I teach adjunct classes. 2 of them a week. 3 hours a class. I make $500 every 2 week. After grading, planning, etc I make $6.25 an hour. In only do it because surprise! The community college canâ(TM)t hire a full time teacher and I can afford to waste the time. Those kids are not getting a high quality education.

Let middle class students use vouchers for private school depriving public schools of funds. Then say they underperform.

Could be way too many logs on multiple servers, some possibly in-memory rather than file based that they'd have to know about in order to wipe all trace of their activities. Or at least thats how a proper service provider would implement things, but then this is MS after all.

"It should also dispense chilled water and ice"

Seriously? Must be an american thing. Has about the same importance as smart tech in a fridge for me.

... in the bin of history of brands that used to be superior but stupid/greedy CEOs thought cutting costs and hence device reliability was the way forward not realising that market segment was already oversubscribed.

My bog standard normal fridge already does. If the temp goes above a certain level a buzzer goes off, no AI, crypto or internet connection required.

If you were dumb enough to buy one of these "smart" refrigerators, you get what you deserve. There is absolutely no reason to have a "smart" refrigerator. It's a refrigerator. It should only do two things: keep the stuff in the fridge cool and the stuff in the freezer frozen.

Anything else is a waste of money.

But they have no problem paying $50 to have a Big Mac delivered to them.

Perhaps a rethinking is in order.

I'm glad you are so informed. I'll believe what the actual fire department said was the cause. You live in whatever world fits you.

The thing is that places that historically didn't have to worry about this, now have to worry about this.

If they want it preconditioned? Yes, welcome to 2025, they can install the app on their phone. Or they use the 'remote climate start' option on the keyfob. Or they shoot you a quick text asking you to hit the button in your app.

You keep trying to paint these advancements in convenience and comfort as terrible burdens, and it's weird.

That really the best you can do? Have another go.

You missed the best part and directly related to this story. Texas got rid of the mandate that construction companies provide breaks for their workers in high heat.

This doesn't mean the company can't give their workers breaks, just that it is no longer mandated. How many do you think no longer give these breaks?

I'm glad that wasn't more disasturous. Sadly the cat in this story did not survive and the home was a total loss.

The stove was off when my aunt left. My sister fed the cat a few days and the stove was off. The fire department traced the fire to the elements on the stove and the assumption is the cat must have turned it on by accident while walking up there.