..for others, a lot of off the public road driving occurs. I've driven my truck six times in the past three days, all of it is on private property, and this farm at 800 acres is tiny compared to some ranches out west or for guys who go deep into the forests for logging, etc. They'll rack up tank after tank of fuel and hardly go on a publicly maintained road.
Anyway, IMO, this is more about people tracking then revenue. The gas tax is supposed to be wear and tear related for road maintenance, and for that it works. We have less revenue from better mileage cars, and also folks just driving less, and one of the reasons there is that they are lighter, and thus, less maintenance is required, less wear and tear. Want an alternative for this? Ban commodities flipping, it's just as harmful and stupid as real erstate bubble building flipping, make the end user who buys this oil on contract actually take delivery of petroleum and *do something* with it, like finish refining it and so on. A stat I read recently (sorry, no link handy) said a barrel of oil changes hands on average 27 times on paper before delivery! If we banned that speculation flipping and middleman skimming and price gouging, we could have a larger fuel tax by the gallon at the pump, they'd get all the road maintenance revenue they would need, and it would still be cheaper at the pump for the end user.
This GPS tracking you nonsense is more big brother action, and obviously so if you stop and look at the larger picture, same as all the other tagging, rfid, tracking, cameras, database crap they are instituting. This is the new technofuedalist elite aristocrats maintaining their herds of subjects/serfs. Really, just extrapolate it out. It is SO far beyond what was considered harmful/heinous back when I was a kid it ain't funny now. From my POV as a neogeezer we are well past the halfway point to the brave new world, well past it. They are already doing stuff I was taught was only done in dire dictatorial regimes, no knock raids and door kicking, random checkpoints, secret enemies of the state lists, etc.
Now look forward just twenty more years if this keeps up at this rate. They'll have an entire generation well into adulthood with kids of their own who have never ever been in a situation where they weren't monitored, had to go through random checkpoints, been scanned, tagged, DNA registered, fingerprinted, stamped, spindled folded and mutilated by the state, all of the above and more, everything about them cataloged in databases, and they will consider that "normal". Poof, a full master/slave society when the slaves don't even see they are slaves, and if pointed out to them will deny it because of the mass conditioning since birth. The chains will be invisible to them, they will love big brother. It's damn close now, the poor kids in the public schools today are undergoing mass indoctrination and cultural brainwashing to an extreme.
If they tried to pull this stuff all at once, they might see an actual righteous revolt, a little bit at a time, spread out over the years..nothing, they win. And the whole time it is happening, apologists will keep saying it isn't that bad, every single step forward to that sort of society "well, it isn't that bad, look at north korea!!'.
That's how they get away with it. Look at the acceptance of the "no fly" enemies of the state list now. Like supposedly a million people and counting. No public accusation in the normal courts system, just you find out you are on some list if you go to board a plane..because some faceless drone decided you should be on it, or a computer program did it..or something. And they get cut out of the line, and everyone around them looks away and is thankful it isn't them...Scared into docile obedience, state sponsored terrorized into acceptance. They won't even say how it works. I mean, how bad does it have to get before people really notice this stuff? Does anyone REALLY think there are a million "terrorists" inside the US? Where are the attacks? If there really are, where are the arrests and charges and trials? Nope, that's the misdirection, this is just a list for eventual herd culling. Tracking you in your ride is all that is about, the revenue stuff is BS.
it already is insane, I'm totally against all the security theater big brother BS surrounding the dubious cliams of the government's fairy tale version of the events of 9-11 2001 and the resultant crap patriot act and homeland security and flying on airliners nonsense pseudo security and etc. And now we have people demanding "VIP" treatment as long as they pay more or are rich enough to own their own planes or something else. I call shenanigans on that. If it is such a threat, then everyone needs to go through the screening. I would *rather* we went back to the way it was with just a few more common sense practices, but it ain't my call there, I just think it is the height of hypocrisy and goes to show how stupid their alleged security is when they have so many exemptions and some people feel they "deserve" to be treated "special" because, in essence, they have more money to burn than other folks, or they are somehow more privileged because of the busy work government job or connections.
That's the only shame, that so many go along with it, this creeping fascism. The slow boiled frog.. I do NOT fly at all, and will not, for any reason, until such a time as they stop the nonsense. You want to cast the shame blame, here ya go, shame on the folks who put up with it for any reason. Shuck and jive and keep you head bowed and don't disrespect your betters, knave! Grovel at your master's boots and eat the shit sandwhich offered and be thankful they allow it. People are wont to use the word sheeple, normally I don't, but when it comes to flying and people who put up with that crap EGADS where is your (collective "your") self respect and dignity? A freeking "no fly" list? What the hell is that all about, an enemies of the state list, guilty because some star chamber says you are? People who fly, by going along with it, are giving de facto approval to such nonsense. There's some more of your shame right there.
The entire public should have said HELL NO and boycotted airline travel until the ridiculous rules got trashed. They should stand around in huge groups, point their fingers at some badged moron and his boss and just laugh! Just laugh hysterically at the stupid monkeys and their freekin fasicst crap. Then all get on the horn to the airline execs and say "no flying until these dumbass rules get changed, which means no more fat check and cushy job, sucks to be you mr. airline boss or investor, bye". You will NOT ever see an airliner hijacked like that anymore, the rest of the people would overwhelm any group of hijackers, they just would. there's no need for this crap like exists today except to get the sheeps conditionede to take even MORE crap down the road. and anyone who can't see that just ain't lookin' or just plain don't care, one or the other. It's to soften you up, get you used to always be afraid, you have been terrorized into obedience and to accepting an "elite" class of humans over you, your "masters".
Instead of a righteous boycott, which is what should have happened, nope, most of the scared and terrorized people (even if they don't admit they were terrorized) just went along with getting their wives and children felt up by official pervs, get x rayed, have to be humiliated by drooling security "agents" and all that other crap..well..except for the "special" ones who can afford to fly private, they are too leet to stand in line like the "commoners".
And the others, who like me, refuse to be a part of it, by boycotting their nonsense.
Shame on society for putting up with this and all the other big brother bullshit that has gone down the past several years. There's your real shame, the whole situation is a sorry-ass shame.
