For 20 years, plus or minus, personal computers reversed that idea.

I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the top. I have no idea how much I have but after speaking for 20 years it might be $10M plus a couple of homes. I never look for any type of tax dodge. I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever. Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about Happiness, which is Smiles minus Frowns. I developed these philosophies when I was 18-20 years old and I never sold out.

Known VPN services have identifiable server addresses that can be blocked. Instead, you can set up a cheap raspberry pi (or other) at your home and use an encrypted SSH connection to that [raspberry pi] from far away. Then turn on your SOCKS proxy (part of WiFi Details on Macintosh) and check to see that your IP address shows to the world you access as that of your raspberry pi. I do this all the time, including right now. It also helps to watch sports events.

Thanks.

> You cannot copyright a name like "Gollum" or an idea like "let's tell a story about looking for Gollum after the trilogy."

That is a totally wrong interpretation of copyright law in the United States, which specifically covers derivative works (parody, criticism, and other Fair Use provisions notwithstanding).

Thanks for your comments. This thread has given me a few things to think about, although I'm still not totally sold on the concept.

Some have compared this sort of exercise to a fire drill. We don't do those, at least without prior notification, for fear of freaking people out, like in the trauma caused by active shooter drills on children.

Also, I've not yet fallen for one of these. Given how they come in with our URL checker stripped, having "phishing" tags coded in the image bugs, from domains openly registered to security companies, they are fairly easy to spot.

So it seems like overkill, at least in my environment. I don't work with launch codes or anything, and besides, without my 2FA fob, you're not going to go far with my password anyway.

These are people I'm entrusting with my work files and communications, and they can't even be truthful with me in return. Maybe that's why it rubs me the wrong way, no matter how the means and ends are weighed.

https://downloads.aaronia.com/datasheets/solutions/drone_detection/Aaronia_AARTOS_DDS_FAQ.pdf

You might have missed that Musk made the same claim about 2016, with the 1-camera sensor system. The 2017 claim was with the newer 8-camera system, and the claim was made before Tesla even had software for the new sensors, and the Tesla then lacked adaptive cruise control, adaptive high beam, self parking, summon, and other things that the prior model did have. I'm embarrassed that I actually believed these claims.

I am careful in all such interviews to say that Facebook is fine for anyone who likes it, for whom the plusses outweigh any minuses. I state that it's just wrong for me, myself, or others like myself. How can I not be "right" about that?

At least Tesla respects our right to die in our sleep.

In California, businesses (like restaurants) can refuse to accept money from anyone for any reason. They are not required to do business just because you have dollars or legal tender. If they don't like the fact that you are trying to pay in pennies, they don't have to accept it. Therefore, some business could legally refuse dollars but accept bitcoin if they wanted to.

Multiple credit card companies are already doing this. Our merchant services company offered us this same data. Of course Google is tracking everything you do. But they can only do it with the willing help of Visa/Mastercard.