This is so true, so true.

And it's not even US specific. In the wake of the Ukraine war, German parliament voted to give itself 100 billion of additional taxpayer money (i.e. debt) to spend on defense. Recently a report came out of all the money spent so far, 90% did not go towards the intended purpose.

Why any of the jokers in charge of our governments are still not in jail baffles me more and more every year. Oh yes, it's because they make the rules, sorry, my bad.

That's what campaign donations get you, if they are large enough.

This is why congress occasionally bullies the big tech companies. We all think they might want to have some regulation or to punish them. Oh sweetie... they're saying "nice company you have there... would be a shame if something happened to it..."

The best time to leave github was when the evil empire bought it. The second best time is now.

Seriously. Anyone who thought MS wouldn't fuck it up in the same way they fuck up everything they touch can't be helped. It's Microsoft for crying out loud.

Sorry but it's 2026 and this just means embarrassed conservative.

True.

Biden constantly reached out to conservatives

Because Biden could out-conservative any five Republicans combined.

He appointed a very moderate AG

"Moderate" also just means "embarrassed conservative."

even with the very obviously illegal Mar-A-Lago documents

Bzzt! Sitting presidents have total declassification powers. Trump could take and unilaterally declassify anything he wanted, period. And Trump did work with the Feds to secure them in a locked room in a residence with around the clock secret service protection. Now do VP Biden storing classified documents all over unsecured places, and Hillary with her illegal email server. Which she set up just two years after savaging the Bush Administration for using private email.

Nope. They've kept making them for years. They're no longer waterproof though. I've owned ... way too many of them:

https://battlepenguin.com/tech...

https://battlepenguin.com/tech...

https://battlepenguin.com/tech...

I still have a Pioneer head unit in my 2007 WRX. Why the fuck would anyone buy a modern car? You gotta rip out the dash and add a wiring harness to disable the damn permanent modem. Older cars are really where it's at. Get something old and restore it. It'll be better and last longer, and you can install a modern head unit and get a backup camera too.

I still use Sony cellphones too. Great cameras, and you can still use their nice camera apps after you de-Google the phone:

https://battlepenguin.com/tech...

There's not a lot of DRAM or NVRAM in a Chromebook, or even that new super cheap $500 Macbook. Be prepared for having near zero power on home compute and be required to send everything to Microsoft/Google/Amazon for the most basic shit. Need to edit video? Congratulations, we have video editing as a service! Enjoy scrubbing through 4k video with our shitty web interface, laggy UI and layers of Electron cancer. Upload straight to Youtube, and literally nowhere else. It's not like you have the storage to preserve your own copy anyway. Oh it got censored and deleted? Well too you shouldn't have been wrong-thinking or wrong-speaking. This will help you forget.

I think it was better than the book. Same with the author's last book; the screenwriters really tone down his campy dialog and cut out the slow parts perfectly.

I saw it in eyeMax opening weekend. I rarely go to the theaters these days and this one was certainly wroth it. I've been listening to the sound track all week too. Really well done. Good coding music.

Stallman has never taken issues with people charging for open source software, or making money off it in other ways, so long as the code maintained the four software freedoms.

>arguing it unfairly advantages startups

Way to say your dealers suck.

I don't like people legislating to big daddy government to put companies in check. Facebook was funded by Peter Thiel and launched the day after DARPA shut down Digital LifeLog (pure coincidence. no connection. promise. move on.) They are meant to be tracking and manipulation platforms for the State.

If you don't like it, stop using it! I haven't shopped at Amazon since 2016. The trouble is the mass of people cannot turn away. I don't blame them I guess. I only deleted all my big social media accounts (FB, Insta, Xitter) ~4 years ago.

I agree with the lawyer who argued this will hurt smaller websites. The UK has effectively destroyed any and all small independent forums. They're trying to go after websites not even hosted or affiliated with the UK! It's insane.

Stuff like this could destroy the future of the fediverse.

Six years ago I wrote a proposal for Section 230 reform that I think is relevant:

https://battlepenguin.com/poli...

Don't care. If your shit shows me ads, it's not getting into my kitchen. Note to self: Don't buy appliances from Samsung anymore.

Yes, I am vocal in how much I hate ads. I believe the CEOs of advertising companies should get one hit with a stick for every time their ad bothered someone even in the slightest.

Exactly what I'm saying.

The fact that users and enterprise customers are not demanding better software from Microsoft with the same fervor their ancestors demanded that the witch be burnt speaks volumes.

And I'm specifically talking about operating systems here. Software can crash for all I care. I'm fine software quality being all over the place, the market can sort that out. But operating systems are natural monopolies and the foundation for everything else. We should not accept shoddy quality there.

You have an actual argument? How can you possibly watch a video of WTC7 today and NOT thing it was a planned demolition?

Simplify. The best part is no part. The parts omitted never fail. They don't require maintenance, supply chains, continuous improvement.