Most of the microcomputer companies went the same way. Apple is still standing and making hardware - because they avoid the commodity hardware trap. (View Post)

And the reason the Empire went away wasn’t WWI. It went away because rising nationalism meant either have to go General Dyer once a week, or give up ruling other countries. The vast bulk of modern we… (View Post)

{clears throat} (View Post)

Even at the peak, the return on investment was quite low. Expensive to build, expensive to run. Which is why they got slaughtered by cars. And require subsidy, universally, for passenger services. (View Post)

My guess is that you'd hit pushback couched as "Trade barriers". The real issues would be that this would require wholesale testing and certification of lithium batteries. The problem … (View Post)