Makes me glad I continue to use the free Google and MS Office options and keep my cloud storage with a service that is dedicated to just storage.

Cuts down on all of the forced price increases due to the AI mess the MBAs need to justify the expense of.

I use 2 matching Synology NAS systems. 1 backs up to the other daily. Then one of them backs up to Synology C2 weekly.

I couldn’t care less about 8k since I can’t even see streaming 4k content without using a platform infested with DRM.

I would argue that your career has given you the wisdom to understand how the phrase “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” applies to technology. So you just instinctively know that a dishwasher doesn’t need a network stack to do the job it was built for. And adding one is creating a lot more complexity for very demising returns.

As with most things in the modern world that have gone to shit. It is not the monetization scheme in of itself that is the issue. It is the never ending desire for more profit this quarter than last forever.

If it was acceptable to stop trying to make even more once the cost to operate is covered and some healthy profit is made predictably then a lot less people would have issues. And enshitification would slow down.

I wish I could get found guilty and still be able to negotiate on equal footing with the prosecution about what my punishment was going to be.

I haven’t played it in awhile. But last time I did, it still seemed to be doing good on the custom maps I used to play. Like Helms Deep.

Making bail is the least of his concerns in there. He will be lucky if he doesn’t get “Epstein’d”.

Probably either Left4Dead 2 or the latest Hitman game

You mean a free extension that claims to give me discounts seemingly out of the goodness of their hearts that also has access to every website I go to in the browser where it is installed is not exactly on the level? I’m shocked…well…not that shocked.

As the general rule I feel the same about more or less all of the “AI” that is available to consumers from the likes of Google, OpenAI, etc.

It just seems more like a different way to do things with digital assistants or search engines that we have already been able to do for years.

But once its on why would you ever turn it off? /s

I am less surprised that the information is out there than I am that the bodyguards of such people are allowed to either bring along their personal devices or install random crap from the public app stores on their work devices.

This is why I still prefer public restroom glory holes in 2024.

I bet the people you approached about finanching thought you were full of hot air.

I never understand how people are surprised with this sort of thing happens.

They did something on company property that the company probably would not approve of and got let go for it. And it sounds like they seem to think they company should be providing space to do it.

People really should learn to keep their political opinions out of the office where your opinions might run counter to the person that controls your ability to pay your bills.

Phones are becoming less and less interesting by the day.

Once they get to the point were all of the options that don’t require incredibly inconvenient sacrifices in functionality to maintain the interesting stuff like a video game console then that will kill interest in the market for me.

If I can’t do anything besides basic smart phone crap I might as well just buy whatever has a good camera once every half decade or so and be done with it. So whatever top end thing Samsung or Apple are putting out.

I’m not sure Google has fully thought through what it means to just be a worse version of what Apple puts out, but with more ads.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Everything in these kind of cases tends to be a negotiation. So if the starting point by the DOJ is “break them up”, then I imagine they are willing to settle for something much less undesirable to Alphabet.

Interoperability is how we “seize the means of computation.”

Good luck with that. If the success of the iPhone has taught me anything it is that the average person loves them some incompatible with anything but itself vertical integration.

Anything related to healthcare has no business being any closer to the whims of “the market” than the public roads.

It would be unheard of for a government to stop maintaining a public road because whomever was supplying some ingredient of the asphalt said that particular mix is “to old and the new mix is not compatible with the roads created using the old mix”.

They don’t want to do it anymore, fine, then provide whatever is needed for someone else to maintain it for the cost of the materials to print/email/upload to GitHub the technical documents. It should not be legal to get someone hooked on your life altering medical device then rug pull them like this.