Might be a couple of reasons. Corvid, economic downturn, political turmoil. People are just more stressed - and rightfully so, as the world is a clown show, currently.

I think I was around 26 when I started working.

Well, that really varies from person to person, doesn’t it?

My 30s were worse than my 20s.

Having to work full-time sucks.

It might be different for people who love their job or for those who are rich enough not to worry about work at all, but for me, the time when I had to work full-time was more or less the end of the ‘good times’.

Don’t Be Evil

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrawmanHasAPoint

Leads to

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog

If he had just implemented the list as a default that anyone could edit, he would have gotten pretty much what he wanted. I mean, some people would have edited the list, some would have deleted the list, but most people are lazy or uninformed and would have simply accepted the default.

To be fair, they all could have gotten the sword after siring an heir.

What better time is there to go on birth control than after you have the right amount of kids?

Kenobi could just be a common name, like looking for a John Smith. Also, with multiple planets full of people, there could be thousands of ‘Kenobi,’ even if the name is not common.

Then why haven’t we heard about all the criminals (pedophiles, terrorists,…) being caught by Microsoft surveillance? Because they don’t care about the crimes you do. Their tracking is for money making only.

If I were a criminal I would not bank on it - they might use it for blackmail, too - but for the most part they are not in danger.

That sounds serious, but I wonder what it is that OpenAI wants from Apple? Currently they are mostly on the software side and Apple’s secrets more on the hardware side.

Is it for the rumored physical AI thing they wanted to build?

Have you heard about “Tokenmaxxing”?

Since many AI companies didn’t have a reasonable limit on the number of tokens for the amount of money you paid, companies started telling their employees to use as many tokens as possible. LLMs improve with more tokens (although there are diminishing returns).

So users tried to exploit the ‘lure offer’, and AI companies had to change the billing. It’s still below the real cost, but no longer this insanely expensive option.

They tried to sell a nothing burger.

What did they offer? A boring VR world.

They should have tried to copy a known hit game to VR, like Minecraft, Sims, Second Life, or any of the popular shooter games… Of course, with enough changes not to get sued.

After a successful start and a loyal player base, the chatrooms and monetization might have worked.

I was also thinking about buying it, but I want my phone to be my phone.

I actually use my browser from time to time. What is the use of a phone if you need a “backup phone” just to look something up?

Also, their reasoning for blocking the browser is absurd: “you could use the browser to access social media.” I don’t use TikTok, Instagram, X, or the like, so why do I need to be nannied?

They said that they specifically blocked this.

That’s why I mentioned that they finally reached human trials. That’s the last big step before they can be released. New technology needs time to go from the lab to practical use.

We are getting there. There are human trials for a medicine that regrows teeth and another that restores teeth.

I would be interested, but the amount of paternalism is disgusting.

No browser? I’m an adult; if I want to google something I forgot (when was that event?), that’s my f’ing right. Don’t try to patronize me.

They sabotage themselves by trying to teach you “to be a better person”.

No social media or internet browsering for you, young man! Now do your homework. 🙄

Ah, easy fix there: half the income and the rest disappears on its own and the little guy can go on.

On the one hand, I can understand the people who used Steam cards being pissed. On the other hand, I’m impressed with Steam for putting scamming victims over profit.

Remember: Valve made money from gift cards, whether from scammers or legit users. They chose to give up this money just to avoid supporting the scammers. If everybody did this, scammers would have a much harder time.

There are mainly two big drives behind browsing today: horny and hate.

I’d be happy if more people browsed because of horny than hate.