AV software for anyone that has had to use it for any amount of time can easily tell you that Windows Defender is the *only* AV software anyone should be using anymore. Back in the day, there were a number of products out there which I would call good. Now, probably due to increased pressure for more profits, subscriptions, and increased monetization of every aspect of their business I wouldn't want any of them. Not only are they all bloated resource hogs, they cause more problems than viruses they catch. I'd rather have the viruses as at lease you don't pay for those. I don't know how many times I've had to look at friends or family members computers to find that some commercial AV software was causing all sorts of trouble. Is Defender the best at finding viruses? I don't know, perhaps not, but I do not care. I'd rather something that provides most protection but isn't intrusive enough that it acts more less like what it is trying to detect and remove.
I'd say there is one little cravat to the above. I'm referring specifically to ANTI-VIRUS software. An awful lot (if not most nowadays) of "malware" might be better categorized as "Adware". There are a number of products out there that do a good job dealing with Adware. Most Adware of course targets your various browsers. I'd say as a rule there are a lot more of those out there in the wild than actual "viruses". Anyway I would use both, Defender for viruses, and another product more specifically focused on Adware.
For a variety of reasons years ago I used to run an unpatched Windows 7 machine. That things was like a virus trawler! At any rate I had a lot of opportunity to use a host of tools and software. Having a good firewall (and setup), not going to sketchy websites, or clicking on stupid things goes a long way by itself. However inevitably you'd get things that require clean up. As mentioned somethings worked better than others, and some were as bad as the viruses they were supposed to protect you from. With that particular system, I think one of the easiest (provided your are prepared) and certain things I didn't was about every years or so I would just wipe the whole thing clean, do a fresh install, restore files from backup. Get used to doing it a few times and it takes a few hours, and you can automate most of it.
Not only that abuse, but I recall the news getting a hold of a few stories (I believe one was in Alberta), where they were like indentured servants. They would be brought over, and immediately put into debt, even so far as to have housing where the employer was also their landlord (making sure they never get out of debt), with threats of eviction, deportation, etc... should anyone complain. Deplorable.
Considering how many economists have correctly predicted anything in the last 20 years, how many times they absolutely got it wrong, how little the generalized economic theory seems to explain anything in actual empirical terms, it might as well be called Magic. I liken it to what just happened with the election and Trump. Sure there were a few people that seemed to say some correct things in hindsight, however just about everyone that was supposed to be an expert got it wrong (to big effect). Again, lots of things going on that were not really accounted for in their analysis, and assumptions made that turned out to be incorrect.
Though I think you last assertion is probably the most correct, in that it is horribly complicated now, and that many little things can have a very large influence on how everything behaves, so trying to apply grand economic theory on anything falls flat because none if it can take all the complexities into account.
"essentially uses the taxpayer as its benefits system"
I think this is the point that most people miss. The companies that pay so little are basically being subsidized by government programs. Some of the people complaining are worried about said companies raising prices to compensate for increased wages, which is a legitimate concern. However the point is they are paying either way, only though taxes. The real difference being that the way it works now, all that extra money goes to the company in profits, rather to the worker who could then presumably earn a living, pay taxes, and put more money into the system with increased buying power...
Likely the problem being politically that A) poor people don't vote in droves, B) corporations donate money to political parties to keep the status quo, C) many people don't seem to understand that they are going to end up paying regardless anyway, D) to a lesser extent the investors of said companies may find them a bit less profitable (though that last one is debatable depending on the spin offs of having a work force able to buy more things).
This. "core competency". From experience it is due to cutbacks or fiscal restraint and at the decision of management. They only want to spend on "Core" things. At one point I was more less refused promotion because my position in "IT" wasn't considered "core". In *many* occurrences I've had project funds rejected for upgrades, because they were not "core" to the business. Trying to tell a manager how functional the promoted workers that were considered "core" that use said systems, or how the business as a whole is going to function when those "non-core" systems fail is a hard sell. In most cases it isn't an abrupt change but rather a slow degradation of service as systems and support become more difficult to maintain. Over the years, you do get "tech debt" as the issues keep piling up, and in the case of positions, if they are not valued, then why stick around?
I know I was pretty shocked and offended when I was told my position wasn't part of "core" business (I also thought it was pretty short sighted and ludicrous), and knew the writing was on the wall with that manager and in that position. Fortunately it worked out moving to a business and position where it was considered "core".
