I would like it to come with an open source firmware that I could connect to my locally hosted servers.

I would enjoy mapping out load weights, water and electricity consumption, and cross reference that with a lot of other stuff. Plus some remote controls, and a better interface to choosing washing programs and scheduling start/end…

I just don’t want any of that data to leave my house, ever.

There’s got to be a git repository out there that has a smoking gun in its history…

I sit down, because I’m the one who has to clean it.

Cool story bro.

You’re utterly delusional. If this system has done anything is to stiffle small, independent producers and consolidate power in megacorporations.

This is the kind of crap you’re defending: https://patents.justia.com/patent/12268585

This is a random, recent patent from P&G. Read that bullshit, and then tell if if what they’re describing isn’t the most generic design for a diaper or sanitary napkin ever?

“One permeable layer facing the wearer, then a semipermeable layer that tries to only allow liquid to move away from the wearer, then an absorbing layer, then an outer impermeable layer”

Oh boy, if it wasn’t for that patent, I’d be pumping 500 million dollars into building a factory so I can flood the market with my cheap fake products! - said nobody when they read that.

It’s hilarious how far removed from reality your ideal of patents is…

it costs millions of dollars to get a manufacturing process up and running and in a good enough state to where it can actually work out financially. Without patents, your competitor can just take all of that work and investment and just copy it with the benefit of doing it right the first time, so they’re able to undercut you on cost.

This argument makes no sense. Manufacturing lines are built all that time for unpatented products, plus a competitor can’t just “take all of that work and investment”, they will need to put in money to create their own product, even if it’s a copy they still need to make it work, as well as build their own production capacity.

They’ll be second to market, and presumably need to undercut price to get market share… This is a very risky endeavour, unless the profit margins are huge, and in which case, good thing that there’s no patents…

If the research is so costly and complex (pharmaceutical, aeronautical,…), then it should be at least partly funded by the government, through partnerships between universities and companies.

Patents are not a solution.

Isnt that like all phone makers recently?

she took a hammer to the car’s bonnet as Britney Spears’s Hit Me Baby One More Time blared from a speaker.

Ahaha I can just picture that.

As China boosts its internal consumption and increases standards of living, along with a growing highly educated population, I can see their values very much aligning with the EU. That sounds like a very decent world order…

Isn’t this why Americans are sent to prison? So they can provide free labour?

As disgusting as it is, that seems to be exactly what most of the world seems to be doing, trying to get into trump’s good grace and not get fucked by the tariffs.

Well except for China, who seems to have slapped back just as hard.

And if the EU needed any further incentive to keep rushing for renewable energy, here it is.

These are the kind of opportunities that the US were masters at exploiting to push its soft power around the globe.

The world order really is changing quickly…

If a stock falls in the market when there’s no ticker watching, does it go red?

Sure they are, as long as foreign nationals pay their own taxes with them.

Depends. Do Mericuhns pay their taxes in Dollers?

If I can’t pay my taxes with it, it isn’t a real currency.

It’s heartbreaking, really.

The UK is like a kid who just got his face covered in mud by bullies, and goes “aren’t my friends wonderful for playing with me?”.

This is the important part.

The whole world suffered trump’s first term as a sort of scam that many confused, struggling Americans fell for.

But then y’all go and do it a second time? Fuck you.

I’m an atheist and this is one of my favourite hobbies! I could usually find a few on Sundays close to vulnerable people hotspots - churches, hospitals - and all it took was a glance at their magazine stand for them to strike up a conversation.

So far, I’ve found they’re ill equipped at proving the existence of a god, let alone their specific brand. Some were actually impressed with a detailed theory of evolution, and may or may not have started to reassess their view of the world.

I really love some good faith arguing in the morning…