That's kind of my take on the story, but my wording would be more along the lines of "What are the success criteria?" Or perhaps "Would I donate to support this?" (Surely I would not donate on the basis of the description here and not even feeling motivated to learn more.)

But that's also why I wouldn't donate to support the project. You could think of it as a kind of paradox of choice. There are LOTS of things I could donate money to, but in general the success criteria are almost never clear. Whatever I donate to, it's likely that I could have had "more success" donating somewhere else.

Disclaimer needed? I was weird enough to pay for some freely distributed software. Long time ago, and usually for educational purposes for me or my students. One of the results I was hoping for was that the software would continue to exist with support and possibly even improvements, but can't recall any cases where that actually happened. Later donations often had more clear objectives, but my batting average for "wins" was so low that I mostly stopped donating...

Deserves the Funny, but it's also too true in a sad way. In those days the machines were basic enough that you could actually figure out what was going on. Now they are entirely black boxes at every level and from every perspective.

Obligatory quote against the censor trolls. However I have two substantive responses to your topics.

First, I think the extreme megalomanics with sufficient resources are already cloning themselves. Still a secret, but I think the basic plan involves a series of clones a few years apart, all of them carefully indoctrinated to believe whatever the cloner believes. The "upgrade" plan will involve only one major jump, presumably explained as a "relative" who just looks remarkably similar to the megalomaniac at the head of the chain, and then each few years a fresh prime-age clone will be swapped into the top (and only visible) role. Not sure how long the "prime-age" span is, but the plan will be to make the cloner appear to be ageless. (And by the time it becomes obvious what is going on, no one is expected to be able to do anything about it.)

Second, the extreme sociopathic elitists only want medical care for themselves. The only reason "the peasants" should get any healthcare at all is for the sake of developing new medical treatments for the elite. Human guinea pigs, but treated with less respect. Apart from that, they probably believe that peasants can be allowed to buy whatever healthcare they can afford, but at full market price and while maximizing the profits for the elite.

So I thought I would get an example of a "shooting yourself in the foot" (using JavaScript, but I should have gone for examples with Ruby and JavaScript) to try and extend the Funny moderation. However the google search is so sick and literal minded these days that it went off on the tangent of subtle programming mistakes when using JavaScript. Which devolved into another stupid argument with the AI.

In theory it could have asked me what I was looking for, but in practice I think I human being wouldn't have started out on such a stupid foot.

So glad to hear that it was entirely in my mind.

Then again, you might be crazy if you're taking medical advice from Time magazine, such little as is left of it...

But I also felt you needed to be quoted against the ADHD censors with mod points.

Mod parent Funny, but I thought the story had much more potential for humor and so far there's none. Maybe it's too early and the moderators haven't woken up yet?

(Not casting a stone. Felt like I was barely going to manage to wake up after that horrendous test yesterday... Second time at that test site. First time was bad, but this time was more like a circus.)

Just the ACK and concurrence. But if I could read minds, the YOB's is the LAST one I would want to read.

What is the maximum value of moral turpitude?

FTFY

Kind of the joke I was looking for, but I just wish the YOB would finish imploding and go away. Unfortunately I feel like it's too late. This trend started a long time ago, and the YOB is only the peak so far. Now that the precedent has been established and the paths to harvesting the government are well established, it's not like they'll stop after the YOB disappears.

Instead, whatever stupid stuff the YOB says today, we wind up discussing it until he says something more stupid tomorrow.

(Heck, notwithstanding his "You're fired" catchphrase, he hasn't even fired Hegseth yet. I didn't expect him to last out this week.)

If you can use your phone to control everything, then the only device you need with you is your phone.

And when you lose your phone or it's stolen? Or if it somehow gets bricked after an upate? Or gets compromised?

There's this thing called single point of failuare.

Agreed. If someone wants a movie or music or software, they can request it from the owners and can only use the item they were specifically given permission to use. Otherwise, they have to pay for it.

Is the lack of interest in this story evidence of how Zuck flies under the radar? Absence of evidence as evidence of "You can get away this this scam"?

But the story is expiring now, so no reason to consider solutions...

The only reason they deleted the databases was because they were let go by Trump. Most likely because they were Biden hires.

How many other hackers who have served time are subsequently hired by the government? Should we complain about that as well? We know of at least one who ran a site which offered services to hackers, and he was given the keys to the kingdom. How much private data do you think he exfiltrated?

The real issue is, once again, a private company didn't follow basic security procedures and let these two have access while they were being fired. Standard practice is to disable all access and escort from building when being fired. Neither was done in this case.

You have an AUX-IN? Must be a luxury model.

2010 Elantra Blue has an AUX-IN. Never used it, but I know it exists. Also has a USB-A connection. And a CD player which I regularly use.