As mentioned the system wasn't probably fragile to begin with. However any system will become so over time though neglect. I have no doubt that management due to fiscal issues did as you said. Which isn't necessarily bad, the whole system as a service when done right. However the other buzz word other than "core competency" than management loves to throw around (without seeming to understand or grasp the real meaning) is "Risk Management". Which basically means we're going to do things half-assed and accept the risk that it will bring to the table. Well that "risk" just materialized. What mitigation plans did they put in place, who is responsible for it in terms of lost revenue? I'd guess they don't have real answers for either of those questions.
Don't forget Helboy or Hellboy 2, thought he was great in both as Hellboy's adopted father. Kinda surprised it wasn't mentioned in the summary, both were pretty recent and big movies.
Surprised about the body, not so much about the theft. I've had my house broken into twice. I've had the police show up both times and basically take notes, but it does seem more of a routine for insurance than any real hope catching anyone. Heck TV shows have been making fun of that fact for decades (Friends, Seinfeld, etc...). The second time they made a show of doing CSI stuff like finger printing... but I doubt 95% of the time it is ever used for anything except to put it on file. BTW that finger printing stuff is a bitch to get off of everything...
The only time I ever heard back from police was for a crime I didn't bother reporting. I had my gym locker broken into and my wallet stolen. I only had 40-60$ in it so while it sucked wasn't a big deal. It was a bigger pain in the ass to cancel and replace all the cards and ID that was in it that probably got thrown away. However randomly I got a call from police in a different city, where the dummy got caught trying to cash a check I had in my wallet (it had my name, address, etc... on it) that he filled out and the bank informed the cops. We had a chat and I told him the history (apparently this guys MO was to travel around a city hitting all the gyms before returning home). Anyway the only end result was I got them to destroy the check. Didn't get anything back. However I got a little satisfaction that it was my check that busted the guy.
4) Taking after Obamacare mandate, all citizens forced to enter into contract with Solar City.
Crazy, however if you think of all the advantages of a truly distributed electrical generation being a considerable chunk of your total energy matrix, it isn't all that bad of an idea. The redundancy, the backup, the efficiency of close to market generation, about the only two negatives are the amount of capital in the form of loans and incentives, but even energy aside for the amount of local jobs created you could spend you money on a lot of worse things (like a wall). The other would be the amount of maintenance that may be required over the long term with a distributed model, but again that is a lot of local jobs for electricians and installers etc...
Final thought: That mexico wall by design is going to be facing south in what is probably the most sun filled region of the US... Solar Wall? Again, crazy but... maybe.
I assume that one person got to "hand crank" whatever apparatus they had to operate the diamond anvil...
Which means someone forevermore at nerdy parties is going to be able to say (preferably in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice), that they are so "pumped up" that they can "Crush Hydrogen so much it turns into metal!"...
Bonus points if they mention the fact that it could potentially be "liquid metal" and some ominous reference to T-1000.
Yup. I was looking to buy the G5, bought into the modular idea. However before I did I starting looking around for where you could buy them and for how much. Basically you could not. You might get one through a special promotion when you got the phone from your carrier (One place had the external battery, while another offered the Camera, but only to the first X number of people that bought the G5 and no indication of what X was (other than limited quantities), but that was about it. You couldn't buy anything else from your carrier, you couldn't go to a store like BestBuy and get them. You couldn't even find out how much they might cost should they eventually hit shelves someplace. It was one of the reasons that turned me away from the G5.
I went with the G4 instead and I've been happy with it (previous to that was a Samsung S3, and prior to that an Apple 3S). iTunes basically tuned me off of Apple forever (though the backup functionality worked well). Samsung was good, but the battery life was horrendous.
Someone also mentioned things like lab and material costs not captured in tuition.
Books (and their inflated prices also) are another vector. In the sciences there seems to be a new textbook edition you need to buy every year. Each book ranges in the 50-200$ range. Case in point I went to College one year while at University, and my books ridiculously actually cost MORE than my College tuition. How stupid is that. Again if you're study is classical lit, you can probably go to a used bookstore and pick up a copy of whatever book you need for 3$ if you're feeling frugal.
You say that, however rare earth mining is problematic for much the same reason (if not the same scale).
You just wait until Space Trump comes and boils off our oceans looking for weapons of mass destruction, and pays himself in 20 million in gold for his trouble.
