And at any point MS can just turn it back on during an update.

That won't be a real problem for you though, since your personal files probably aren't stored on C. I bet most users here put everything on a second drive (or partition) and leave the first to Windows and software. They also use File History or a high-quality third-party backup program and check on it semi-regularly. They also don't use Edge, nor have much interest in what's on the Microsoft store. They also have a unique password for their Microsoft account, since not doing that would invite trouble anyway. They also remembered to keep their 48digit recovery key in a safe place just in case.

The affected are everyone else, but the real danger to their data is themselves, not Microsoft. If anything, Windows (cloud) Backup behaving the way it does is a net positive. It won't capture everything. It'll need to be upgraded once full. And yeah, it's annoyingly on by default... but that is annoying to *us*, not them.

They love each other... almost too much... some might need therapy. But if you don't listen to them, you're silencing them. They don't like being silenced, so they're not satisfied running their own thing if it isn't popular.

It's ebbed and flowed since then, but you're basically right. In the '90s we had welfare work reform, don't ask don't tell, NAFTA/free trade, bipartisan fear of Satanism, and no legitimate talk about decriminalizing drugs. Everyone went to church, atheists were controversial, and you could still ruin your career in Hollywood by coming out.

It's understandable that people aren't super interested in returning to that, even if might mean winning back the South or keeping the Rust Belt. Still, you have to meet people where they are... and if you don't, something else - maybe something worse - will.

We knew this from the start. If someone doesn't know, and if as a result they believe everything inside it is gospel, then that is their problem.

They're opportunists. It's useful for them at this time to act as the champions of Israel.

Everyone else gets an opensource alternative they can download and run on a budget PC.

In the short term. I had the same answer over ten years ago. In the long term it could work out as profitable... but you can't know that for sure.

I don't like to gamble... so I don't.

For sure there's a monarchy out there with a preference for skilled Americans. I say go for it, get yourself a king.

Trump is not special.

The modding community was different. I won't say better - artists risk cheapening their work when they do it for free/cheap after all - but you wouldn't have had trouble finding an artist. Game engine communities were like that too. I can't speak to what it's like now though.

Just from an audience perspective, if something unexpectedly good comes out of it, I'm going to want to find the original work it's based on. The style isn't in the seed. It's not always explicitly stated in the prompt. The prompt is not always shared. AI's do not reliably reverse engineer prompts. Users are gamblers, and so too are the viewers. You never know what you're going to get, and you're never completely sure that you can repeat it.

We can't band together against real threats because by the time we think to do so, we've already been sectioned off into little factions by propaganda like this.

Fascist arguments are best left ignored. They're really only interested in concentrating power and wealth. Everything about them is a means to that end. Fascism is bad for you, even if you're depraved enough to have a fetish for state-sanctioned murder, slavery, theft, and censorship.

When the process is just code you can be forgiven for thinking that.

void artist()
{
while(true)
{
drawpixel(rand(1,640),rand(1,480),rand(0,255),rand(0,255),rand(0,255)); //x,y,r,g,b
}
}

I mean, you wouldn't call this art. Something several orders of a magnitude larger won't be any easier on the eyes... but you might enjoy watching an artist work. Timelapse videos are quite popular.

A robot battle between nuclear powers is too pointless to even joke about. The people-killing-drones and drone-killing-drones are for dealing with lesser powers.