I assume most users don't do it on purpose. They log in to Gmail or whatever and Chrome (by default) grabs that and logs the browser in along with it.
Some users probably like being able to sync browsing sessions from one device to another. I found it more annoying than helpful. Also creepy, so that was about the time I stopped daily-driving vanilla Chrome on my personal devices.
The size arms race was more of a mainstream consumer thing in the late 1990s and early aughts. It ended when gas got expensive.
SUVs and pickups do still rule in terms of US market sales, but the best sellers are mostly smaller crossovers- passenger car platforms with taller bodies. These days, the attribute of perceived safety isn't size as an end-all; it's just an upright seating position. Even in a large, heavy sedan, consumers feel less safe because they're sitting down low and taller vehicles around them impede visibility. They'll feel more confident in a tiny compact crossover, just from sitting upright.
Pickup trucks are status symbols now, replacing the landbarge full-sized sedans of yesteryear. The blue-collar stigma from pickups has disappeared, suspensions are nicer, interiors are plush- and so forth. They're roomy as hell inside, and can be optioned well into 6-figure territory. Few care about actual utility/capacity, it's just comfort.
I don't use LinkedIn. I assume there's some sort of functionality for end users to report or flag prohibited content? 50-centers have been known to abuse these features to censor criticism of the CCP on large platforms. A "noted" critic would absolutely be targeted in this manner.
So, it may not be Microsoft bending to China so much as not having enough human moderators looking at content. Any kind of automated removal (remove posts that get X reports in Y amount of time) is likely to be exploited by anyone with enough goons to throw at it.
The USA gov cant use Arial bombardment
Well, I would hope not. With the size of the defense budget, they should be able to at least use Helvetica.
A remarkable thing about the pandemic is how well it has distracted the general public from all of the other problems with Chinese manufacturing for Western companies. The tinfoil crowd would probably call it "convenient".
Businesses were already seeing the value diversification, or even full divestment from China-based supply chains before covid-19 shut everything down. Unfortunately, it's easier said than done. The alternatives don't yet have the developed manufacturing sectors to match China's, and there are a lot of growing pains involved with getting the raw materials, equipment, and tooling in place. But, the pressure is definitely there. Average consumers are slowly catching on to the ever-worsening human rights issues in China (Hong Kong, the expanding Uyghur forced labor program, other prisoner labor, the massive domestic surveillance apparatus) and the CCP's efforts to exert cultural influence beyond China's borders. Admittedly President Hamfist's trade war has also been a factor in pushing some commerce out of China, but it's not going into the US. The tide is shifting to Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, and so forth.
It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next decade or so.
Please go away.
