I don't blame you. The headphone jack is the main reason I have the regular iPad rather than the iPad Pro. I kept my iPhone 6s for way longer than I would have because I didn't want to give up the headphone jack.

I haven't swapped to Android phones or tablets because Apple has less spyware than Google, but it's a hard choice for me between which is more important a headphone jack or less spyware. The poor updates on Android phones drove me nuts as well, although that Apple doesn't allow you to reinstall an old version is annoying as well. The Apple walled garden is annoying at times as well (iOS 16 is apparently finally going to allow you to edit the lock screen which I was doing on Android probably around 2010).

I hate how the Google Play/Apple Store monopoly has made phones so non-consumer friendly: spyware, no removable batteries (there are a few Android phones with this feature still), lack of headphone jacks (some Android phones have them), Apple lightning adapters, poor repair ability, screen notches (not being able to turn the phone upside down with the plug facing up being the most annoying thing about the notch), poor OS version management, Apple's walled garden, etc.

I prefer physical buttons: power, volume, silent switch, home, and back buttons would be my preference, but I'm sure that's a personal taste issue. I would love a phone to have a privacy switch over the cameras as well.

Only if you have to pay real money for a boss or raid pass every time you fight the boss, then maybe it would count. The issue with loot boxes is paying real money to gamble on getting good loot. Random loot in a game without real money involved beyond game purchase or subscription fees is not an issue.

A lot of it seems like just marketing to me. If you actually look at the Apple TV App privacy policies, they seem to do the same stuff everyone else does. Whether they gather the data through the app side or the service side doesn't really matter; they are still gathering what you watch, using it for ads, and providing data to partners (companies that provide the content and buy ads).

"We use information about the movies and TV shows you purchase and download to offer advertising to ensure that Ads in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks, where available, are relevant to you. You have choices with respect to this advertising, as described below."

"We are obligated to provide some non-personal information to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display in the App Store and Apple News and Stocks. For example, we may share non-personal information about your transactions and viewing activity to Apple TV strategic partners, such as content owners, so that they can measure the performance of their creative work, meet royalty and accounting requirements, and improve their associated products and services."

"Turning off Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using your information for ad targeting." Like most ad "choices", you can chose to get personalized ads or not, but even if you select not to get personalized ads they still gather your data and share your "non-personal" data with partners; they just don't show you personalized ads and they probably get less money from the advertisers when you aren't as good of a match. I would much rather have an option "don't gather my data" in the first place, rather not to personalize ads.

https://www.apple.com/legal/pr...

Calling it "math you don't like" is overly simplifying things. Almost any software can be considered "doing math", but running copyrighted code without a license is illegal. There are many types of software like ransomware and viruses that are illegal. Software that is used to bypass copyright (DMCA) is currently illegal in the US for most purposes. There is some software that is illegal to distribute because of ITAR regulations in the US (e.g., open source GPS software). As another poster pointed out "doing math" that involves child pornography is illegal.

There are many ways that "doing math" on a computer are legally restricted.

There are some legitimate uses. Some adult entertainers use cryptocurrencies because banks keep closing their accounts even though they are doing nothing illegal. Some in the marijuana industry in states where it is illegal are starting to use cryptocurrencies (marijuana is still illegal at the federal level preventing them from using banks).

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/0...

I am not a fan of cryptocurrencies for many reasons: 1) Proof of work cryptocurrencies are terrible for the environment. Proof of work cryptocurrencies should be banned or heavily taxed and the taxes used to offset their environmental impact. 2) They have no inherent value and are greater fool scams 3) They are insufficiently regulated. Exchanges should be regulated like banks with know your customer (KYC) requirements, proper compliance regulations (PCI, NY DFS, GLBA, etc.) so that we don't see another one hacked every week, etc. They are too easily used by criminals, terrorists, and hostile governments (OFAC compliance).

You pretty much covered my objection to voter ID laws. First the IDs and any documents or proof required to get them must be free. Although, even if the IDs and documents are free, if they need to be applied for in person and are only available during limited business hours or where people without cars would need to travel 50 miles in rural parts of the country, that also presents a problem for them.

I would also add that all documents required to get the ID and the ID itself would need to be available by mail (which wouldn't make the people who want voter ID happy), or the offices to get them need to be open 7 days a week and in rural parts of the country free transportation to get ID needs to be provided to those that can't afford it. Otherwise, there will still be people too poor to get ID.

A lot of people who have been homeless or evicted have lost their birth certificates and other identification documents. A lot of states require a family member with ID to vouch for the person, but not everyone has family that is alive or available to do so which then may require going before a court and convincing a judge that you are who you claim to be. Any state that requires court to get ID documents, should be provide free legal assistance, free travel to court, and weekend court hours for those working M-F jobs that can't afford to take days off. Parents must be able to take their children with them and if the children are not allowed in court, then free childcare must be provided.

We have a lot of people who are disfranchised by voter ID laws:
https://www.learningforjustice...

I don't know how practical it would be to provide all the free services mentioned above to prevent voter disenfranchisement of those without government ID. Being poor should not prevent people from voting, but it does for many. Until the issues above can be addressed I am opposed to voter ID laws.

It would be insane if the article wasn't so misleading.