Um Bronze isn't a mined commodity. I'm pretty sure it is an alloy of tin and copper. So either they started running out of tin and/or copper (which would make them worth more), or running out of smelting capacity to produce the bronze, which I expect made the smelters rich, but little effect on either tin or copper. Bronze might have taken a sharp incline very temporarily if used all at once and took awhile for smelting to bring more to market, but I can't see that as having more than a blip of impact,
There is another good example, though I forget his name at the moment. He was an African King (or whatever alternate term), who was vastly wealthy due to gold mines. I believe he went on a long journey I think to Mecca or something. As a show of his magnificence he basically gave away gold all along the way, essentially devaluing it and destroying economies all along the route he took. He also traveled with the largest library on camels, though I may be mixing up my stories on that point.
I distinctly recall near the end of the election during one of the debates where the question was basically "If the other person wins, will you accept it?"
Clinton said "Yes of course". Trump said "I'll wait to see the outcome".
After which all democrats the media etc... lost their minds.
As it turns out, perhaps he was just being more honest, as it sure seems like an awful lot of democrats don't really accept the outcome to me.
As for the protests, that's great, your rights and everything. It aways makes me wonder just how many of those people actually bothered to vote. Perhaps they should tie your right to protest to your obligation/duty to vote. I've always maintained that if you don't vote you waive your right to bitch and complain after the fact.
If you think about it the Sherlock format is sort of before it's time and revolutionary. If you think about the context of binge watching 10-20 epsoides of a TV show at a time on Netflix, what Sherlock did was recognize that people are going to watch more than the just the 30min or 45min show, and simply decided to do fewer but most longer complete shows of 1.5h. Hope they make more. Doctor Who I tried to get into, but I could take or leave most of it.
Meh. Most of the Star Trek movies were pretty bad. So that isn't really a fair comparison. The last "reboot" was Enterprise. and while yes it was pretty bad also, I have to admit that it wasn't all bad. They had some parts that were pretty good. Most notably for me was the episode where trip got drunk which really just comprised of two actors talking like in a play, then once they stopped taking themselves so seriously they had the episode where the did the time travel thing to the original universe with the uniforms, big blink buttons and all which was fun (also the alternate "evil" enterprise which was fun even if they already did that in Voyager), and finally the any episode that built upon the relationship with the Andorian who was one of the better decisions of the series. Personally I can't wait for the new series. Will it be bad? Probably. However it will also have some good parts I bet (hopefully). Hell even DS9 was terrible, but had some redeeming qualities.
At least it can't be as bad as the Chronicles of Shannara can it? That has to be up there with most disappointing series of all time to almost the point of unintentional parody...
Medium breaks no content. Not allow to copy it. Also probably region locked, so move to another part of the world and need a new player?
Static licence is not ownership. It is a licence between you and the content owner (whoever has copyright). It is static only in that it won't change, unlike Netflix which could sign a new licencing agreement with different terms and conditions.
Not caring about the licencing agreement and calling irrelevant doesn't make it any less real (in a legal sense), and is what the industry loves to call Pirates, which are really just people who don't really care so much about Copyright Infringement. Plenty of physical media out there of that as well.
One of the things that make nuclear ideal for China is it has a relatively small footprint per GW. The problem with renewables is they do not. China has a lot of competing vectors for physical space. Never mind the population. The land required for food and agriculture has always been primary. As it becomes industrialized, so has the demand for that land. China has tried to plan intensive cities to combat sprawl and land sterilization but as any planner can tell you it is difficult as best even with all the policy behind you. Before someone uses the argument, I will squash it. Yes China is a big country. Yes they do have parts of it that are indeed undeveloped with few people in it. However you also do not need power there either. Trying to produce from very far away and distribute it is not efficient to say the least. You need to generate as close to market as possible. Therein lies the issue with moving away from nuclear and towards renewable within the Chinese perspective (never mind peak power, and other other normal considerations).
Certain particular species seem to be more resilient than others as seen by how long they have been around. Sharks is one of them. Perhaps that trait is one of the reasons why. I wonder if alligators and crocodiles have similar traits? (and other seemingly ancient species)
The biggest factor I think is the whole multiplayer snowball effect. As once a particular system gets a bit of an advantage for one reason or another, and people start migrating to it, the effect becomes magnified the longer it goes on. As you say probably one of the largest decisions to buy a particular system outside of exclusive games is about what system all your friends are on. Once they move, you move, the more, etc... To the point where one system starts crushing the other.
Case in point most of my friends used to be Xbox, now many of them have moved on to the PS4.
