But a lot of money was not involved here.

I don't see how anything has changed in a meaningful way. George Bush "tortured some folks" and Obama assassinated US citizens abroad. The status quo is literal evil and Trump is behaving in accordance with the status quo.

If you don't see any distinctions beyond “there is some evil” vs. “there is no evil”, all of human history must seem to be a flat, undifferentiated blob to you.

That's why the future looks so bleak. Republicans support absolutely any amount of crime and corruption, because "some" crime and corruption has happened under Democrats. Meanwhile half of the rest of Americans wouldn't support Democrats because "some" crime is infinitely worse than "no crime" in their view. Criminals enjoy an absolutely stunning structural advantage in this country.

A website was taken down. This might technically violate some paperwork law, but the real problem is we don't actually prosecute war crimes/human rights violations. So what difference does it make if some website went down?

There's no moral equivalency between the US directly torturing prisoners of war/assassinating its own citizens and a website being taken down.

I recently bought a fancy muscle car with all that crap integrated into the infotainment system. I explained to the sales guy that I WANTED to keep this car for the rest of my life but was concerned that wouldn't be possible. In 10 years it may literally be impossible to find a phone that will connect via the USB/bluetooth to the infotainment system. We may all be using something completely different. Not to mention, no one will be manufacturing replacements for that infotainment system if it ever craps out.

You can go buy a 50 year old muscle car and upgrade the radio to something kind of modern. But that won't be possible with my car 50 years from now. It's too integrated.

The sales guy had clearly never considered this issue before.

It seems like he didn't need to consider it, since you bought it anyway.

> The sales guy had clearly never considered this issue before.

This seems to happen far too often. I've come to the conclusion that salespeople pretend this is the case on purpose, since it benefits them for you to believe that you're the exception.

I wonder how long it will be before the first EVs get bricked because the manufacturer doesn't want to ship software updates to the old hardware any more.

If it can happen to a $1500 phone or a $5k computer, I'm sure it will happen to a $20k car eventually.

I think it’s already happened with some teslas banned from charging stations and being gimped after sale for whatever reason.

Apparently a bunch of jeeps got bricked by a pop software update.

Depending on how mainstream and popular it is, china may come to the rescue. They’ve made some really cool drop in replacements for oem systems.

Which car + how do you like it?

2022 challenger srt hellcat redeye. I absolutely love it.

Cash for clunkers destroyed mountains of cars which increased pollution and forced a bunch of people up the food chain with regard to competition for used cars.

A big part of it began there, and Covid just made it even worse by constraining new car supply for a while.

Not to mention, all the excess dollars means that almost any older car has increased value for nostalgia seekers and enthusiasts.

The higher cost of financing making people hold the cars they have has further reduced the supply.

The infotainment system on my car can make changes to the suspension. Can change from street to track mode and even has a launch mode I can initiate for starting a timed 0-60, etc.

I can also put the car into valet mode so it won’t go fast. If I forget the valet mode password I am told I have to buy a very expensive replacement because it can’t be unlocked by a dealer.

The rule of thumb is if something has a cost and persists over time it must have some benefit even if we don’t understand what that is. Otherwise, creatures not paying the cost will outcompete over time.

Or it’s caused by the same thing as something that does have a benefit.

the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe. ~H.L. Mencken

The bad guys will say you only need privacy if you’re guilty and the plebs will lap it up

Most workers enjoy being emotionally manipulated by their employers.

A friend of mine was gushing because their new employer sent some chocolates to everyone at Christmas time. They felt “appreciated”.

At my shop employees had to RTO but us consultants are still remote. I suspect this is exactly what it looks like.

Executives have done all manner of things which reduced productivity. Hoteling alone must have cost billions in lost focus.

They’re suspicious of work from home because employees like it. If they were concerned about productivity they’d make deals where you can work from home but have to work 10% more hours or something to make up for whatever imagined productivity was lost.

That feels like a made up reason because you don't want to accept the two obvious explanations:

1) Mandating RTO is a compliance check that allows you to fire people with cause and avoid other more costly downsizing efforts.

2) Justifying a lease.