I’m an engineer, also a creative professional. I do understand market forces. The point I was making was more about using the SaaS model to maximize profit in non-software applications. It’s not necessary to run a car with a computer, nor is it necessarily cheaper to build the systems to be computer controlled. It is necessary to do so to meet current emissions requirements for new vehicles. As a non-believer in the anthropogenic climate change narrative, I’ve always wondered what the motivation was to select studies with results that favor the ‘man is evil and raping mother earth’ conclusions. There are lots of studies and lots of actual science supporting the other side of the argument, that climate change is natural. I’m also skeptical of the conspiracy theory that some cabal somewhere is trying to subjugate all humanity and we’re headed for a neo-aristocracy and a techno-serf society. Applying SaaS methodology to as many hardware applications as possible to maximize revenue streams and make progress towards the forever-growth demands of a stockholder environment is a more believable theory, as is public-private cooperation towards such an end.

Interesting read, this blog posits a plausible 'follow the money' motive for what we're seeing in society that I appreciate. Software as a service is and always has been about maximizing income streams for the software creators. Microsoft has claimed for decades that it had to continually update it's product to keep it working, and I have never believed them. How many times does Adobe need to be updated? Why did flash go away? It worked. Follow the money and you'll see that the idea is to create continuous income streams for the big companies. Apple doesn't want you to fix and keep using your old phone, they want you to buy a new one for $1,200. Same for otherwise durable goods such as cars, refrigerators, and televisions. If a company can turn off your car because you didn't pay the subscription fee this month, do you really own it?

Build a wood gasified then. Run your old hooptie on firewood.

That sounds like motivation to walk away from ‘the internet of things’ where possible. If it’s internet connected it’s not secure, and your privacy is gone. If it can’t work without an internet connection then it’s purpose is at least as much to log your personal behavior as it is to provide whatever service it provides. Your data makes you the product.

What an abortion. This is disturbing on many levels. On one level it’s a direct attack on the ability of people to educate themselves via freely available info, thereby establishing excessive control over education itself. On another hand, it’s a freaky step towards Orwellian memory holes and total information control, because without the internet archive, there would be no way to prove the awful things so many political actors say so frequently.

Well, fuck us. Microsoft hates it’s customers. I imagine the next elder scrolls will only be available on Xbox, which I am no longer willing to purchase because I’m tired of being forced to buy a new machine and losing all my existing content if the box dies after two years. Repair services that I’ve tried made problems worse, and Microsoft doesn’t offer services on items out of warranty for too long, preferring to sell you the next generation if they can. I’m sick as shit of being a dollar tree instead of a customer to these motherfucks.

Pro trump content will be censored, pro-conservative content will be censored. The left views the right as an existential threat, and vis versa. Thus the situation accelerates.