If they have to do it a second time, they aren’t very good at it.

The claim is that the remote operators do not actually drive the cars. However, they do routinely “assist” the system, not just step in when there’s an emergency.

I saw an article recently, I should remember where, about how modern “tech” seems to be focused on how to insert a profit-taking element between two existing components of a system that already works just fine without it.

This would be more impressive if Waymos were fully self-driving. They aren’t. They depend on remote “navigators” to make many of their most critical decisions. Those “navigators” may or may not be directly controlling the car, but things do not work without them.

When we have automated cars that do not actually rely on human being we will have something to talk about.

It’s also worth noting that the human “navigators” are almost always poorly paid workers in third-world countries. The system will only scale if there are enough desperate poor people. Otherwise it quickly become too expensive.

The masks tell the whole story. People with legitimate authority do not need to wear masks. Everyone involved knew this was a criminal act and wanted to avoid being implicated.

We’re seeing a lot of masks on law enforcement and government agents these days. There’s a reason.

This may be the least important area in which China is displacing the US.

This is just another aspect of the conviction these people all share that the rules do not apply to them. And it is a perfect demonstration as to why no one with that attitude should ever be allowed to serve in the government.

Also, my use of the term “serve” was inappropriate. None of these people are serving anyone or anything except for their personal interests and their egos.

He seems to only have one actual skill, but to be fair, being born rich is very difficult to master.

Poor grammar aside, the headline is inaccurate. I am all in favor of people dumping Teslas, but Musk neither designed nor built any of them. He paid people to design them, then he paid people to build them. And by all accounts, he did not pay them well or treat them kindly.

Every time I think GoDaddy has hit bottom they find a way to dig deeper.

…and the horse he road in on.

It sounds like they did it right. They used AI to identify things for the humans to examine in more detail.

I’ve seen kites that looked more convincing. There are now some real, functional flying cars, although they are still far too expensive to be practical. This is not one of them.

The whole Trump administration are operating like terrorists. They don’t necessarily care about the results of any particular offense, the goal is to discourage anyone from standing against them.

It is probably worth noting that I am removing the DRM so I can read them on devices that do not have Kindle apps.

Nothing is certain, but it looks like you will still be able to download books into local memory so you can read them. As long as the apps still work that way, it will be possible to access the book files.

You do need a tool that can remove the DRM from the books files the Kindle uses. DeDRM used to do this nicely, but it has not been updated to handle the most recent version of Kindle DRM. It will not works on any books published since early 2024.

There are commercial options that can remove even the latest DRM from Kindle books. I use Epubor Ultimate. It was the first to handle the most recent Kindle DRM, but I’m sure there are others by now.

Well, not legally. We need to make that matter again.

I’m still looking for ways to work toward that, short of violence.

Even if it’s a symbolic gesture, it’s one that needs to be made.

People complain all that time that the Democrats are just ignoring this mess. Don’t complain too much when a legislator proposes legislation to fix some of it. That is what they’re supposed to do.

Pocan is doing his job. By doing it, he is also bringing public attention to a situation that Musk and Trump would much rather didn’t get any.

USAID is one of the few cases where the President probably can shut it down, because it was created by an executive order. That is not true of most other agencies that are currently being gutted.

Under the Constitution, the Congress passes laws to create agencies and control the budget. The President is responsible for executing those laws, but does not have the power to remove them or change them. Malicious compliance is a violation of the oath of office. Failing to comply at all is just plain illegal. If Congress were doing its job there would be a quick impeachment and removal from office.

The problem we face is not that the Constitution allows most of what’s going on. It is that the checks and balances in the Constitution rely on the majority of Congress and the courts to act in good faith. The founders never imagined a situation where a majority of those people would be so corrupt that they would allow a situation like this.

Those qualities occasionally help people break through to wealth, but mostly the economy rewards already being rich. Having rich parents is how you become rich.