I've been using (K)Ubuntu for a very long while - maybe 15-20 years (Linux user since about 1995). I recently upgraded my desktop from Kubuntu 24.04 LTS to "normal" 25.04. Note that I was already quite unhappy with those effing snaps of Firefox and Thunderbird - seriously, I hate being regularly warned about having to close a program for an update, when I expect to do that precisely for the moments I do an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade. Now, it looks like even things like graphics don't work properly any more, as I get to see spurious horizontal lines depending on my mouse clicks. Seriously? This is sooo basic stuff. Chances are I'll bite the bullet and reinstall, switching back to the base of Ubuntu, i.e. Debian GNU/Linux. Unless I move straight over to Devuan, for that matter. Now get off my lawn.

I hadn't even considered this, but I think you're right. Microsoft doesn't really stand to lose anything by getting rid of the console hardware at this point. They probably realized the income brought in by selling the hardware isn't even worth the marketing costs, the need to provide warranty coverage, etc. etc.

Everything they sell to play on X-Box can run just fine as a native Windows PC game, and there's a convenient Microsoft Store included in every copy of Win 11 for people to shop in and download the titles.

Yeah... this would be my bet, honestly? Most of the other suspected causes mentioned are really things you'd be hard-pressed to pin as things only the millennials would be predominantly exposed do. Ultra-processed foods, for example, are consumed in large quantities by Gen-X -- because they were the "latch-key kids" who got used to the whole idea of fending for themselves at an early age. As a pre-teen or teen trying to fix their own meals, they turned to all the fast/easy solutions available to them and it became ingrained as the way to eat, over time. Circadian rhythm disruption? Come on now... You're going to tell me nobody ever worked odd shifts until they came along?

The glaring issue is stress.

Even the boast of "fastest car, period" is BS. The ThrustSSC achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph), breaking the sound barrier.

If you bought one of these things, you deserve it. :)

This reminds me of a story too. I was working at a place just rolling out Microsoft Office 365 and the whole 2 factor authentication thing. We started looking at the devices people had registered for MFA. Obviously, you mostly had various smartphones and a few people even used iPads or other tablets. But this one guy had a Samsung smart fridge as his device. He explained that, "I work from home and have a desk in the kitchen. So it's easy to confirm the authentication from the refrigerator screen. And this way, I know I won't just lose it someplace like I might lose my phone!"

But seriously, I really dislike this trend of making basic home appliances Internet connected and/or computerizing them needlessly. My old Black & Decker 4 slice toaster finally gave out on us last week. I was shocked by how much a new toaster costs now! I was expecting to run out and grab something for maybe $20 or so? Nope! Many of the highly rated models are well over $200! The cheapest I could find was about $45, for one at Costco that has 2 digital strips down the front. One side lights up with icons of toast, in various levels of darkness, and the other depicts all the different foods you mgiht toast; bagels, waffles, pastries, toast...

We got it home and tried it out, and guess what? When you select toast with a darkness of "3 out of 6", shown as a medium brown? It absolutely burns it! The lightest setting just ejects warm, untoasted bread. I couldn't find any point to a setting on the thing other than the second-lightest one! Highly inaccurate. All of this seems really unnecessary, when the light/dark knob on my old toaster worked just as it was supposed to.

There's machines out there which actually do have TPM, but it's turned off via BIOS. How many people will throw away a perfectly good machine just because they don't know they could turn on TPM in the BIOS?

The machines that can run Windows 10 but not 11 really have no legitimate reasons they're incapable of using 11. It's generally artificial barriers put up by Microsoft because the chips lack a feature or two they're trying to make a new standard.

In a few cases, it's literally nothing more than an oversight! My co-worker was just telling me about a specific model of Xeon CPU he's got that has some long "sub-model" vs a simple model number like 5360 or 5500 or what-not. It has every single function in it that Microsoft says is needed by Win 11, yet you can't put 11 on it. Why? Only because Microsoft neglected to list its specific model/sub-model in its database it uses to determine the machines capable of installing 11 on them.

If they want all these people off Windows 10, they could design 11 so it runs more like 10, with a few of the features disabled that require the instructions the older CPUs lack, when it detects those processors.

Apple did this with iOS multiple times already. A new iOS version still runs on older phones but with a few features disabled if those specific features need the newer phone's CPU to work.

On one hand, every parent of kids or teens today has to feel the struggle with social media influencing their journey to adulthood. Sometimes it's just a harmless fad that generates a ton of sales for some useless toy or gadget. But often, it's about the added complexity of a world where their "friends" can be people anywhere in the world who they only communicate with online, and who parents are often powerless to "vet". It's about questions of "bullying" and how far an institution like a public school can really reach to address it, when it starts happening online. It's about uncertainties of whether all the "screen time" creates real mental or physical health threats.

