Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re: We are also paying the Germans 1.2 billion (Score 5, Informative) 124

Better deals? You mean pay double and be happy. Tariffs don't ever make domestic goods cheaper and more available.

It's convenient to blame China of course. It's a lot more palatable than realizing that our own system has screwed us. Because we're the best in the world and if we can't do it cheaply and affordably, they must be cheating! Unfair trade! Unfair to the biggest power in the world.

But the simple fact is American companies put you in this situation. China didn't get ahead because they cheated. They got ahead because American companies deliberately gutted manufacturing and fired workers to improve their bottom line, and China responded to the demand, willing to take slightly lower short-term profits. Tariffs won't fix this (if it actually is broken). In fact they make it much, much worse. American companies aren't incentivized to ramp up production and drive down prices. In fact it's the opposite. With no competition, what capacity you do have will remain the same while prices double and triple. It's all about that sweet sweet shareholder profit (and CEO pay out). There will never be self sufficiency as long as the Harvard Business School mentality drives corporations. Meanwhile enjoy your massive tax increases that fund an ever-decreasing amount of social services.

That is why things were so bad during COVID.

Comment Re:Go to Court... then face Retaliation? (Score 1) 82

So fascinating! Tariffs all together are the largest tax increase on American citizens in many years. While they do cause damage and harm to others, you are the ones who pay it. Glad you are happy to contribute your part. And yet while they harm the American consumer, they don't seem to do any of the positive things that you suggest. Near as I can tell all they've done is driven up prices and enriched those who were already rich at the expense of the rest of Americans.

Comment Re:Congress won't act (Score 1) 209

Yes it's very interesting how quickly we have learned that the Constitution is simply a piece a paper with no inherent power, except as people honor it. Once that honor is gone, the constitution is gone. Congress and the courts also have no real power, except that which is granted voluntarily. Courts can rule until they are blue in the face but when a president just says, "so what" everything is lost. We all got extremely complacent, thinking that all people, especially presidents, ultimately uphold the constitution as we do individually. Despite generations of talking about freedom, it's astounding how quickly so many just don't care about it actually, and are happy to have a king.

I agree with John V. Last: It's worth fighting for, even if I'm not hopeful about winning. At least you can tell you kids you stood up for the constitution and freedom, even though you lost. The next 10 years will be very interesting.

Comment Re:Stick but no carrot (Score 1) 58

Manufacturing didn't move to China because the Chinese were cheating and undercutting American companies. Rather it was a deliberate decision on the part of American companies to kill local manufacturing and eliminate jobs (employees are simply costs to reduce), in order to maximize short-term quarterly gains. No amount of tariff and government banning will fix that.

Comment Re: This is ridiculous (Score 1) 48

If Apple's RAM is on the cpu die, then they aren't beholden to any RAM supplier! As long as they have fab slots to make their M cpus, they have RAM too. So if demand for RAM is hurting their ability to get fabs to make their M series CPUs, then they are hurting way more than just for high RAM prices.

Comment Re:Tortious interference (Score 1) 28

This is true. And if you don't use any Google services with an alternate firmware, you still can.

Developer verification is enforced through Google Play Services, even for apps that are installed from other sources. It's a pretty neat way of allowing third-party app stores while still guaranteeing their cut.

Comment Nonsensical headline and summary (Score 1) 28

Google is not allowed to do business at all in sanctioned nations, so devs there can't even access Google Play Services in the first place, which is where the developer verification takes places. No Google services, no Google Play, no Play Services, no developer verification. So there's no "exemption" at play. Surely Google never said any such thing as the headline and summary imply. By this logic, LineageOS or Android OSP without gapps installed is exempted from Google's developer verification program too.

Comment Re:Meanwhile, in the United States (Score 2) 20

This German bridge costs millions of dollars too. And the speed with which it will be installed belies the time and money spent building it prefab, and in preparation for the install. Definitely an engineering feat to do the actual building in just six months, and install in four days without major disruptions.

The US builds interstate bridges in a similar way, to minimize disruption. Certainly costs more than traditional, in-place bridge construction.

Comment Re:Double sunrise? (Score 1) 70

AI tied itself in knots trying to explain how that happened, but I figured that we flew far enough north that at 35,000 feet we flew briefly where we could just barely see the midnight sun (the "sunrise"), and then flew back south into the dark, where eventually the sun caught up to us. I thought the experience was kind of cool.

Slashdot Top Deals

As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing.

Working...