I bought a new Sony laptop in the height of Windows ME - and that's what was pre-installed. Rock solid. Never felt I needed to downgrade or install something else. Probably a case of Sony actually doing something completely right, but I loved that laptop and its WinME install for many years.

I signed up for Youtube Red almost as soon as it came out mostly because I got annoyed once too many times by the pre-roll ads. But I'd also realized I was watching more Youtube content than broadcast TV (and I've had a DVR for years). As a very pleasant bonus, the initial subscription gave me Youtube Music - which I absolutely love because the music I listen to is on Youtube in preference to almost any other streaming service (though more of it is on Spotify now).

In my experience, Youtube is almost unique amongst video and audio streaming services because it sits in the middle of them like pretty much no-one else does. Plenty of indie video content, but also licensed content, too. And the music content has the advantage that you have the music videos as well as all the music.

Wade.

I had a non-Sony knockoff for a while but struggled to adjust my listening habits to cassettes and headphones. I just didn't listen to endless music - like my parents it was either the radio or I would deliberately put an album on.

It was much later than I got it and by then the Walkman of choice was MiniDisc. I had two at different times, one with the original MD format and the other that supported Hi-MD. Both genuine Sony devices. I loved MiniDisc - the best bits of CD combined with the best bits of cassette tapes. But Sony missed so many opportunities to promote it. Such a shame.

I still listen to CDs, too, especially as buying CDs is the best way I have of supporting the artists I love. (Plus the CDs always have lots of pics of the artists...) But I also pay for Youtube Music which I actually usually listen to and I do that because it means I don't get ads.

I run my own email server. I pay for an EC2 instance in AWS that it sits on. Inbound email goes straight to it (and there are a few settings in the SMTP server to control spam and other crap); outbound email goes out via Amazon's Email system. I run Courier as the MTA and connect to it from my laptop using IMAP over SSL. I have all my DNS records in Route 53 on AWS, too.

I would never buy a Mac for myself for a number of reasons, but my work-issued laptop is an MBP. I'm on my second or third. The keyboard has _always_ sucked - even the 2012/3 models we started with. I noticed my colleagues were slowing their typing down because the keyboard was shit even compared to the cheap and cheerful Dell keyboards we had prior. A triumph of form over function.

There is a reason I use an external keyboard as much as possible. A Happy Hacking Keyboard to be honest, but even Microsoft's TypeCover keyboard is considerably better than that on Mac Books.

The Shenzen-based maker had quite a public spat with Vice Media, and they did not seem interested in trying to repair the problem. As either a part of that or in response to that, her Patreon account received a complaint. Patreon cancelled her account and she had no appeal. She lost a lot of income.

And a few have mentioned it. Yes, it is paying for Youtube Premium.

Originally, I signed up to explicitly get rid of the ads. But almost immediately I got offered the Youtube Music app and I love it. And I didn't have to teach it what music I liked because it already knew as I'd been Liking the music videos I love for years. Subtle advantage over other music services: Youtube usually has the music video, too. :)

Oh. I found it. Slashdot UI fail. But it should also be in the body of the post.

Where's the link to Lauren's actual blog post?

Reading just the linked article, it sounds like Tesla are indeed heading down the road of "breaking their neck looking the other way". It sounds to me a very Tesla thing to do. They just needed a little prodding.

There are Bluetooth dongles for receiving audio and using your existing headphones. They have been aiming at people with high-end headphones, so their DACs are really good. But you can use whatever you like with them. An EarStudio is the one I use, but there are others.

Can't address the first items, but there are Bluetooth dongles for receiving audio that you can plug in whatever headphones you like. They tend to target people with high-end headphones and as such have very good DACs of their own, but you can use them however you like. Even with cheap off-brand earbuds.

I leave Location Services off unless I am actively using an app that needs it. But I discovered the other day that in recent versions of Android, Bluetooth LE is only available if Location Services is enabled.

I've been kind of waiting for Google Maps to decide it won't work if Location Services is disabled because Google _really_ wants you to leave it on! It appears they've found another way to encourage you to leave it on...

You know, the one they wanted you to buy. It still does conversion, but downloading has been downloaded and it won't download from youtube at all anymore.