If Musk can be in the space-car-socNet-Borg-terraform-botfarm* biz, then Zuck can be in the socNet-VR-botfarm biz.

* Did I miss any?

I used to always own at least one console, despite mostly being a PC gamer. I felt like the console was more of an appliance, really. Power it on and it has one job. Even if I came to accept the idea of buying games digitally on Steam or elsewhere for my Windows gaming PC, I never felt like it should be the same experience on a console. It's nice to own a physical library of game titles your friends or family can look through on a shelf and decide what they want to pop in and play. It has "permanence" - even if the game itself requires an Internet connection and supports online multiplayer gaming.

I guess I could be swayed to be less concerned if the manufacturers would play fair with all of it, but IMO, they really don't. As one example? My wife's kid bought an XBox 360 and owned a number of digital games on it. Microsoft decided to ban him from their network permanently, and without any warning or real explanation. He wasn't running hacks or cheats, and he wasn't threatening other gamers with violence or anything of the sort. He did have an odd nickname/handle (something about killing a unicorn?), so he finally decided that's what offended some people and got him banned. After all that money was lost on the console and digital purchases - the entire family decided to never again buy an XBox of any type.

My wife had a similar hassle involving the Nintendo Switch and her favorite game, Animal Crossing. To be honest, I don't even play the Switch so I'm not even that familiar with the whole thing. But it had something to do with her buying the game on a physical cartridge but then Nintendo trying to move everything to digital games only. They provided a means to use the physical copy to authorize your account to download and play the digital one, but that wound up hampering how she wanted to play the game across three different Nintendo Switch consoles she owned while retaining her saved game.

What the fuck is a "net zero" HVAC?

A window. The top models come with a sunscreen.

Fuck that.

Living in New Orleans...with easily avg temps in the mid to high 90's with mid to high 90's % humidity too....AC is a necessity.

That's been long known here....can't fathom why EU is having such a problem simply using AC when needed.

This isn't rocket surgery , this isn't NEW.

Natural gas is common in many southern states....TN, AL, MS, LA, AR and TX.....I've lived and visited there most of my life and it is common.

I've only lived in one apartment ONCE didn't have gas and I will not do that again.....I prefer gas to cook on and is cheaper for heat and water heating than electric by far....

Solar is already cheaper than coal

People and companies are STILL FREE to use all the solar they want, or any other source....

It just isn't mandated by the state.

.. which major American political party claims it is in favor of local control?

I would posit this IS an example of local control.

Most things of this nature need to be handled at the state level.....not at the federal level.

With the economy and high prices, etc....no one wants to force those in a state to enact policies that willl cost the citizens MORE money, and have pretty much "NET ZERO" measurable benefit to show for it on a global....hell, even on a local scale.

That's generally what JavaScript was supposed to be: a glue language that does things like call a GUI engine, it wasn't designed to BE the goddam GUI engine.

sit in the damned dark and accept your punishment for greed and ignorance!

If somebody put the open-source models on an AI server farm(s) and charged only based on what it costs to host and serve them, would the income cover the server farm?

It's nearly impossible to test that right now because it would be competing with subsidized services.

And matrix chips tend to wear out quicker than CPU's, meaning higher replacement costs.

Mod FP funny in the theory-practice joke genre.

However the context appears to be America, where the idea of solutions via (significant or complicated) change has become its own joke category. I still like (too much) to fantasize about solution approaches, but I'm increasingly convinced that the USA has passed the point of recovery via less violent evolutionary improvements. The "American way" into the future has been lost and it appears that only revolutionary change is possible now. I have two personal problems with revolutions. One is the extra deaths. I actually think that may be a key attribute to recognize a real revolution. The other is the uncertainty of the outcome. In some cases a revolution can produce positive improvements, but there's no guarantee that the new conditions won't be worse than the conditions that created the revolution.

Well the car companies gotta do something, they've all (in the US) lost billions trying to convert to EVs....and no one in the US wants them.

They overshot the perceived demand...and have to retool to go back to ICE to keep selling cars/trucks in the US.

Something has to give with losses like that.

No... nobody I know thinks we're "leading the world in banking technology". We're well aware how backwards the systems are. That's likely a big motivator for people to dabble in crypto and to use all the electronic payment systems that popped up, from Venmo to Cash App.

It's endlessly frustrating. At least 20 years ago, I was sure paper checks would vanish because of the utter lack of security they provide people. It seems like they came from an era where one's signature meant something? (If you think about it, that theme runs deep in our Financial system. Every credit card transaction prompts you for a signature. Yet if you ever have to challenge/fight fraudulent charges, you'll find the card companies don't give a crap if your signature matches what they show was scribbled for the transaction. You're still just as liable for it. Sign with a stick figure .... doesn't matter.) But yeah, give me a paper check and now I have your home address, likely one of your phone numbers, a copy of what your signature looks like (should I want to forge it later) and your bank's routing number + your account number. It's pretty common to ask the person paying to write down their date of birth on the check too. How are people ok with this?

Credit card processing is pathetic too, really. I was selling some 3D prints just a few weeks ago at our booth at the local Farmers'/Artisans' market, and a guy gave me a card that only worked with a mag-stripe. I had to run it with Square by manually keying in his card digits! I thought mag-stripe was rendered obsolete by now!

Interesting....I've never heard of such a thing,,...a minum energy building....?

LOL...I doubt I'd survive there long...my tube amps alone likely would have me thrown out of such an abode...

But if they subsidize it to gain market share against western tech they are still distorting prices.