I had a 9" HP mini 2140– the keyboard was surprisingly good given its size.

It’s just a shame the build quality matched the price and they fell apart in short order.

They make a lot more than car navigation systems. Their recreational gear and avionics are top of the line.

You can’t get a manual gearbox here any more.

Huh, let’s see why

Another factor contributing to the discontinuation of manual transmissions is the increasing emphasis on safety features and the integration of advanced driver-assist technologies.

Ew.

Technology has never been the problem: there’s nothing wrong with genetic engineering, AI, etc. They can (and have) been used for good.

The problem has always been the “greed is good” sociopaths using it for evil.

Yeah! Like meme stocks or beanie babies.

In that position you’re far more protected from retaliation than a “regular person” – it’s easier to prove with an established history and courts really don’t like have their judgments undermined. You’ve also shown your employer trying to screw with you is expensive.

Go back and do your job to the letter. They’re either going to be very wary of pissing you off, or they’re going to do something stupid and you’ll get another payout.

Netbooks need to come back with modern hardware.

If I need an ultra-portable computer one in a usable form factor would be amazing.

Every city in the western world already has at least one rack of servers running 24/7. The have their own domain names, they have a web presence, etc – running a mastodon instance on existing infrastructure hardly qualifies as wasteful.

There’s plenty of really nice nursing homes in the USA … they’re just charge thousands of dollars a month and kick you out if you can’t pay.

That’s what I’m running, though I had issues with it randomly requiring a reset. Installing OpenWrt fixed that problem.

The states have limited power to defy the feds.

Case in point: legalized marijuana. That said, my fear in regards to states defying laws is:

• Targeted attacks by MAGA terrorists, particularly regarding anything LGBTQ+ or reproductive healthcare related.
• The fed withholding federal funds to punish states that don’t fall in line.

The former is particularly concerning as police and the national guard are predominately right-wing. My state passed the SAFE-T Act to address abuses in the police/justice system. Naturally, various police departments weren’t happy about this, and through obtuse interpretation of the act they’ll claim they can’t legally do vital parts of their job – something I’ve seen multiple times first hand. Refusing to do their job competently in response to MAGA terrorism isn’t hard to imagine.

The later gets tricky. Most of the states that would push back against unjust federal laws are also states that pay more in federal taxes than they receive in aid. The “obvious” solution withhold tax dollars going to the fed to make up the difference … which would be next to impossible in practice. Even if states mange to do it they’d be playing into Republican hands by defunding essential federal services.

The CHIPS act? You mean one of the things the Biden admin bragged about?

Good thing the incoming administration isn’t petty enough to nuke anything associated with the previous administration…

Hands you a random laptop.

“The thing doesn’t work.”

Refuses to elaborate and leaves.

I bought an LG microwave a few months ago to replace a dead 10 year old Sharp. My favorite “features”:

• The sticker on the door stating that by using the microwave I agree to LG’s TOS, including binding arbitration.
• The single 4 minutes and 30 seconds of use I got out of it before the magnetron broke.

When I returned it they customer service person asked if I wanted it serviced under warranty – hilarious. Bought a Panasonic instead.

You’re not wrong, but the idea that “plant based” is “safe” isn’t right either. Plants can create all kinds of horribly toxic, carcinogenic compounds – especially when burned or heated.

Wood smoke of all things is mildly carcinogenic and we cook our food with it.

Don’t forget that starship launch last year. The dumbass blew up a rocket and launched giant chunks of concrete onto people’s property because he’s a impatient child.

Which is hilarious, as the eponymous Culture is the epitome of luxury gay space anarchism. Pan-sexual, non-monogamous space hippies that can (and do) change their biological sex just by thinking about it. People so past the idea of “gender” that they consider giving any serious weight to the concept barbaric.

I know it’s a rhetorical question: but is Elon stupid or something?

It’s not about getting the day off: the goal is getting people to vote. Tying an extra day off to actually voting is more likely to get people to the polls

There are jobs where it’s not feasible or practical to pay an actual human to do.

Human translators exist and are far superior to machine translators. Do you hire one every time you need something translated in a casual setting, or do you use something Google translate? LLMs are the reason modern machine translation is is infinitely better than it was a few years ago.

One of the major problems with LLMs is it’s a “boom”. People are rightfully soured on them as a concept because jackasses trying to make money lie about their capabilities and utility – never mind the ethics of obtaining the datasets used to train them.

They’re absolutely limited, flawed, and there are better solutions for most problems … but beyond the bullshit LLMs are a useful tool for some problems and they’re not going away.