Slashdot Mirror
AV software for anyone that has had to use it for any amount of time can easily tell you that Windows Defender is the *only* AV software anyone should be using anymore. Back in the day, there were a number of products out there which I would call good. Now, probably due to increased pressure for more profits, subscriptions, and increased monetization of every aspect of their business I wouldn't want any of them. Not only are they all bloated resource hogs, they cause more problems than viruses they catch. I'd rather have the viruses as at lease you don't pay for those. I don't know how many times I've had to look at friends or family members computers to find that some commercial AV software was causing all sorts of trouble. Is Defender the best at finding viruses? I don't know, perhaps not, but I do not care. I'd rather something that provides most protection but isn't intrusive enough that it acts more less like what it is trying to detect and remove.
I'd say there is one little cravat to the above. I'm referring specifically to ANTI-VIRUS software. An awful lot (if not most nowadays) of "malware" might be better categorized as "Adware". There are a number of products out there that do a good job dealing with Adware. Most Adware of course targets your various browsers. I'd say as a rule there are a lot more of those out there in the wild than actual "viruses". Anyway I would use both, Defender for viruses, and another product more specifically focused on Adware.
For a variety of reasons years ago I used to run an unpatched Windows 7 machine. That things was like a virus trawler! At any rate I had a lot of opportunity to use a host of tools and software. Having a good firewall (and setup), not going to sketchy websites, or clicking on stupid things goes a long way by itself. However inevitably you'd get things that require clean up. As mentioned somethings worked better than others, and some were as bad as the viruses they were supposed to protect you from. With that particular system, I think one of the easiest (provided your are prepared) and certain things I didn't was about every years or so I would just wipe the whole thing clean, do a fresh install, restore files from backup. Get used to doing it a few times and it takes a few hours, and you can automate most of it.
Not only that abuse, but I recall the news getting a hold of a few stories (I believe one was in Alberta), where they were like indentured servants. They would be brought over, and immediately put into debt, even so far as to have housing where the employer was also their landlord (making sure they never get out of debt), with threats of eviction, deportation, etc... should anyone complain. Deplorable.
Considering how many economists have correctly predicted anything in the last 20 years, how many times they absolutely got it wrong, how little the generalized economic theory seems to explain anything in actual empirical terms, it might as well be called Magic. I liken it to what just happened with the election and Trump. Sure there were a few people that seemed to say some correct things in hindsight, however just about everyone that was supposed to be an expert got it wrong (to big effect). Again, lots of things going on that were not really accounted for in their analysis, and assumptions made that turned out to be incorrect.
Though I think you last assertion is probably the most correct, in that it is horribly complicated now, and that many little things can have a very large influence on how everything behaves, so trying to apply grand economic theory on anything falls flat because none if it can take all the complexities into account.
"essentially uses the taxpayer as its benefits system"
I think this is the point that most people miss. The companies that pay so little are basically being subsidized by government programs. Some of the people complaining are worried about said companies raising prices to compensate for increased wages, which is a legitimate concern. However the point is they are paying either way, only though taxes. The real difference being that the way it works now, all that extra money goes to the company in profits, rather to the worker who could then presumably earn a living, pay taxes, and put more money into the system with increased buying power...
Likely the problem being politically that A) poor people don't vote in droves, B) corporations donate money to political parties to keep the status quo, C) many people don't seem to understand that they are going to end up paying regardless anyway, D) to a lesser extent the investors of said companies may find them a bit less profitable (though that last one is debatable depending on the spin offs of having a work force able to buy more things).
This. "core competency". From experience it is due to cutbacks or fiscal restraint and at the decision of management. They only want to spend on "Core" things. At one point I was more less refused promotion because my position in "IT" wasn't considered "core". In *many* occurrences I've had project funds rejected for upgrades, because they were not "core" to the business. Trying to tell a manager how functional the promoted workers that were considered "core" that use said systems, or how the business as a whole is going to function when those "non-core" systems fail is a hard sell. In most cases it isn't an abrupt change but rather a slow degradation of service as systems and support become more difficult to maintain. Over the years, you do get "tech debt" as the issues keep piling up, and in the case of positions, if they are not valued, then why stick around?
I know I was pretty shocked and offended when I was told my position wasn't part of "core" business (I also thought it was pretty short sighted and ludicrous), and knew the writing was on the wall with that manager and in that position. Fortunately it worked out moving to a business and position where it was considered "core".
As mentioned the system wasn't probably fragile to begin with. However any system will become so over time though neglect. I have no doubt that management due to fiscal issues did as you said. Which isn't necessarily bad, the whole system as a service when done right. However the other buzz word other than "core competency" than management loves to throw around (without seeming to understand or grasp the real meaning) is "Risk Management". Which basically means we're going to do things half-assed and accept the risk that it will bring to the table. Well that "risk" just materialized. What mitigation plans did they put in place, who is responsible for it in terms of lost revenue? I'd guess they don't have real answers for either of those questions.
