So is it your thesis that the police can and will plant information on my phone for the Lulz?

I suppose there is a no-zero chance, just like there is a none-zro chance I can shit out a singularity.

Yeah, everyone in jail is innocent. And you are quite paranoid.

Now ima gonna give you nightmares. I make certain when I am at a store that I look at and wave to the cameras. I'ma going to buy everything on credit cards. In the even I am arrested in one of your Cops plant evidence schemes, I'ma going to subpoena cell phone records. I'ma going to subpoena their cop cams.

You think I don't have imagination? Au contraire. This invasion of your sovereign citizen rights are things I will plan to use in my defense.

SoI will counter your paranoia with the truth that these modern spying actions are equally likely to prove you innocent.

I haven't been able to find it, because it was several years ago, but in a case in New York City, a woman was raped, and the description of her assailant was circulated. They arrested a man who matched her description - she identified him as the perp.

But it turns out that he worked at a bank, and was working late that day. When he left the bank and checked out, the security cams showed him quite clearly at the same time she was assaulted. A week or so later, they found the real perp, who as it turned out looked very much like him.

Anyhow, you do you.

Similar, I have Safari, Mail, VPN, Boom3d, and Preview, and am using 2.1GB.

It the Mac mini M4 not a sweet little thing?

I have told people, do as you like, commit crimes as you like. You do you.

But I have also told people that if you for a new your second, believe that using your smartphone is at all a good way of assisting in whatever you feel like doing - you are not as smart as you believe you are. They are not secure, they are a little walkie talkie, that transmits radio waves that can be listened to. As noted here, they are not at all secure.

The very technology that allows the cellular system to function is exactly a tracking system, unfortunately people can't understand that if you live in LA, and can still receive calls and text in sat, New York, it knows where you are. Maybe they think that the angry desert gawd tells your phones to ring because only he knows where you are at all times.

Like I said, if a person wants to do something that will land them in trouble - hey, have fun. But using a smartphone, you are documenting it.

Yeah - but I do understand corporatese. If the man says "Xbox is not for sale" - it means it is for sale. Just like when someone is in a bit of trouble, and teh Boss says, We're behind him 100 percent, the guy is gone the next morning.

Regardless, the gaming industry is in a bit of a kerfuffle at the moment. I'm a casual gamer, but can drop a few hundred on them - or at least I used to. I haven't bought a game in a couple years now. So Maybe games will get better if no one is making them any more? Get those mass layoffs going!

That's a bold strategy Cotton - let's see how it works out... 8^) All joking aside, I have an M4 Mini, and it seriously hauls ass.

Stop it! I'm drooling! Seriously though, I'd love to take a test ride in that. I don't do all that much heavy duty computing these days but it would be fun testing that beast out

That made for a flashback. My old G5 Mac - the one In that incredible aircraft aluminum case, sounded like a jet taking off while rendering 3-D animations.

Too bad the operating System at present is not stable.

I know, I am still pissed off that My M4 Mac is better than my Intel Macs in every way. We need to go back to 286's this business of changing things has to stop. 8^/

You figure that inertia is going to hold 50 years from now? Also, there was a reason why my previous place kept a museum of windows and DOS machines. Because despite claims of stability, they aren't all that.

Sounds like the number one now, so it will be number one to infinity and beyond argument.

Yes - for years, Microsoft has done whatever it wants, and even if the customers grumble, they will come back and take it. And for years they have. Will they forever? There is no questioning that W11 has become a very unstable OS. I've been bit several times, my students were bit so many times that they wanted me to teach the class using Linux. A couple migrated their programs to Mac.

So yes, I agree Microsoft wants the user base to continue, and yes, keeping that user base captive is a big priority. However - in nuance, I'm still in agreement with hutkept, as the present Windows situation unfolds, they might want to hold on to everyone they have. Linux and UNIX can do everything Windows can do, just have to write the appropriate software and drivers. The goes for games too.

Linux is catching up in gaming, Apple is mildly interested in gaming, but probably not all that worried.

Maybe they should look at why their gaming division is losing money, and try a different approach?

That is an interesting take - and I think you are exactly right. Otherwise, most everything else is just inertia, the installed user base argument.

Trump chose Retarded Drunk Kegsbreath... who is running the US Military... so...