First of all, let's be clear about what the data they are requesting here. It's likely mostly patient data from the clinical trials and must be redacted:
"such records can be expected to contain both confidential business and trade secret information of Pfizer or BioNTech and personal privacy information of patients who participated in clinical trials. FDA is required to protect certain information under the law and this type of information is exempt from production under the FOIA."

Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency requested "more than 329,000 pages" of information. It takes time to redact medical records properly and this is a lot of medical records for more than 44,000 people. The trial data likely has the complete medical history of all the participants. If you were in the trial, I don't think you would want your medical records redacted quickly.

Secondly, the FDA isn't waiting until 2076 to release the data. The FDA will release the data at the rate of 500 pages per month, but it won't be done until 2076.

That said, I think this is of sufficient public importance that spending a lot of public resources to get the data out there quickly would be worthwhile. To do this quickly would likely require congress allocating the FDA a lot of resources to redact the data.

The article and lawsuit are from anti-vaxxers who are looking for more ammunition. These are the people:
https://phmpt.org/
Examples:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/s...
https://www.nydailynews.com/ne...

I don't know about recent models, but there was an electrical issue with 1980s Chevy Cameros where they would catch fire in the middle of the night. It happened to my parents, but thankfully a neighbor noticed the smoke and they just had fire damage to the garage.

There was a Ford issue years ago where I had a coworker whose Ford decided to turn itself on, put itself in gear, and drive through her garage wall into her kitchen in the middle of the night.

I am not a lawyer so my understanding of the law is limited, but to me this seems to set a bad precedent limiting the power of initiatives. No matter how I feel about how CA voters have voted on this and other initiatives and referendums, the will of the voter should be sacrosanct in my opinion. I am not a fan of judges legislating, which this seem to be a case of to me, and even worse overriding the will of the voters.

All California initiatives and referendums override the ability of California legislature to legislate on some issues; that is the whole point of them. The California initiative and referendum process is also part of the California Constitution (Article II, Sections 8-12) and as it allows amending the state constitution any initiative should override any other part of the constitution. As long as an initiative or referendum adheres to the requirements of Article II it should be constitutional (e.g., section 12 states that an initiative can't name an individual person to hold an office or a private corporation to perform a function). A state initiative can't overrule federal law or the federal constitution, but the decision here was that it violated the state constitution which to me seems absurd.

I hope the state Supreme Court overrules this decision.

There is a study out of Israel with 14,000 people that shows the Moderna vaccine reduce asymptomatic infection by 61.5%. A study of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shows it reduces asymptomatic infection by 85% (23,000 healthcare workers in the UK) and another showed 89%. The Johnson & Johnson-Janssen vaccine showed to be 74% effective against asymptomatic infection.

https://www.businessinsider.com/vaccines-reduce-coronavirus-transmission-early-research-2021-2
https://www.fda.gov/media/144453/download
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3790399
https://www.fda.gov/media/146267/download

To me it seems like it makes sense why they are still requiring masks in public with some vaccines only reducing asymptomatic infection by 62%. Hopefully we can get to heard immunity with the vaccines soon. Although most experts seem to think that will take 70-ish% of the population. Recent surveys claim about 69% of adults in the US plan to get vaccinated. I don't see a lot of people talking about 24% of the population being under 18 in the US and no vaccines are available for anyone under 16 currently. Some heard immunity will also happen through infection. I am hopeful we'll get there, but I don't think it will be by summer.

https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf

I can't back up all my data from home to the cloud (client-side encryption) due to the Comcast data caps. I pick the important stuff to back up to the cloud with differential backups and use local backups that I rotate off site for my full backups. Comcast does offer the option of paying an extra $30/month for unlimited data, but I feel like they already overcharge. I am still using sneakernet in 2021 because of data caps.

The original post and article don't even go into the different power capabilities of cables other than mentioning power delivery.

Standard USB-C Type-C supports 5V@3A or 15W.

With USB power delivery (PD) 12V and 20V are also supported at up to 5A. (12V@3A = 36W, 20V@3A = 60W, and 20V@5A = 100W). As the article mentions, there does not seem to be any logo or marking to be able to tell if a cable supports PD.

Some Thunderbolt 3 cables support 60W and some support 100W. They both have lightning bolts with the number 3. I am not aware of how to tell the difference looking at them.

I agree that removing as much oil use as possible is a good thing.

Unfortunately there are products that currently require petroleum.

Just as an interesting example, Lego has been searching for an alternative to petroleum-based plastic:

https://earth911.com/eco-tech/...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...

The lack of tactile controls and the reliability of their cars are the two main reasons I haven't bought a Tesla. I could never buy a car where everything is controlled through a touch screen. I am not really a fan of the voice controls either; I have better things to memorize than all the commands for a car and then still have to repeat myself several times. I want to be able to reach for buttons and knobs without having to take my eyes off the road.

We don't know if the risk of infertility from COVID-19 is higher though. There is no evidence any of the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility as far as I am aware, but early COVID-19 studies do show that at least while infected there is lower male fertility and in some people causes testicular damage that we have no idea how long it lasts at this point. It may be dependent on how bad the case is; in deceased patients the damage to the testes is severe, but in most COVID-19 cases there is no damage. Another study found impact to liver panels and testosterone levels in even most moderate cases of COVID-19.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/r...
https://www.medrxiv.org/conten...