This is why I pulled the fuse on the Data Communications Module (DCM) on my car. The device that transmits the telemetry simply doesn't get any juice.

What does "use it too much" even mean for someone who is sight-impaired and who needs to use it every time?

I own my own domain in the .us TLD, and I've been using it for my email for the past 20 years. When I applied for an "Electronic Travel Authorisation" (ETA) to enter Great Britain earlier this year the app flat-out rejected my email address as invalid.

Usually, when that sort of thing happens, I just choose to take my business elsewhere or use my time in a different way. However it really ups the ante when a nation-state refuses entry based on that category of technical incompetence.

When it comes to nation-state I wouldn't consider this example as technical incompetence. I would bet 99% of people with personal email addresses/personal email servers will "just use my old Gmail instead". I'm pretty certain its easier for nation-state to subpoena Gmail or Yahoo, or probably use direct backdoors that don't even require official subpoena, rather than deal with your own email hosting contraption.

> A quick search suggests that the most expensive education in the world is something like $100k.

I have a kid in an American university right now, and a quick search of my bank account statements confirms that there are far more expensive educations in the world.

Wow, an increasing number of US universities are going over $100k per year. That's a crazy amount. That's more than enough to hire an entire person.

Meanwhile Qwen3.8 27B got both the 'f's and the 'i's questions right.

Gastroenterologists generally categorize feces into ~7 categories. They can be indicators of a variety of dietary deficencies, including dehydration or insufficient fiber intake. Others can be indicators of a variety of medical issues, up to an including colon cancer. Ubiquitous smart toilets scanning and categorizing our feces would move the needle of overall public health and well-being.

Yes indeed they would, all the issues with sensor longevity aside.

But, that's not now. So why the app now?

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call enshittification!

I recently had to set up a new Android device for work. Since I keep all my personal accounts separate from my work accounts, I needed to create a new Google account on that phone. I ended up paying $8 for a month of the cheapest service I could find just to get a phone number so I could create that account.

This is exactly why Amazon has also been doing this acquisition and destructive scanning of millions of books for some time now.

Just like BSD is dying. Netcraft confirms it.

Apple isn't exactly competing with China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_in_China

At the manufacturing level it largely isn't, no, though as others have pointed out Apple at least still has the ability to explore options outside China. But Apple represents a lack of vertical integration for its big Chinese suppliers like Foxconn, an American middleman taking a big slice of the revenues and profits which come from the customer. One thing to note is that Android isn't all that different, as phone makers still have to tithe to Google.

One factor (mentioned at https://bsky.app/profile/rajakorman.bsky.social/post/3mqubnh... for instance) is Western distrust of the Chinese government and the regulatory barriers erected from both sides. TikTok's probably a good case study. There was a conspicuous lack of Chinese software companies having success in the Western consumer market before TikTok. Building TikTok involved creating a new product aimed at RoW which was separate from its original Chinese model, Douyin. And then after TikTok Western success was still elusive, to some extent, as the US government snatched away Bytedance's toy.

Though even beyond tech and other politically sensitive areas China's generally been pretty slow at generating RoW-consumer-facing products and brands. There's also the slightly remarkable fact that historically (and even to some extent still today) GUIs have been extremely, mysteriously hard for large companies worldwide to do well. The main exception have tended to either be called "Apple" or have dedicated themselves to copying Apple's homework: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22288221 .

(I am not an expert on anyhthing.)