Jony Ive did it first with the eMate 300 back in 1997.

I suspect this is not for people like us (most of us anyway). This is for younger people - people who grew up with iPads and smart phones. I've never wanted a touchscreen laptop, but I have seen lots of young people who don't use computers much try to touch the screen on a computer. It isn't particularly efficient, but it is what a lot of young people expect... not having it introduces a point of friction.

Despite the fact that the current Republican majorities in both houses have abdicated their responsibilities - Congress has the "power of the purse". When Trump's sycophants say "we're not spending this money Congress has allocated", Congress doesn't have to just sit back and say "darn, they've thwarted us again".

Fixing some of the funding shenanigans Trump and his Muppets have been pulling can indeed make things at least somewhat better.

Ternus by name Temus by nature...

Reading the tea leaves, it sounded like the market for a full-size electric pickup is comprised of individuals who seemingly suffer from terminal range anxiety. So Ford is rumored to be relaunching the F-150, except on the new universal platform and also as an EREV - it's supposedly gonna have a generator on board.

I'm actually curious to see the Fathom when it comes out. I don't really need a full-size pickup, but owning a pickup would come in handy a few times a year (if you have to rent one and drive it more than 20-30 miles, you end up paying through the nose). I was originally thinking about the Lighning, but got a bit spooked by all the crap Trump's started pulling to attempt killing the EV market outright. Of course he shot himself in the foot with Iran not too long after, which seems to have changed some of these companies' minds again.

Must I remind you about the Slashdot Code of Conduct?

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You might as well have just said "Kim Campbell". :-)

Didn't we already see a significant vulnerability related to this within the past 12 months?

Also, it's not just Windows. Just a couple months ago I updated the firmware on a bunch of Dell boxes using fwupdmgr (on AlmaLinux 9). It's very convenient, but I (mostly) wish it wasn't actually possible... but, since it is, might as well take advantage of it.

Are they caused by simpletons who are letting AI do their jobs without any oversight?

I'm curious as to why you'd assume that.

Well, be fair. Back doors don't come cheap!

Yup - as soon as I saw who was involved, my immediate thought was "this is great if your goal is owning a permanently backdoored laptop".

We can save some money by paying foreigners to do the work.

Because it's a bad look if the least-expensive version of your laptop costs $2200.

The United States is the world's largest producer of natural gas and of helium. Qatar and Russia are the other top helium producers.

In the near future, I fully expect a new Trump announcement about how we're getting a bunch of helium from Putin, and as a result we're giving Russia Most Favored Nation trading status. And maybe Zelensky's head on a platter.