One government is actively committing genocide against subsets of their population I’d say it’s a pretty big fucking difference.

I always found the build quality for Lenovo Thinkpads to be better than any of the top tier Dell laptops. Most of the laptops I had in circulation were Dells and the always gave me problems. The Thinkpads just worked.

You’ve described my limited FB experience. After refusing to join FB since the 00s, I joined FB a few years ago to get better access to the Marketplace. (Craigslist has gone to shit).

I joined a few groups that interested me and then the constant political bombardment started in the more mainstream groups.

Small niche FB groups are a night and day difference compared to some of the more contemporary groups I’ve seen.

Bot algorithms definitely target large groups with lots of activity. The resulting increased activity due to algorithms just amplify it further.

I just try to stick to my smaller groups to avoid all the mess.

They probably did build it. It’s possible they sourced the necessary chips through intermediaries. Sanctions aren’t going to stop them from getting their hands on small batches.

Sanctions will prevent them from being able to do this at scale. They can’t source enough high end chips to really build out the infrastructure to take advantage of AI for their economy at large.

It is the same with automotive parts. Anything imported from China has at least a 40% markup before it is resold.

As an owner of a Nissan I am thrilled Honda is bailing them out. I need those spare parts to flow.

China has terrible demographics, a real estate mark that is in free fall, high debt, is the target of tariffs in every major economy and a domestic market that can’t consume what they produce.

Economically they are fucked unless the US and EU throw them a life line and allow them to dump products in their market again… which is not going to happen no matter which party is in control. The best they can hope for at this point is a Japanese style lost decade. But I doubt they can manage even that outcome.

Bottom line is the CCP will do whatever is in the best interest of the CCP staying in control of China. Even if that decision is terrible for China itself.

If they are backed into a corner it doesn’t matter that Taiwan is out of reach. All that matters is that the CCP stays in control.

That is what makes this next ten years very dangerous.

We are on the tail end of the crypto grift. Getting the largest country on earth to invest in Crypto is basically the last gasp before the bubble deflates and cleans all the suckers out.

Been done in El Salvador. This is going to be a grift on the US tax payer of EPIC proportions.

https://www.bloomberglinea.com/english/el-salvador-loses-50-of-its-bitcoin-investments-due-to-crypto-collapse/

Thank you Microsoft after being a windows user since the 3.1 days your recent changes to Windows makes me happy to announce I bought my first MAC.

Absolutely, but I’d rather deal with something that has widespread manufacturer and user support.

While I think there is lots of support for Linux, and I could figure it out. I don’t perceive that it is as wide spread as Mac OS.

Long story short I’m paying for the convenience.

I’ve considered Linux. I work in IT and I know I could figure it out and adapt to it. The problem is my kids and my wife would also need to use it.

To give you some perspective on my decision making process. My wife (who is of the age where she really should be able to figure tech out.) can’t seem to figure out how to print from her phone and complained about how difficult IOS is compared to Android when we switched a few years ago. My kids run to me for all things tech and I usually have to figure out their problems. I’m always genuinely surprised my teenage son hasn’t made an effort to hack the application which restricts his time and access to his gaming computer (I would be secretly proud of him if he did).

So for my own piece of mind I’ll pay the 2x multiple for Apple hardware just so I don’t have to deal with learning a new OS while my family comes to me for basically every tech issue.

I’m up to buy a new computer and I’ve never wanted a Macbook but with all the negative changes Microsoft is making I feel it is the time to make the switch.

Microsoft seems to think that we are the product and harvesting data is the default business model moving forward.

Na, it will only take two years.

Trump tariffs will crater the economy in a year.

Massive round ups of migrants both legal and illegal. Killing farming and destroying families.

Musk well being Musk and chopping the Federal Budget,

50,000 vetted loyal Trumpists ready to take over the Federal government.

Matt Gates in charge of the Dept of Justice leading Trumps Vengence tour.

RFK Jr starts peddling raw milk and makes vaccines illegal.

It’s gonna be fucking LIT. I can’t wait to tell my half wit Dominican coworker who voted for Trump “I told you so” when their family gets deported. I can’t wait to tell my idiot sister in laws who voted for Trump, I told you so when the government programs they rely on (including Obama Care) get wrecked.

Of course I’m going to suffer too, I’m stocking up on N1 masks, food, toilet paper and bullets… but holy shit I’m going to be saying I told you so in the nastiest most demeaning way possible for the rest of my days.

Amazon started as a e-commerce site. But their Web Services division now makes up the vast majority of their revenue. They also dabble in streaming and content generation.

I’d say they are primarily a web hosting company that dabbles in e-commerce now.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/01/10/amazon-e-commerce-company-74-profit-this-instead/

They are a tech company by any definition.

Yeah same here, the last post I made was to argue for more disabled access to European historical sites n the r/europe subreddit.

After everything I’ve posted, THAT is what got me banned.

After loosing my appeal, I changed all my prior posts to AI generated gibberish.

Fuck Reddit, salt your posts so they can’t use your content to make money on search or train AI.

Yeah I had the palm OS Treo for years before switching to a windows OS treo. Those things were tanks. You could beat the crap out of them and they would shrug or off with no case.

If I ever do slightly breath on my iPhone 13 the back glass cracks😠.

Shame they never leveled up the tech tree farther than that. It only took a handful of drunk conquistadors to wipe out the Aztec empire.

No problem, been doing it since we introduced the world to indoor plumbing, penicillin, electricity and space travel.

I love how non-Americans trash our MIC until some big bad shows up like Russia or China. When it’s their countrymen, fathers, brothers, sons and daughters who will be fighting bleeding and dying suddenly we become pretty popular…