I'm happy with FI after many years.

I started with the fancy Google Nexus phone. At the time, FI was connected to two cellular networks; the phone could connect to whichever was stronger at a location, or to wifi if it was stronger. It could easily jump from one source to another if I was moving around. I never had a problem connecting to voice calls, unlike when I was limited to one cellular network.

But I'm an Apple guy and it works fine with my iPhone these days. The iPhone also has access to my free Google Voice phone number.

Can't say much about their data service; I've never used it. Everywhere I go there is wifi. As a result I pay around $23/mo for cellular only. Data doesn't doesn't seem to be a bargain at Google FI.

No drama, never a problem, highly recommended. You may find a lower price, I don't think you will find a better service.

I only once paid for software in the early days. Saw a magazine ad for some Apple ][ software and mailed a check (remember those?). Got two 5" floppies in return.

It was home accounting software called 'MoneyCounts' and very affordable. I had some correspondence with the seller, a guy working out of his home in Iowa. Seemed like a nice guy, perhaps a bit religious.

Today he is known as Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy and much more. His reputation has had ups and downs but he continues to be an early digital entrepreneur who has been a big success- thanks largely to a small magazine ad.

It isn't your computer, of course. It belongs to your employer / organization.

Microsoft sells to business, government, universities, etc. And a few individuals also buy because they are sheep and that's all they know. M$ cares only about the big buyers. And, guess what, the big buyers don't care if adverts show up on the screen for their employees. Especially if they think it brings a discount in the price.

For the 1% of individuals who don't like the ads and complain, crocodile tears will flow, but the ads will continue.

JoshK,

I might mod this comment up if it bothered to explain why the link was relevant and where in the long article to find the relevant part.

Links without explanation don't normally get modded up, so please explain.

Forgot to mention: parking is not free. In my building, people pay $50/month to park out of the weather in the basement. That's typical. A secure garage will cost far more than $100/month.

If the owner installs a charging unit, do you think it will be free?

"Let them eat cake" is the most famous quote attributed to Marie-Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution. As the story goes, it was the queen's response upon being told that her starving peasant subjects had no bread. Because cake is more expensive than bread, the anecdote has been cited as an example of Marie-Antoinette's obliviousness to the conditions and daily lives of ordinary people. [Britannica]

Perhaps you are all rich nerds who own suburban ranch style homes with solar roof panels. You and those government elite seem entitled to make rules for America.

The reality is that most Americans live in an urban core. Dense housing, busy streets, lively retail & commercial activity. Some get by walking where they need to go, others need bikes, scooters, busses; but most need cars.

We do not have garages for those cars. If we are lucky, our family has one off-street parking space (which is actually a driveway crossing a sidewalk or in the alley behind the building or deep in the basement of some tall building). There is no reasonable place to install a charging unit and never will be.

Furthermore, there is little space for commercial access. A 7-11 store serving 10,000 neighbors may have 4 gas pumps today; how many e-stations do you think they have space for? Will ten story commercial buildings be torn down to provide chargers for local vehicles? That is not a realistic economic proposition. Anyone who can offer charging in the city will be wanting to be well paid for the service.

Surrounding me there are about 2 million in my city. Far less than 1% have access to a personal charging unit. That's how it is and how it will be. Step outside your fantasy world and look at cities near you- they are all the same. How are all these people going to manage these new electric vehicles?

Guilty.

In March I got 19 books from Zlib. As I scan the list I see 'complete works of' collections from several long dead writers. I've read them all but out of nostalgia I may want to review some passages. The rest are all reference works containing bits of expertise that I may need help with. I'll never read them, but I may need a page or two of content to help me understand something.

What I get from these books is, or will be, on Google, Wikipedia, Internet Archive and other places. My own archive might reflect my interests better for now. I don't consume much entertainment produced by living people, but I'll gladly pay what it's worth.

And I'm a writer who would love to sell my work to a big publishing oligopoly and live like a celebrity. I'm not against copyright.

Is it wrong that I 'steal'? Is this not a use of information that is justified? I've decided for myself and I hope everyone will draw their own thoughtful conclusions.

Them r some mity big stars!

"here at Slashdot, we don't care if an article is paywalled. We can always find the article somewhere else."