And as long as you let some people be "special", where they get the VIP treatment, and get away with not going through the same crap, it will just get worse. You need people with some juice, with power and influence, along with everyone else, to help bring about constructive change. If they have to go through the same crap, that
They SHOULD make everyone go through the same BS, even on PRIVATE PLANES, corporate jets, all of them. Let no one be "special". Everyone =politicians, cops, official government bureaucrats, military generals, rich fatcats, all of them, not just the plebes. Get on a plane and fly, you need to go through all the same routine.
Like was said, we won't get rid of the stupid security theater until everyone is inconvenienced enough and complains enough to get changes forced through. That's just nonsense they don't, "everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others" is the height of hypocrisy and just more of them tards trying to bring back an aristocratic class.
Why would a business, with this theoretical professional attitude, use the stock image that came with *any* new computer? I thought it was more or less standard procedure for the admins to provide a sanitized and customized image and use that right off the bat. I mean, it isn't any sort of secret that computers get shipped with tons of garbage pre installed, why was it allowed to be used in a production environment like that?
Trees take it in, and biochar can them be put deep into the ground once the tree is mature and after we have used it for something else in the meantime, food, fuel, perhaps more medicines can be made from them, shade, cooling, moisture/water control, building construction, furniture, etc). See my other reply for more details on why I think a more cooperative with nature idea makes more practical and economic sense than artificial tree co2 suckers.(and this is why the inventors are calling it an artificial tree in the first place, because it takes carbon in..I just like more real trees for a wide variety of reasons)
And the minerals go back down in the soil as well, they aren't lost.
And I understand about soil erosion and so forth and no till planting (I am a farmer 0_o), but as a one time per area technique, I think deep soil sequestration (especially in areas that need to be reclaimed now or that have very marginal soils to begin with, back to the greening the deserts perhaps idea...) using the biochar is a darn spiffy idea. I like it a lot better than some massive electronic artificial tree thing. Reclaimed land is good for a variety of uses, artificial trees are an expensive one trick pony that doesn't do much besides remove the co2.
Me..I prefer to work with nature and not try to "conquer" it. Man has an amazing ability to screw up when he loses track of that idea, so I'd like to more concentrate on easier and more effective solutions, and solutions that give us a lot more benefit for the tax dollar spent (or carbon tax dollar *collected* from me and you to be more precise which is where this is going talking about building millions of artificial trees at the cost of "one toyota" a piece. this on top of that insane cap and trade skimming idea) The cost of "one toyota" in most of the world would get thousands of trees planted amd/or a lot of acreage treated with biochar, said acreage later on perhaps to be used for food production, etc., plus, it holds water (in the wiki link), which also helps. Trees also help to moderate the local microclimate and provide some nice moisture and shade cooling, plus, the trees themselves coiuld be food producing trees, or perhaps biofuel producers..anything useful and dual/triple use. Once the tree is beyond that intended use, it is turned to either construction wood (stored carbon) or into biochar and deep sequestered, plowed into the ground. Once in awhile deep plowing won't hurt anything, in fact it is a good way to get some of those minerals up where plant roots can get to them easier. Every season, no, that's nuts, but once in awhile, getting some good tilth back down there un the form of the biochar, plus mixing it with the uplifted minerals in the hardpan..works. And FWIW, this is exactly how I start new garden areas around my house, get down through that nasty hard clay and mix some good mulch in with it. The resultant mixture is *very good*, and it works well for food production without needing anything else, and it allows for better water management down at the root level where it needs to be.
So I stand by my opinion so far, because I read about this proposal before, it is a rube goldberg/pt barnum thing IMO. Designed to make a select few a ton of money and do not much good for that money. It is impressive scientific/academic bling, but it *isn't practical*. Another part of the scam war on carbon.
Carbon isn't a threat, this is a carbon based lifeform planet! What we do with the carbon and where we get it and where it winds up is where the efforts should be placed, not just creating some dubious and expensive war against it. Carbon is *wealth*! Once we start treating it as wealth, in the appropriate manner and place, we'll do a lot better than trying to make some "war" against it.
We'll probably have to agree to disagree here, I just see no reason to create artificial carbon suckers when it is so easy to have just more living growing things and then be able to use them for other purposes, and try to combine that with getting away from fossil fuel use at all.
Most of the excess carbon we have today is because we released it from the ground, from coal and oil..well..putting that carbon back down into the ground everywhere-at a USEFUL place, not just some miles away in some deep mine shaft, would help relieve the excess amounts in the atmosphere PLUS be doing a variety of good simultaneously, better soil tilth, better "sponge" effect in the soil for water retention, etc. We need all that, we don't need just tanker loads of expensively collected concentrated CO2 that you still have to do something with.
This is nutso. How about real trees instead, try to get some deserts back to being green. Or fast growing seasonal plants, when is the US going to allow industrial hemp growing? We can "capture carbon" by the cubic mile that way and have something useful from it. And just getting charcoal down into the subsurface soil area in general, plowing the extra carbon into the soil in the form of charcoalized biomass. Build up the soil tilth all over and we won't have to use as much fossil fuel fertilizers. Plants are wonderful things to use to capture carbon, and they are solar fusion powered. -See, a high tech fulla buzzwords solution, using the latest biotechnology!;) Of course, the tech to "grow plants and trees" is already out there in the public domain, can't really get a patented monopoly on it as easy or sell some zillion dollar "solution" to big governments.
I tell you when I got really suspicious of this dubious "war on carbon", and that is when they first started talking about some new trillion dollar a year carbon trading "industry", as in we don't already have enough middleman wealth skimmers and grifters out there.
Oil is sold on the open market, and currently, mostly in dollars, meaning that the source isn't as important as the ability to pay for it. Any major disruption in total world supply will have an effect on the ability to pay for it, because the market will bump the price up fast, including the oil from those nations you currently import the most from. They are not going to arbitrarily keep supplying at a much lower price "just because".
