> All it really shows is that the “poor” are getting milked for everything they earn and own
How are you concluding that? The only way I can see that could be true is if the bottom 50% has shifted their meagre savings to spending in an effort to stay afloat.
I find this to be dubious because the bottom 50% was never saving much at all in the first place. For context, the median income across planet earth is $850 USD _per year._ There's not a lot of room at the bottom for savings.
99% of people writing in assembly don't have to drop down into manual cobbling of machine code. People who write in C rarely drop into assembly. Java developers typically treat the JVM as "the computer." In the OSI network stack, developers writing at level 7 (application layer) almost never drop to level 5 (session layer), and virtually no one even bothers to understand the magic at layers 1 & 2. These all represent successful, effective abstractions for developers.
In contrast, unless you believe 99% of "software development" is about to be replaced with "vibe coding", it's off the mark to describe LLMs as a new layer of abstraction.
To the contrary. Time Machine is for consumers. Most people use it either with an external hard drive (good for iMacs that stay in one place) or a NAS (good for MacBooks). Apple even sold the AirPort Time Capsule at one point. Since that was discontinued, Synology NAS is the main consumer-friendly alternative. It comes with dedicated Time Machine support. It's supposed to be easy setup and forget. That's the whole point of using Synology instead of alternatives that require more technical expertise, that aren't designed for Time Machine support straight out of the box.
> [Synology] comes with dedicated Time Machine support
Your umbrance is with Synology, not Apple.
Apple raised security default configurations in Tahoe. That led to a config breakage with NAS devices which rely on relaxed security configurations.
I agree Apple should publish a technical note / changelog of config changes such as this one, but Apple has never implied to users they'd carry a support burden for any/all third-party hardware vendors. To the contrary, they've notified users that you're meant to consult with your NAS vendor for configuration steps:
> Check the documentation of your NAS device for help setting it up for use with Time Machine
I wasn't even assigning blame, did you mean to reply to someone else?
I was just replying to your point that a Synology NAS "is not what most users would consider 'consumer technology.'" It's firmly in the consumer technology category.
Article title is a bit dramatic. The summary seems to be: for the 5% of users who back-up to a network share (rather than direct-attached storage like a USB hard drive enclosure), Apple's default SMB configs on Tahoe are strict and won't work out of the box with many common NAS solutions.
Apple should document such changes, but, looking at the post title, you'd think they were silently corrupting data during restoration.
> Article title is a bit dramatic. The summary seems to be: for the 5% of users who back-up to a network share (rather than direct-attached storage like a USB hard drive enclosure), Apple's default SMB configs on Tahoe are strict and won't work out of the box with many common NAS solutions.
I'd argue that's not even the main problem. If it just broke and gave you error on each run ("this SMB share is incompatible") it wouldn't be an issue
All the problems you mentioned can be reframed as positive feedback for the economy we’re evolving into. Let me dream the arguments for each of your bullet points:
1. Power fail-over (battery + generator backup) in every house?
- I recently listened to a Planet Money episode about how DC/AI infrastructure needs are driving up electricity prices in Ohio. Ordinary households end up paying higher bills while big entities plan/build for reliable power.
- Maybe household-level infrastructure could be improved as part of making this kind of model viable. This applies to networking infrastructure too
3. Could get expensive flying a technician to every household to upgrade hardware in the racks
- People with enough education can be trained, and with the incentive of being paid, households themselves could become the technicians.
4. Probably don’t want everyone at home having physical access to storage devices
- Same idea: if households are being paid and it’s “their role” to manage, the access concern gets reframed as operational responsibility.
5. Massive theft risk
- Theft risk already exists today (even in good neighborhoods). The incremental risk might be negligible.
6. Homeowner’s insurance would probably…
- If we squint hard enough, there are arguments here too (e.g., payments not missed, additional compensation).
It has less to do with "oligarchs" and more to do with protectionism over domestic industry: retain jobs in America, preserve worker income taxes revenue, capture taxation of corporate profits, tilt the scales in favour of an American business becoming a global exporter of their products, keep development of high-tech assets under American regulatory control.
I'd expect all the free-market capitalists and libertarians to make a lot of noise against government interference, even if the purpose is to retain domestic jobs.
This is a well-written, well-researched piece, but some of the narratives are off the mark. For example:
> Phase 1 (Courtship, 2010-2014): TSMC needed Apple for legitimacy
TSMC was already the world's largest pure-play foundry long before Apple walked through the door, controlling more than 50% of market revenue. Although vertically-integrated microprocessor businesses had better-performing processes (Intel, AMD/IBM with PD-SOI), TSMC was head of the pack in the foundry world (competitors: UMC, Chartered, SMIC, etc).
> What if Apple chose Intel in 2014?
How would they have done that? Intel didn't even offer a foundry service at that time, and it would have taken years for Intel to adapt to a foundry model (one which publishes a "process design kit" for use by industry-standard EDA software to design and simulate circuits).
I agree, but governments intentionally shifted from corporate taxes (taxes on net, corporate income) to payroll taxes (taxes proportional to employee wages) because businesses were either finding creatives ways of deferring/diverting income, or they just weren't taking profit (and, thus, nothing to tax).
Corporate taxes are inefficient as well as they discourage reinvestment by the company, since the State taxes a rake each year. Taxing on dividends paid (and buybacks) is better, even if it leads to higher prices to compensate for the lower capital profitability for shareholders (who compete with bonds).
The bill in favour of the Elizabeth Line was only put to parliament in 2005, receiving royal assent in 2008. Construction work began in 2009, faced some delays during COVID, but was completed in 2022 (total construction time: 13 years)
Construction on New York's Tunnel #3 began in 1970. It was 28 years before any part of it was operational. A second section came online 15 years later (2013). The final stage isn't expected to be completed until 2032, a full 62 years after construction began. I'm unaware of any comparable tunnel project which has progressed at this slow of a pace.
How are you concluding that? The only way I can see that could be true is if the bottom 50% has shifted their meagre savings to spending in an effort to stay afloat.
I find this to be dubious because the bottom 50% was never saving much at all in the first place. For context, the median income across planet earth is $850 USD _per year._ There's not a lot of room at the bottom for savings.