I use Startpage. I re-search using Google maybe one time out of twenty.

I didn't even click the link, but yes, 'twas my inspiration. Singing that song is one of the most cathartic things one can do.

Fuck Google with an anchor.

This is out-and-out blackmail and I hope it results in a generation of kids growing up using alternatives to Google.

We might see much lighter web pages, better-compressed images, etc.

But I suspect most of the traffic from companies like Meta, Google, etc. would be video and I don't really see a way to compress that much without losing quality.

All in all, though, I can't see this actually making it into law.

A dedicated button turns off the microphones and any camera

Yes. For sure it does. Absolutely. Scout's honor.

Nah. Over 50 by quite a bit and still happily emacsing.

I remember in the early days, people said emacs stood for "Eight Megs And Constantly Swapping". Eight megs... how quaint!

Freshwater is cheap for a reason: it's abundant.

Uh, no. Fresh water is abundant in some places and scarce in others. The reason it's cheap in the US in places where it's scarce like Arizona and Southern California is that the government subsidizes it, as well as drawing more water from aquifers than can be replenished in time. In a lot of places in the USA, water consumption is not sustainable. And yes, agriculture is the main culprit. Exporting oranges from California is just insane; you're sending out crates of 90% water from a desert.

I didn't call you unethical. I called the Generative AI industry unethical. And I never called you greedy. It's the AI oligarchs who are greedy.

There are (as you point out) many unethical industries and sometimes it's impractical not to use some of them, or perhaps we don't think they're all that unethical. I appreciate that your line is different from mine.

My links are admittedly a little old, but just today there was another story published on Slashdot saying that AI doesn't really make organizations any more productive. So I think the jury's still out on the productivity question.

I do like the craftsmanship of hand-written software. And being retired, I'm in no hurry, so a faster build/review/test cycle doesn't matter to me.

I would use the power tools except that I think the entire GenAI industry is unethical, so for that reason, I don't use the power tools.

I'm retired from software development, so I only work on hobby projects. I don't use AI by choice because it's a hobby and I enjoy all facets of software development. Getting an AI to do it would be completely contrary to my enjoyment of the hobby.

I have a friend still working in the field, though, and he says he hasn't hand-written code in over 6 months. He tells me the current models are really good and produce code, test-cases and documentation that's good enough for his company.

My friend has decades of software development experience. I agree with the concerns of others who wonder how new developers will ever learn the ropes if AI does everything.

OK. Then I think Trump should be charged with conspiracy to commit hostile acts against the USA.

It's a little different when only one side has the nukes.

All of the diesel Trump purportedly wants to buy from Russia over the next 3 months amounts to less than one day's worth of world consumption. It won't make a rat's ass of difference to "expenses to US people."

You are either conned by the grifter, or conning on behalf of the grifter.

Cramer vs. The United States (1945) resulted in a ruling from SCOTUS that an "enemy" must be an actual recognized foreign power actively engaged in war with the USA.

I read the text of the ruling and could find nothing saying anything like that. Can you provide a quote from the actual ruling to support your contention?

That is not true. Treason includes assisting enemies of the USA who are in "open conflict" with the USA. There's nothing in the Constitution saying that there needs to be an officially-declared war.

This is the text of 18 U.S. Code Sec 2381:

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

I'm aware that treason charges are rare and convictions even rarer, but still. Trump has given the enemies of the United States "aid and comfort".