Oh come on.

We've been saying "Thanks, Biden!" for years as a joke, and you blue haired legbeards always got riled up with your "source????" and "citation needed???" cries.

(FWIW I don't support Trump and have never voted Republican).

>This is the final refuge of the defeatist: âoeTheyâ(TM)re already watching you, so why care?â

Please don't put words in my mouth. Try, "They're already watching you, so you're going to need to find another way to avoid them if it's important enough, and it'll take a lot of work".

Phone-to-provider encryption seems like a better option. The only unencrypted information to start with would be your provider's ID, so your traffic is routed to their systems for decryption. Basically... my best current guess for greater security? Give up your mobile phone number, use data and a VOIP app. Then the cops will have to get a warrant (assuming your VOIP provider worries about that) not only to know the content of your conversation, but even to know who you called.

You're never going to be able to hide your phone ID and location with current cellular technology, though. You're not connecting to a tower at all unless it knows you're a valid client, and once you connect to a tower they at least know your general direction (most towers have antennas facing each direction, and aren't omnidirectional) and can guess your range. If you hit three or more towers, they can start to approach GPS accuracy pinning you down.

Long before you have to worry about all that, the cops will already have you under surveillance. Every box on every pole around your usual hangouts could be a camera and mic. They could have put devices in your car or home. And I wouldn't bet on them waiting on a warrant to do these things. The warrant will come when they think they'll need to use the information in court and might get called on it.

You know Blender is free open source software, right? Slashdot even helped it to become free and open source many years ago.

The problem is the decently paying white collar jobs are all 40 hours a week. There's few jobs out there that'll offer you 20 hours at a straight half of the pay. Sure, you can get some part time job, but you'll be earning something like a quarter of the pay, and likely with a significant cut in benefits too.

By default, a Slackware x64 install doesn't support 32 bit either. If you need to run 32 bit software, you have to install multilib support yourself.

Don't know if I can switch as I'm still on a locked in rate, but I'm already a customer paying the extra for unlimited data.

Yes Comcast is notorious for high prices and bad customer service, and I'd love to support my local ISP (which I did for a long time), but the local guys have absolute shitting reliability. I'm paying more for Comcast and I'm locked in for a year or two but honestly the increase in reliability has been more than worth it (with the local guys I was getting disconnects probably a dozen times per day - with Xfinity aside from a cut cable that resulted in several hours of outage, its been rock solid).

This is such cry-baby nonsense.

NONSENSE.

Since 2008, I have personally mentored dozens of young dudes (at no cost whatsoever, just because that's what successful people do).

I have helped poor dudes in bad neighborhoods buck up, get some side hustles, stack cash, and buy property.

You fucked yourself because you refuse to actually do someone to buy property. I don't know ANYONE, starting with even zero money, who couldn't find a nice home in just 2-3 years of saving money properly -- except the lepers in California, and fuck them anyway.

Maybe it'll help some iPhone users migrate, but that's a hard no for me. Every time somebody hands me an iPhone I'm confused for a second on why the URL bar is at the bottom.

I would rather let Nazis speak and elect to block them myself than have an entire moderation team block everyone they disagree with.

Reddit is equally a shithole.

Heck. /. used to have a good libertarian minority and today it's nerds defending their trans kids here.

Then unfortunately you've never worked for a decent company, because I have worked for several such small IT support providers. I have myself worked with Microsoft engineers on issues that were beyond my skill level and resistant to Googling.

>That's way too costly. Even many mid sized businesses and lower end large businesses won't pay the vast sums that kind of support costs. Instead they'll hire someone to do IT for them.

Yes. Small IT support companies that in turn have relationships with the major product vendors and can, when required, use them to get higher level support.

Please - show me where in Toronto there is a company that can do that - even if they only employ people who can remove & reinstall & do basic configuration, but can call upon top level, very capable dev-level support. I'd love to be recommending a path off of MS Office to my employer.

Doesn't matter if it takes years. Steam isn't going to get all gamers to switch to Linux overnight.

Understand - I like Linux. I first installed it in 1998 and have been a heavy Linux user since 2001 or so. Nobody would like to see Linux succeed as a desktop OS more than me, but Steam isn't going to be able to do that.

And frankly Microsoft isn't likely to want to go that route anyways. It would likely draw anti-trust penalties and they're already doing pretty well as it is.

There is no way switching to Linux is going to be a viable backup plan for Valve to tell its customers.

If Microsoft wants to go that Apple route Steam would pay before trying to get their users to switch, or more likely fight them in court over the issue.

I would prefer to replace myself, yes.

I have a 37 year work history of finding ways to replace myself and folks like me. I already offer my clients free Ai consulting on the side to help them replace me. I'm already onto the "next thing" that will replace Ai in the headlines anyway.