It is like, $20 a month and far, far cheaper than cable or whatever. I don't like paying for services, but I don't like dealing with ads even more. If there's an option for an ad-free experience, I will always take that option.

That's strange. I see cops regularly harassing the homeless, young people, people of color, and anyone who doesn't fit the standard white conformist profile, but rarely see the other "regular" human beings doing so. Where do you live that all the "just human beings" are falsely arresting, fabricating charges against, and ruining the lives of people they don't like and/or that won't kiss their ass?

I said I have known / met them. I didn't say they were my friends. Have you ever heard of police associations? Have you ever been to functions that cater to the police? Have you been in and around the criminal court systems where you regularly meet cops? Do you have any relatives with decades in law enforcement? Do you have a family with strong ties to departments in hundreds of different cities and towns? Did you go to visit all these various departments and meet the officers? Were there over 200 uniformed cops at your father's funeral? You don't know anything about me, so calling me a liar might not your best path to informed and intelligent commentary. Cops are like M$ Windows: the more you know about them the more you realize they should be avoided unless there is no alternative.

I have known thousands of cops including a stepmother who rose through the ranks from beat cop to chief of police, and have been at functions with hundreds of cops telling stories of all their crimes. Everything I said is based on first hand evidence except the additional video proof I pointed out. Further research into you shows that you come from a cop family and are a known bootlicker.

I can assure you that most cops are criminals, that they regularly disrespect citizens who do not stroke their egos, and become dangerously unprofessional anytime they think there is an opportunity to do so. Bodycam footage is a major factor now, but one only needs to do some actual research, for example the Bricks and Minifigs / Reckless Ben case, where redacted bodycam footage normally never exposed makes clear how cops actually behave when they think they can get away with it comes to light. Cops don't become cops because they have a strong philanthropic bent. They become cops because they want power over the people who picked on them in High School, or the people who know what bullies and small minded twerps they actually are when they don't have their fellow gang members to join in their crimes.

I'm having a bit of trouble working up any sympathy, as the saying goes.

Basically everyone who works in a regulated industry, or industry that should be does, yes.

The FSB is certainly getting a good ROI on their investment in Trump.

I've been paying for Kagi ($10/mo?) now for over a year across both personal and work devices and I don't miss it at all. The only time I still use google is if I need to buy a product and want to see what is available besides what is on amazon, i'll seach "toaster oven" to get inundated with ads (and then 12-48 hours later see ads for toaster oven across all my social medias and youtube). Turning off the googs cold-turkey and then selectively using it, it's been very interesting to see what kind of targeted ads I see.

AI is so smart that it can hallucinate without even having to take drugs.

Undoubtedly the origin of the Hobbit-steals-dragons-treasure meme.

I think you mean, "so the middle men can pocket the savings".

This is the blandest, most watered-down way to say "lost their job" yet. Quite nauseating.

OK. I understand how you misunderstand the issue better now. You haven't thought about how time works. Is knowing meant fixing and deploying those fixes immediately then the advantage would go to the guys guys. It takes time to implement fixes and test them. Even if the fix was immediate there is a propagation issue. Patches don't roll out immediately and the landscape is huge. A vulnerability in an older version will not be treated as a priority. Sometimes patches don't make their way to production at all. Knowing doesn't fix the problem it only exposes it. Give all of this some more thought. You seem at least smart enough to see what you are missing as you perform further analysis if you do.

I get that you don't know very much about the situation and feel qualified to comment on Slashdot as though you are an expert anyway. It has been the Slashdot way for the decades I have been here. However your speculation, as indicated by your use of words like probably, give you away. While it is obviously true that *some* of these vulnerabilities are known to *some* bad actors, it is equally obvious to anyone who stops to think and be honest with themselves for even a short time that *all* of these were not known to *all* of them. Let that sink in. Now add to that the fact that *many* of these were not known to *anyone* and perhaps you can start to get a small grasp on the gravity of the change in landscape and it's danger. Claiming there is no danger and it is all just hype is so absurd I can't even think of words that express exactly how absurd.