It's not okay for Facebook to rely exclusively on ads that are behaviorally targeted. Facebook must offer a choice between ads that are behaviorally targeted and ads that are not behaviorally targeted.

It's not okay for Facebook to rely on the Morton's fork of either payment or ads that are behaviorally targeted. Facebook must either offer a choice between ads that are behaviorally targeted and ads that are not behaviorally targeted at the same price or not offer a free service at all.

In case others are interested in looking it up: In the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), paying changes it from "consent" basis to "contract" basis.

Broadcast television has 3-minute ad breaks. Attempting to apply the concept of a 3-minute interstitial (or "ads with countdown") to the web environment would violate the Better Ads Standards published by the Coalition for Better Ads. Meta Platforms is a member of the Coalition's board.

Even if iTunes runs fine stand-alone, I haven't seen evidence that connecting a device (iPhone or iPad) also runs fine. Wine emulates user space; it does not emulate drivers. Granted, last I checked was a few years ago. When did this start working?

Facebook asks you to pay them not to abuse you. If that's not a Mafia-style protection racket, I don't know what is.

But besides that, even if you do pay, how can you trust Facebook not to put you under surveillance, invade your privacy and monetize your data anyway? The one thing Facebook has proven again and again over the years is that they're not to be trusted in any way, and it's not like an independent body will ensure they're true to their word.

All you'll see if you pay up is the outward appearance that Facebook is not invading your privacy. Whether it's true or it's just theater... I know what my money is on.

Eevee's article from April 2012 was about PHP 5.3, not PHP 8. PHP versions 5.4, 5.6, and 7 came out soon afterward, fixing a lot of the flaws she pointed out. A retrospective eight years later showed how much the language had progressed on the road to 8.

"a few months"? I remember a decade ago when Hop took literally a year to go from theaters to DVD sell-through, and then another month after that to get to Redbox.

Until the grandmother asks you "Now how do I put my CDs on my iPhone? Under Windows, I put the CD in the drive and started iTunes."

I don't know what specific software Quasar1999 was running. In my own case, the proprietary Windows-only program is iTunes for loading MP3s onto my roommate's iPhone SE 3. In the case of other people I regularly talk to online, the proprietary Windows-only program is VRChat.

Say my roommate wants me to load MP3s onto her iPhone. I haven't figured out how to do that other than through iTunes for Windows, which does not run in Wine, or Finder for macOS. Am I "deliberately obtuse" or "stupid"?

Which handheld computer with a cellular radio that respects users' freedom is compatible with U.S. mobile networks? Last I checked, things like the Fairphone were made for the European market, with no attempt to get onto Verizon's or AT&T's allowlist.

Yes. Teaching your children the truth, i.e. "the stove is hot," is far more compassionate than letting them get burned. In the United States, the public schools in the past taught racism against black people, now teach racism against white people; both of which are an anathema to anyone belonging to a worldwide church of multiple ethnicities and cultures.

Clearly this is a great step forward for humanity.

Well, I'm living it. Perhaps I'm lucky, or perhaps it's because I'm late in my career and I have enough experience to have that luxury, but I definitely choose who I work for.

In fact, I have for a long time:

Back around 2000, I had an opportunity to work at Citrix. I didn't really know who Citrix was back then. but they were already big and definitely an attractive employer to land a job at.

They came to the offices of the company I was working for back then to hunt for potential recruits, because my company was closing and they were nice enough to organize job interviews in their facilities before throwing everybody out.

So I got interviewed by the Citrix head hunters. When they explained what Citrix did, how they had a tight partnership with Microsoft, and would I like to join the team, I told them "Thanks but no. If you're in cahoots with Microsoft, I'll decline if you don't mind." Then I walked out of the room. Them guys couldn't believe that this 30-something junior programmer just blew them off, because they expected everybody to want a job at Citrix really bad :)

So yeah, if you don't feel like working for certain companies, unless you're desperate for the money, just don't.

It's only a problem if you seek employment with companies that have no ethics.