Conversely, if a Mac costs you 1 hour per week because it doesn't do something you need it to it costs $5200 in productivity and the cost of the Mac.

And it does cost in productivity as one of my illustrious duties has been to maintain a Windows Server RDS farm solely for Mac users to be able to log on and use the same applications as everyone else in the business. So not only was it lost productivity, it also cost my time (which is worth more than theirs, I get billed at £180 per hour) and a Windows RDS license. All this because the special little sales people didn't want to use a Dell like everyone else.

Apple, the product that keeps on costing.

Yep, this is blatant protectionism, which is the 'Murican way. This is why Japanese diesel pickups have been banned using a variety of increasingly complex and convoluted rules designed to not prevent US pickups from being banned under the same rule. This is done because the Toyota Hilux would decimate Ford F-series sales, not just immediately but over the long term because you don't have to replace a Toyota Hilux every year as they don't fall apart.

National security is the sledgehammer approach. They're not even bothering with convoluted rules so they can pretend it's not blatant protectionism.

If anything, the data of American drivers is safer in Sweden as they're subject to EU laws like GDPR. I'm certain Ford, GM and Tesla are selling that data to all and sundry.

GTA V, out of the box on PC came on 6 (possibly 7, I can't remember and can't be arsed to check) DVDs and took ages to install. I only bought the physical disks because at the time I lived in Australia and it would have taken even longer to download.

Yep, we do need to address the disinformation crisis before we become as bad as the US where people blindly believe the most obvious of lies from Fox, Trump, et al. However this isn't really the way to go about it.

I'm not concerned about the current government, I'm more concerned if someone authoritarian like Farage gets in, laws like this are tailor made to be abused by people like him.

Oh goodie... another person who thinks their credit card is "free".

Clue by four, it's not, you are paying for it but you just don't know it (and will refuse to accept that fact even after learning it).

First things first, when you use your card the merchant has to pay a percentage of that transaction in fees to the banks and payment processors, the EU capped this at 1%, it can easily exceed 5% outside the EU and routinely goes to 3%. 3 cents out of every dollar goes to paying for your card, at least. It's not free and the banks and payment processors are making serious money off it. There are a minimum of 5 parties for every card transaction You -> Your bank -> Payment processor -> Merchant bank -> Merchant. Every middleman is taking a cut for themselves.

You can argue that banning credit card fees is bad because it forces merchants to hide the cost from the consumer (which is how the banks and payment processors like it) but the EU at least capped the fees and this move would further reduce the burden on both merchants and consumers.

Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard and Amex don't want digital currencies for the same reason they're trying to kill cash. They don't get a cut of that transaction and that's wrong to them.

Yes, train your drivers better and have laws that take the bad ones off the road.

That's why the US has a road fatality rate of 14 per 100,000 pop and the UK has 2.6 per 100,000 pop. Your western countries average around 5 per 100,000 pop (Canada is 4.7, Australia 4.5, France 4.9, Germany 3.3) and we're only really beaten by the Nordic nations who are insanely safe. Before you whine, the per mile statistics aren't any better and the only reason the US drives more is because you won't walk to the shops.

So this means not only having standards for getting a license, also a standard for keeping one. This means punishing DUI, distracted driving (read: morons on the phone), et al.

Automated cars won't fix the problem with the US because the problem isn't technological, it's social. Americans feel entitled to drive the way they do, which is dangerously. In Europe, they aren't any better than human drivers, in many cases they're worse.

The big problem is it's easy to make a device that looks for open WIFI networks in order to connect to the mothership. This is made even easier by the fact that a lot of modern WiFi routers allow for WPS, which often lets you connect without having to enter a password. Sure you can disable it on your side... but what about your neighbours.

Short term solution is not to buy devices that have Wifi built in (I'm looking for a new washing machine and it looks like I'm limited to the cheap models), long term solution requires legislation by a large number of countries (erm... this pretty much means it has to be started by the EU, then adopted by everyone else) but much like GDPR they'll fight it every step of the way.

So that means Tiktok is 150% AI slop... Yes the maths was done by AI on that one.

Starmer is still better than the alternatives (Farage, Badenoch) but that's not saying much. The alternatives are just that shit.

Labour need to backtrack on the authoritarianism pronto, otherwise we'll be proper fucked the next time a real authoritarian gets in (like Trump bum buddy Farage). Some of the laws they're creating are made to be abused, even though Starmer isn't going to abuse them (he lacks the initiative, drive and imagination for that)

Things like this are why I prefer a wired connection. That and sound quality.

The simple answer to this is "if you want public money, give us parts of your company, otherwise fuck off and die". Also if we capped or outright stopped losses from being used to minimise taxes on profits it would help protect us against reckless billionaires.

The Games and Entertainment division has always been a loss for Microsoft. Long before AI came along it was supported by the more profitable divisions (OS and Applications). It's the same story over at Sony with the Playstation losing money and being funded by more profitable things.

It's just after 25 years of making a loss, the M$ management aren't seeing any benefit from it.

Florida Man has done almost anything but he ain't stolen no kids.

Algorithms also assume that people know what they're doing and will act rationally. If anyone thinks people drive this way they are clearly not paying attention to the roads.

Every traffic jam starts with just one arsehole, just one who thinks they're different, special, above it all. One arsehole who decides that 30 is fast enough for everyone. One arsehole who sits on the phone, One arsehole who cuts people up, straddles two lanes, doesn't proceed at a green light. One arsehole who thinks the rules don't apply to him (and only him) and refuses to fit into traffic.

The kicker is, there are a lot more than just one arsehole on the roads.

And don't think that autonomous cars will save us, first off, they'll never work in our lifetimes but ignoring that they will be programmed to follow the rules to the letter (not the least important reason is to ensure the manufacture is as indemnified as possible from any blame), they will wait for a large enough gap, they will ignore faster moving lanes, they will wait for intersections to be clear, they won't speed... So the arsehole will decide that they know how to drive better because they will force their way into traffic, tailgate, so on and so forth.

I'm less worried about Starmer as King Cnut, he's well intentioned but delusional and incompetent... I'm more concerned about how these laws will be used by King Cunt's like Nigel Farage if they ever gained power. For this reason alone these laws need to be opposed but the fools voting for fascists like Farage are just telling politicians like Starmer that they want more fascism (and is anyone surprised they're getting it?).