chosen because they can't compete with any meaningful statistics.

There are maybe a dozen different Iphones on sale... compared to thousands of Android models in all shapes, sizes, colours and specs which as you eloquently pointed out can all run everything people need them to.

It's like when someone starts focusing on how much torque their car makes... it's because it literally has no other defining features, it's not fast, it's not powerful, it's not drinks globe luggggsury (with 5 g's), it can't carry huge loads and doesn't corner like it's on rails... All they have is a large torque figure.

Comment Re:probably accurate (Score 1) 44

COVID deaths are down, because almost everyone who is really susceptible to COVID is either heavily-vaccinated or already dead.

Oddly enough, COVID is still going and killing people. Mostly in the US. https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths Of the 1.5K reported COVID deaths in the 28 days until 11 January 2026, 1.3K were in the US.... And this is after several states banned the reporting of COVID deaths. Sure, you're correct that they're down but wrong about everyone being vaccinated or dead.

Comment Re:And with only triple the per-capita GDP! (Score 3, Interesting) 44

We're back to where we were 12 years ago? Saaay, pretty good. That beats most of South America! Not like, Chile. C'mon, that'd be crazy. But still, pretty good.

Yep, the life expectancy for the EU is 81.4 years... and the EU includes much of eastern Europe. The people who grew up under the USSR with the food shortages and terrible medical care are still kicking (it was only 35 years ago).

UK is 79.1 for males and 83 for females (so call it 81.5 although technically there are slightly more women), Australia is 81 for males and 85 for females.

Making it to an average of 79 is not an accomplishment.

Comment Re:RFK numbers (Score 1) 44

I'm suspect of the numbers due to the administration upheaval, but my gut reaction was, "Duh... COVID killed off A LOT of people, and very likely was a lot of people with preexisting conditions." It'd make sense for life expectancy to increase in the years after such a pandemic.

When looking at statistics like this you tend to filter out things like COVID as it was a temporary situation. You still count deaths from pre-existing conditions, accidents, et al. where people die before they're old or non-natural causes as these continue to happen and fewer people dying from car accidents or homicides do affect the stats.

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