You might be surprised how many informed geeks will defend mass surveillance until their last breath, if it’s built with or adjacent to a technology that they feel connected to in some way.

I think most of them mean well, but unrealistic idealism and naïveté are definitely in play.

This will surely be used by the Trump administration to silence criticism of their unconstitutional, illegal actions.

Sometimes it’s cheaper to make one PCB in huge numbers

That works if you leave the pads unpopulated. You don’t save money by shipping with unused nontrivial components soldered onto the PCB (except perhaps in very small quantities).

and only enable the cellular modem on the higher priced models or when a subscription fee is paid.

In that case, its presence damn well better be clearly documented. Otherwise, it’s a spying device.

In order to retain our rights to private communications, we have to win every time.

In order to take them away, they only have to win once.

They will keep trying.

Stay vigilant.

Sure, but most YouTube streams aren’t delivered as a single webm or mp4 file, and the language & subtitle selection you’re referring to aren’t implemented by the browser (but instead by a JavaScript application downloaded from Google). So it’s not what OP asked about.

I’m not suggesting that it’s outrageous. Merely that it’s probably not a high priority.

Maybe webm and mp4 files with multiple language tracks are usually played with a media player, not a web browser?

GNU Taler requires exchanges in order to function, and hasn’t had any so far. What exchange now exists for use in Switzerland? Is it Taler Operations AG?

It depends on wire transfers to move money into and out of a Taler wallet. Wire transfer fees are typically around 30 USD. That’s not practical for most people’s needs, even if covering batches of transactions. Are there plans to support a less expensive means of funds transfer?

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/analyzing-kosas-constitutional-problems-depth

When the fuck will you people get it??

This is the wrong way to get people to care what you have to say.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/analyzing-kosas-constitutional-problems-depth

:(

They could even remove the word allegedly, since they put misleading in quotes. There’s no need for both.

Sigh… Modern web “journalism”.

Reminds me of this bit of history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

Okay, what’s the biggest and most active gamer community on Matrix?

I don’t know, and don’t really care. I play games mostly with friends. Listening to a large chat room full of random people doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Regardless of social preferences, I think you’ll find that there is no Discord alternative with public chat rooms as big and active as Discord’s, nor will there be any time soon. The network effect is strong there.

Nevertheless, we can choose tools that serve us better, and invite others to join us when it’s practical. Ex-redditors have been doing this with Lemmy. Ex-Windows gamers have been doing this with Linux. Shifting away from an entrenched platform is usually slow and gradual, but not impossible.

I guess you haven’t checked recently, then. :)

https://element.io/blog/introducing-native-matrix-voip-with-element-call/

https://github.com/element-hq/element-call/blob/livekit/README.md

Mumble is great, but there are some things that people have come to expect from group chat services that it is not designed to do. For example, running in a web browser, persistent message history, and multi-device access to a single account. Adding such things would be no small amount of work, which is probably the main rason it hasn’t been done. (And, of course, the changes required would make the result incompatible with Mumble.)

Considering what exists today, I think Matrix has the best chance at becoming a Discord alternative. It already has a lot of the needed features. The new voice/video system (now in beta) looks very promising. And, of course, it also supports self-hosting and end-to-end encryption, both of which Discord lacks.

I’ve had good experiences with Brother laser printers. The price tag is higher than an inkjet printer’s, but the cost over time is far less, and they keep working.

(FWIW, mine have all been black & white. I can’t vouch for color laser printers.)

The article doesn’t mention anything about testing the same people over a period of time. So, is the junk food reducing people’s cognition, or is it simply more likely to be eaten by people who already have low cognition?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_version_control