If/when (and I think inevitably) oil becomes priced in a lot more currencies than dollars, it will just cost more for US consumers. All these other nations aren't *that* stupid, they realize as the FRN gets inflated daily, it becomes worth less and less. Eventually they just won't think or accept that the dollar is worth what some blowhards in DC and wallstreet claim it is worth. The FRN is a debt instrument that currently is backed by more debt instruments, and not much else. Back when the petrodollar phenomenon took hold, it worked for the US because where we bought oil from turned around and used those petrodollars to buy US manufactured stuff. Plus, the US domestically produced most of the oil it needed anyway, something not true today.
Now let us contemplate the status of world trade and manufacturing from 50 years ago to today...hmm..
Starting to see the longer term ramifications of this? When those foreign nations could get real stuff for the swap, it was acceptable, now they are being told they need to just swap their real stuff-oil or various other commodities- for debt instruments backed by "the full faith and credit" of the biggest liars and conmen out there, who are already in hock to them to the tune of trillions.
They talk about peak oil, I think the larger picture is we have hit "peak trust" with the tangible producing world versus the US economic system, which apparently the main top official focus seems to be just creating paper and electronic "products" and that those, "trickled down" through keeping everyone in the US in perpetual debt via the credit "industry" combined with national government debt, will be enough to sustain everyone, that all these other folks will just keep swapping their real stuff for fancy IOUs in various flavors.
I think that isn't going to work for much longer. YMMV. My bet is on the tangibles and the tangibles producers winning the "what is worth more" global economic wars.
I seem to have struck a nerve, so be it, I think I am in better company as regards what happens once you have a large permanent standing army, rot, corruption then tyranny and dictatorship set in, and human misery knows no bounds then. Here's a few quotes:
James Madison: "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.... [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and... degeneracy of manners and of morals.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." and.."A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."
Patrick Henry: "A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?"
"[The Declaration of Independence] listed the colonists' grievances, including the presence of standing armies, subordination of civil to military power, use of foreign mercenary soldiers, quartering of troops, and the use of the royal prerogative to suspend laws and charters. All of these legal actions resulted from reliance on standing armies in place of the militia."
General Smedley Butler: "War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism." source: http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm
General and then President Dwight Eisenhower: "Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence
They listened to those complaints and instituted slightly better "real world" type testing methods, starting with the 2008 model years. However..they still don't do outside the dyno testing, which they should. At best, it is a compromise from the previous which was woefully skewed to make mileage look better.
The number one selling feature for new laptops seems to be weight (and slimness). If "consumers" would be willing to carry the same weight they did some years ago, sure, you could have batteries that would last a long time, even with more modern processors and so on. but they don't, lightweight sells, and people believe the marketing crap about battery life, so there ya go.
An extra pound or two of battery would do wonders, but they can't hide that extra pound or two in the specs, while they can fudge about battery longevity.
Batteries have gotten better, from sealed lead acid to NiMH to LiIon in laptops, but still, if they keep reducing size and weight, your amp hours of storage will never get much better. You can maybe maintain parity, but it won't get better.
I think there would be a market for it, but obviously no laptop manufacturer wants to take a chance on that, they all seem to be on the lighter is always better schtick.(same with cellphones, lighter and teeny tinier) Personally, I think laptops got "light enough to not suck" several years ago, but obviously most people just don't want to carry anything heavy anymore like they did even five years ago. Example, you can get pretty decent notebooks now at around 3 lbs. Add 2 lbs of extra battery, still at five pounds, what was considered really lightweight not that long ago. You'd have pretty good all day long battery then..but would they sell?
Have to disagree with this "The executive cannot just "do whatever it wants" unless congress and the judiciary let it"..Yes, I agree that is the theory and the design and intent, The practice is, the executive branch controls all the guns and legions of unquestioning order followers. That's the reality on the ground. That's also the main reason the founders were so much against a permanent standing army, because they realized it would lead *inevitably* to an executive branch dictatorship.
If you want the mac machine but don't like the case, why not lose the case and just stick the innards in like a used shuttle case or an old small flat desktop case (like from way back in the bottom of your closet), something like that? If you are going to scratch it up anyway, might as well just toss their dumb non accessible case right off the bat and get something you are more comfortable with and is easier to upgrade, etc.
The government weather service should run some guaranteed to push through any possible crap dedicated TV signal with the local weather map, updated constantly. They have the radio weather alert of course, but seeing that radar image makes a big difference, digital TV in storms is the suxxorz. And I wouldn't care if that meant having to get another gadget, or maybe they could pick some analog freq so people could still use their old TVs in storms. The converter box we got has that analog pass through feature, just turn it off, back to analog.
(*&^&%^%!!#%$^^& those *(&^%$$$$#!holes never give up! Turning the net into a combo of some cellphone plan and a cable TV package. They've been skunks and liars ever since they first lied about commercials on cable TV and got all their local monopolies, and disney, the original copyright until the sun goes supernova jerks.. And as a non sports watcher on either TV or the net, dang if I want to pay my ISP to subsidize that "access".
Here's a thought for all the couch jocks, instead of like WATCHING sports, why not actually go DO some sports instead, ya know, like in meatspace? Even at night you can go to some gym.
If what you say about MS and holes is true, why don't they just eliminate software sales to the general public and just limit it to a few official blessed vendors, so they can maintain strict integrated quality control? Say they picked six different computer makers, and only did the OEM installs with them, and it was only intended for what they sold and their official peripherals. They could do this, so why aren't they if they are concerned about their OS and apps being used on cheaper stuff?
I guess my point is, I don't agree with your assessment that they would want to dig themselves out of this theoretical hole. Because they aren't doing that. Even if they see it as a marginal problem (if at all), they must have figured they could deal with it OK, else *they wouldn't be* selling to all comers. I think they like having their software on every possible machine they can, even if it only kinda sorta works with Cheapbox brand.
Vista also by most accounts I have read here takes beefier hardware. Perhaps the Russian authorities are looking out for their citizens who might not have as much cash to throw at newer/more expensive hardware as western Europeans and folks in the US, etc.
