While I agree with you on AI posts in general, @Al128 did say:
read some news a couple of weeks ago, here is a gemini resume:
Which points to “I heard this from a reliable source, Google gemini summary here agrees with my recollection” (with the assumption of a degree of diligence on the poster’s part to check it over).
So I think this case wasn’t blind posting of AI slop, but then I’m not aware of a pattern of that on the part of the poster.
And, because I don’t want anyone to run afoul of the mods, I would note that we should try a different forum if we’re going to comment negatively on a particular poster’s proclivities.
Correction: Sears Holdings was created by the merger. And we at Sears were all looking at each other saying “WTF?” (Somebody asked what the combined companies would be called, and the LP manager immediately suggested “S-Mart.”)
I was more referring to who owns the handful of remaining Sears and Kmart stores today, and was pulling my information from Wikipedia; the whole ownership thing for those brands is a tangle, and Wiki may not have been correct.
GLH and GLHS are on my shortlist for project cars. I’ve previously owned two '89 Daytona Shelbys with similar 2.2l innercooled turbo. 12.5 lbs of boost.
I did not, until I just looked it up. For me, cars have always been strictly utilitarian, Get Me From Point A to Point B things, so I’ve never been that concerned with high-performance models.
There is in fact no comparison between professional-grade digital cameras and smartphone cameras. Some of the lenses alone cost thousands of dollars (many thousands, in some cases) but professional and serious photographers buy them because they can do things that no phone camera has any hope of doing.
Me, too. I owned two generations of Dodge Caravan, the first one, which introduced the concept of “minivan” to the world and was such a booming success, and the third generation (IIRC) which was the first significant redesign. I loved them both. The fourth and last generation unfortunately saw a drop in quality. I had a new one as a rental once and was surprised at how poorly it handled. My neighbour bought one but only kept it a couple of years.
Panera Bread….the enshitification has begun. Since their beginning as ST Louis Bread company they have been a Bakery/Cafe, this is no longer true…no bakers and freezer to oven bread and pastries. I give them 5 years at best.
As a whole that’s true, but there are some models like the now seven year-old Sony RX100 7 that are in high enough demand that people are paying $1700 ($400 above the original list price) for a new one and $1000+ for a used one in good condition.
JFC, in Canada Sony lists that camera at an MSRP of $2,049.99!
It looks like it has a lot of nice pro-style features, and the lens seems pretty versatile, but that’s the lens you’re stuck with. It seems like a very expensive point-and-shoot camera with some professional-type features, with the advantage over real pro cameras that it’s quite small and light.
But pros will still prefer professional cameras with interchangeable lenses. For instance fast but long focal-length telephoto lenses for sports photography, providing close-ups of the action with razor-sharp images with no motion blur; very sensitive wide-aperture lenses for low-light photography; the ability to exactly adjust the depth of field to achieve a desired effect, and just generally much higher quality images than the crappy button lens on a camera phone.
The enshittification began the day the original owners in St. Louis sold it to a restaurant conglomerate in Atlanta. In about 1993. I was there then and the change was all but instant.
The “Panera” that spread across the country was a pale and crappy shadow of the local original. Cheap product with high prices in unpleasant surroundings. The trifecta of suckage.
I don’t doubt you’re right that now they’re in full tilt picking up speed on the way to crashing mode. The wiki makes for horrific reading.
Sizzler Steakhouse - In their prime, they had almost 300 restaurants. They were down to about 100 as of 2020, probably less today, with more than half of those being in Asia.
Sony is a very diversified company that is of course about a lot more than just cameras and game consoles, but many may not realize how diversified they are. Besides their line of successful televisions, projectors, speakers, and accessories for home theater, they have a line of professional products for television production and cinematography, and are a major player in the movie business. They also exemplify the Japanese culture in their commitment to the long term; in contrast to the impatience of Western stockholders for quick profits, they’re willing to quietly make investments that may not pay off for many years.
My understanding is that the NYT is doing pretty well with stuff that’s not the newspaper. Their games and puzzles, for example.
WaPo will be around as long as Bezos wants it to be. He can absorb their losses out of petty cash if he wants to own a newspaper. If he wants to own a successful one, he’s doing it wrong.
I was tempted to post that. I’m not sure it’ll be totally gone in 10 years, but probably hanging on by the thread.
I think for the global car-industry, the shakeups like the 2007/2020 will be considered “small”, compared to whats in the cards in the next 10 years.
I really see:
the chinese taking over (with EVs replacing ICE cars) … their development cycle is about one to three (technologically) new models per year (and assorted learnings), whereas US and europe still need 3-5 years for a new model (easy to see with Tesla, today - cybertruck took ages, and they have an empty pipeline and are unable to produce a new model quickly - their lineup has been dubbed “stale” for 2 or 3 years now).
I make the analogy of “flat screen TVs” … they were very expensive at the beginning (and not particularly good), but can be had for $99.00 today, b/c they are extremely cheap to make - by design. EVs - by design - are like those, once you get significant numbers, they can be made cheap-as-chips. With a supply chain of no more than 20 types of e-motors globally, steadily improving electronics (again, cheap) and batteries coming down, fast …
(Chinese) EVs, 10 years from today, might be electronically extrem integrated, similar to a desktop computer, where you have a motherboard and then “cards” to do other things … I see a similar modular setup (plug-and-play) for EVs.
given that, traditional companiess will depend more and more on chinese EV knowledge/HW (like Subaru, Toyota and even prestigious german brands do today - many JVentures nowadays are not europeans being the tech-brains and paying for market access (like in the 00s) - but trying to catch up and having access to chinese EV/battery tech.
US car industry will be pretty isolated from that fact (DJT), and have another 1973 moment in the next few years (trying to sell $50k ICE-landyachts when people want to purchase $15k commuter EVs that simply wont break down for 200-300.000 km. The chinese deliver the later on a global level. It will take a few years for “financial strain” to filter down to the US mainstream, but a.) it will and b.) cars are the highest “discrecionary spending item” for most.
So once The Orange “let’s protect future industries like coal-mining” is out of favor, and somebody will find out that lowering tariffs will make things cheaper, Ford and GM will be flushed out of the market as they are still fighting the last war.
On this, I beg to disagree. I dealt with Ken Rosenthal and Ron Shaich many times. They are/were both very good at what they do/did, RIP Ken. Ron bought St Louis bread company, an already successful bakery Café in the St. Louis area… And grew it without compromising quality or service.
On a side note, Ron is from Boston… Not Atlanta you may be confused by Atlanta bread company??
The enshitification began when JAB bought Panera from Ron Shaich in 2017
There already are “skateboard” platforms with the vehicle floor, axles, wheels and tires, batteries and other fundamental components. Various vehicle models can be built on the same platform. And this is obviously not unique to the Chinese.
Personally, I hope that the global auto industry isn’t ceded entirely to the Chinese, because millions of jobs in Asia, Europe and the Americas are tied to the production of non-Chinese vehicles.
I wouldn’t make that bet. They may stop making vehicles themselves (although I doubt that too), but they have a very significant patent portfolio, the licensing rights to which would likely keep them in business.
For me, cars have always been strictly utilitarian, Get Me From Point A to Point B things, so I’ve never been that concerned with high-performance models.