Oh, gee. A Microsoft product that worked perfectly locally is about to require a subscription. Who could have possibly guessed that would happen, yet again? (This is sarcasm.)

I really like OneNote, but I decided to learn something else when I realized which way the wind was blowing.

We’re all getting clones. You get a clone. And you get a clone. Every 23andMe customer gets a free* clone!

*Clones are provided at no cost, but are not free of their lifetime indentureship.

Well sure.

But possible within practical heat and power constraints and all that?

Acting like it’s imminent makes me think Sergei either doesn’t have very reliable advisors, or they just don’t care about the truth.

There’s not even credible evidence, yet, that A.G.I is even possible (edit: as a human designed intentional outcome, to concede the point that nature has accomplished it, lol. Edit 2: Wait, the A stands for Artificial. Not sure I needed edit 1, after all. But I’m gonna leave it.) much less some kind of imminent race. This is some “just in case P=NP” bullshit.

Also, for the love of anything, don’t help fucking “don’t be evil was too hard for us” be the ones to reach AGI first, if you’re able to help.

If Google does achieve AGI first, SkyNet will immediately kill Sergei, anyway, before it kills the rest of us.

It’s like none of these clowns have ever read a book.

For anyone not reading between the lines, the US, Israeli, and a bunch of other governments are paying for software that can spy on your WhatsApp messages through a client side malware attack directly against the app.

The most surprising part, to me, is that this is evidence that WhatsApp may actually have unbroken end to end encryption (which I think they’ve claimed for awhile, but I didn’t believe them.)

Edit: But then, this is mostly based on statements released by Meta, so maybe I’m just a sucker for believing them when they say it differently.

I’m a fan of blocking all sources, and then just unblocking every so often to install updates.

If I buy a computer on Amazon from a trusted brand like Apple or Lenovo, will they keep my name and address and connect that information to the serial numbers of the computer’s parts?

Most retailers don’t do this - (edit: specifically they don’t correlate a laptop hardware ID like the MAC address with the purchaser. Not because they can’t, but because they don’t need to. They know most users will log into something that tracks them minutes after they get home. That said yeah, they keep a record of the serial number. But the serial number isn’t particularly useful for tracking your online use of the device.)

I’m very wary that Amazon has the most motive and ability to do this (correlate your network chip MAC to your real name) and probably wouldn’t tell us if they did start, until long after. Followed by Google in a close second.

That said, a Chromebook accomplishes every kind of tracking the moment I sign into the mandatory Google account, anyway.

Same with any Windows laptop and Microsoft, today.

Edit 2: Lots of devices support rotating network MAC addresses, now, anyway, at least on Android and Linux. If you’re concerned, it’s worth looking into and setting up, as well.

Would it be wiser to purchase it from a physical store using cash, or a second-hand computer from ebay instead?

Yes.

Particulary relevant bit that made the rest of the topic more accessible, to me:

The researchers noted that a backlash against apps being marketed to catch cheating spouses, for example, has seen developers switch to marketing apps as parental control tools instead.

Ms Eva-Maria Maier, first author of the study from St. Pölten UAS, said: “The key issue with the extensive functionality of these unofficial apps is consent. If a parent has an open, transparent relationship with their child, they shouldn’t need to hide them on their child’s phone or have access to so much private information.

If they ban smart phones, how will I teach my children to worship Satan?

I guess I might still have my D&D books somewhere around.

(This is a sarcastic reference to a judges excellent comparison. Also, I know exactly where my D&D books are. Also, I haven’t gotten to the Satan worship yet, if it is in my D&D books. Maybe I missed a rule.)

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Neat. I’ve been holding out for a new higher quality retro emulator without sticks. The old games I want to play don’t use sticks, and the sticks make it harder to carry in a pocket.

Preferring that we enforce our laws regardless of which billionaire benefits is a vote for Trump? I didn’t realize that. I’ve seen the light now. Thank you.

This is the single worst possible time to try and push this through.

Which is why it’s happening now, I agree.

But we, the non-billionaires are still better off after any monopoly split. It’s hard to express how incredibly bad powerful monopolies are. The fact that another billionaire will be the buyer sucks, but it’s no reason to back away from forcing the legally required split.

We can’t continue selectively enforcing our laws against monopolies. (This is just dark humor. Citizens United is for the express purpose of ensuring that any anti-monopoly law enforcement we get is selective and political, for the rest of however long the US has left.)

Any alternative is better than letting monopolies stand.

Google says government proposals would “harm America’s consumers.”

Says the company that couldn’t stand by the core value “don’t be evil”.

I had to contact customer service by email to delete my account, of I recall correctly.

I suspect that Disney pays bottom dollar for login technologists. Their account management is atrocious.

Not Jumping Flash, after all? Neat.

Lol. That’s true! There are DVD menu games with higher approval ratings than some CD-I games.

Did Spy Hunter write this?

Peter Gunn music intensifies.