Vista might be more difficult to pirate..perhaps..just something to consider given the rumors about what most Russians are running, which is mostly peg legged softwarez...that is all total speculation on my part though,. just what I have read, and mostly here BTW
Then there is just the "some fatcats are looking for some cash payoffs" angle, a shakedown routine, because they know MS has some spare cash laying around
As long as you brought up being legally blind, I wonder if you have tried the various flavors of text to speech and speech to text, etc? Asking because I think a vocal user interface that worked *well* would be very nice for some people. Example, being a boomer myself, I am aware that in our aging population arthritis in the fingers is a reality, and most devices today (because rapid innovation is geared way more towards the youth market, despite the aging population being larger and having a lot more disposable cash...) require the ability to type, and it is getting harder and harder as devices shrink and keyboards start to need mosquito beak shaped and sized fingers, along with near perfect dexterity.
Netscape Navigator hands down for me, combined with the wonderful WWW, on a Netcom account. The killer app, the web browser. I had a computer for a few years previous, but then I upgraded after using my friends machine and seeing how cool it was and got my own good enough for online machine. Man that was sweet, that first time getting online with my own machine! I have never had as good a tech experience, before or since.
We have a lot more heavy carbon sucking forests now since the advent of motorized transport. Back before then, we needed some millions (whatever, a huge number) acres of pastures and hayfields that were required to feed all the horses and mules, especially in the heavily populated new england and mid atlantic states. So in a way it became a tradeoff, dumping extra carbon from petroleum fuels, but we get to have our forests back that help to take that carbon back in and also provide a lot of shade and cooling over huge areas.
Heh, I still do this lugging the tools around with my daily driver 450 buck truck. The engine shutoff is a cable and piece of heavy cord I have to pull that shuts the fuel delivery off (diesel). Heheheheh
Those folks could still get a regular computer then. A surfing appliance is just that, and could fill the needs of a lot of people as long as it didn't suck, ie, "web TV". Probably the OS in a rom chip, fast boot etc. Could be modular as well for adding additional chips for additional functionality if so desired. Advertise it as a web surfing, easy to use appliance.
I was actually thinking of building my own, a variant, for my next upgrade. My idea was to source a used cheap server mobo with a ton of RAM slots. Make it be filled up, gobs. Add optical drive,(and vid card and sound obviously) then use a live cd or dvd OS and set of apps, the latest Knoppix or whatever, run the whole shebang from RAM. When done,turn it off, respawn it again on demand. Much less worries, runs pretty fast. Doing that with some of the mini distros I have found is like having a top end expensive machine in terms of responsiveness. It just flies running entirely from RAM. If it was a full DVD OS and you had like 16 gigs of RAM, that would be more than enough apps and space for a fast no hassle surfer that would still do chat and email and do media playback and so on, and would be self cleaning at each restart, if it had picked up any netcooties. I think for a lot of people that would work quite well, something designed like that, a home kiosk type thing. Not for everyone, but I bet a lot of people would appreciate the no hassle self repairing surfing machine.
Consumers want a secure easy to use web surfing appliance, but it is unobtanium to them. I mean wtf, why isn't this obvvious yet? Not everyone is a computer nerd and specialist, most people aren't, and they have no huge desire to become one, they just want to surf the net. The computer industry just freeking *insists* on selling them devices that actually take a fairly high level of sophistication to keep running smooth and clean, because it makes them shedloads more money. Megaboatloads. The only web surfing appliances that have been on the market have mostly all sucked and been grossly over priced, and we all (here) know that.
And the computer repair and fixit industry doesn't want more rugged and fool proof net surfing appliances either, cleaning up borked windows machines is a multi BILLION a year industry. I bet for most whitebox shops it might be the bulk of their income. The computer hardware makers like borked computers because they get people on a hardware upgrade path once the consumer has been pwned a few times and people just decide a brand new machine will be the magic fix.. The operating system industry wants borked because they get people on an upgrade path, again, get them thinking/hoping new version "Grand Horizon 7.0 XPU" will be the magic fix.
This won't change until we have software lemon laws and consumer warranties.
If a product is not "suitable for purpose", in this instance being on the net 24/7, without having to be a computer expert and installing a crapflood of other additional software, etc, this will just continue. Once it starts costing computer sellers and operating system sellers serious coin because of defective by design products, then things will change for the better, just like what happened in all other industries. It's the last industry with legalized "caveat emptor" out there, the magic get out of all legal responsibility EULA.
Obligatory car analogy: What would you think of paying big bucks for a new car, then finding out after you left the lot that you needed an additional entire trunk full of tools you needed to purchase and carry around with you all the time and at least a medium professional/serious gearhead hobbiest level knowledge of car mechanics in order to drive all the time?
That's the situation with computers and software today. Don't blame the end user all that much for getting broken computers when that is all they are provided with in the first place, no matter how much they spend on them.
If we put as much effort (money, time, mindshare, public discussion and activism, governmental efforts, tax credits and other incentivesm etc) into energy conservation as we do trying to come up with new energy sources we could probably get by with much less on the energy producing side. But you see, that makes the huge energy companies a lot less money. A LOT less. Not attractive at all to the predatory side of the "investor class" folks.
Things like superinsulation of buildings and using telecommuting more than human being commuting would reduce energy demands considerably. Superinsulate once, drop energy demands for the life of the building. Eliminate one physically commuting job to a telecommuting job, then no fuel for either a private vehicle nor to run some public transportation thing is needed. Reducing the number of office workers needing to physically commute would reduce the need for those huge corporate SUV styled energy hog "headquarters" buildings, which drops energy demands. And so on.
Here's a real simple one, only take a single law to pass and help with energy demand. Ban night time huge lit up advertising signs of any kind, product specific or corporate specific. Look it's the Acme Anvils business! And look again, ten different kinds of Acme anvils, all in their scroling neon glory! We at Acme need a 50 foot electronic sign that uses as much electricity per night as could run the next ten small villages in the developing world.
That sort of stuff is just a ridiculous waste. You can still see various advertising signs in the daylight, there is absolutely no need to be able to see them late at night, especially from the space aliens overhead perspective. I don't know how many gigawatt hours that might save, but judging by every big city I have ever been in, it would be quite a lot.