Don't forget Helboy or Hellboy 2, thought he was great in both as Hellboy's adopted father. Kinda surprised it wasn't mentioned in the summary, both were pretty recent and big movies.
Surprised about the body, not so much about the theft. I've had my house broken into twice. I've had the police show up both times and basically take notes, but it does seem more of a routine for insurance than any real hope catching anyone. Heck TV shows have been making fun of that fact for decades (Friends, Seinfeld, etc...). The second time they made a show of doing CSI stuff like finger printing... but I doubt 95% of the time it is ever used for anything except to put it on file. BTW that finger printing stuff is a bitch to get off of everything...
The only time I ever heard back from police was for a crime I didn't bother reporting. I had my gym locker broken into and my wallet stolen. I only had 40-60$ in it so while it sucked wasn't a big deal. It was a bigger pain in the ass to cancel and replace all the cards and ID that was in it that probably got thrown away. However randomly I got a call from police in a different city, where the dummy got caught trying to cash a check I had in my wallet (it had my name, address, etc... on it) that he filled out and the bank informed the cops. We had a chat and I told him the history (apparently this guys MO was to travel around a city hitting all the gyms before returning home). Anyway the only end result was I got them to destroy the check. Didn't get anything back. However I got a little satisfaction that it was my check that busted the guy.
4) Taking after Obamacare mandate, all citizens forced to enter into contract with Solar City.
Crazy, however if you think of all the advantages of a truly distributed electrical generation being a considerable chunk of your total energy matrix, it isn't all that bad of an idea. The redundancy, the backup, the efficiency of close to market generation, about the only two negatives are the amount of capital in the form of loans and incentives, but even energy aside for the amount of local jobs created you could spend you money on a lot of worse things (like a wall). The other would be the amount of maintenance that may be required over the long term with a distributed model, but again that is a lot of local jobs for electricians and installers etc...
Final thought: That mexico wall by design is going to be facing south in what is probably the most sun filled region of the US... Solar Wall? Again, crazy but... maybe.
I assume that one person got to "hand crank" whatever apparatus they had to operate the diamond anvil...
Which means someone forevermore at nerdy parties is going to be able to say (preferably in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice), that they are so "pumped up" that they can "Crush Hydrogen so much it turns into metal!"...
Bonus points if they mention the fact that it could potentially be "liquid metal" and some ominous reference to T-1000.
Yup. I was looking to buy the G5, bought into the modular idea. However before I did I starting looking around for where you could buy them and for how much. Basically you could not. You might get one through a special promotion when you got the phone from your carrier (One place had the external battery, while another offered the Camera, but only to the first X number of people that bought the G5 and no indication of what X was (other than limited quantities), but that was about it. You couldn't buy anything else from your carrier, you couldn't go to a store like BestBuy and get them. You couldn't even find out how much they might cost should they eventually hit shelves someplace. It was one of the reasons that turned me away from the G5.
I went with the G4 instead and I've been happy with it (previous to that was a Samsung S3, and prior to that an Apple 3S). iTunes basically tuned me off of Apple forever (though the backup functionality worked well). Samsung was good, but the battery life was horrendous.
Someone also mentioned things like lab and material costs not captured in tuition.
Books (and their inflated prices also) are another vector. In the sciences there seems to be a new textbook edition you need to buy every year. Each book ranges in the 50-200$ range. Case in point I went to College one year while at University, and my books ridiculously actually cost MORE than my College tuition. How stupid is that. Again if you're study is classical lit, you can probably go to a used bookstore and pick up a copy of whatever book you need for 3$ if you're feeling frugal.
You say that, however rare earth mining is problematic for much the same reason (if not the same scale).
You just wait until Space Trump comes and boils off our oceans looking for weapons of mass destruction, and pays himself in 20 million in gold for his trouble.
Or maybe that is our strategic reserve if we need to fling an iron bullet at some distant world for some reason...
