gamer

There's some politics involved. Basically, everyone is rallying behind JPEGXL instead of WebP, but Google refuses to support JPEGXL in Chrome. The reasoning they gave is weak, so it's assumed that they're just trying to force the format they invented on everyone because they can.

IIRC, performance of the two formats is similar.

Unprivileged users are stuck with cancer. Life ain't fair.

logic error on line 2: Beer == Germans

Beer does not equate to Germans, rather Germans equate to Beer. If we fix that error, then it doesn't fit the original pattern:

• Germans == Beer
• Germans == Fascists

That would only work if Beer == Fascists, which of course is not true.

Also, wrong does not equal stupid, rather stupid equals wrong. Which is to say, you comment is wrong, but not necessarily stupid.

Using a phone that long is risky due to the lack of security updates, especially if you're using it for work. People not using phones longer is a problem, but the bigger issue is manufacturers killing support so quickly to force people into upgrading.

I recently upgraded after 5 years on an iPhone because it reached the end of its support cycle. I considered another iPhone because 5 years of support is great, but really didn't feel like paying another $1000+ for what is essentially the same phone I was already using, just with a different body. So I went with a used Pixel 7 on ebay and installed GrapheneOS on it, and I'm very happy with it. I'm getting the same 5 years of support, a more secure OS, and I'm recycling at the same time!

In the US at least, I think most people get their phones through their carrier and are stuck on a contract paying it off for ~3 years. I think rich people and enthusiasts/fanboys are the only ones who upgrade every year or buy it unlocked at full price from the manufacturer.

I would definitely say something very similar if the guberment went after ma 'tendos.

data portability is the ultimate right and the key to ensure continuing innovation

Interoperability in general is the solution to walled gardens and monopolies that harm competition, consumers, and innovation.

These types of projects are driven by metrics, and teams have some kind of quota/goal that they need to reach by a certain date to keep the project on schedule. Bonuses or job security may be on the line here, and so you may see some desperate employees "going the extra mile" to reach their goals.

Relatedly, Alexa's voice activation sensitivity is essentially a tunable number. It can be changed to be more sensitive, so that it will activate more easily (e.g. maybe you say "Alex" instead of "Alexa"). The people who control this are likely on the team with that deadline, so the incentives are there to lower this value in order to collect more data by recording personal conversations "accidentally". Maybe a bad update goes out that causes Alexa to activate randomly, and they quickly fix it after a few days when they collected all the non-Alexa personal conversations they need for their AI.

That's maybe a bit too deep into the paranoia/tinfoil hat spectrum for some, but history has shown that you can't give big tech the benefit of the doubt. Especially when you see some of the documents from the Google trial, where executives discuss rolling back new features to improve arbitrary metrics in the short term so that they can get their bonuses for the quarter, even if it hurts consumers.

Bro just stop already. You like guns, it's a neat little hobby, and you're getting angry because people want to end it. I get that. My hobby is retro video games/consoles, and if it turned out that they were a threat to society and people wanted to take them away, I probably wouldn't do the sane/rational/adult thing and accept it. I'd fight to defend my god given right to own a Wii, and I'd get into angry bad faith arguments on the internet in a desperate attempt to protect my cherished pastime.

...but I'd be wrong, I'd be an asshole, and I probably wouldn't realize it. I like to think that I'd have the self-awareness to not fall into that trap, since I generally consider myself to be self-aware, but also I really love this hobby and it's a big part of my life, so it could go either way.

what kind of person is supposed to be targeted by this? What kind of person actually commits gun violence?

Easy answer to both questions: gun owners

It's for privacy purposes. An online translator requires that all the text you're reading be sent to a third party, which may or may not use it for nefarious purposes. E.g. maybe you translate your bank account's web page because there's a word you don't know, and now Google knows how much money you have in your bank account.

If you don't care about that kind of privacy, then there's no reason you couldn't use an existing online translator. Firefox has always supported that.