Even in the UK/EU where merchant service fees are capped, once you start ordering in the 10's of thousands of Euro/Pounds... merchants start insisting on non-card payments because that 1% starts hurting at that volume.

Back in the day (early 00's) I ran a shop in Australia and I had to maintain accounts with my suppliers that needed to be paid off monthly. I did this via bank transfer (including a line of credit I could use for bank transfers). My card fees for sales would sometimes dwarf my staffing costs and this was 20+ years ago when a lot of people still used cash exclusively even when paying a few hundred bucks.

Most countries got rid of both problems years ago.

In the UK and many other developed countries a basic, fee free, bank account with a debit card is almost a human right. There is no law stopping you, in fact in the UK it's law that any resident has the right to open a basic bank account that must be free at the point of use (very few accounts have a monthly fee in the UK and those that do typically come with benefits that pay for it). No one here is unbanked except through choice. This is because a lot of transactions occur using interbank transfer (called "faster payments" in the UK) that again, is government mandated that everyone has access, free at the point of use. Your pay goes into your account using this system, bills, rents and repayments leave your account using this system.

Visa/MC hate it as they don't see a penny from this system.

The US is the only developed country I know of that does not have an inter-bank payment system that is free at the point of use. Although it seem the US is doing all it can to rid itself of its "developed" status.

Interbank transfer systems have all but eliminated cheques, I've never in 30+ years been paid for work with a cheque. The last time I received a cheque it was a refund from the DVLA after I sold a car (for the unused portion of road tax) and the last time I used a cheque was to buy a car in Australia in 2013 (Australia's interbank transfer system used to take 24 hours, it's now instant) and that was a banker's cheque, I've never used a personal cheque, given or received, in my 40+ years of existence and suffering upon the surface of this planet.

Unbanked is what we expect from developing countries... and cheques are an anachronism from the 50s.

Maybe it's proof of the existence of Afluenza and it's debilitating side effects. Doctor Payola recommends seeing two of daddy's contacts.

Aside from that, kids find way to game system. Not really anything new, I've seen this in the workplace for a few years. Some people use a marginal disability to openly skyve off work or shut down any criticism against them, it's a new move in a very old game though... People game systems, even when it harms a system that is meant to help people who genuinely need it. If you know a way to fix it without harming people who genuinely need help, I'm all ears.

It could be worse, a lot worse.

Imagine if those useless middle managers were tasked with doing something important rather than merely wasting the time of people capable of doing something important.

Probably stolen from the UK or Western Europe. Maybe even as far away as the US.

A lot of the UK's stolen cars end up in Eastern Europe, some even keep the UK number plates for that authentic feel.

LAG restrictions have been lessened or even gotten rid of in Australia and the UK. Air travel is not as bad outside the US.

Batteries are becoming a problem for airlines because people are entitled fuckwits and won't follow basic instructions (I MUST charge my phone no matter what people tell me) as they keep bringing damaged batteries on board which conflagrate. So they're getting banned at the insistence of airlines rather than governments.

The article explains how the Russians restarted their bricked cars. Three fingered salute, basically.

I suppose my question is if you are going to go on at some length at how Home Assistant is some techbro nonsense, what do you see as the alternative that hits the same use cases:
- Centralized 'smart home' device management
- Does not lock you into a cloud connected dependency
- Does not lock you into a particular device or phone vendor
- Can implement various local automations without the device itself having to support things like schedules and so forth. E.g. turn off all lights still on at midnight, or reduce heating/air conditioning when everyone's phones leave a geofenced area, or start increasing it when I leave work so it's more comfortable by the time I get home.

Novel respiratory infections.

Also. Second base.

(without the parents in the next room)

The problem is asymmetric. It's easier to attack than to defend. AI scripts simply helps more attackers over the steep barrier to entry of the field.

What's prompt engineering? Is that a euphemism for what a non-lazy engineer does?

....And now everyone knows how to disable the VTS and steal a working Porsche. Streisand Effect.

....blah blah....EU....blah blah....fail...blah blah.

Ah. I see what you did there!

Russian's are happy to deliberately contaminate their own people, rivers, lakes and forests with nuclear waste. They fly nuclear powered cruise missiles over their own land. They leak weaponized anthrax in their own cities. They have solders dig and occupy trenches in land they know is contaminated with nuclear waste.

What could possibly make you believe the Russians would hesitate to spread yet more nuclear waste around in Ukraine if they thought it would bring them some military advantage? In all likelihood this damage to the confinement shell was accidental, but I don't know, and neither do you. What I know with absolute certainty is that Russians don't give fuck number one about the consequences of this, deliberate or otherwise, whether they eventually occupy the land they hope to or not.

They're still making DVD drives. They're just mostly USB now. Ripping is pushbutton easy these days. No messing around with getting a copy of DeCSS and such.