I’m a big fan of Steam, but gog.com also exists, and people should always try to figure out how to preserve copies of their games and media in a self-hosted way wherever possible.

I know with some games it’s not possible because of requiring signons, etc, but even those sometimes get cracked (people run their own WoW servers, etc).

I always download and/or sideload everything I can. My e-books, my music, and my games.

I have been negligent about shows and movies because once I watch them I tend to not watch them again. But, I have friends with extensive video libraries that they built up over the years.

It’s harder now because storage is so fucking expensive. But don’t accept the default mode that your shit has to live in the cloud. The cloud is just somebody else’s storage.

They said the trending thing and got reflexive upvotes. That’s all it was.

Walmart is technically competent, but more pragmatic than adventurous. In the past, it has often favored proven systems that deliver reliable returns over expensive, leading-edge alternatives. That has been a smart business strategy for them for the most part, even if they are sometimes late to the party when it comes to innovation.

Amazon has made robotics a core part of its fulfillment model. Ocado designed its grocery fulfillment operation around automation from the outset. This meant major investment in infrastructure, software, and process redesign.

Walmart has invested heavily in robotics, too, but its approach has been more incremental and constrained by the need to modernize an enormous existing network. A bolt-on, if you will.

So I suspect Walmart’s problems are partly about its approach and baggage, not the state of robotics. They’ll figure it out eventually.