BlueLightning

Suspect ALL laptop and desktop makers will see a slow-down for 1-3 years.  

Along with layoffs at Google, non-engineers will receive a Chromebook by default.  
(As most of you know, Google develops the ChromeOS used on Chromebooks.)  
Refresh cycles will be extended by a year or more.  
Any accessory costing more than $1k, and not available from current corporate stock requires high-level approval.  
Google is cutting back on paid maternity and sick leave and many benefits.  

Before retirement, my former (large) employer (Aerospace firm) was considering changing the Dell and HP refresh cycles from every 3 years to every 4-5 years.  
I have them beat, I'm on a 7-9 year refresh cycle at home (and currently pay for AppleCare Plus by the year, until no longer offered).  
 
Only things that caused me to upgrade from a late 2013 13" MBP (8gb, 256gb, 2.4GHz, 2 total cores) to a 2023 14" MBP (32gb, 512gb, 3.5GHz/2.4GHz, 42 total cores):
1.  Wanted to run a current macOS version.  
2.  Lack of dedicated GPU cores on the old Intel chip caused substantial heating during video viewing.  
3.  Started running into a moderate amount of memory compression and use of virtual storage with old machine.  
4.  Started to worry about parts availability on older machine, and figured battery would give out eventually.  

The shift pattern on different manual transmission vehicles is also different.  In the past, I've driven a manual GMC, five VW's (Beatles and a Type3/Fastback), a Toyota Corolla, and a couple of Jeep CJ-7s.  The shift pattern on the older, air-cooled (no radiator) VW's,  and the water-cooled CJ-7's is essentially reversed, and the VW's required you to press down on the shift lever to engage reverse.  At one time, VW sold what they called an automatic stick shift that (if I remember correctly) could be driven as a manual or an automatic.  Some manuals had a feature in the transmission that prevented slipping backward when starting off from a traffic light.  

I've also driven a few hybrids.  Several have different start methods/procedures.  Most have antitheft mechanisms.  I expect eye scans or fingerprint activated starters in the future for most cars (to reduce theft insurance).  Not knowing the steps to start a given hybrid could also slow down a thief (or not having the correct key fob).    

Maybe none of the cars in the photo are parked legally because the drivers had to pay more attention to not stalling out at low speed than to properly centering the vehicle in the parking space.  A certain amount of practice with the clutch is needed.  Or maybe the drivers were drunk on moonshine or otherwise intoxicated.  The license plate is from Colorado.  Believe wacky tebacky is legal there.

 I don't enjoy driving a manual in the city.  Country roads with low traffic are more suited to a manual.  Many hybrids have a continuously variable, computer controlled transmission (a power share device with the engine and motors, also used during regenerative braking to charge the traction battery).  Some hybrids seem to have a "normal" automatic.  Many hybrids lack a starter motor, belts, and a few other devices found on a conventional infernal combustion engine.  I've never driven a purely electric vehicle (either one that is charged, or one that uses hydrogen and a fuel cell).  I live about 5 miles from a Tesla dealership, but likely will keep my Prius for some time to come.  The two Prius units I've owned have been much more reliable than my Saturn, two Escorts, Chevy Nova, VW or the company owned cars and trucks that I've driven in the past.  

I've never had cable tv.  Mostly watch over the air, and series that are no additional charge with Amazon Prime.  
Looks like I save the equivalent of three 14" MacBook Pros every 10 years.  

StrangeDays said:

mikethemartian said:

danox said:

IBM are they still around? slowly sinking into the tech sunset.

When Apple was releasing the original Mac, IBM was inventing quantum key distribution and still to this day is one of the leaders of bleeding edge technology in the field. But since they don’t make phones in Midnight blue with cute emojis and other shiny consumer products you think they are obsolete.

Isn't much of their business standard enterprise consulting now? In my markets they're just another Accenture, SAIC, etc. These companies are billing machines -- they all say they're tech but having worked within them for a decade they're just high-tech temp workers building web apps for healthcare, government, telecom, etc. I'm sure IBM still has some R&D stuff, but I'd like to know how much of their business is that vs business consulting/billable hours.

A lot of the services part was spun-off with Kyndryl a while back.  Much of the software/consulting at IBM appears to be related to Red Hat (Linux), which they own, and to multi-cloud integration and management.  IBM is working with chip makers in Japan to bring Japan's chip manufacturing up to date (and possibly diversify their mainframe chip supply away from Samsung).  Also has new chip fab in the works (NY, I think).  Much of the design of current WinTel PCs was decided by IBM (when HPQ sales folks were still telling people to avoid WinTel, because folks would be trapped in an IBM architecture).  That's largely why most PCs still have plugged-in components (RAM and such, just like minicomputers and mainframes).  

Hum, billing machines, yes.  Sounds like Microsoft with Office 365 and Azure.  Wonder if MSFT laid off someone that caused outage a few days ago?  Congratulations on all the work you've done on this network simplification.  Oh, by the way, we can handle it from here.  This email is to inform you that you're laid off.  

We've had nearly free money (very low interest rates) for a long time that has led to questionable investment of shareholder's money.  Start-ups have been able to raise money by selling additional shares, and diluting the investment of the earlier shareholders.  Probably why so many zombie tech start ups will go belly up in the next year, as their cost of money goes up.  Google claims MSFT is selling basic cloud services at a 10% loss (if true, needs to stop).  

Companies are having to pull back on spending.  Didn't understand Apple's use of funds for this project.  Saw that recent layoffs at Microsoft are hitting AR and VR staff hard.  Intel just reported a suboptimal/bad quarter...