in-tension

I'd be very curious to know how it does financially

I think we're seeing that companies can't get away with the same tricks to increase profits indefinitely. Consumers are becoming less susceptible to marketing and hype that it isn't backed up by actual substance. (And substance doesn't just mean a good idea, execution matters, if you release some sort of new device with really buggy software it's not going to get traction.)

It seems to me that what your saying isn't the personal computing is entering a slow decline but the PC market is. If people continue to use PCs they already own then personal computing is alive and well.

Given this proposed series of events, what would be the mechanism s that would return the environment to the conditions we see today?

Do they still make them or do you have an old one?

Fantastic.

Did anyone else have nostalgia for the Thinkpad track point?

Great links, will definitely be exploring these

However I meant something slightly different

A search engine presumably has 2 things, a database and a search algorithm

The user doesn't have direct access to the underlying database

Sometimes when I'm searching something, I want to do some very specific and unusual filtering and the built in filters/settings just aren't enough. It would be impossible (or at least crazy) to include all the different possible settings that I might want, you'd practically be writing a new scripting language.

However databases are important and common enough that they already have specific languages for querying them, like SQL. Where filters and settings wouldn't be enough, SQL probably would.

So what I really want is direct access to Google's databases (because it presumably has the biggest and this comes up when I'm looking for something really obscure). But I'm guessing that's not gonna happen.

When they were talking about developing microbes that could excrete insulating materials, they said existing biofilms are sugar-based and wouldn't be able to hold in enough/heat water. So I started thinking about what if they could excrete minerals or metals.

Then I was thinking about the challenges of expanding a protected inside area without exposing it to the outside. And about how much material would be needed.

Which led me to thinking of covering individual microbes with metal. And now I have this picture in my head of a little microbe walking around in a armor.

I love that interpretation. The Internet is made up of corners and corners are created by intersections.

(Although I think I may have just reinvented the grid)

I don't think people have actually stopped we just don't know how to find them, at least I don't.

How did people find them in the old days?

Does anyone else want a "search engine" that is just a database of websites crawled and you can query any combination of fields and filters you want?

Also for me the issue in starting a personal website has always been the server and public IP adress (I'm into the diy).