But when it comes to technologies like a chat bot? I don't think there should be these legal expectations that they do such things as guiding people to other resources to get help for the issues they talk to them about. I don't even think the authors of these chat bots necessarily considered the idea a pre-teen would confide everything in one and treat it as their "only true friend"? As a rule, they're harmless as long as they're not actively suggesting adult or illegal activities, so giving them "age ratings" of 12+ makes perfect sense.

Troubled kids or teens need to be given REAL help and warned away from relying on automated AI solutions.

Ha! Same thing I thought. The reality, whether you're talking New Orleans or anyplace else is -- the money gets spent to repair and protect the areas that bring in the most continued wealth. Racism has nothing to do with this.

If you have an area that's full of tourist traffic or that continually draws in the super-wealthy for amenities like the great golf courses or waterfront or ?? You've got an area that generates enough revenue, it cost-justifies having to rebuild there occasionally when natural disasters strike.

Everyone else is living there at their own risk, really.

To be honest, I noted LONG ago that "withdrawing cash from out-of-network ATMs likely has a fairly big cost" and tried to avoid it. I never kept up with exactly what those fees were, after that. I simply learned to plan ahead better. If I need cash, I tend to take it out from my own bank or credit union and if I need it broken up into smaller bills? I try to spend it someplace that has to give me cash back on the purchase.

Last I checked though, most big credit unions are part of a cooperative network so you can use any of their ATMs without any fees (at least up to, say, 20 transactions per month).

Can we step back and look at a slightly bigger picture? I mean, come on.... if Trump had anywhere NEAR the amount of influence some of you pretend he does, we'd already be a very different country than we are. If anything, the fact he's been elected twice now and if I turn off the news, I hardly notice anything is different in my daily life tells me the President is far more of a "figurehead" than I used to realize.

No .... if anything? I think America may be experiencing a recession/recovery cycle that's more shallow and quicker to complete than what we had in the past. For example, we rebounded quickly from everything that happened during COVID, despite unprecedented factors there that harmed small business.

People are generally still afraid of any perceived downturn, but some of that stems from what they know happened in the past -- when a recession was deeper and longer-lived.

America is very much a service economy today, with manufacturing a distant second. That tends to stabilize things to some extent (at the cost of creating more jobs that don't lead to higher-paying career positions). EG. You might have fewer people making 6 figure salaries as tool and die experts, but you also have more people who earn a steady, predictable income doing retail sales or restaurant work, or might be self-employed as a handyman or painter. The rapid changes of supply and demand for hard goods doesn't lead to mass job losses when factories close, etc.

As for the commute - I live in a place lucky to have free (i.e. paid from the taxes) public transport. Public transport is also much more comfortable and hassle-free than driving and finding a parking space. Those "remote" days do cut down on the pretty horrific traffic on the roads, which in turn makes for less CO2 emissions.

Yes, from the employer's view, they can't cut down on office space as much, and they need to provide the means for remote work. For the worker, yes, they need to be close enough by the office. Working from abroad is problematic in that if it's more than a certain amount of days / year, it changes taxation entirely (taxation in the country of residence instead of the country where the office is), which can be quite penalizing.

The rules here where I work (IT, but it's the same for other office workers): you have a maximum of 2 days / week of remote work. The rest of the time, you come into the office. Also, remote work needs to be requested in advance and needs to be approved by the team leader (pure formality). When at the office, you badge in and out using your personal badge, so it's very easy to track who's in and who's not. If the rules are not followed, you'll get a ruffle from HR.

The reasons for mandating time at the office are obvious, e.g. being available for meetings, seeing the rest of the team, so the team as such can properly work together (teams with a good routine were a key factor for keeping things running smoothly and efficiently during Covid lockdown with quasi 100% remote work, with only minimal staff on-site). We went from 100% home office during lockdown to a minimum of 2 days / week at the office and on to the current ruleset, which seems to hold for good.

I know other places around here are much more strict with remote work, where you can't change your schedule short-term, or it's only a single day of home office. I feel those employers still haven't measured the positive impacts of home office. Otoh, I don't understand this "remote only" thing that seems to be described. Apparently there's even entire recruitment processes without any physical interaction? Around here, that's pretty much unthinkable. I feel I'm blessed with the proper middle ground, best of both worlds. From the article text, it seems the author of this book also hasn't heard of "middle ground". It isn't all or nothing, or at least, it shouldn't be.