This is the enshittifcatoin/entropy of end stage capitalism.
If it's connected to the internet, or could be, then you should expect Corporate to force you into a forever landlord situation sooner or soonest (not later, because those pockets won't fill themselves you know).

Expect door knobs to start requiring an annual fee, charged by the turn, sometime within the next six months, and used tissue paper to expect you to pay an annual fee as well. Again, those middlemen expect a multi tens of millions retirement!

I don't know what to tell you other than the only solution I see is to stop buying internet connected things without an open source hardware license. Feel free to chime in with your solutions.

In the USA. I travel from coast to coast to coast (East, West, and Gulf of Mexico coast) and to other countries. I don't see this outside of the USA.

They do take cash (reluctantly). Doesn't matter if one pays cash or with bitcoin or gold dust - they still want the information, including a credit card.
A few months ago I said "I'll pay cash" and they said "We don't serve people that do not register with a credit card." so I left.

As to it "being a problem" - it isn't. But neither is it uncommon to be refused service if one doesn't bow down to the data scrapers. the chain SuperCuts (Regis) is the last one I walked out of.

another cash grab and loss of privacy.

I'm pretty frustrated with this sort of crap. When I buy something, I buy it. It's mine. I want to use it how I will. I get to re-sell that if I want. I get to not have to tell you who I swap spit with or what I read or who I vote for. I've had to resort to going to the allies and byways to get a freaking haircut that doesn't require an anal DNA probe with retinal and finger prints and a blood type before they'll take my money and do a simple hair cut. Why do they want my social media? Why does a storage locker joint want to know where I work, how much I make, and what music I like? And why do they want a long term lease? I lie a lot now. I'm sure whoever had the facebook account MindYourOwnFahawkingBusinessYouPeckerHeadDonkeyWipe is pissed. Thank goodness @example.com doesn't resolve and has a -all SPF or someone at the other end of FaqueEwe@ would want a word or two.

I guess I'm an grumpy old fart but it sure seems like to me that an awful lot of companies need a nose job; they one that have is too long and too sharp and it doesn't belong in my groin and their hand needs to stay out of my pocket.

He also wants to distract from the TrumpStein files, but yes, his main aim is the grift. It's always, ALWAYS the grift.

For what it's worth, simply painting a normal gun to look like a toy has been attempted before, too. But I agree that conversions like this must be pretty spooky if you're in law enforcement. Still, toy gun form factors needn't be the only gimmick; consider the chaos a briefcase gun could unleash without scrutiny. The sky is the limit for designing concealed weapons if one is sufficiently imaginative and determined.

I think you're already plenty concerning just on your own!

There's more to be relieved about. The US accepted weapons grade fissionables and exchanged it at 1 to 7 for reactor grade. At the time, the mushy brains yelled and screamed that the US was "Giving away Uranium!". To be fair, the reporting that got them screaming did not mention the fact it involved trading in weapons grade (stuff that goes boom) for reactor grade (stuff that hums). Of course the wingnut media didn't report that - it wouldn't make their base scream in horror.

Many times the initial match is made from a consanguinity/divergence comparison. Then the cops come banging at the door, then the lawyers get involved, the expenses mount, and even when you're found innocent and not a match, you still have the legal bills, the loss of reputation because you are a "person of interest", maybe you lost your job when they put you in jail pending trial and you can't afford bail (remember that bail charges are a fee and you don't get them back, ever) and the strife and stress of being victimized by a system that is less "justice" and more "law".

While some advertise that their tests are accurate out to fourth and fifth cousin, second cousins share only about 4% of their DNA with each other. Your life could be turned topsy turvy over a less than 4% finding.

The only solution I see other than not permitting arrests based solely on consanguinity (direct match to actual crime scene sample is another matter - that should be allowed of course) is to require every birth certificate have a DNA test. And recall - not everyone gets a birth certificate. That would tend to also (almost) solve another problem: Convictions for rape and the appropriate person charged child support.

Are you OK? You don't seem OK.