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..for others, a lot of off the public road driving occurs. I've driven my truck six times in the past three days, all of it is on private property, and this farm at 800 acres is tiny compared to some ranches out west or for guys who go deep into the forests for logging, etc. They'll rack up tank after tank of fuel and hardly go on a publicly maintained road.
Anyway, IMO, this is more about people tracking then revenue. The gas tax is supposed to be wear and tear related for road maintenance, and for that it works. We have less revenue from better mileage cars, and also folks just driving less, and one of the reasons there is that they are lighter, and thus, less maintenance is required, less wear and tear. Want an alternative for this? Ban commodities flipping, it's just as harmful and stupid as real erstate bubble building flipping, make the end user who buys this oil on contract actually take delivery of petroleum and *do something* with it, like finish refining it and so on. A stat I read recently (sorry, no link handy) said a barrel of oil changes hands on average 27 times on paper before delivery! If we banned that speculation flipping and middleman skimming and price gouging, we could have a larger fuel tax by the gallon at the pump, they'd get all the road maintenance revenue they would need, and it would still be cheaper at the pump for the end user.
This GPS tracking you nonsense is more big brother action, and obviously so if you stop and look at the larger picture, same as all the other tagging, rfid, tracking, cameras, database crap they are instituting. This is the new technofuedalist elite aristocrats maintaining their herds of subjects/serfs. Really, just extrapolate it out. It is SO far beyond what was considered harmful/heinous back when I was a kid it ain't funny now. From my POV as a neogeezer we are well past the halfway point to the brave new world, well past it. They are already doing stuff I was taught was only done in dire dictatorial regimes, no knock raids and door kicking, random checkpoints, secret enemies of the state lists, etc.
Now look forward just twenty more years if this keeps up at this rate. They'll have an entire generation well into adulthood with kids of their own who have never ever been in a situation where they weren't monitored, had to go through random checkpoints, been scanned, tagged, DNA registered, fingerprinted, stamped, spindled folded and mutilated by the state, all of the above and more, everything about them cataloged in databases, and they will consider that "normal". Poof, a full master/slave society when the slaves don't even see they are slaves, and if pointed out to them will deny it because of the mass conditioning since birth. The chains will be invisible to them, they will love big brother. It's damn close now, the poor kids in the public schools today are undergoing mass indoctrination and cultural brainwashing to an extreme.
If they tried to pull this stuff all at once, they might see an actual righteous revolt, a little bit at a time, spread out over the years..nothing, they win. And the whole time it is happening, apologists will keep saying it isn't that bad, every single step forward to that sort of society "well, it isn't that bad, look at north korea!!'.
That's how they get away with it. Look at the acceptance of the "no fly" enemies of the state list now. Like supposedly a million people and counting. No public accusation in the normal courts system, just you find out you are on some list if you go to board a plane..because some faceless drone decided you should be on it, or a computer program did it..or something. And they get cut out of the line, and everyone around them looks away and is thankful it isn't them...Scared into docile obedience, state sponsored terrorized into acceptance. They won't even say how it works. I mean, how bad does it have to get before people really notice this stuff? Does anyone REALLY think there are a million "terrorists" inside the US? Where are the attacks? If there really are, where are the arrests and charges and trials? Nope, that's the misdirection, this is just a list for eventual herd culling. Tracking you in your ride is all that is about, the revenue stuff is BS.
it already is insane, I'm totally against all the security theater big brother BS surrounding the dubious cliams of the government's fairy tale version of the events of 9-11 2001 and the resultant crap patriot act and homeland security and flying on airliners nonsense pseudo security and etc. And now we have people demanding "VIP" treatment as long as they pay more or are rich enough to own their own planes or something else. I call shenanigans on that. If it is such a threat, then everyone needs to go through the screening. I would *rather* we went back to the way it was with just a few more common sense practices, but it ain't my call there, I just think it is the height of hypocrisy and goes to show how stupid their alleged security is when they have so many exemptions and some people feel they "deserve" to be treated "special" because, in essence, they have more money to burn than other folks, or they are somehow more privileged because of the busy work government job or connections.
That's the only shame, that so many go along with it, this creeping fascism. The slow boiled frog.. I do NOT fly at all, and will not, for any reason, until such a time as they stop the nonsense. You want to cast the shame blame, here ya go, shame on the folks who put up with it for any reason. Shuck and jive and keep you head bowed and don't disrespect your betters, knave! Grovel at your master's boots and eat the shit sandwhich offered and be thankful they allow it. People are wont to use the word sheeple, normally I don't, but when it comes to flying and people who put up with that crap EGADS where is your (collective "your") self respect and dignity? A freeking "no fly" list? What the hell is that all about, an enemies of the state list, guilty because some star chamber says you are? People who fly, by going along with it, are giving de facto approval to such nonsense. There's some more of your shame right there.
The entire public should have said HELL NO and boycotted airline travel until the ridiculous rules got trashed. They should stand around in huge groups, point their fingers at some badged moron and his boss and just laugh! Just laugh hysterically at the stupid monkeys and their freekin fasicst crap. Then all get on the horn to the airline execs and say "no flying until these dumbass rules get changed, which means no more fat check and cushy job, sucks to be you mr. airline boss or investor, bye". You will NOT ever see an airliner hijacked like that anymore, the rest of the people would overwhelm any group of hijackers, they just would. there's no need for this crap like exists today except to get the sheeps conditionede to take even MORE crap down the road. and anyone who can't see that just ain't lookin' or just plain don't care, one or the other. It's to soften you up, get you used to always be afraid, you have been terrorized into obedience and to accepting an "elite" class of humans over you, your "masters".
Instead of a righteous boycott, which is what should have happened, nope, most of the scared and terrorized people (even if they don't admit they were terrorized) just went along with getting their wives and children felt up by official pervs, get x rayed, have to be humiliated by drooling security "agents" and all that other crap..well..except for the "special" ones who can afford to fly private, they are too leet to stand in line like the "commoners".
And the others, who like me, refuse to be a part of it, by boycotting their nonsense.
Shame on society for putting up with this and all the other big brother bullshit that has gone down the past several years. There's your real shame, the whole situation is a sorry-ass shame.
