We've had average speed zones for years in a number of stretches in Cape Town. Waze warns me when I enter the zone and leave it. So it does not make Waze useless at all - it recognises this type of camera trap and does warn the motorist. It is just that this type of trap is more effective over longer distances.

I deleted my Facebook account for good reason. So hopefully we can block messages from Facebook or I'll be deleting my Instagram account too. Pixelfed actually does a great job as an Instagram alternative - very much like the original Instagram.

So why doesn't he then just create his own Mastodon node and he can set his own rules - he can still be followed by anyone who wants to? Why use someone else's platform and complain about it, when you can just do your own thing?

Comes down to censorship like was practised during the Spanish Flu (incorrectly named as it did not originate from Spain at all, but was reported widely there). Although 'not talking to the media' is a general condition for many companies, where there are immediate threats to lives I don't think a bureaucratic principle should apply? Surely we learnt from the Spanish Flu that trying to keep it quiet actually cost lives. We as citizens surely need to know if extraordinary pressure must be brought to bear results. I would not want to already be in hospital and wondering why the nurses are not wearing masks or why I can't then get a respirator - it's too late then. If hospitals and politicians do not want doctors and nurses to speak out, then the hospitals and politicians themselves need to be completely frank and be communicating themselves. If not, then they are contributing to lives being lost.

Things are not standing still in the world of privacy and security though - we already have BCM Messenger which requires no personal info to register on, and can operate in peer-to-peer mode. It's group chats are also full end-to-end encrypted for up to 200,000 users. Yes as one goes more secure and private there are trade-offs like if you lose your password of ID, you lose all that data (nothing is even stored on servers). Identifies on separate devices are usually new identities, etc. See https://bcm.social/

Nope I love my ebooks. Reading with a backlit Kindle causes me no more eye strain than a paper book. And I feel I'm not contributing to using paper (besides with 5 book shelves double stacked a few years back, its a good thing as I have no more space).

No because the processor will still be used, unlike the Microsoft software that many people delete and replace with another OS they are intending to use. People who are anyway going to use a different OS really object to having to pay for Windows which they are not going to activate or use.

Typical Ballmer... by his definition then Microsoft, who produces software which is intangible, also is not a "real business" and neither are services like hairdressers and many other services. Anything of value bought by someone is a business where it is tangible