I wonder how this would affect high frequency trading.
I suspect this will kill HFT.

The speed of Excel are due to the core functions being written in finely tuned assembler, or at least they were in the past. It's not a secret. It's just not easily to duplicate in an open source way.

Bad cooling was a huge problem for PCs as well. There was not only the cheap fans that quickly wore out, but also people who kept the computer in a drawer, or on the floor where it acted as a stationary roomba vacuuming up all the dust within reach.

Why does Texas need to launder money? Or are they doing this to get experience in wash trading?
Either way, buying an ETF is doing it wrong.

It's this, the answer is often "all of the above", but there is no drum to beat for that answer.
Anyway, that region has been in a major rainfall drought for some time, and that will amplify abuse of poor ground water management.
As to why rainfall has decreased ...

Maybe they can use their uranium to build desalinization plants on the Caspian sea and pipe water to Tehran.

I suggest he hire someone to beat the password out of him, or offer a prize to any successful assailant.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fxkcd.com%2F538%2F

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D...

The high per-return cost is due to two things. The pilot year was 2024 (2023 earnings) so we've only had one year, and it was limited to 13 states.
The rollout year for almost anything is a money loser, and especially would have high per capita costs.
The existing corporate free filing services are limited to poor people, and there are many of us who don't want to be data-mined or risk insiders such as temp worker off shore clerks selling the keys to our house to thieves.

As for the on-going costs, the IRS spent $18.2 billion on operations last year, but doesn't provide breakdowns on the cost of processing 1040 forms. Supposedly, processing the paper forms is a big part of that and the IRS wants to cut down on processing paper.
The IRS still must process every form submitted according to IRS rules whether it comes in the mail, from Intuit, or some DirectFile type program. At some point it all becomes electronic.
The only real overhead of Direct File is the cost of building website pages for us to type in our numbers.

What you said is basically true, but ...

I have mailed in my tax forms in the past, but no way would I "drop it in the mailbox". Mail theft is becoming more common, and the tax forms are a gold mine for mail thieves and identity theft thieves, and you really don't want to be a victim of that.

I think the main value of IRS direct file wasn't whether it's free or not, but that you can do electronic filing and avoid using the mail.
This is what sucks.
What the IRS has done is giving you the choice of using a tax prep software company to get electronic filing and be data-mined, or use the USPS for a less reliable service.

What makes this ironic is the IRS is forcing all but the smallest businesses to set up accounts and file everything electronically, both taxes and reporting of employee W2, 1099's and such.

Yep.
The cost of providing and maintaining infrastructure to a million homes is a very great deal more expensive per kilowatt hour sold than the cost of infrastructure to the large businesses or datacenters.
Also, the very large entities tend to use electricity at a constant rate 7/24, and that allows utilities to use the lowest cost generation without having to ramp up expensive quick response generation. Weather, for example can strongly affect the demand coming from households while having little effect on industrial demand.
Large scale battery installations are going to help solve, or at least ameliorate that problem, hopefully.

Those businesses are the major source of the utilities profits. Although the industries get a lower per kwh rate, it is the businesses in general that subsidize the homeowners rates.
Where the states differ is how much of a ratio there is between the rates due to some states mix of population vs large businesses and the political environment.

One group not mentioned that is always bent over the barrel are the commercial enterprises - small business and retail establishments.

Another way to look at it is that many other lifeforms modify the environment in very significant ways. For example there are the oxygen emitters such as algae and trees, the reef builders, other calcium carbonate sequesters (limestone) and on down to earthworms and people building cities.
Do we have some ethical duty to not do anything even though our effect on the planet is insignificant compared to oxygen emitters, reef builders, etc?
I admit that "everyone else is doing it" is a weak argument, but we're just not that big a deal yet in the planet-modifying game.

I did that - after installing Win 11 I setup a local account for daily use. I also setup another local account I only use for financial stuff. I've always done that.
I didn't delete that Microsoft account, though, because I still use it but learned you don't want to logon to your MS account while logged in to that local account.

I highly recommend uninstalling OneDrive before setting up the local account or doing anything else.
OneDrive has become greedy, and wants to do things you didn't ask for and pretends it didn't hear you say the safe word. Or did I mean to say Microsoft?

I use Hyper-v for all my web surfing or trying out bad ideas.

Another way to avoid all this is to install Windows Server and add the desktop feature. That was my solution for a long time; I used to get it for free, but no longer since I retired.

I read the Collosus article ( ok, most of it) and Alpha school is way cool, but it's not the AI that makes it work so well. It's the guides and leadership.

This sort of school has popped up from time to time with amazing successes for all kinds of students even before AI. Their models vary (all were better than standard public schools), but what they all had in common were charismatic leadership and staff. I taught at one, designed for kids with specific learning disabilities, for a year back in the 1990's. I was amazed at how well it worked.

None of these were scalable with any amount of money because there is not anywhere near enough high-performing people who want to spend their days with children for any amount of money.

I read the Collosus article ( ok, most of). Alpha school is way cool, but it's not the AI that makes it work so well.

This sort of school has popped up from time to time with amazing successes even before AI. Their models vary (all were better than standard public schools), but what they all had in common were charismatic leadership and staff. I taught at one, designed for kids with specific learning disabilities, for a year back in the 1990's. I was amazed at how well it worked.

None of these were scalable with any amount of money because there is not anywhere near enough high-performing people who want to spend their days with children for any amount of money.