And as long as you let some people be "special", where they get the VIP treatment, and get away with not going through the same crap, it will just get worse. You need people with some juice, with power and influence, along with everyone else, to help bring about constructive change. If they have to go through the same crap, that
They SHOULD make everyone go through the same BS, even on PRIVATE PLANES, corporate jets, all of them. Let no one be "special". Everyone =politicians, cops, official government bureaucrats, military generals, rich fatcats, all of them, not just the plebes. Get on a plane and fly, you need to go through all the same routine.
Like was said, we won't get rid of the stupid security theater until everyone is inconvenienced enough and complains enough to get changes forced through. That's just nonsense they don't, "everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others" is the height of hypocrisy and just more of them tards trying to bring back an aristocratic class.
Why would a business, with this theoretical professional attitude, use the stock image that came with *any* new computer? I thought it was more or less standard procedure for the admins to provide a sanitized and customized image and use that right off the bat. I mean, it isn't any sort of secret that computers get shipped with tons of garbage pre installed, why was it allowed to be used in a production environment like that?
Trees take it in, and biochar can them be put deep into the ground once the tree is mature and after we have used it for something else in the meantime, food, fuel, perhaps more medicines can be made from them, shade, cooling, moisture/water control, building construction, furniture, etc). See my other reply for more details on why I think a more cooperative with nature idea makes more practical and economic sense than artificial tree co2 suckers.(and this is why the inventors are calling it an artificial tree in the first place, because it takes carbon in..I just like more real trees for a wide variety of reasons)
Biochar
And the minerals go back down in the soil as well, they aren't lost.
And I understand about soil erosion and so forth and no till planting (I am a farmer 0_o), but as a one time per area technique, I think deep soil sequestration (especially in areas that need to be reclaimed now or that have very marginal soils to begin with, back to the greening the deserts perhaps idea...) using the biochar is a darn spiffy idea. I like it a lot better than some massive electronic artificial tree thing. Reclaimed land is good for a variety of uses, artificial trees are an expensive one trick pony that doesn't do much besides remove the co2.
Me..I prefer to work with nature and not try to "conquer" it. Man has an amazing ability to screw up when he loses track of that idea, so I'd like to more concentrate on easier and more effective solutions, and solutions that give us a lot more benefit for the tax dollar spent (or carbon tax dollar *collected* from me and you to be more precise which is where this is going talking about building millions of artificial trees at the cost of "one toyota" a piece. this on top of that insane cap and trade skimming idea) The cost of "one toyota" in most of the world would get thousands of trees planted amd/or a lot of acreage treated with biochar, said acreage later on perhaps to be used for food production, etc., plus, it holds water (in the wiki link), which also helps. Trees also help to moderate the local microclimate and provide some nice moisture and shade cooling, plus, the trees themselves coiuld be food producing trees, or perhaps biofuel producers..anything useful and dual/triple use. Once the tree is beyond that intended use, it is turned to either construction wood (stored carbon) or into biochar and deep sequestered, plowed into the ground. Once in awhile deep plowing won't hurt anything, in fact it is a good way to get some of those minerals up where plant roots can get to them easier. Every season, no, that's nuts, but once in awhile, getting some good tilth back down there un the form of the biochar, plus mixing it with the uplifted minerals in the hardpan..works. And FWIW, this is exactly how I start new garden areas around my house, get down through that nasty hard clay and mix some good mulch in with it. The resultant mixture is *very good*, and it works well for food production without needing anything else, and it allows for better water management down at the root level where it needs to be.
So I stand by my opinion so far, because I read about this proposal before, it is a rube goldberg/pt barnum thing IMO. Designed to make a select few a ton of money and do not much good for that money. It is impressive scientific/academic bling, but it *isn't practical*. Another part of the scam war on carbon.
Carbon isn't a threat, this is a carbon based lifeform planet! What we do with the carbon and where we get it and where it winds up is where the efforts should be placed, not just creating some dubious and expensive war against it. Carbon is *wealth*! Once we start treating it as wealth, in the appropriate manner and place, we'll do a lot better than trying to make some "war" against it.
We'll probably have to agree to disagree here, I just see no reason to create artificial carbon suckers when it is so easy to have just more living growing things and then be able to use them for other purposes, and try to combine that with getting away from fossil fuel use at all.
Most of the excess carbon we have today is because we released it from the ground, from coal and oil..well..putting that carbon back down into the ground everywhere-at a USEFUL place, not just some miles away in some deep mine shaft, would help relieve the excess amounts in the atmosphere PLUS be doing a variety of good simultaneously, better soil tilth, better "sponge" effect in the soil for water retention, etc. We need all that, we don't need just tanker loads of expensively collected concentrated CO2 that you still have to do something with.
This is nutso. How about real trees instead, try to get some deserts back to being green. Or fast growing seasonal plants, when is the US going to allow industrial hemp growing? We can "capture carbon" ;) Of course, the tech to "grow plants and trees" is already out there in the public domain, can't really get a patented monopoly on it as easy or sell some zillion dollar "solution" to big governments.
by the cubic mile that way and have something useful from it. And just getting charcoal down into the subsurface soil area in general, plowing the extra carbon into the soil in the form of charcoalized biomass. Build up the soil tilth all over and we won't have to use as much fossil fuel fertilizers. Plants are wonderful things to use to capture carbon, and they are solar fusion powered. -See, a high tech fulla buzzwords solution, using the latest biotechnology!
I tell you when I got really suspicious of this dubious "war on carbon", and that is when they first started talking about some new trillion dollar a year carbon trading "industry", as in we don't already have enough middleman wealth skimmers and grifters out there.
Oil is sold on the open market, and currently, mostly in dollars, meaning that the source isn't as important as the ability to pay for it. Any major disruption in total world supply will have an effect on the ability to pay for it, because the market will bump the price up fast, including the oil from those nations you currently import the most from. They are not going to arbitrarily keep supplying at a much lower price "just because".
