Given the direction some subgenres of romance novels are headed, the use of AI is one of the least disturbing things going on with that industry right now.

I bought my first and only Macbook Pro in 2006. Over time, I upgraded the RAM to max it out and I upgraded the disk drive several times as storage prices fell. Due to all of this upgradability, I was able to use this as my primary device for fourteen years until the GPU finally crapped out. While I'd never had any issues with the laptop before the GPU died, it was made up of commodity components that could easily be sourced and replaced by skilled technicians at third-party shops. Due to that, I never felt the need to get AppleCare. It will likely go down as the best laptop I've ever owned.

Contrast that with the current Macbooks which can't upgrade the RAM or storage after purchase. This means that if you want to build a laptop that lasts a long time, you need to pay Apple their extortionate fees upfront for RAM and storage as there is no ability to change your mind later. Most of the components can no longer be sourced by third-parties, so you'd better max out AppleCare as well. And after that expires, if any component dies on the motherboard, even a $5 IC or capacitor, your only option is to pay Apple $800-$1500 for a refurbished board since they refuse to replace individual components on the board. And if you maxed out the RAM and storage to future-proof your machine, you'll be paying the upper end of that price range. Also, depending on the component that dies, you may lose all of your data in the process. And that's only if Apple doesn't refuse to service the laptop in the first place. Tally that up, and it's hundreds, maybe well over a thousand, dollars just for future-proofed RAM and storage, hundreds for AppleCare since third-party board repair is virtually impossible, and well over a thousand after that if any component on the board shits the bed after AppleCare expires. Macbooks have essentially become premium disposable laptops.

So while the option to customize your Macbook via build-to-order will certainly alleviate some of the TCO issues that modern Macbooks present, they're still a very far cry from what they were in the mid 2000s and early 2010s. It's a shame because the M-series chips seem pretty great, but I personally can't justify the enormous hike in TCO. But based on their sales numbers, I don't think my priorities mirror the average person and I highly doubt Apple is missing my business.

It sounds like you're using proprietary software in an era of late-stage capitalism. Would you like me to help you find open source alternatives that leave you the hell alone while you work?

First it's KDE's login manager. Next, it will be some other portion of KDE due to another dependency, maybe systemd-homed. And other projects are almost certain to follow. This is Red Hat's version of embrace, extend, extinguish (which is likely a big reason why IBM bought Red Hat). They keep making additional modules that are exclusive to SystemD with enticing functionality, they lure downstream projects to integrate those modules, and before you know it the dependencies are so intertwined with this exclusive functionality that the downstream project can no longer support any other init system. Say what you want about all of the other init systems available, but I can't think of another init system that pulled shit like this. They didn't have to implement SystemD like this, but they chose to because it allowed them to exert undue influence on many other downstream projects (and when you're an init system, almost every component is a downstream project). If you like SystemD, fine, but let's not pretend this outcome is incidental, let alone healthy for alternative init systems.

At this point, I doubt I will ever own a car beyond model year 2013. I'm considering buying a used car now and I'm wondering if I should get two to keep an extra 2013 with relatively low mileage for when the first one craps out.

Take a look around. People, especially young people, are opting out of: college, career development, marriage, parenthood, relationships, and just about anything else that we once considered valuable as a society. And this Wired author is concerned about the effects of shunning...smartphones. This is like being trapped in a house fire and complaining about a hangnail.

Nearly every crypto token succeeded in their intended purpose: making the creator money without having to actually produce anything of value. And if a creator failed to make money from their tokens, then they're either extremely stupid or extremely greedy.

That also doesn't cover tuition increases that are virtually guaranteed over those four years.

But in just a few short years, it has become a joke worldwide. That gravitas is gone.

For the ultra-corrupt, power is worth far more than perception.

the AEB system would have very little information beforehand to cause it to activate.

That's very true, and yet insurance companies will blame drivers for a collision caused by another driver merging into your lane with no warning.

Sir, we've had some reports that your code is full of illegal imports.

Yes, if I have to use the terminal to fix my computer then clearly Windows is not ready for the desktop. If Microsoft works diligently, then maybe three years from now will be the Year of the Windows Desktop.

I agree with you regarding DRAM makers since they're customer-facing and consumers can hold grudges for a very long time (I'm looking at you, Corsair). However, TSMC is business-facing and they have so much demand in consumer and enterprise that they probably don't have much to worry about. And since they have almost no competition, consumers wouldn't have many alternatives anyway - the best they could do to retaliate is to go without.

Markets don't disappear when a bubble bursts - after all, we're submitting this on the internet after the Dot Com bubble. A bubble bursting is just the natural progression of an emerging market in a capitalist society. The emerging market begins with a huge rush of investors and entrepreneurs who do everything they can just to outlast the competition in a war of attrition. Inevitably, most companies run out of cash which initiates the bubble to burst. The few remainders are the winners and with little competition, they're free to engage in mass enshittification and pull the ladders up behind them to prevent any latecomers from having a serious chance at disrupting their success.

So while much of the competition dies, the market itself remains, albeit completely controlled by a small number of very powerful companies. This will be no exception. The difference is that this time many people believe that the winners may control almost the entire labor market, so the stakes have never been higher.

Any new environment is going to come with frustrations. Even migrating to something as polished as macOS will likely require doing so research to get something to behave in the preferred manner you took for granted in your old OS. However, with Linux all of the pain is front-loaded. Once you get past that, each release is usually as good or better than the last. That's actually pretty consistent with open source software in general since it's developed for the love of the game and is therefore less susceptible to profit-driven enshittification.

Compare that to Windows where you spend every non-consensual upgrade with a puckered asshole wondering what fresh hell awaits you on the other side of the next boot. Will it be ads in standard Windows apps? Broken drivers? Will it even boot at all or will it spend a shitload of time reverting to a previous version? Each Windows update brings more pain and frustration when you could just front-load that pain now and invest in an OS that respects your settings and privacy instead of constantly fights to dominate your hardware.