If the data is processed locally, great -- but I'm guessing it goes to Google?

I am writing this on a Chromebook Plus (Acer 516 GE). For contrast, I recently installed the VS Code Speech speech-to-text plugin by Microsoft into VSCode (running under the Linux subsystem) but it runs locally. From the plugin blurb: "The Speech extension for Visual Studio Code adds speech-to-text capabilities to Visual Studio Code. No internet connection is required, the voice audio data is processed locally on your computer." The plugin works amazing well, even usually adding appropriate punctuation automatically in sentences. Odd to think Microsoft in some ways might be more committed at the moment to both FOSS and privacy than Google?

I was using spelling-assistive and grammar-assistive tools under Unix (VMUTS) circa 1984 -- and the tools helped me become a better writer. Hard to believe such tools can't run locally given so many computing advances since then. Frankly, I'd still like a grammar tool for VSCode or Thunderbird as good as what I had forty years ago.

I think this was probably the tool:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"The Writer's Workbench (wwb) is a grammar checker created by Lorinda Cherry and Nina Macdonald of Bell Labs. It is perhaps the earliest grammar checker to receive wide usage on Unix systems. ... The Writer's Workbench was meant to help students learn to edit their work... As of 1983, the wwb package contained 29 utilities. As of 1986, this had increased to around 35-40 utilities."

On an Android phone, I have been repeatedly prompted to "backup" all the pictures on the phone to Google. The prompt happens at odd times and it would be easy to accidentally click the wrong button and have all the pictures go to Google. Worse, when I click no, then it seems at least some (maybe all?) pictures are selected and another prompt appears to backup the selected pictures. Again I have to click "no" and also deselect pictures. Seems like a "dark pattern" to me. I haven't seen that prompt in the last week or two so many enough people complained for them to revise that?

Anyway, I am wondering if I will eventually have to stop using the Chromebook (or at least reimage it with a non-chromeos Linux distribution like GalliumOS as I did with a previous Chromebook) if Google has now integrated stuff that could send the content of any text area to its servers with a mis-click?
https://www.makeuseof.com/best...

They would never even cease operation. They would be bought within an hour.

But you have ignored the conditions that brought them to sale, the massive lawsuits.

Any company buying them would face continued massive lawsuits. No company could or would touch them.

The world would not lose access to plastics. That's just silly.

I guess you have not been paying attention... that is not silly, it is the goal (by some).

If the plastic makers are all sued for the amounts being talking about and they all go bankrupt and make no plastics...

Well just what kind of a world do you think you'll be living in?

Plastics are used for everything, including clothes. There is no aspect of your life that will not suck 1 billion times more than it does now unless you are rich enough to afford boutique plastic products, or you will be using progressive older plastic products from the before times until they die.

Honestly non even nuclear war I think is as big of a danger to civilization overall, as is the destruction of every plastic maker. This may be the final point where we decide as a species to fall back into the mud, or progress.

It also means something slightly different than "authorization" or "authentication." Use the words that mean what you mean.

I've always just said "Authentication" or "Authorization" depending on what I meant, almost never would I use the shorthand Auth... I don't see any point in replacing those excellent words which work well.

"Login" also seems like slightly less clear a word.

Really?

Humans and computers are not treated the same under the law.

It's an interesting philosophical point, but until the law changes, AI is not treated like a human.

Part of the problem is that said cars are basically the alpha versions. Odd problems are to be expected.

A similar problem would be a gasoline car with a carburetor stored improperly for that long - the special service would amount to having to pull and clean the carb.