I didn't write that very clearly. Google doesn't have a problem with non-Play and sideloaded apps being installed in general. They do have a problem with malicious apps, regardless of source.

No... I'm pretty sure it's not that. Android does protect against malicious non-Play and sideloaded apps, and Google doesn't have a problem with those being installed. (Context: From 2014 until late last year I worked on the Android security team. I have pretty good knowledge of what they do and don't care about.)

I'd like to understand exactly what this part of the Google response is talking about. Maybe it's just throwaway FUD, not referring to anything in particular, but it could also be something the EU is demanding that is actually bad for users.

In my experience, that's Rust. Or maybe Haskell. The more guardrails the AI has, the better.

Reminds me of swapping out the radio in cars. Maybe people could bring that back? I did that on nearly every car I've owned.

Indeed I remember doing that...and used to LOVE to custom configure my cars audio system.

I research and save and save and get a new head unit, then save...get the amp, new speakers...etc.

I dunno...I guess today's youth isn't as interested in audio fidelity...but I sure miss it.

OnStar systems detect that a collision has occurred and dial 911 for you. The phone can't do this as well, though it could perhaps do it.

I believe iPhones do this too...?

I believe they call it Crash Detection.

Both of my vehicles are still stick shifts, a 5spd WRX and a 6spd Tacoma. You'll take them from my cold dead hands!

In my rather long life to date..I have never owned anything but 2 seater sports cars with manual transmissions.

Ok, the '86 911 Turbo Porsche "technically" had rear seats, but you couldn't fit more than a couple bags of groceries back there, so I don't really count that.

If I were to buy a new GM car...first thing I'd do (actually while researching the car)....is find out how to disable the fscking cellular connection and cut the damned thing off from the mothership completely.

I don't want over the air updates at their choice, nor telemetries, etc....

Hell at this point, I just may only be buying older cars if need be and keeping them in good running order.

I prefer manual transmission anyway....those are hard to get new. I'd love a new Vette, but a sports car with no manual transmission? A waste...

In addition to what other people said, some companies use it to screen out people who are going to cause employee conflicts, ie, are you using it to make controversial posts and comments and say things that violate the social contract, or do you use it to communicate with family and talk about your hobbies?

If you don't feel some attachment to your past and want people to be able to find you and contact you, in this age without phone books, are you going to be a company person? Or do you just want a paycheck?

I guess I don't see social media the way you do....I've never thought of not having social media as the same thing as "no feeling attachment to past or want people, etc".

I've never done social media, yet I'm in almost constant touch with friends over 45+ year I've been with...we text, phone call, email...and actually try as often as possible to get together in meatspace.

Anyone that needs to know where I am...knows where I am.

And not sure about....company person? I mean, the ONLY reason I work...is for $$$.

I've contracted 1099 and done W2 over the years.

When I go to work, I follow the rules, I'm very amiable with co-workers....I do work stuff at work and when the door hits me on the ass on the way out, I leave work fully behind.

As a general rule I do not associate with co-workers outside of the office. I have real friends for friend actives and needs....I have found over the years, it keeps things professional and keeps problems at bay.

Frankly in the litigious society we find ourselves in today....I do believe employers are looking more for a person like myself...little to NO threat of interoffice conflicts or lawsuits.

16kloc is a small project.

I should soften what I said before: You can get away with seat-of-the-pants work if one or more of: (a) your projects are small, (b) your projects are non-critical or (c) you invest in massive testing and validation.

In my old job, if I made one kind of mistake it could prevent three billion Android devices from being able to boot. If I made a different kind, it could result in the same number of devices being insecure against data extraction and other attacks (of course, OEMs often made those mistakes for me). In my new job, if I make mistakes vehicles can crash and people can die.

I want all the help the tooling can give me, and I spend a fair amount of my time building additional tools to prevent mistakes. None of it eliminates the need for testing, of course, especially when lives are on the line, but bugs that get caught by the compiler cost almost nothing. Bugs that get caught by QA, or, far worse, in the field, are very expensive.

Note that there are big systems built in Python. Instagram has millions of lines of Python code. They also mandate explicit type declarations everywhere and they built their own static typechecker, Pyre. Lots of other people have built typechecking libraries and tools for Python, trying to fix that problem. Maybe the next time I write Python I should try some of those tools.

Though I probably won't ever write any Python again. I really only use it for quick and dirty scripts, and these days I tell AI to write those for me, and I don't even bother to read the code. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, I tell the LLM to figure out why, and fix it.

The other thing is simple risk reward. Putting stuff in orbit is comparatively at least cheaper than it used to be.

It is also true that we have advanced quite a bit in hardened control systems. Let's not forget the almost magic/impossible degree of precision required to do this stuff. Did we have the technology 20 years ago; probably could been do sure.

Did anyone want to try a real mission when the likelihood of failure, development, and operational costs were much higher, no it made more sense to just replace aging sats after discounting the risks.

There is no need for a conspiracy theory when simple business logic explains it all fine.

Sure there are. Some bug reports, you look at them and dig in and say "Damn, that's obscure. It depends on subtly-wrong but arguably-correct-in-isolation mistakes in four different places. How the hell did they even find that?".

Granted that it's more common to glance at it and just be ashamed, or to look at it and say "Really? You think an attacker can do A, B, C, D, and E, all at the same time? Oh, and to do B or D they'd already have to have the system mostly compromised. Okay, I'll fix it, but no way in hell is that actually exploitable."

Sorry, but you're wrong.

Maybe... if the projections are in formal filings I don't think they can do that without risking SEC penalties. They can be optimistic about revenues or falling costs or things, because who can tell? But straight up ignoring things, probably not.

You said that this creates an arms race, which implies that it's a question of capability.

I don't know about the non-us phone market but based on slashdot comments it seems like non-carrier locked, not carrier financed phones are maybe more common than here. Certainly in the US that option is only for eccentrics.

Klarna though seems no less but also not inherently more predatory to me than the very worst of the ultra high interest, tiny limit credit card issuers (Credit One, PREMIER, and similar).

  I don't know what to tell someone though who can't afford a phone or PC. I would have said in say 2015, get a used one they are dirt cheap and that 2010 PC will do everything you need to do. However the manufactures have sought to pretty much destroy the used market because lets be honest without really imaginary system 'requirements' a 2014 PC runs Windows 11 just fine... except that you are one upgrade or patch away from something breaking your unsupported platform, and if you are having trouble budgeting for a PC, you can't afford sudden emergencies like that.

Same situation applies to phones, the things one might truly *need* vs want, like banking and finance apps tend to follow N-2 platform support, and so that older phone while realistically perfectly adequate is a door stop because Apple does not want to give you at least ios-18 for it.

It sucks but a PC, Phone or both are one of those things you almost need to succeed, but like cars industry and politics alike seem to be conspiring to make sure there are no 'affordable options' like a robust used market that is the least bit accessible.