Curious: How many of the typical denizens of this site know who or what "the Big Four" are?

I have no idea other than the contextual clues in the post.

Ring said: "[...] we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated."

Translation: "We're gonna lose a ton of customers and then get our butts sued off by the ones that are left."

Yes, people, just keep bringing that inexpensive, Chinese-manufactured hardware into your homes! There have never been any credible electronic threats or state-sponsored eavesdropping associated with such boxes...

"We're going to invent a completely new form of currency that will be better than the standard model used for millennia. Trust us!"

(Twenty years pass...)

"Um, guys? Why haven't we taken over the world yet?"

I sense a civil war brewing on the Left Coast! In the south, we have Los Angeles, trying to ban single-use printer cartridges. In the north, we have Hewlett Packard, headquartered in Palo Alto (halfway between San Jose and San Francisco), and the king of "Only Our Cartridges!" One of the largest metropolitan areas in the country versus one of the most established Silicon Valley originals. Who will win? (Spoiler alert: the party with more money...)

Full disclosure: After having used HP printers for decades, I recently sold my last one and vowed never again to support that company. They have become infamous for retroactively and deceitfully bricking printers via stealthy firmware upgrades that prevent the use of non-HP cartridges. "You paid for that hardware and think you own it? Well, we're going to disable it unless you obey our rules, even if they've changed since you bought it..."

Straight from the dictionary of dictators the world over:

• treason: noun, enabling the local populace to observe the reality of the rest of the world
• espionage: noun, enabling the rest of the world to observe the reality of the local populace

I concur fully! This clickbait headline takes advantage of the current plethora of failures that have plagued Boeing products following years of poor upper management.

Look at the Wikipedia article on past Boeing leadership, specifically the entries covering the two decades from 1996 to 2015. If you start following links, you'll begin to see the root causes of many of the later disasters. And contrary to what you might hear from the mainstream media, the company has been turning itself around under the leadership of the CEOs hired in 2020 and 2024 respectively, who have prioritized ridding the company of the irresponsible practices and poor management that came to dominate during the "bad years."

Disclaimer: I am a retiree who did work for Boeing for a number of years, but as a mathematician and software engineer in R&D, not on production systems.

PSA: When composing titles, please use either "Washington State" or "Washington DC" (or "D.C."). Otherwise, those of us in the affected locations have to read through the article to determine whether the information applies to us. (In this case, it was the original NBC News post that first committed this faux pas, neglecting to disambiguate between the locations until the tenth paragraph!)

I moved on from Windows Media Player so long ago that I had almost forgotten it still exists. For some years now, my primary audio application has been MediaMonkey because it freely and easily syncs between Windows and Android. Yes, I'm that guy who has over 5,000 tracks on my computer and phone...

These types of posts are always hysterical! "Dude, I just roasted you and now you're uncomfortable!" LOL

The hostess at a recent Christmas party had a delightfully tasteful little charcuterie layout. "Where did you get that?" CostCo, of course! We all acknowledged how surprisingly good some of their food items are when you consider they're essentially coming from a big-box warehouse. And their lasagna has long been a party staple around here!

Way to turn a thread about entertainment into one about politics...

Love Island was the third-most watched "original" series?!? That right there is the most damning commentary on the decline of our society...

And this is why I will never again own an HP printer. I just bought a Canon printer after decades of owning HP products.

* "...too dumb..."