Well yeah, TreasonBitch Trump and Apartheidist RetardedShit Musk's "DOGE" fired the competent employees all over. GOP are traitors and saboteurs, they all need to be removed from office and permanently barred from it forevermore so we can get started fixing all the problems that the America Hating Retardican Shitbags Party have caused.

I'll wager that just like all other things Microsoft, updates will render it inoperable.

That's why Windows 10 is stable now.

I can't argue with the premise- you are correct, most people will buy a computer, and never change. That's because they do email, a few documents, and browse the web.

However, there is a non-zero chance that the people who don't give a fsck will not be all that happy when a Windows update scrags frags and bags their computer. And therein lies the issue. They might at that point, and even Microsoft admits W11 has a big problem.

Yes, I and some others do a lot more with our computers than the bog standard user. So we "stress" the computer a bit. And Windows 11 is simply and provably not up to the task. It doesn't play well with audio devices. It creates computers that won't allow you to log in, while serving up ads on the login screen. It has problems with some USB drivers for non- bog standard applications. It can place program files or at least their accessory files on onedrive, which screws up the program. I have had all of those things with Windows 11.

I'm at the point where with one critical Windows only application, I have a copy on a second computer, that never goes on the internet except for updates about every 6 months, during a lull in tasking. Some Operating System where you have to keep Microsoft away from it.

But it is not irresponsible or geekish to ask why MacOS continues to work after updates. And despite bog standard people don't give a fsck, They might not be all that pleased when they can't do anything on their computer.

Yeah, there is a factor of people hating change.

But unless you are living under a rock, all is not well in Windows land. Now for you, it might be perfection, never one p[roblem, a true zenith of computing perfection.

That said, even Microsoft admits it is problematic (a polite word for a disaster) https://techcommunity.microsof.... https://www.windowslatest.com/...

I had my work laptop borked with that September update, killed the camera - no face login, wouldn't accept the PIN, wouldn't accept the password, and wouldn't let me change. Not all was lost however - it served up ads on the login screen.

Took my IT guy almost a week to get it operating again. Still has problems with onedrive and Teams.

I teach classes in Digital radio communications. During Windows 7 days, after the first two sessions, everyone's radio computer, and peripherals like USB-Serial adapters and outboard sound cards and CAT control was working. Then we'd spend the rest of the classes on the software.

Windows 10 days - it took a little longer, like 3 sessions. Windows 10 had some audio issues, but they settled down after a few updates - note, Microsoft fixed the issues

Then my Windows 11 class of early this year. We never got to the software deep dive, because few had their equipment running long enough to get to that deep dive. What was running one day, was wrecked by an update. So there was no one class where everyone was properly working.

Pissed off Students, pissed of teacher. Since the software I was teaching also runs on Linux and MacOS, I started secretly using My Mac to teach the class.

We ended the classes early. I had a meeting with the Students via Zoom. What to do? I suggested "Why not try Linux?" So we talked about dual booting, or if they had an old laptop laying around. So I told everyone we'd be starting over, using Linux Mint. Get Mint running, then new classes.

The end result? Fixing a few issues students had during the first class, then the deep dive. These are smart guys and gals. They raced through the syllabus. This class ended early too, but not because the computers didn't run, but because we reached the end of the syllabus.

Your gamer straw man is interesting, and truly I don't care if the only people left using W11 is gamers. The OS has a documented path of disaster, and it is hard to come up with a use case for non-functional computers.

So your professed rational hatred of capitalism, which we don't have in the US is on somehow topic? I responded to your incorrect notion, and your posing that you rationally hate capitalism. Every bit as offtopic

It is perhaps more likely that rather than me going off topic - as you claim I am - you are just pissed off because I said something you didn't like.

Point is, the USA is not a capitalist country. It is an amalgam of corporatism, and socialism, and a smattering of libertarian. You should know that.

Speaking of suggestions to poster to get a degree in economics - kind of amusing - I do remember an economist "expert" being interviewed on NPR shortly before the SHTF in 2007 claiming that the new normal was going to be people purchasing everything in the future by using their home equity, and their property would continue to gain value endlessly in the future. What the actual hell?

That is an equation that has infinity as the end result. I'm not a professional economist, but I do know a little math, and a solution that has infinity result is just wrong. So I'm not all that impressed by economists anyhow. Put three in a room, ask a question, and you'll get 4 different opposing answers. 8^)