China has a communist party? are they one of the token minority parties that's allowed to exist for the sake of appearance?

In Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, Shelley describes hope and despair as torturers:

[...] Hope and despair,
The torturers, slept; no mortal pain or fear
Marred his repose;

This is the correct perspective. Hope and despair are the same thing, a feeling about the future. Regardless of whether your feelings are positive or negative, they are just as rational and just as worthwhile as praying about the future.

Hoping that the future will be better than the present is a waste of time, and emotional energy. Despairing that the future will not be better than the present is also a waste of time. Expending any effort on either has the same value as having a prayer meeting about the future with your local tribe of soccer moms.

Determining that you will make the future better, in any way that you can, for as many people as you can, and then making some practical plans to actually do that, is not a waste of time.

Don't hope. Don't despair. Do something useful.

Check out somafm: https://somafm.com/home.html

The various channels are human-curated and occasionally live dj-ed. I've found several new artists I like just by listening for awhile and picking out things that strike me.

2 gallons per mile

It's a hydrodam in Cambodia

Microsoft Activation Scripts: https://massgrave.dev/

What Is MAS?

MAS (Microsoft Activation Scripts) is a fully open-source Windows and Office activation tool distributed as batch scripts. It implements multiple activation methods that operate against Microsoft's software licensing subsystem (SPP / OSPP / CLIP) to activate Windows and Office without a purchased product key.

https://deepwiki.com/massgravel/massgrave.dev/2-microsoft-activation-scripts-(mas)

There are very few cases I can think of for location data more precise than a postal code. Active navigation is the only one that occurs immediately.

Most apps that collect location data are doing so because they can, not because they really need it for anything. Most of the time, verifying that a user is within the country that they're supposed to be should be enough for geolocation security.

Banning sales of the information won't accomplish anything except increase the market value.

Banning the collection of such information is required.

You may have a future in risk management.

Hmm, there are some products that should have a defined "end of life". For instance, computer networking hardware which will eventually be outdated and no longer get security updates. The trick is, the EOL date should be clearly marked on the product at the point of sale so that the buyer can make an informed decision.

This is built-in obsolescence, but it's better than the current situation where Cisco will sell you a firewall at full price and then decide 6 months later that they aren't supporting that model anymore and you have to buy a new one.

oh yeah you gotta mount that hard drive baby... fsck it real good until it gives you what you need... if you're not sure how to handle it ask the man for instructions...

We need to start a public trend of labelling these surveillance companies as voyeurs until everyone thinks of them as perverts first and legitimate companies second.