Though funny retort from advanced civ: "Hai guys, thx for all the iron, k thx bai! :) ;) ;P"
Um Bronze isn't a mined commodity. I'm pretty sure it is an alloy of tin and copper. So either they started running out of tin and/or copper (which would make them worth more), or running out of smelting capacity to produce the bronze, which I expect made the smelters rich, but little effect on either tin or copper. Bronze might have taken a sharp incline very temporarily if used all at once and took awhile for smelting to bring more to market, but I can't see that as having more than a blip of impact,
There is another good example, though I forget his name at the moment. He was an African King (or whatever alternate term), who was vastly wealthy due to gold mines. I believe he went on a long journey I think to Mecca or something. As a show of his magnificence he basically gave away gold all along the way, essentially devaluing it and destroying economies all along the route he took. He also traveled with the largest library on camels, though I may be mixing up my stories on that point.
Also that much Iron on the market would crash it and make Iron practically worthless I'd imagine.
Didn't work out so well for them.
hypocrites.
I distinctly recall near the end of the election during one of the debates where the question was basically "If the other person wins, will you accept it?"
Clinton said "Yes of course". Trump said "I'll wait to see the outcome".
After which all democrats the media etc... lost their minds.
As it turns out, perhaps he was just being more honest, as it sure seems like an awful lot of democrats don't really accept the outcome to me.
As for the protests, that's great, your rights and everything. It aways makes me wonder just how many of those people actually bothered to vote. Perhaps they should tie your right to protest to your obligation/duty to vote. I've always maintained that if you don't vote you waive your right to bitch and complain after the fact.
If you think about it the Sherlock format is sort of before it's time and revolutionary. If you think about the context of binge watching 10-20 epsoides of a TV show at a time on Netflix, what Sherlock did was recognize that people are going to watch more than the just the 30min or 45min show, and simply decided to do fewer but most longer complete shows of 1.5h. Hope they make more. Doctor Who I tried to get into, but I could take or leave most of it.
Meh. Most of the Star Trek movies were pretty bad. So that isn't really a fair comparison. The last "reboot" was Enterprise. and while yes it was pretty bad also, I have to admit that it wasn't all bad. They had some parts that were pretty good. Most notably for me was the episode where trip got drunk which really just comprised of two actors talking like in a play, then once they stopped taking themselves so seriously they had the episode where the did the time travel thing to the original universe with the uniforms, big blink buttons and all which was fun (also the alternate "evil" enterprise which was fun even if they already did that in Voyager), and finally the any episode that built upon the relationship with the Andorian who was one of the better decisions of the series. Personally I can't wait for the new series. Will it be bad? Probably. However it will also have some good parts I bet (hopefully). Hell even DS9 was terrible, but had some redeeming qualities.
At least it can't be as bad as the Chronicles of Shannara can it? That has to be up there with most disappointing series of all time to almost the point of unintentional parody...
The fact is, you own the medium, not the content.
Medium breaks no content. Not allow to copy it. Also probably region locked, so move to another part of the world and need a new player?
Static licence is not ownership. It is a licence between you and the content owner (whoever has copyright). It is static only in that it won't change, unlike Netflix which could sign a new licencing agreement with different terms and conditions.
Not caring about the licencing agreement and calling irrelevant doesn't make it any less real (in a legal sense), and is what the industry loves to call Pirates, which are really just people who don't really care so much about Copyright Infringement. Plenty of physical media out there of that as well.
One of the things that make nuclear ideal for China is it has a relatively small footprint per GW. The problem with renewables is they do not. China has a lot of competing vectors for physical space. Never mind the population. The land required for food and agriculture has always been primary. As it becomes industrialized, so has the demand for that land. China has tried to plan intensive cities to combat sprawl and land sterilization but as any planner can tell you it is difficult as best even with all the policy behind you. Before someone uses the argument, I will squash it. Yes China is a big country. Yes they do have parts of it that are indeed undeveloped with few people in it. However you also do not need power there either. Trying to produce from very far away and distribute it is not efficient to say the least. You need to generate as close to market as possible. Therein lies the issue with moving away from nuclear and towards renewable within the Chinese perspective (never mind peak power, and other other normal considerations).
Certain particular species seem to be more resilient than others as seen by how long they have been around. Sharks is one of them. Perhaps that trait is one of the reasons why. I wonder if alligators and crocodiles have similar traits? (and other seemingly ancient species)
Which was really the whole point of all this anyway I suspect.
The biggest factor I think is the whole multiplayer snowball effect. As once a particular system gets a bit of an advantage for one reason or another, and people start migrating to it, the effect becomes magnified the longer it goes on. As you say probably one of the largest decisions to buy a particular system outside of exclusive games is about what system all your friends are on. Once they move, you move, the more, etc... To the point where one system starts crushing the other.
Case in point most of my friends used to be Xbox, now many of them have moved on to the PS4.