Where is one of the last places you'd expect a rear-view mirror?

The SR-71 had one.

The practical use case was checking the deployment of the landing parachute.

Speaking of forensics, if you're a law-abiding citizen who just wants to keep private information private, iOS lockdown mode will reported halt the Coruna forensics tool in its tracks. Source, Eva Galperin at EFF. It's a royal PITA to use though.

Or, as Robert Morris Sr. said about breaking confidential communications, "Look for plaintext. It comes up in the darnedest place", or words to that effect.

There's no ambiguity. Copyright is for humans. Period. Cory Doctorow goes into this pretty well.

https://pluralistic.net/2026/0...

Tell that to Elon.

"they are the ones for whom reasonable fact-based argument"

Perhaps, but when are we going to see one?

iOS is using on device machine learning models for text translation and dictation today.

Define AI. Modern smartphones use ML tools and models everywhere, from text prediction to touch detection to voice recognition to photo processing. They're not just limited to chat bots.

"Tokyo has a lot of family owned shops."

Tokyo is a modern, walkable city with good mass transit. In the US most places are totally dependent on cars. Having separate, butchers, bakers, and so long would mean making multiple trips to multiple destinations with multiple stops. And that assumes said places could be priced competitive with the big box stores and grocery stores.

Costco offers a decent selection of foods and goods at affordable prices w/o the typical price gouging seen almost everywhere else. And they treat their employees well, including wages and benefits.

But instead of recognizing why people would prefer such things, they try to frame it as a cult.

"On every front it's the exact opposite of value."

It's not a "value" product.

"It doesn't do anything anyone needs or wants."

Makes the classic mistake of assuming that everyone's needs and wants are identical to your own.

So they only grossed $157 million on them last quarter??? Or $1.2 billion in 2024? I wish all of my failures were so lucky.

Then again, it's said that Apple has spent $7B on it. so I suppose that's a loss. OTOH, Meta has seen operating losses of more than $77 billion since 2020 in its Reality Labs/metaverse division.

(BTW, currently reading this page on my Mac using the AVP Ultrawide monitor.)

When I was young I read because books were my only escape. If born today I fear I would have vanished into video games, perhaps never to resurface and never even leaving my parent's basement...

Look at it this way. Reading literature, books, short stories, and so on is basically akin to reading documentation... about people. Hopes, dreams, aspirations, failures... all that and more.

To quote DPS, "We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."

"The technical problems involving nuclear power have long since been solved. The social problems have not."

I have no doubt that the technical problems involving nuclear power have long since been solved. But as long as those plants are run by businesses and corporations looking to minimize costs and maximize profits, the "social" problems will never see solutions.

Which in turn probably means those plants will never, ever be safe.