If/when (and I think inevitably) oil becomes priced in a lot more currencies than dollars, it will just cost more for US consumers. All these other nations aren't *that* stupid, they realize as the FRN gets inflated daily, it becomes worth less and less. Eventually they just won't think or accept that the dollar is worth what some blowhards in DC and wallstreet claim it is worth. The FRN is a debt instrument that currently is backed by more debt instruments, and not much else. Back when the petrodollar phenomenon took hold, it worked for the US because where we bought oil from turned around and used those petrodollars to buy US manufactured stuff. Plus, the US domestically produced most of the oil it needed anyway, something not true today.
Now let us contemplate the status of world trade and manufacturing from 50 years ago to today...hmm..
Starting to see the longer term ramifications of this? When those foreign nations could get real stuff for the swap, it was acceptable, now they are being told they need to just swap their real stuff-oil or various other commodities- for debt instruments backed by "the full faith and credit" of the biggest liars and conmen out there, who are already in hock to them to the tune of trillions.
They talk about peak oil, I think the larger picture is we have hit "peak trust" with the tangible producing world versus the US economic system, which apparently the main top official focus seems to be just creating paper and electronic "products" and that those, "trickled down" through keeping everyone in the US in perpetual debt via the credit "industry" combined with national government debt, will be enough to sustain everyone, that all these other folks will just keep swapping their real stuff for fancy IOUs in various flavors.
I think that isn't going to work for much longer. YMMV. My bet is on the tangibles and the tangibles producers winning the "what is worth more" global economic wars.
I seem to have struck a nerve, so be it, I think I am in better company as regards what happens once you have a large permanent standing army, rot, corruption then tyranny and dictatorship set in, and human misery knows no bounds then. Here's a few quotes:
James Madison: "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.... [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and ... degeneracy of manners and of morals.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." and.."A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."
Patrick Henry: "A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?"
"[The Declaration of Independence] listed the colonists' grievances, including the presence of standing armies, subordination of civil to military power, use of foreign mercenary soldiers, quartering of troops, and the use of the royal prerogative to suspend laws and charters. All of these legal actions resulted from reliance on standing armies in place of the militia."
source: http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0409a.asp
General Smedley Butler: "War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism." source: http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm
General and then President Dwight Eisenhower: "Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence
They listened to those complaints and instituted slightly better "real world" type testing methods, starting with the 2008 model years. However..they still don't do outside the dyno testing, which they should. At best, it is a compromise from the previous which was woefully skewed to make mileage look better.
The number one selling feature for new laptops seems to be weight (and slimness). If "consumers" would be willing to carry the same weight they did some years ago, sure, you could have batteries that would last a long time, even with more modern processors and so on. but they don't, lightweight sells, and people believe the marketing crap about battery life, so there ya go.
An extra pound or two of battery would do wonders, but they can't hide that extra pound or two in the specs, while they can fudge about battery longevity.
Batteries have gotten better, from sealed lead acid to NiMH to LiIon in laptops, but still, if they keep reducing size and weight, your amp hours of storage will never get much better. You can maybe maintain parity, but it won't get better.
I think there would be a market for it, but obviously no laptop manufacturer wants to take a chance on that, they all seem to be on the lighter is always better schtick.(same with cellphones, lighter and teeny tinier) Personally, I think laptops got "light enough to not suck" several years ago, but obviously most people just don't want to carry anything heavy anymore like they did even five years ago. Example, you can get pretty decent notebooks now at around 3 lbs. Add 2 lbs of extra battery, still at five pounds, what was considered really lightweight not that long ago. You'd have pretty good all day long battery then..but would they sell?
Have to disagree with this "The executive cannot just "do whatever it wants" unless congress and the judiciary let it"..Yes, I agree that is the theory and the design and intent, The practice is, the executive branch controls all the guns and legions of unquestioning order followers. That's the reality on the ground. That's also the main reason the founders were so much against a permanent standing army, because they realized it would lead *inevitably* to an executive branch dictatorship.
If you want the mac machine but don't like the case, why not lose the case and just stick the innards in like a used shuttle case or an old small flat desktop case (like from way back in the bottom of your closet), something like that? If you are going to scratch it up anyway, might as well just toss their dumb non accessible case right off the bat and get something you are more comfortable with and is easier to upgrade, etc.
The government weather service should run some guaranteed to push through any possible crap dedicated TV signal with the local weather map, updated constantly. They have the radio weather alert of course, but seeing that radar image makes a big difference, digital TV in storms is the suxxorz. And I wouldn't care if that meant having to get another gadget, or maybe they could pick some analog freq so people could still use their old TVs in storms. The converter box we got has that analog pass through feature, just turn it off, back to analog.
(*&^&%^%!!#%$^^& those *(&^%$$$$#!holes never give up! Turning the net into a combo of some cellphone plan and a cable TV package. They've been skunks and liars ever since they first lied about commercials on cable TV and got all their local monopolies, and disney, the original copyright until the sun goes supernova jerks.. And as a non sports watcher on either TV or the net, dang if I want to pay my ISP to subsidize that "access".
Here's a thought for all the couch jocks, instead of like WATCHING sports, why not actually go DO some sports instead, ya know, like in meatspace? Even at night you can go to some gym.
If what you say about MS and holes is true, why don't they just eliminate software sales to the general public and just limit it to a few official blessed vendors, so they can maintain strict integrated quality control? Say they picked six different computer makers, and only did the OEM installs with them, and it was only intended for what they sold and their official peripherals. They could do this, so why aren't they if they are concerned about their OS and apps being used on cheaper stuff?
I guess my point is, I don't agree with your assessment that they would want to dig themselves out of this theoretical hole. Because they aren't doing that. Even if they see it as a marginal problem (if at all), they must have figured they could deal with it OK, else *they wouldn't be* selling to all comers. I think they like having their software on every possible machine they can, even if it only kinda sorta works with Cheapbox brand.
Vista also by most accounts I have read here takes beefier hardware. Perhaps the Russian authorities are looking out for their citizens who might not have as much cash to throw at newer/more expensive hardware as western Europeans and folks in the US, etc.
