Which government? The US (relevant as it's where Google is located) does its best to do everything through contractors. It would have to be through some international body, like the United Nations. I can't imagine that not slowing development to a crawl and leading to some other corporate browser taking over and creating the same problem all over again.

There are some motherboards which will let you use DDR4 with an AM4 processor, and AM4 processors have made sort of a comeback with AMD bringing back production of some higher end parts which remain competitive.

Though I actually built this as the AM5 stuff drove down the prices rather than going back and doing it, I run a 5900X (12C24T 3.7-4.8 GHz) and it remains a beast given the costs. I use 4x CP16G4DFRA32A.C8FF for 64GB dual channel, and the mainboard is an ASRock B550M PG Riptide. It's been absolutely solid, though ASRock has had some lemons and the RGB on this board is lousy.

At work I run Windows 11 on 4GB. If I leave it running for more than a few days then office windows stop drawing correctly, and don't even get me started on Acrobat.

I own a 2C4T Zen+ laptop which came with 4GB, I was able to get a matching SODIMM on ebay for about $15 and it's also dual channel which is especially nice for a unified memory machine. It's running Devuan with KDE and it's absolutely fine for any task I'd want to do on it. But it would cover my needs for Windows, too. 4GB doesn't, and didn't with Linux either.

My desktop has 64GB. This is the first time I've ever built a computer which appreciated.

Good and bad parts alike are made in China. Nobody seems really clear on what exactly happened with the capacitors, which frankly makes me believe the corporate espionage story since it's the most nefarious presented so far and muddy waters primarily benefit those trying to hide something in the river. The scope of that particular problem hasn't repeated since, so clearly it was an exceptional circumstance.

It's not a failure for the market side of the equation, because we're captive. It's a failure for the consumer side. Alas, despite understanding that they are consumers, and that corporations are legal fictions whose very existence is allegedly in the interest of The People, there is very little will to force them to actually serve our interests before then going on to serve their own. This is in the name of "freedom" but somehow giving more rights to corporations doesn't seem to ever result in actually increasing net freedom.

Actively jamming radio signals is a violation of federal law. It's not necessary, as you point out a mylar bag should do the job. If it doesn't there's a variety of types of foil-lined bags, or you could easily make bags with aluminum screen mesh. The camera is the primary tracking problem though, that's the principal sensor. Audio is also a problem but not on the same level.

A mistake was still made

Yep, it happens. And it was not even a mistake by Flock, apparently — not that it matters. Mistakes will continue to be made — they don't mean, Flock is doing anything wrong, or that police has to be "defunded", or Capitalism overthrown. But Slashdot is running multiple anti-Flock articles every day, it seems — like they did against Walmart some 15-20 years ago.

Can't shake off the feeling, this is a part of a propaganda campaign...

The argument against it was in the summary.

The argument, that participants can influence the outcome — if financially motivated by the betting — is but a tertiary afterthought. That may have some merits, but it is not new — regular financial markets have learned to deal with insider trading, and we have criminal laws against such activity. It is not a reason to ban the betting outright.

But the original journalist, the submitter, and BeauHD obviously emphasise the "ghastly" aspect... And this appeal to emotion is, what I find contemptible.

I'm 99% sure somebody has already been killed because of Flock

But you don't have evidence, do you? Just like those January 6th "insurrectionists". Only they don't get any "Insightful" moderation for some reason...

Flock does not pull any triggers — it only informs police, that a suspect (or, more likely, the suspect license plate) has been spotted in a certain location. That's all. The actual reaction is than up to the officers.

If anything, it is only more certain, multiple murders — and other crimes — have been prevented by the timely(ier) detention of the criminals. And, additionally, by successful prosecution of them thanks to the video-evidence. But Grok could not find any comprehensive stats for me, so I'm not including any evidence either.

Fuck Trump Musk AOC Sanders far right n' left tech bros ICE Islamophobes antisemites mullahs pedopriests nationalists

Some libido you've got there!!

Right, this is an indictment of policing in America, not Flock.

But since you clearly cannot trust the police, you double cannot trust them with access to Flock.

You cannot keep the police from getting access to Flock, therefore the only reasonable thing to do to Flock is destroy it.

Yes, this is only* because the police are corrupt, but since they are...

* Yeah, and some other people too, this hyperbole is for the purpose of the discussion in scope

I think we both know that ship has sailed

still fine ?

Fine? No, I'd be devastated by the death. But why would somebody else's making money — not "out of it", but by predicting it — affect me at all? They didn't kill the child. They didn't contribute to his dying.

Yeah, going home from a funeral — of anyone close to you — and watching people carelessly enjoying their lives unaware of your tragedy is annoying. But you don't get mad at them. Or, maybe, you do — because you're a fool controlled by emotions, rather than rational thought.

Bettors should not be rooting for an experimental medicine to fail just to earn a buck

Why not? If that is one's way to pursue happiness and it does not hurt anyone, what argument is there against it?

"It's quite ghastly."

That's not a reason...

Good thing we hardly are made out of any bacteria.

Wait...