Not really. There were plenty of random pages, but you really had to seek it out to see it. Now an overwhelming majority of non-ad posts are stuff like this (and I wouldn’t be surprised if they pay to have this stuff seen, basically making it an ad)

I’m not sure that’s necessarily true. There are plenty of military contractors out there, and a driver is the kind of position you would expect to be likely contracted out. That in no way makes one a soldier.

I love how new Teams doesn’t even have a contacts list for chat anymore, it’s just your most recent chats. And if you search for someone, any recent group chats with that person show up first so you may still have to scroll to find that person’s chat. Oh, and we store documents on Teams so if I want to switch between looking through the document repository and chat I still have to do a whole bunch of clicks between the two.

I don’t fault them for when my project manager tags @everyone on the group chat with an important message saying “good morning and happy Monday” though. I wish I were kidding.

The Bolt is ok. It has a screen and Android Auto and stuff, but I only use it for Android Auto navigation and energy stats when I’m curious. For pretty much everything else, there are good ol’ fashioned buttons.

Oh, it does have OnStar and some stuff associated with that, but GM discontinued the worst of it after a class action lawsuit.

Part of the problem comes when companies go out of their way to provide a service on their end that could be covered reasonably easily on the consumer’s side of things. Why put a few cents worth of storage in a device and make it locally accessible when you can make it cloud-connected and hosted to turn it into a revenue stream?

Another example, GM has had OnStar for ages. It does the same things your cell phone does, so it’s hard to justify the subscription. Plus Android Auto/Car Play works really well and relies on something you update more often. So naturally, GM revamped their infotainment to do the things you’d have your phone do and got rid of Android Auto/Car Play.

I’m not a fan of the company, but at least this one has a handful of different platforms underneath it - Oculus, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Having Facebook the product and Facebook the overarching company kind of ads a little complication.

I don’t quite feel the same way about Alphabet/Google, but at least that’s more subtle.

X can fuck the duck right off.

It’s a battery. You put it in the car, and it powers it. How much support does the manufacturer need to provide that can’t be baked into the initial cost?

“initial” could very well be the key word here. Same goes with any new technology, including the relatively outdated Chevy Bolt design (which was pretty expensive at launch and is now a dime a dozen)

Honestly, my biggest issue with LLMs is how they source their training data to create “their own” stuff. A meme calling it a plagiarism machine struck a chord with me. Almost anyone else I’d sympathize with, but fuck Spez.

If you’ve got an open area like a department store, that’s a lot of square footage that can be divided out. Walls can be built too, not uncommon at all in commercial construction I’m sure. And there are raised floor setups in data centers to make it easy to run cabling and stuff. If they can handle giant server racks, I’m sure a couch would be easy peasy.

Load bearing as in, structural? Isn’t that the existing floor? Something built over the top wouldn’t be load-bearing unless you’re talking about any walls that would go up as well. It certainly wouldn’t be holding up the ceiling or anything higher.

I mean, the headline does say 20 years soooo…

Also, Teslas are approaching 10 years old and as far as I know their batteries are still going strong (yes, I know their quality control is otherwise sketchy). The Nissan Leaf batteries are getting pretty sketchy, but they don’t have any battery conditioning - just air-cooled. That’s not doing longevity any favors. All other major EVs have battery management systems and seem to be holding up ok. They’re also generally warranted for 8 years. I don’t think they’d only have a 2-year buffer between warranty and expected life.

A whale is just one animal. If I look at my driveway, I can see hundreds of ants. Why on earth would I look anywhere else if I wanted to see animals?

Tobias, you blowhard!

Generally speaking, people who contribute to society.

I don’t see “gambling on the right cryptocurrency” as a contribution to society. I also don’t see how “individuals that own the overwhelming majority of dollars, euros, etc.” wouldn’t simply become “individuals that own the overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency” by virtue of working with that

Ahhh yes. Some of them are just made up things that people say is totally money, while the others are actually just made up things that people say is totally money. Huge difference, I’m sure.

If by “a big cut” you mean maybe a few percent, and that most businesses take electronic payments anyway because there are advantages (people are more likely to buy stuff when convenient, accounting is easier, less risk of theft/loss than physical cash, etc) then sure, I guess.

If you think the solution is to make up a new kind of imaginary money that takes a shitton of energy to maintain, which has tons of different types (Bitcoin, Ethereum, whatever one was referenced in the initial comment) and would happen to greatly benefit those who happened to be early adopters (TOTAL coincidence, I’m sure)… No.

Why would it have to be a crypto donation? Their bank accounts are in USD. Most of their readers have USD. People can transfer USD. What does some arbitrary crypto thing you want to pretend is money add that makes it better for those “most people”?

Teeeechnically that could mean Russia is threatening them over it, in which case they are threatened by Russia. But that’s just me being a pedantic pain in the ass before bed.

Sounds like a “spectacular” failure to me