When I bought a new gaming PC a few weeks ago (where I live the pre-builts that were assembled before rampocalypse are still at a reasonable price until the stock runs out), I asked if I could get it cheaper without the Windows 11 license. The sales guy said, “well, it’s already installed.” I told him, “I’m literally going to take it home and wipe it for Bazzite.” He said, “good call, but seriously, they’re practically giving these licenses away, so even if we could it would only take like $20 off the purchase price.”

Kind of a bummer to waste that $20, but honestly the satisfaction of hitting “reformat” on a brand new, slop-infused, bloatware-infested, data-harvesting-ready SSD and watching it all vanish before I even used it was almost worth the money.

EDIT: Not to mention, I got back a significant amount of space. 15+ GB.

Do it! Just choose the most normie distro you can find (probably something like Mint or Ubuntu) and free yourself!

This was a personal device, not a mission unit.

The capsule isn’t. It’s the mission commander’s personal device.

Fun fact: it’s actually called “Maundy Thursday.” No, I don’t know what that means without looking it up.

I love that idea. Props to your teachers for running with it.

I mean, generally I agree, but what gives me pause here is that Graber is basically moving into a focus on federation full-time. A leadership change like this would be a perfect moment to pivot away from atproto and into a more walled garden, but Graber isn’t even leaving the company.

This could just be theatrics, but it’s at least interesting that they aren’t taking this opportunity to close it all off when they absolutely could.

I would like to read that paper.

Hey, fyi, this is called spam, and it invariably backfires every time.

You must adhere to my religion or you will no longer be working for this company.

That has been audited by third parties around the world. I detest Apple’s business practices, and even I know this ain’t it chief.

No, this is different. They’re not saying “we’re allowed to,” they’re saying “we didn’t do it”:

In no circumstance did the test affect the standard functionality of the device nor did it limit access to its main features. The users could and can continue to normally use all HDMI inputs, external devices, consoles, subscription streaming apps, or standard broadcasts without any type of interruption or obligation to watch advertisements.

Which is totally believable. /s

I fundamentally disagree with both your premise and your example’s conclusion. I’m not saying that it can be justified, though; just that it must be contextualized differently. To wit: it would be right for you to criticize them even if you are being hypocritical. You have far fewer resources to dispose of that oil. Your business model is not predicated upon handling oil well. You are not enriching yourself at the cost of others. And yes, there may be others doing it as well, but the combined impact of every individual doing it is almost certainly a tiny fraction of the company doing it.

It’s not really beside the point, from most reasonable perspectives. A multi-billion-dollar company enriching itself on the backs of starving authors so that it can go on enriching itself on the backs of its users is significantly different from a small number of comparatively destitute individuals stealing some temporary enjoyment for themselves. They are both wrong, but the discussion is utterly useless if you don’t talk about the harm involved and who benefits.

There’s a pretty big difference in scale, and the perpetrator, and whether or not they’re benefiting monetarily, and much more.

Games already have this. There’s almost always a difficulty setting, and one of those settings in newer games is often “story only.” You make decisions, but your character executes the fast-twitch stuff itself.

Solid choice.

To be clear, I do think they should make noise, yes please. Totally agreed. When they’re moving slowly enough that people can get out of the way (and the tire noise is a little less significant), they should be making an artificial sound.

Also, Space Invaders sounds would be an amazing choice; along the same lines, the Pac-Man “wakka-wakka-wakka” would be awesome, especially if you have a yellow car. Come to think of it, the Fozzie Bear “wokka wokka!” would be hilarious, too.

I just think allowing people to choose a sound that’s automatically blasted at loud volume from their car at any given time is something we’ve already had a lot of experience with, given that stereo systems have been standard on cars for decades now; and we can be certain that people can’t be trusted with it–especially when they themselves can’t hear it. There are absolutely people who will use that power to broadcast ads, or their own recorded voice shouting obscenities, or a high-pitched screech sound that harms people’s hearing.

Or, even worse, they’ll change the sound to silence or something super quiet. Maybe to be malicious, but probably more so just because they find it annoying in some niche situation (like in their garage or whatever).

Allowing people to choose from a certain subset of options, or having some sort of onboard algorithm try to detect whether the sound is an appropriate volume (and replacing it with a substitute if needed) might be a good compromise.

I want to be able to choose my own noise (being fully aware why that is a bad idea more broadly). Can you imagine driving through the grocery store parking lot making a TIE fighter sound?