In addition to these reports on vulnerabilities, Apple lately seems to have a plenty of issues. A short while ago there's been a three weeks' stretch when they rolled out a new update every week; and now there is already a fourth update. All of then have been a major struggle to download, for Apple-related reasons. One can't help but wonder why - did they do too much diversity hiring, stuffing themselves with sub-par engineers hired mostly because they are women/people of color/whatnot?

Good luck

You are quite right. It was demonstrated even with babies - they learn much more from a real person than from a video.

Nah, it's a combination of laziness and self-indulgeness. Religion is just a convenient tool.

Sounds like that guidance counselor had more than one failing. Mine asked me to tutor a girl who was failing her Geomtery class; I did and in a few months she ended up with a B. He also asked for other volunteers to help other kids. Seems like your guidance counselor was of a different variety.

Well, learning a language with videos and Google is not exactly akin to being taught by a machine - you are teaching yourself with the use of multimedia tools. Even if you are using some prerecorded Spanish lessons on Youtube... it would not have been different if you set the audio on your Star Trek DVD and consulted a grammar book and a dictionary. The advantage you are talking about is that of self-teaching vs. being taught by somebody else, and especially for language study there are indeed quite a few.

You are right on the point. The study seems to clearly indicate how much depends on the lifestyle, if to such a large increase in the diagnoses corresponds such a limited increase in mortality. They should do a study on which precise aspects might account for this "least evil" benefit. Keeping in physical shape is an obvious, but those guys are also used to using their head and living in a disciplined fashion, something along such lines...

You forgot to figure in what else he ate that day. If it was nothing, that's quite a calory restriction.

I see no reason to change anything because 1) we might attribute slightly different meanings to the word "essential", and 2) it seems necessary to specify that 2a) "characteristic of" to me means something like "has high correlation with", not "a necessary attribute of", and 2b) it seems necessary to specify that "paying one's own bills" is a standard expression that does not refer so much to actually performing a payment procedure as it does to having full financial responsibility for oneself. Which state again has a high correlation with having multiple commitments/duties/whatnot represented by a long list of errands, all of which can sure be performed in alternative ways, but for some which a smartphone app is the most efficient way. The phrase of mine that you cited means that the decision to ditch a smartphone is much easier taken by somebody who is still supported by somebody else and overall has few responsabilities (although there are all sorts of relatively rare people who do make such a decision). BTW the abstract mentions an 18-year old college freshman...

Uffa... I am well familiar with the term "electronic payment", what I was wondering about was your usage of it (you certainly don't limit it to autopay, right?). I never claimed that smartphones are essential for anything, but rather that they become, on average, ever more convenient the more you have to deal with varying amounts and types of payments. YMMV but for me utility bills (internet, phone, etc included) and regular donations, that are setup on autopay, are just two types of payments I have to/ wish to make. Then every so often my municipality sends in various forms of bills, all with different payment procedure, which cannot be set up on autopay (and no, there is no website for credit card payment), and the only choice is between using my bank's digital services or going some place physical. I own an apartment in a multistoried building, and the relative contribution to the administrative expenses can only be paid by regular money transfers to a certain account, which cannot be set on autopay as the amount varies all the time. And so on. Moreover, I consider as part of the concept of making a payment the "it's Jan. 19, 2023, do you know where your finances are (meaning in what state, pun intended?", which is to say, it's on one hand quite wise to keep track of your balances, and on the other hand, my bank isn't my mother and I'd better check that they actually made sure that that autopay thing paid that electricity bill before the lights go out.

Oh, regarding my user number: I've been reading Slashdot (on and off) for the last twenty years, although I only registered recently.

Most of my payments are set up on autopay, through the relevant services' websites, however, there are some types of payments I need to make that cannot be so setup and should be done by money transfer instead. I am of an age that I had started to program in BASIC and was later taught Pascal, and watched stuff on black and white television.

I am not sure what you mean by electronic payment... Anyhow, it depends on the systems available to you. In some cases I could go to the post office or similar places, but you see, I have a fulltime job and a life, which is to say that paying your own bills likely has a high correlation with constraints on your time.

Well, this ditch-smartphone thing is so characteristic of people who don't yet have to pay their own bills. See, mine are all paid through the banking app of my bank, or the website accessed via that app. They used to have an alternate mode, but intend to ditch it rather soon, or so I heard. And you know, the opinion of someone who doesn't yet pay their own bills is, well...

You're right on the point. Some weeks ago there was an article in the NYT about a group of adolescents who pride themselves on ditching their iPhones (all iPhones btw) and being oh so social media-free. I thought, wait a second, since when iPhone=social media? When I got mine, it did not have any social app preinstalled. But it did have Books (and you can download Kindle app), so I have immediate access to all sorts literature, including the kind I wouldn't find in any bookstore (like hundred year old books, which are even gratis), it did have iTunes so I have immediate access to all sorts of classical music (limited by how much I can spend, obviously), it did have TV Apple, so I have access to all kinds of movies (I found one from 1987, which I was crazy about as a kid), and on App store I found apps to identify plants, birds, mushrooms, rocks... The last found was a multimedial globe. All this beside stuff I use for work. On the other hand, my iPhone has never seen a social media app, nor will it ever...