I can't read the complete article at the following link, but the trend is clear from the opening paragraph. The use of Artificial Intelligence in business was predicted to be climbing steeply ... but the line on the graph is going down.
'... the employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point, and now sits at 11% (see chart 1). Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing over 250 people. Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology looks surprisingly flimsy.'
My two oldest grandchildren need laptops. He (15) needs one to learn to code on, and has an interest in a range of languages and environments. She (13) needs one for secondary school next year which will smoothly run Google Classroom.
Currently my intention is to buy two used Lenovo X270 machines and upspec them to 16GB + 512GB + a new battery, and install Linux Mint. I'll go for the higher resolution screens if I can get them, otherwise they can cope with 1366x768 (and perhaps I can find him a monitor to use at home).
The advantages of getting two of the same model are shared power supplies and batteries, plus the eventual ability to cannibalise as necessary. And the advantages of this specific model are:
- New enough to have USB-C
- User-upgradeable RAM and SDD
- Superb battery life
- Physically robust
Any thoughts? Options?
Cory Doctorow on the multi-level scam that is America's right wing.
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/22/all-day-suckers/#i-love-the-poorly-educated
'Trump was elected by the people who rip off the frightened and angry: cryptocurrency hustlers ("the dollar is gonna collapse!"), sports gambling moguls, and anti-DEI peddlers ("lesser people have been elevated to power by social justice warriors and they'll kill us all") ...
Trump is the head of a cult that has figured out how to turn fear, precarity and pain into the top of a sales funnel that destroys anyone who gets caught in it.'
Saun Yeo is again on the money. https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/cartoonists-view-yeo-70
Refurbishment of the Dunedin Railway Station is complete, and very lovely she looks too.
All that's needed now are some trains.
All religious fundamentalism locks women in a socially and economically defined prison. This is as true of the Taliban in Afghanistan as it is of "Biblical" Evangelicalism in the USA.
Here's what five Afghani women have to say about their lives under the Taliban. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/young-women-in-afghanistan-on-the-taliban-your-arrival-transformed-my-dreams-into-nightmares-a-b1b137f4-cc12-4c9b-8b8b-74d4fb4b155c
nostr:npub1ug8yq5ccfa64v3p6axqw8f94qxlznep53l22vjuecpd3629cqjhsgnytkq We saw this same street the other night in a (very) old episode of Taggart!