Not a huge surprise. Tivo was allowed to exist so that the cable companies could claim there was a competition to the horrid and overpriced Scientific Atlanta box. The Cablecard was designed to work with a variety of items, but implemetation ended up limited to Tivo and I think one or two iterations of Windows Media. I recall confusing a nice tech at my cable company when I needed a cablecard for my Sony HDD 250....it only took single stream and the ID number of the Sony was different than a Tivo, he'd never activated any other box. I had both the Dish TV boxes, and the Sony HDD 250, both of which were sued by Tivo. Sony had to cease production, but did support the boxes for quite a while, quietly. I found mine at the Sony Outlet Store, the only DVR where you could sort your own listings, mix OTA and Cable, etc.... TVGuideOnScreen, the listing service for the HDD, survived the HDTV transition and was eventually bought by Rovi, who killed it at the ten year mark, turning the remaining HDD units into door stops, as they had no external way to set time-only the TV Guide Onscreen signal, which was embedded in PBS or CBS signals. Fuck Rovi/Macrovision. When Tivo was purchased by them it was clear "the industry" was making sure that any common DVR would be on a short leash. Now that linear TV is mostly dead, I'll keep my Roamio OTA (TE3) running until ATSC 1.0 goes away....which might be a long time, 3.0 has no reason to exist...if I need to go online for DRM, why not just stream it all ?

Netflix 1.0 was also a movie library, of Hollywood type productions. Now, we get 10 episode formula dramas, with one B list star, a few character actors. There is always a cliffhanger in ep.10 and we never know if there will be another. I miss when Netflix was a paid lending library of movies.

Did we all forget his sundowning to Ave Maria at a rally ? His election did not make him competent. Policy and Politics aside, the person is just not fit for the job....but Baron VonShitsThePants will be hitting forward on his computer soon so Vlad will see The President's Daily Briefing on the regular again.

Google "Real Time Crime", which is a 4k camera system covering roadways, with full LPR.

I have high end bluetooth HA. I can't use them for music as they are essentially tweeters to make up for for my high frequency loss-my mids and low are normal-the HA cannot produce bass at all, they aren't designed to. They don't sub for headphones despite the price. I end up using normal speakers in home or car or over ear headphones outside and use the HA to compensate, they also have a music program. I use a set of bose noise cancellers over the HA when on airplanes, and can listen to quiet classical or jazz even when in the "wrong" seats. I'm intrigued by this-if it truly passes through and adjusts correctly for the loss. The expensive HA with a audiologist are worth the money if you have it, although at this point like many other things you can do it at a lower price point and we are watching this happen in this space too. A set of AirPods properly compensating for hearing loss and boosting the correct areas only would not be a game changer, but would be a nice option to have.

GM selling your speed data to the insurers via Lexus-nexus. GM building execrable cars via the worldwide lowest bidders for all commodity parts..... We had a GM in the 80's...never again. Replaced it with a BMW. Later, had a GM in 2010. Nothing had changed.

I once attempted to tip a bartender in Germany. She was freaked out, thought I was trying to pick her up with a 20 Euro note, (sleazy) until another person explained tipping to her.....

Also, she had health insurance....which somehow is possible outside the boundary of American Exceptionalism

Whenever I go abroad, I am amazed that the folks at the fast food joint, or the minimum wage folks, all seem to have health insurance. Here, the slavery algos that Uber, Dash, etc etc are always testing...so if maybe a percentage of people will pay more tip, that is more that the owners of the slave algo can keep for themselves. In NYC this has led to deliver drivers having to use powered cycles, often without license, to make delivery, with predictable road safety consequences, as a bicycle is no longer fast enough. Ethical consumption means no Amazon, no Uber, and no Doordash nonsense. You are already paying for the delivery, they are just testing how many people will pay more and how much more.

Public housing ONLY works when it isn't a ghetto for poors NYC public housing used to have a middle class component, but over time, the trash pushed out anyone who could afford it. Once the folks who work and care leave, it's a mess.

The second someone gets you to give them fiat currency for it !

Yes. Check edible sales and get back to me. All the suburban mommies who'd not light a fatty do love some gummies....

I'm sure the profits from charging secret service, etc for his weekly golf outings to his own property exceeded any loss of salary. There was another grift, where foreign governments would rent many rooms in HIS hotel in DC at inflated rates, and no one would use them. Jared got 2 Billion dollars...probably not for his looks or personality.

I've wasted a bloody fortune paying SEO to game google. The only worst thing to happen to the internet is the amazon affiliate link, which totally destroyed finding real information about a product. Now you get 1000 returns which are AA links with the same SEO optimized verbiage. Often, an old magazine article is the best source for actual information....

I enjoy a bit of scambaiting if it is convenient. One day I get this call, but this day I'm stuck in NYC traffic, and will be for a bit. I play along. I ask them if they cover Diesel Particulate Filters in my VW (a part that died and was expensive-I had the cheaty VW TDi). I first talk to someone overseas for the basic qualifier questions....after answering a few questions, I am transferred to an American, english speaker. He engages in conversation, I ask him too if they cover Diesel Particulate Filters. He assured me they do, and gives me to...the closer. All the while, I'm trying to get a price. I ask each person how much the warranty costs-no answer, but Do You Cover Diesel Particulate Filters ?. I'm playing along as best I can. Finally, the closer tells me the the cost is $380.00 per month. Still playing dumb, I ask, can't I get a leased car for that (pre covid) which would have a warranty ? He replies, yes, but don't you rather drive the car you already have, and keeps selling. When he asks for my credit card, I decline, tell him I've been fascinated by this whole process, and just wondered what the cost was, and that I was never a sale. Almost as much fun as my last scam call. "Sir your Amazon account has been charged $463 for an iPad"..to which I said "I'm waiting for it when will it be here ?", and from overseas, "go fuck yourself". Twas a good laugh.