Dont forget that old laptops can also run ChromeOS Flex. I run Ubuntu on 4 different machines here at the house, but have my Luddite wife on ChromeOS Flex on an old laptop. It does the things she needs and the interface doesnt change, which is a big plus for her.

These illegal foreign sheep are coming to take the jobs of American sheep! Whats next?

This is nothing new. We didnt call them ghost jobs back in the 1990s, but it was clear that employers were posting jobs because they were legally required to, but they already had H1B guys they wanted anyway.

Mass adoption of EVs will happen when people decide they cost less. I see a lot of people buying 1st Gen Nissan Leaf EVs because theyre dirt cheap and they generally dont have to go very far for most of their driving. The biggest savings is the much, much lower maintenance of an EV versus a gas buggy, but thats now how people see them.

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Batteries are just electronic devices, like TV sets. Development will continue. They will steadily be improved and made cheaper, just like TV sets or any other consumer electronic devices. By the end of the decade, EVs will cost the same, or less than gas buggies. Forget all the arguments about superior tech or whatever. When they are less costly to buy, they will sell. That is coming as sure of the sun comes up in the morning.

Public chargers suck for many reasons and I just never use them.

I live on Hawaii Island and drive a Kia EV6, with 300+ miles of range. I can drive anywhere on the island and back home again on a single charge. I charge the car off my solar array and never pay a nickel for charging it, and its always there.

When I was in California and drove a Nissan Leaf with 240 miles of range, I just never went anywhere I couldnt get back home again on a single full charge. For those rare overland trips I needed to do, I drove our Prius.

This is why the next major investments in California need to be grid scale battery energy storage. If you've got a day time surplus, store and use that at night instead of more baseline systems. There are any number of good battery technologies for this. My own favorite is the liquid metal batteries from Ambri.

It's as simple as the fact that EVs have far few parts to fail. Just like everything else electronic, the technology will continue to evolve to become better, more reliable and much less costly. Look at the cost of TV sets. Solid state batteries are almost here and that's just the beginning. EV tech has not plateaued the way gas buggy tech has.

So ah... Since you think others might choose wrong, you're going to make that choice for them?

Why not let people, and companies, vote their wallets? The savings in EVs isn't in fuel cost so much as it is in maintenance cost. No oil changes, tune-ups, radiator, fuel pumps, oil pumps, fan belts, spark plugs and wires, etc, etc. In the 18,000 miles I've owned my EV, I've rotated the tires twice and changed out the windshield wiper blades once. What does 6 oil changes (one every 3000 miles) cost you?

Nobody is going to take away your precious gas buggy. The day is coming very soon when EVs will cost less than gas buggies and you're going to complain about that too.

I believe that people vote their wallets. EV sales will blossom when they cost less than gas buggies AND when they're not a pain in the butt to get charged.

I've been driving an EV for the last 5 years now and have always done all of my charging at home. I just never drove farther from the house than I could get back on a single charge. We also have a gas buggy as our 2nd car.

Now that I live on the Big Island of Hawaii, I bought a Kia EV6 with 300+ miles of range and get anywhere on the island and back home again on a single charge. Naturally we also have a full solar/battery system here at the house.

EVs are fine for people like me, but most don't own their own home and have the ability to charge the way I do. Once the charging infrastructure is adequate and the cars are cheap enough, they'll sell and sell a lot. The biggest savings in an EV isn't energy cost. It's the near total lack of maintenance expense.

EV owners are still early adopters, but the day is coming very soon when the typical range is 500+ miles, they'll charge in 20 minutes and there will be plenty of places to do it. When that happens, people will buy them in large numbers. Let people vote their wallets.

My first EV was a 2013 Nissan Leaf I bought in 2018. It was 5 years old and had about 40,000 miles on it. I had it for about 18 months and it was flawless. I traded it in on a 2019 Leaf S Plus, which I drove for 3 years. Never had a problem with it. I did all of my charging at home. It was rated at 240 miles of range, which we all know is driving under about 45 mph. When you go up to California freeway speeds of 70 mph, that range is reduced to about 170 miles. So I made a point of never going anywhere more than about 80 miles from my home in Alameda. That covered pretty much the whole greater San Francisco Bay Area for me. I could go as far south as Santa Cruz, north to Santa Rosa, Napa and Davis, west to Bodega Bay and east to Antioch.

Today I live on Hawaii Island and have a Kia EV6 with 310 miles of range. At freeway speeds, climbing over the saddle road through the middle of the island, I have enough range to drive anywhere on the island and back home on a single charge.

Sure these are newer vehicles, but I've never spent a nickel on maintenance. With a gas buggies over those 5 years, there would be oil changes, tune-ups, radiator flush from time to time, etc. Even if I were driving a new car. Battery cars are also a lot easier on the brakes because most of your braking isn't mechanical, but is instead regenerative braking.

Driving across the saddle road in the Big Island, it's about 20 miles all uphill and then 20 miles all downhill. In a gas buggy, you're putting a lot of stress on the brakes. In a battery car, all that downhill braking is regen braking. No wear on the mechanical brakes at all. Big win for the EV.

Battery cars are quiet and smooth to drive and ride in. They're just a pleasure for me (emphasis on the words "for me."). I'm a big believer in people voting their wallets. If you don't like the idea of driving an EV, then don't. But by the end of the decade, they will sell for less than gas buggies and will have a lower life cycle cost. It will still be a free country. You'll be free to spend more on your gas buggy than I will on my EV.

I'm on my 3rd EV over the last 5 years and have NEVER had a need for a repair. All three have been 100% reliable. The only thing I've spent money on is windshield wipers.

Electric vehicles are still new tech and are not yet fully mature. If you think this is as good as they'll ever get, then you're correct in saying they aren't cutting it. But this tech, like most tech, will continue to improve. By the end of the decade, batteries will be solid state, have at least twice the density they do now and will cost half of what they do now.

Electric vehicles have many inherent advantages, especially in the lack of needed maintenance. No oil changes, no spark plugs, wires, fuel injectors or carburetors, filters, belts, etc, etc. There's a whole lot of stuff they don't have which you won't have to worry about breaking.

I'm in favor of the government ending subsidies for the sale of electric vehicles AND the oil industry. I'm also in favor of hitting electric vehicles with added annual fees to support the roads in lieu of gas taxes. Let everything cost what its real cost is, and then let people vote their wallets.

All I can say is try to catch a demo of the D&D 8c. I run a set of Linkwitz Orions and am quite familiar with the LX521. The D&D 8c is the only thing I'd consider a worthy competitor to the LX521.

At age 72, I know that I have hearing loss. Even so, I feel I can accurately hear timbre and detail. It's not all in the above 12,000 hz range. There's an awful lot of detail and complexity below that. I'm a mid-range nut anyway. I mostly listen to acoustic jazz and classical anyway, and that's where the content is for me. I have my "forever" loudspeakers. Like the article, they were a DIY project, but unlike the article, they didn't cost a million bucks. Most of us DIY guys want a rich guy's sound system at a price we mere mortals can afford.

The downside of DIY stuff is that it doesn't retain any value in resale, but that's not the point. My car won't retain any value as it ages either. Both are meant to be used and enjoyed while they can.