It's time to learn about the REU!

"Penultimate" isn't a synonym for "ultimate"—it means the thing before the ultimate. Likewise we have penumbra for the blurry edge of a shadow (umbra). This results in some truly special words like "antepenult," meaning "the thing before the thing before the final thing," commonly used when discussing where the stress/accent falls in a Greek or Latin word.

"Invaluable" does indeed mean "not able to be valued" when analyzed morphologically, but the standard usage of it is indicating something is beyond value, i.e. infinitely or inestimably valuable. A value of zero is still a value, after all.

"Inflammable" however actually means "able to be inflamed," as in "put in flame" or "set on fire." The confusion comes from assimilation of the Latin preposition "in" (which we have as "in" or "on") instead of the more typical prefix "in-" (which demarcates negation.) You don't have to look very far for other words where "in" doesn't mean "not": indicate, inherit, imply, investigate, indict, involve...

You missed it:
After careful consideration, user accounts within the Dictionary.com app have been discontinued.
Not informative, but it's there.

As a result, users are no longer able to sign in to their accounts, and any saved word lists are no longer available.
Oh. Seems like they didn't want to spend money to fix their API framework. My observations on this point in a bit.

Unfortunately, since the coding technology that was used in the previous app version is different from what is used in the new app, it is not possible to recover word lists.
Bull. Ducking. Spit. And you can believe as much of that Bull Spit as you'd like. I could speculate but it does seem like a cash grab or that someone didn't get the source code and/or access to the backend data. I've worked for places were their vital, must work app - they forgot to put in the contract they own the source. And another place that outsourced their SANs and walked in one fine Monday to find all of them had been removed over the weekend for non-payment. Along with the backup tapes. (it's still in court).

Code changes? I'm not going to rant and rave about doing data transfers using output from a 20ma current loop teletype to RS-232 then to 8" floppy because it'll make yer eyes bleed. Or the fun and games using CPIO and DD to take data from 9 track tape to a SCSI DC150 tape - and mind the endian on that data stream. Data are fungible. They can always, ALWAYS be rearranged.

While we understand that this changes how you use Dictionary.com, we are hopeful that you will find the overall improvements provide faster search, additional content, and a better design.
Translation: We spit all over everything and hope you like the change in the taste, and if not... Oh well. Stinks to be you.

Metanote on API frameworks:
As things evolve or devolve, changes to the API are necessary. Leave wiggle room for you to meet those challenges going forward. No, I'm not going to get specific - that it the context for several books. I could write a few books on that but others already have, and likely more eloquently and patiently than I can. I will say that a api call with a version is pretty simple to do.

Reminds me of the segment of Gallagher's - "Ever meet the son of a bitch at the courtesy desk?" Yes, I don't like having to call for something as simple as getting a price for a commodity item.

Personally, if I have to call to find out what their price is, I'll just keep looking for someone that isn't afraid to be open and transparent on their pricing. I figure that I won't be happy as their customer and they won't be happy having my curmudgeonly ass as a client. The only reason they want your contact is so they can reach back to offer a lower price after a time.

I've worked with a sales clot that would call people back after a few days if the customer said "I already bought it somewhere else" with a price that was lower than cost. I got revenge on the sales clot but that's a story for another day. I knew I made a mistake taking that job in the first 10 minutes, and I only stuck around for a total of 15 days. And yes, the boss tried to not pay me too. So I got a check for 45 days before it was all over.

To save power, it won't shut itself down, it will simply switch to using Thermo Electric Generation from body heat. Think "Matrix".
"Soylent Green is people!"

I was given to furiously to think when I read your post. I came to the conclusion that for myself, the responsibility to grow as a person requires my personal commitment to do so. It isn't something that can be showered upon me by factors outside myself. This isn't just music, this is everything.

BUT, It's Friday, the weekend beckons, and there's an indie band playing at a restaurant I've never been to, and I raided the couch cushions for some spare change. I may not like the music or the food, but then again, I might!