Numerous stores already track you via your phone's Bluetooth signal.

That's easy to prevent: just turn your Bluetooth off when you're not using it and make sure it's off before going into any store that you suspect is using it to track you. Personally, I can't remember the last time I've had it turned on. Of course, I can't use those fancy wireless earbuds (or any other kind) because they don't fit my ears.

If people would like to get their âoedisabilityâ tested and verified with more than an echo chamber and paid for personally, then the results will speak for who should be recognized vs. who should be questioned instead of coddled.

In my case, any disabilities I'd be claiming would have been tested and verified by the VA. (Currently, I'm 30% disabled, all disabilities Service Connected as I posted earlier.) Would you find that sufficient, and if not, why?

You needed a handbook for that?

Anyone who ever went to a business meeting could've told you that.

By my experience, it takes only 4 things to make a meeting productive: a) someone is in charge of the meeting and moderation, b) that someone had time to prepare, c) everyone in the meeting has received an agenda with enough lead time to have read it and (if necessary) prepare their part, at least a bit and finally d) there is at least a simple protocol of the meeting for those who couldn't attend, those who dozed off in the middle, and those who claim next week that something else was agreed on.

I suspect that if they tried filtering out people like me that way, they'd soon find themselves on the wrong end of a law suit. Why? Because all of my disabilities have the magic words "Service Connected" attached to them which means that the disabilities I'm claiming have been tested for and verified.

seriously, slashdot? It's 2025 and you still can't do the Euro sign?

Even so the prices are excessive. If I want to upgrade the SSD in the current MBP from 512 GB to 2 TB that's +750 â

Meanwhile, a Western Digital Red SN700 with 2 TB I can get for a bit over 200 â.
A Samsung 990 PRO 2 - 245 â (was just rated the best M.2 SSD on the market by Tom's Hardware).

Whatever exact chips Apple is using, they're not 3x as expensive as other high-quality SSDs.

Even if "locked in place" is your underlying assumption, anyone who's even heard of the real world from their mom who has a friend whose father once visited it should know that there is no rule without exceptions and even if that is perfectly true, a small number of those particles will not be locked in perfectly.

You may have more music than me, but how much of it do you actually listen to? I keep that flash drive mounted in my car at all times unless I'm adding more to it and I've got a a wide variety that keeps it from getting dull. Various classical pieces going back to Bach, various arias, show tunes, TV themes and even different versions of a few songs, set so that they're not together. How much variety is in that 80 Gig of yours?

You clearly have not the slightest idea what the problem actually is. Well done, you are an idiot.

And you have clearly proven by several of your posts in this discussion that you are an ignorant fool who thinks that he can win arguments simply by insulting his opponent. Twit!

(might as well just have a USB stick with the same stuff on repeat)

That's what I do for in-car music. Of course, the flash drive has, at the moment, 252 different pieces of music on it, so it doesn't exactly repeat very often.

Because for the past 30 or so years, it has worked very well for MS to keep their main products barely useable, rely on lock-in and chase the next big thing so they can get their dirty hands on it early and lock more people into more products.

That is exactly wrong. Beta versions are there to find bugs. If nobody complained about them, they won't be found. So if you try beta versions, please DO complain about bugs.

I guess "vibe-something" is going to be the anti-word of 2026. People are slowly waking up to what it actually means to let the AI do the work.

I'm not dissing AI, I'm using it extensively myself and there's a few AI whitepapers with my name on them. But like any tool, it can be great when used correctly and ruin your day when not.

That doesn't mean what they do is automatically legal.

I'm pretty sure there's a demand for "murder my husband", or for "can someone please drown my neighbour". And yet it's illegal to offer such services.

Also: Voters. Smokers are still a fairly substantial fraction of the population, enough to swing a vote, especially if, and that appears to be the trend in most western democracies these days, there are two opposing political sides roughly evenly matched.

I mean, does it not strike anyone as a very weird coincidence that we have almost perfect 50/50 splits in so many countries?