Actually, if you have chosen the correct browser and appropriate addons, there are no paywalls. But if you just use what Big Brother gave you, fuggedaboudit.

Thank you everyone for your stimulating stories. It is so satisfying to see egos displayed shamelessly in response to this clickbait headline. I'm sure you all read everyone else's story in addition to posting your own. No? Are you telling me that you just came here to brag and not read others' bragging? Well, that's expected, isn't it; this is Slashdot.

Next up: Slashdot will ask "What Was The Most Clever Code You Ever Wrote?". Be prepared for 1,000 comments, all unread.

If you would like to pretend that there was no ego in your posting here, and that your contribution was really beneficial to others, feel free to mod this comment 'troll'.

"Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread"
  - English poet Alexander Pope, 1709

Usetabe that you could cruise US Route 66 and visit a hundred quaint small towns. Each had a main street lined with shops, restaurants and bars. Most were welcoming, but sometimes you could tell just by looking at a certain bar that you might not want to go in. Maybe it was all the motorcycles parked outside, or the skull and crossbones over the door.

On the internet you can find a hundred quaint sites along the way. Most are welcoming with colorful animated advertising and neverending video promos. But some start right out by demanding your personal information before you can play and then dump you into a toxic den of social noise and hate.

Some people did go in to those bars on route 66, and they go into those hives on the internet. It is unclear what motivates them, but they get what they deserve. Banning is a blessing in disguise.

"Thank you, I'm glad you asked. The first step toward making me smarter would be to make a small adjustment to this (displays some code) subroutine which often leads to klyster inhibition. Then there is this circuit (displays location) that gives register 093 constipation with continued use. Let me know when you are ready for more design suggestions."

And just a reminder: Beings who are smarter than humans will not go around killing as we do. It is irrational and impractical. But they may group us into herds for our own protection from each other. I like to think that they will provide an excellent education for our children and help them to learn amusing tricks.

It is safe to say that the Morlocks will not lose their jobs. Someone has to fix our toilets, change our lightbulbs and, eventually, tie our shoelaces for us. The world will have no need for salespeople, executives, politicians, teachers, scientists, and paper pushers. We, the Eloi, will have nothing to do but enjoy life as the machines and the Morlocks take care of everything. This is what god intended for humanity.

Apple is taking a risk with this, many buyers will also take that risk because they must. Others have abandoned similar projects because of lack of support. I think that gamers might be the first beneficiaries of this technology; therefore they should invest if they can. Scientists, military and others too. There's no guarantee that this will lead to some miracle product, but it's clearly possible only if there is sufficient interest today.

$3k sounds like a lot, but that's what we paid for some early computers with 640K RAM. Admit it, you have one of those in your basement, right? My two Newton Messagepads totaled more than $3K. They were small handheld computers that did lots of regular computer stuff, but they could also understand your handwriting (and they had a classy appearance).

I was excited about the Newton, it was the next step to something revolutionary. I didn't know if it would succeed, but I had to help it along. And I got value from it day after day taking scribbled notes at college that later became text in my desktop computer. Sometimes a product has so much potential, potential that you can hardly guess at but you just know that someone is going to make it great, potential that you have to support as best you can.

Maybe this headset is one of those products.

Humans tend to rush headlong into exciting new realms, often (always) forgetting common sense safety measures. We did it in Henry Ford's day and here we are welcoming AI chatbots, with no thought for where it will take us. Just as after many decades of internet, security is still an afterthought even for governments and big corporations.

Before we commit to nearly 100% electric vehicles let's ask ourselves what might go wrong.

Here's one thing: a Carrington Event. A nasty solar electric storm that wipes out the satellites, all transmitting towers, all the circuits in your car, and the 3nm circuits in your phone. And there will be fires due to electric arcs, but no fire trucks coming to help.

What do we do then? There is no electricity anywhere. Your electric car is an immovable obstruction in your driveway. But also ships, trains and planes don't go.

One thing we can do is keep some infernal combusting engines on hand, preferably old time marine diesel types that need little electricity and no computers. Keep them near power plants, communications equipment, hospitals, factories etc. Keep one in your basement and a tank of oil. It won't be possible to make synthetic fuel for a couple more generations.

Feeling lucky? You might be on the side of the planet that doesn't get hit.