XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: commodorejohn@gmail.com   
      
   On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 07:01:19 -0000 (UTC)   
   Lawrence D’Oliveiro  wrote:   
      
   > > The smart ones try to control what people want.     
   >    
   > The smart ones know that’s impossible. The best they can do is entice   
   > the punters with attractive alternatives, and leave them to make the   
   > choice.   
      
   Oh, it's possible-ish, for a time, in the right social context; advert-   
   ising is essentially weaponized mass psychology at this point, and they   
   got *very* good at it for a while there. The interesting thing is that,   
   as so much of the corporate space is dominated by absolute morons with   
   no connection to the line of business these days, a lot of the major   
   players are being stupid enough that even the ad people can't sell it   
   to the masses. Like, that Dell laptop - on top of "AI-ready" being not   
   a thing *anyone* needs (to the extent that it's even a *thing* at all   
   and not just marketing woo-woo,) the other features mentioned are a   
   transparent attempt to ape that one Macbook that everyone in the world   
   hated, the one that was probably the reason Apple finally gave Jony Ive   
   the boot. Whose bright idea was *that!?*   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)