I don’t think it’s just parents falling for this or older people.

I doubt that.

ISP’s give us access to the Internet. And we pay them for it. Google makes money via ad aggregation. We already know they were able to do this without siphoning up all your data because they literally made money doing it before 2004 when they launched Gmail. What you’re talking about already exists though. User subscriptions for Email, VPN’s, Search Engines etc already exist and people are using them. People are paying for them.

People also generally understand that if they aren’t paying for a service then they are the product. The thing is though, lots of those people are fine with ads so long as the ads don’t get in the way of them enjoying the product. If I open a website they don’t need to have a full page ad open up when the site page loads. But they do that anyway and that’s what people are largely pushing back against.

Additionally, if these companies want our data? They should do a much better job of safeguarding it, or be held responsible in a meaningful way.

I’d love to know what you do when you can’t find a DVD still in print? Media companies like Disney and Paramount etc have been deliberately limiting the number of DVD’s and other physical formats available, putting whole movies and series “in the vault” for the purposes of manufacturing scarcity. Piracy is largely a matter of economic affordability and ease of access. I can pirate. The point is when I had these titles available to buy, I bought media rather than pirate it. I preferred to. And when it’s not easily available or locked to specific services I’m boycotting etc there’s few avenues left. I can appreciate that you were trying to give me a legal avenue to obtain what I want, but I feel like you missed the forest for the trees here.

Looks like from a cursory search only 12 of them available of about 22.

I was. Until they made that so difficult and time consuming that the barrier to entry was too high. Not because of the price. But because of availability. When Google play music was a thing? I bought music. When streaming took over I moved to Bandcamp. But Bandcamp doesn’t have everything. There’s no music stores anymore where I can just go and buy music. It’s all Amazon and similar.

I’d love to own the ghibli collection. But to get it I have to buy the DVD’s (and have a DVD player to play them on), or I have to pirate them. No digital store front seems to have the whole collection. This happens all the time with media that I’m willing to pay for.

Honestly kind of cool. I don’t use split screen much but when I do it’s usually for maps and music because having the ability to swipe to the next song is often more reliable that my steering wheel controls. Easier to use in rental cars in my experience too. Not sure I need it to be that extreme for my use case though.

That assumes it’s attached to a carrier. I had a phone stolen out of the mail.

On the other hand I like that my phone does those things and don’t want it to be sellable in the event that someone decides to steal it.

Ah. That no upvote rule. I’ve heard tell the corporate overlords don’t like Luigi.

What “don’t upvote” rule?

Rofl… Oh. They’re serious. Well. In that case. Rotflmfao.

At one point the IT department where I work were asking questions about why I tether my phone to my work laptop when I’m out of the office (working from home). I told them very specifically that I would not connect any device I didn’t have administrator control over to my home network. They didn’t ask anymore questions after that. I have a work phone and work laptop for work things. I use both only for work things. I have two personal computers, and two personal phones (one for messing with roms). I don’t need their hardware for anything in my personal life. Nope. Not even a Google search.

They also asked me if I wanted my personal phone logged into the wifi and I gave them serious side eye before saying no thanks.

People are lonely. They lack the kinds of interactions in their lives that make them feel comfortable and more importantly allow them to feel seen or understood. The mindless scrolling temporarily fills the void they have in human interaction while allowing them to interact themselves if/when they want to.

Humans are “addicted” to human interaction and the algorithms take advantage of that fact to make a product out of them.

Additionally, human brains seek out novelty. A lot of our day to day lives are filled with work and duties (chores, bills, children) etc. People in the 1920’s weren’t addicted to the news paper. They needed something to do with their free time that didn’t break the bank. Increasingly there’s just not that many things that you can put down to switch gears that fit that bill.

I was confused because I use a TTRPG platform called foundry to run D&D games. But still a good read.

Oh the third hand, Google fomented the scam ads that then took over that they are now using their AI tool to solve, and it’s come very late to the table to do so. They shouldn’t have to rely on AI to clean up their mess. They should have been facilitating protocols to vet ads long before now. At best the AI might be faster, but those results will still more than likely need to be checked by people (at the very least, appeals will be, but perhaps most of these scam ad companies won’t try to appeal).

With the use of AI to deny or approve healthcare insurance claims etc, this is exactly why we should be pushing for legislation that regulates AI. There’s too many people who are all “cats out of the bag” and not enough people going, we should be regulating this.

The sarcasm lost on you, or?

So, did the market tumble again after he said this nonsense?

Waiting to see if the prices still go up, because between this and the fact that windows 10 support is ending in October, I’m sure these companies are still going to try to gouge people.

I still want an updated sidekick. I want it so bad.