Vista might be more difficult to pirate..perhaps..just something to consider given the rumors about what most Russians are running, which is mostly peg legged softwarez...that is all total speculation on my part though,. just what I have read, and mostly here BTW
Then there is just the "some fatcats are looking for some cash payoffs" angle, a shakedown routine, because they know MS has some spare cash laying around
As long as you brought up being legally blind, I wonder if you have tried the various flavors of text to speech and speech to text, etc? Asking because I think a vocal user interface that worked *well* would be very nice for some people. Example, being a boomer myself, I am aware that in our aging population arthritis in the fingers is a reality, and most devices today (because rapid innovation is geared way more towards the youth market, despite the aging population being larger and having a lot more disposable cash...) require the ability to type, and it is getting harder and harder as devices shrink and keyboards start to need mosquito beak shaped and sized fingers, along with near perfect dexterity.
Thanks in advance if you have any insight!
Netscape Navigator hands down for me, combined with the wonderful WWW, on a Netcom account. The killer app, the web browser. I had a computer for a few years previous, but then I upgraded after using my friends machine and seeing how cool it was and got my own good enough for online machine. Man that was sweet, that first time getting online with my own machine! I have never had as good a tech experience, before or since.
We have a lot more heavy carbon sucking forests now since the advent of motorized transport. Back before then, we needed some millions (whatever, a huge number) acres of pastures and hayfields that were required to feed all the horses and mules, especially in the heavily populated new england and mid atlantic states. So in a way it became a tradeoff, dumping extra carbon from petroleum fuels, but we get to have our forests back that help to take that carbon back in and also provide a lot of shade and cooling over huge areas.
Heh, I still do this lugging the tools around with my daily driver 450 buck truck. The engine shutoff is a cable and piece of heavy cord I have to pull that shuts the fuel delivery off (diesel). Heheheheh
Those folks could still get a regular computer then. A surfing appliance is just that, and could fill the needs of a lot of people as long as it didn't suck, ie, "web TV". Probably the OS in a rom chip, fast boot etc. Could be modular as well for adding additional chips for additional functionality if so desired. Advertise it as a web surfing, easy to use appliance.
I was actually thinking of building my own, a variant, for my next upgrade. My idea was to source a used cheap server mobo with a ton of RAM slots. Make it be filled up, gobs. Add optical drive,(and vid card and sound obviously) then use a live cd or dvd OS and set of apps, the latest Knoppix or whatever, run the whole shebang from RAM. When done,turn it off, respawn it again on demand. Much less worries, runs pretty fast. Doing that with some of the mini distros I have found is like having a top end expensive machine in terms of responsiveness. It just flies running entirely from RAM. If it was a full DVD OS and you had like 16 gigs of RAM, that would be more than enough apps and space for a fast no hassle surfer that would still do chat and email and do media playback and so on, and would be self cleaning at each restart, if it had picked up any netcooties. I think for a lot of people that would work quite well, something designed like that, a home kiosk type thing. Not for everyone, but I bet a lot of people would appreciate the no hassle self repairing surfing machine.
...appreciate the candor. What do you recommend in that sort of price range?
Consumers want a secure easy to use web surfing appliance, but it is unobtanium to them. I mean wtf, why isn't this obvvious yet? Not everyone is a computer nerd and specialist, most people aren't, and they have no huge desire to become one, they just want to surf the net. The computer industry just freeking *insists* on selling them devices that actually take a fairly high level of sophistication to keep running smooth and clean, because it makes them shedloads more money. Megaboatloads. The only web surfing appliances that have been on the market have mostly all sucked and been grossly over priced, and we all (here) know that.
And the computer repair and fixit industry doesn't want more rugged and fool proof net surfing appliances either, cleaning up borked windows machines is a multi BILLION a year industry. I bet for most whitebox shops it might be the bulk of their income. The computer hardware makers like borked computers because they get people on a hardware upgrade path once the consumer has been pwned a few times and people just decide a brand new machine will be the magic fix.. The operating system industry wants borked because they get people on an upgrade path, again, get them thinking/hoping new version "Grand Horizon 7.0 XPU" will be the magic fix.
This won't change until we have software lemon laws and consumer warranties.
If a product is not "suitable for purpose", in this instance being on the net 24/7, without having to be a computer expert and installing a crapflood of other additional software, etc, this will just continue. Once it starts costing computer sellers and operating system sellers serious coin because of defective by design products, then things will change for the better, just like what happened in all other industries. It's the last industry with legalized "caveat emptor" out there, the magic get out of all legal responsibility EULA.
Obligatory car analogy: What would you think of paying big bucks for a new car, then finding out after you left the lot that you needed an additional entire trunk full of tools you needed to purchase and carry around with you all the time and at least a medium professional/serious gearhead hobbiest level knowledge of car mechanics in order to drive all the time?
That's the situation with computers and software today. Don't blame the end user all that much for getting broken computers when that is all they are provided with in the first place, no matter how much they spend on them.
If we put as much effort (money, time, mindshare, public discussion and activism, governmental efforts, tax credits and other incentivesm etc) into energy conservation as we do trying to come up with new energy sources we could probably get by with much less on the energy producing side. But you see, that makes the huge energy companies a lot less money. A LOT less. Not attractive at all to the predatory side of the "investor class" folks.
Things like superinsulation of buildings and using telecommuting more than human being commuting would reduce energy demands considerably. Superinsulate once, drop energy demands for the life of the building. Eliminate one physically commuting job to a telecommuting job, then no fuel for either a private vehicle nor to run some public transportation thing is needed. Reducing the number of office workers needing to physically commute would reduce the need for those huge corporate SUV styled energy hog "headquarters" buildings, which drops energy demands. And so on.
Here's a real simple one, only take a single law to pass and help with energy demand. Ban night time huge lit up advertising signs of any kind, product specific or corporate specific. Look it's the Acme Anvils business! And look again, ten different kinds of Acme anvils, all in their scroling neon glory! We at Acme need a 50 foot electronic sign that uses as much electricity per night as could run the next ten small villages in the developing world.
That sort of stuff is just a ridiculous waste. You can still see various advertising signs in the daylight, there is absolutely no need to be able to see them late at night, especially from the space aliens overhead perspective. I don't know how many gigawatt hours that might save, but judging by every big city I have ever been in, it would be quite a lot.