People who really want to communicate with each other will find a way.

I think English<>French is a language pair you could get instant translations with the help of Google. So there's a tech solution that will cause humorous misunderstands but will make do. You could hire somebody who is bilingual for the first meeting to let the parents talk behind their kids' backs.

If they are French, they may actually be able to have a simple conversation in English but the boyfriend wouldn't know because they lose this ability the moment they cross the border back into France. That's a silly stereotype but I like it.

I think with PCs it will be harder to lock them down and not disgruntle consumers too much in the process. I'm also hopeful that over time right to repair will be the standard, so they have to allow for third party repair. So all these restrictions like chipped components and software only from our store will be phased out by incremental legislation. The EU is not perfect but it's on this path. Even in the US people are thinking antitrust more often now. There is hope, however small.

You can run whatever you like in your Android phones. Jailbreaking iPhones is also possible. All these devices are just computers that can run anything within their hardware specs. Hacking some of these things may be against the Ts and Cs or even illegal. But technically possible. The restrictions are mote political, not technical.

Chromebooks are not the way to the future. They fill a niche in education for cheap hardware in connection with limited capabilities. They are not technical limitations, they are designed to limit users in what damage they can do. AFAIK you could technically wipe a chromebook and put Linux on it. It may violate the Ts and Cs and we're right back at political. Google would like to develop future customers at an early age. They don't care about the education so much as about their bottom line.

Why did she have to go and make things so ... complicated?

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

What you're asking is a counter factual. There is no way to answer this question either way. The thing with revolutions is that people suspect it is coming at some point but are still surprised when it happens. The recent fall of Assad in Syria - we'd all forgotten about that mess. East Germany celebrated its 40th anniversary with socialist pomp and circumstance and crumbled a month or so later. The French Revolution was not just about abandoning feudalist structures. It ran in parallel with famine due to terrible weather, a looming bankruptcy of the crown, inefficient leadership from the king, a new way of leadership expected by his subjects, (invented) scandals that were spread by what would become mass media, and the changes in thinking in the age of enlightenment with people engaged in virtuous one-up-manship. That's after France had lent a helping hand to the American Revolution, not so much out of commitment to the cause but to point the finger at the neighbors across the Channel. You needed all of this in the blender to get to a point where enough people were radicalized enough to start chopping heads off. So even if they had found a negotiated solution to address the class problem, the revolution might still have happened, maybe a bit different, maybe not at all. Nobody knows.

I was a child and had enough time to devote to learning this.

For me it's my middle finger hitting the cushion below the thumb that makes the noise.

All the best for your furry friend.

One batch of the 4A's batteries have become a fire hazard. That's why Google (near)bricked the phones to prevent that.

These delayed notifications sound like some background processes get killed. I hazard to guess that's why you get all at once once you wake up the phone. So look for items like background and battery optimization in the settings and see if you can re-enable some of these.

It's been a minute with the 4A. I think it's great that you keep extending the life of the phone and thus reduce e-waste. But I think it might be time to look for another phone.

A good faith argument kind of presupposes that all people constantly objectively question their convictions. And I don't think we humans do that. We're very happy with the way we think. And very capable of holding opposing viewpoints at the same time.

It is easy to be caught up in jingoistic fervor. It's easy not to register all the incremental changes that go against your ideals. It's easy to overlook atrocities that are committed "by your team, for the cause." It only takes mental gymnastics we're perfectly capable of as a species.

If you don't know what you're doing I suggest you don't buy a jukebox online but at a local store. That way you're probably on the safe side. The link one looks like the German version and your post pic is France/Belgium. They're not compatible. Plugs are a non-EU-standardized mess.

It might be helpful to know where this is.

The easiest answer regardless is become active in local politics, try to get into the municipal government, and allocate funds to building up infrastructure in your area.

You're trying to apply conventional logic to the orange one. That doesn't work. Stop doing that. It's all about his frail ego, flooding the zone with bs, denying everything and never giving in, and blaming everybody else for stuff he's done.

And just to give the poor, battered, beleaguered, ever-so-stable leader a break, there are sea lanes and flight routes available to the cartels as well. They didn't have to go through the US (but probably did).

I think several factors play into its lasting popularity.

1. The series was written and first made into movies at a different time. A time when being a misogynists alpha male was aspirational for many, many more men. The unexpected success of the first movies created the foundation to an intellectual property that generations of mostly fathers introduced to their mostly sons. It never went away. Even in years where lawsuits prevented making new movies or when the latest installment of the franchise was considered controversial for whatever reason, the popularity stayed high. And the older the series gets, the more controversial everything becomes.

2. Very few movies have what I would call a great coherent plot. They are going through checklists: we need a bonkers villain, a weird henchperson, a fancy car, at least one love interest, a gadget, a plan for world domination, and a witty line or two. Throw in a location in the Caribbean or the snowy Alps and that's the formula. It's Batman from MI-6 in London, really. It's a comic book story that tries to seem somewhat realistic, in each movie's release year's contemporary time. And the more time passes the less jarring the obvious differences to reality become, and the more they are enjoyable as "leave your brain at the door"-popcorn-eating entertainment. Also, I think, the fact that many actors have played different roles over the years, sometimes overlapping with other cast changes, mostly unaddressed in the films why that happened, added to this "brain at the door"-ishness.

3. They've gone with the time - to an extent. Where Sean Connery bedded every (young) woman he met and discarded them with a pad on the butt saying things like "man talk," Daniel Craig's lady conquest numbers were much lower and the sex less gratuitous - within the formula. Pierce Brosnan's Bond was called a misogynist pig by his female boss. Under the stewardship of Broccoli/Wilson, the second generation in charge of the franchise, they have incrementally changed the formula.

4. Because the series is so long lasting, there is tons of free publicity in the media, e.g. who will be the next Bond? Will be be less sexist? Will the female lead be more than a conquest? They don't really need to buy ads for this. Also, there are plenty of companies willing to product place for a hefty price. If there ever was a time when the makers were considering if this was still of the time, the economic interests will surely push those progressive thoughts aside.

I think that if we lived in a world where the Ian Fleming idea had not been adapted into film during the early years of the cold war, nobody would greenlight this project today. And it is its entrenchment in popular culture that keeps it going.

The appeal is definitely more male but I know women who like Bond movies as well. I know this is very stereotypical: men look at the Aston Martin, the gadgets, and the boobs, women at the dresses, the pretty scenery, and how well the Bond girl stands up for herself. And while I'm sure that a subgroup of men looks at the Bond character as a role model, I would say the majority knows this is fiction and just a tad less comic-bookish than Ironman. It's the male version of a cheap romance novel on a silver screen with more mass appeal.

If this has not become clear from this dissertation: I'm a fan. I can enjoy these movies without wanting to revert to 1960s gender role models. I also know it's not for everyone.