And we say single moms have it hard in the West.

Does anyone else find it weird that almost none of the headlines mention that she is the CEO of a major company and customer of NVIDIA?

These normies just don’t get it. Being fired is just part of the joke lulz (˶ˆᗜˆ˵)

/s

How do these websites determine who gets served a paywall? I don’t get one at all.

Finally

So, they did everything that users said would kill the site and it… killed the site?

Good thing they already banned or drove out all the top human contributors. There’s no one left to say “I told you so.”

To be fair, some US states do handle this better than others. Australia is about the population of California. So now just figure out how to coordinate that system with about 50 other Australias of various sizes and political leanings and you’ve got something.

Short answer: The USA has no national ID.

Long answer: instead we have a patchwork of more than 50 different regional IDs (between states, territories, etc.), alongside a half-dozen ill-suited federal IDs, and numerous public and private institutional IDs (like university IDs or Costco cards).

For the most part, all of these cost money. Due to inconsistent systems and sometimes unclear requirements, the people who are most likely to be disenfranchised are also the most vulnerable. Most state IDs require proof of residence like a utility bill, which can be impossible if you are homeless or off-grid. If you are disabled, you may not qualify for a driver’s license (the most common state ID). If you are trans (or a married woman), you may have paperwork with conflicting legal names.

If you are reasonably well-off, on the other hand, you can afford to pay a private company to facilitate your passport application. The US passport is basically the gold standard of national ID, but fewer than half of Americans have one. It requires a certain amount of wealth to even need one, and the expense (money, time, etc) is not trivial.

You’re not an idiot. It’s impossible to tell the difference between a robot and a bureaucrat.

Dr. Venture: Weapon? What are you talking about? Why the applications are limitless.

UN Science Director: Are you kidding me? You blew up a model city with it. What are we suppose to think? Look, it even melted all the little people and stuff. Awww.

Dr. Venture: Well, I suppose if it ever fell into the wrong hands it could be modified and used as a weapon after a fashion. But thats true of almost any technology.

How is it possible to lose money when your whole business model is based on theft?

Literally, what are their expenses?

Yes, and experts have been saying that for a few years. It’s so large an attack area that sooner or later a bad actor may succeed.

The counter argument is that it is also very compartmentalized and surprisingly nimble. Even with major physical infrastructure being destroyed by Iran, Ukraine, Russia, China, etc., the internet itself is basically fine.

What happens when he runs out if companies to merge and the whole house of cards comes down?

Greater digital independence. I currently use Voxist, which is… fine.

I don’t really want more corporate spyware on my phone from Google or my carrier or whoever. I’d prefer something FOSS, and private. That means on-device (or self hosted, but I don’t even know how that would work.)

Thanks, I’ll check this out!

Exactly my thinking. I’m old enough to remember buying those tiny cassette tapes.

They can’t leave a message. No different than any service, although my phone is functionally never dead. In my case it’s just not an issue.

Important to consider to be sure!

Worth noting that this lawsuit alleges Expedia is even causing higher prices if you book directly from the hotel. That’s exactly what you would expect to see in a monopolistic pricing scheme.