> It was possible to run the entire Windows XP system plus user applications on 128MB of RAM... 256MB was a luxury.

I did an experiment once. Windows NT 3.5 could boot with 12MB of RAM. You really couldn't do anything with it, but it did boot up. As I recall, the whole OS only took up about 40MB of disk space.

> "Our vehicles are giant paperweights right now through no fault of ours," one wrote on Reddit.

No fault? None at all? That seems... counter-intuitive.

I get it that the technology failed spectacularly, and that this is a serious problem for which people need to be held to account, but my car is working just fine.

After a few months of Windows 95, I switched to NT 3.5. Much better.

Unintended consequences are the most common consequences. Once you take that into account, the world makes a lot more sense. I totally get what you're talking about, though. I felt the same way when I first read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", and thought "whuffie" could be a really interesting idea if actually implemented. Eventually, I really I realized it's just as bad as stuff like Polymarket is turning out to be. Pure democracy has a way of always spiraling out of control.

What are you talking about? It does that kind of thing _now_.

I work for a Microsoft shop and use Copilot a lot. When I have a hard question, I use Claude Opus, otherwise ChatGPT is fine.

Dude's got an impressive CV, no doubt. Using this to slam Microsoft is lame. He's written a ton of impressive code, literally using it as a CV to get a job at Microsoft (with SysInternals, nee WinInternals).

I hate how "ask" is now used as a noun. Although that's been around for at least 10 years.

To be fair, a lot of scientific endeavors are using "Don't Build the Torment Nexus" as blueprint... to build the Torment Nexus. I think we're safe with respect to our downfall being perpetrated by something with an appropriately villainous name.

Just ask the AI to write code to produce a good password. That will probably work just fine in every case.

Don't worry. The software to read this glass storage will require a subscription and need to run on 128GB of RAM and a 24-core processor, which will double every 18 months for the foreseeable future.

In far less than 10,000 yes, we will be able to throw any bitstream in the computer, define as many parameters as we might happen to know (e.g., "This is a document file created with XYZ software"), or perhaps none at all, and have the computer grok out the meaningful data stored therein. CDs can be read with electron microscopes if need be. There will always be a way to recover data; it just might not be cheap and easy.

You need to work "365" into that name...

I remember reading an article around '79-'81 about a laser storage system being developed that would become compact disc. I think commercially available music CDs were first released in 1983.

Who in their right mind would allow any app access to their contact list?

I can't anything good coming out of that, only bad.