Libcat99

Toyota is out here running ads "you should probably skip our electrics and buy a hybrid" so I'm not shocked they're having trouble selling.

Good EVs sell.

This is why I largely play single player games, or games at least with the option of bots.

I booted up the computer to take a break from the assholes, not to get shot by them.

Not through vandalism and scammyness, but maybe that's why I don't work in advertising.

More efficient for the mega-vet, sure. Once you've consumed all the competition, there's no need to compete on price anymore. Prices can go up quite a bit before it becomes economical for a new entrant to take a risk in the market. Except maybe another mega-vet.

See what Walmart did to communities and small business. Efficiency is not all roses.

Agreed,

This doesn't just apply to insurance, etc, of course. Inaccessibility of support and inability to appeal automated decisions for products we use is widespread and inexcusable.

This shouldn't just apply to products you pay for, either. Products like facebook and gmail shouldn't get off with inaccessible support just because they are "free" when we all know they're still making plenty of money off us.

> EV buyers may want to consider a used EV until new tech comes out, since old or current tech is not always worth paying new prices for.

Sounds like exactly what Toyota is hoping for with regular press releases like this. Shutting down competitors electric sales while consumers wait for this someday-tech would be fantastic for Toyota.

Until you can buy it, it's meaningless at best.

Would you trust a person who drove their car into the same pothole every day to make responsible decisions with driving when not near that pothole?

Why would you trust a bank, showing lax security in one aspect, to be stable overall?

It's of course your perogative to use businesses that don't protect themselves.

It's also your perogative to shop at shady websites, and hope your credit card will accept the fraud claim. It basically the same thing.

That's not trust in the bank though, that's trust in the system/fdic.

I think many would lose trust in their bank if they heard it was being robbed with abnormal regularity.

In all fairness a visitor now, who sees random old tweets, will assume the status tweet page is unmaintained and useless.

And you are not. When I visit the page I see "download for Linux" with an element immediately below for "other".

My only criticism is "other" could be called out more.

They were hopeful of regulations "catching up" because it hurts future competition. If new regs hit the books after uber has already enjoyed their growth, it's a lot harder for someone else to break in.

I see download options for windows, linux, and mac.

You can configure the Linux network stack to include packet loss and latency using tc.

Not sure about other os.

https://www.pico.net/kb/how-can-i-simulate-delayed-and-dropp...

There are mitigations for many vulnerabilities that don't involve the software being patched. For example, once you know a particular vulnerability exists, even if it's unpatched you can monitor for attempts against it, modify firewall rules and process monitoring to improve your awareness, etc.

During mid covid I did a demo for my kids. A sheet of paper and a spray bottle.

Test 1, spray from 2 feet. Of course the paper was soaked.

Test 2, a cloth mask placed on the paper. It gets damp, especially if left in place.

Test 3, a cloth mask over the spray bottle. The mask blocks almost all of the spray.

We did not bother with test 4 (2 masks) after the 3rd, but I think they understood the point.

We did retry 3 with a medical mask, with 0 spray through.

5) A not insignificant part of the population heard and understood that masks protect others and said "why should I suffer to protect them?"

I observed this sentiment in particular about return to school, and not just about masks. A sizable portion of the population would seemingly do anything to avoid accidentally helping someone else.

This is a life or death matter and should be treated as such.

Six months ago (March 3rd, 2023) I approached a similar claim with actual data. Below is that post, and after the break is a brief update with pricing as of today. While there are absolutely sets today that exceed the highest 90s prices of sets, they are also monster sets today, with much higher part counts.

Bottom line, you can get legos cheaper today than 30 years ago, and that's BEFORE inflation.

### Time travel to March 3rd, 2023 ###

They really are not and have not gone up in price, but rather down when adjusted for inflation. There are a lot of larger sets available though, which I think drives this perception that "Lego is expensive", when in reality they're cheaper than they used to be.

Just as an example, lets look at 90s some sets https://clickamericana.com/wp-content/uploads/Vintage-90s-To... 3 sets to look at here from toys-r-us in the 90s

$19.99 for 203 piece set, just shy of 10 cents per piece.

$12.99 for a 90 piece set, over 14 cents per piece.

$7.99 for a 56 piece set, also over 14 cents per piece.

Keep in mind all the above are not licensed sets, which are common today. Licensing does drive prices up. But I'll still include some in the mix.

Now today, at Target lets try to find similar cost sets and see how they stand up.

For $19.99 we can get some clone troopers! https://www.target.com/p/lego-star-wars-501st-clone-troopers...

Or a minecraft house https://www.target.com/p/lego-minecraft-the-mushroom-house-2...

The first being 119 pieces and the second 272 pieces Nearly 17 cents per piece, or a bit over 7 cents per piece. So the star wars set is more expensive than our 1990s comparison, but minecraft is actually cheaper! Not only that, if we factor in inflation by dividing by 2.29, You'll find both sets are substantially cheaper than their comparable 1990s set.

This stands true for other sets. At the $12 mark https://www.target.com/p/lego-friends-heartlake-city-pizzeri... is about 8 cents per piece, and https://www.target.com/p/lego-creator-deep-sea-creatures-bui... is under 6 cents a piece!

It does become harder to find sets at around that $8 mark, as many of them are just a mini-fig or small accessory set, but the point is not only have legos not gotten more expensive (on a per piece basis), you can still purchase sets that are larger than those we had in the 90s, for the same cost... and when accounting for inflation find they cost about half what they did at the time.

### Back to today. ###

So here we are 6 months later. Let's look at some data.

That clone trooper set? It's now cheaper than 6 months ago, at $15.99.

The minecraft house? $22.49. (8 cents a piece, still below 1990s prices, and that's before inflation!).

Our shark set is $12.99 and remains under 6 cents a piece.

In many cases, yes, and in that case it would make more sense to break the lease than to bring employees back to the office.

A business is stuck paying for that lease regardless of how many butts are in seats in it. That is a fixed sunk cost they can't do anything about.

However, every employee not in the office isn't using office pens, putting wear on office furniture that will need replacement, filling office trash cans that need to be emptied by someone, burning out office light fixtures that need to be replaced, and using office toilet paper that will need replenishment.

Bringing them back to the office doesn't make the lease any cheaper, but it does make operating the space more expensive.

Doubly so, since the "something else" is able to be updated by you, if necessary.

More energy only takes you so far. Unless we leave earth

https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist...

Why would you do that? I'd be upset too!

Many, many workplaces keep a close eye on when you use the restroom, for how long, and who else is at the same time.

It's disturbingly common.

And how much more computation is needed per transaction? Per person?

Are we really making more efficient systems if they take 100x the compute to fulfill the same transaction.

Likewise with smaller scale "accidents".

Did the ups driver fling my package over fence because he hates me, or because my long driveway interferes with his 3 minute per package metric.

Measurements kill sensibility.

Which is why we need regulations to make holders of effectively public commons responsible.

The out of the box ssh experience on Linux is far superior to windows, ssh mounting of disks, easy scp and rsync access without jumping through hoops. To me, thinking of doing my job from a windows box sounds painful.

I'd imagine these necessary tools for Linux server dev/admin are also readily available on Mac, if not installed already. Now, is that worth the price delta? Probably not, but given the sparsity of pre installed, supported Linux hardware I can potentially see the appeal.

Google is effectively the gatekeeper to the internet for most people. That did not happen by accident, but through deliberate actions on their part.

They owe it to society to manage what they've built in a fair and attentive fashion, or to give it up to someone who will, for the public good.