More like it doesn’t want to get the money to maintain those infrastructure by going into further debt.
I’m not following German politics very closely but the article mentions that this restriction is in their constitution.
There was something in that genre in my province decades ago when a government dedicated itself to ‘zero deficit’ by cutting on infrastructure maintenance for many years. A bridge eventually fell. Classic story. It seems like a common thing.
This can also be practical in places where the police can force you to unlock your phone with biometrics but not with the PIN.
Ever since I’ve seen the police here force people to delete the videos of them abusing citizens, I have been very wary of biometric identification.
So far my ‘emergency’ procedure would be to restart my phone, as it’s asking for a PIN after a reboot.
For me it’s an old habit from IRC. Instead of sending 5/6/7 lines of text, I just cut it with … and continue typing on the same line. I could make complete sentences with capitals and periods but instant messaging is not a medium well suited for full sentences and paragraphs, so you get …
After having a TCL smart TV that constantly smells like burning plastic, even a year after using it, I’m not sure I would want another of their product in my home.
That’s excellent for their clients. I’m guessing it set a precedent and the industry stopped trying anything else.
I didn’t follow the most recent developments here in Canada but AFAIK, a decade ago the industry tried to sue individuals that were “pirating”, and lost because they couldn’t proof that an IP could be associated with a single person, or something like that. Then the industry pretty much stopped trying to sue individuals from that point. They still send the threatening letters, but they don’t do anything else because past experiences with our courts didn’t go well for them.
Of course, there is a very very slim chance that the industry will try to sue a few individuals to scare others and create a new precedent, but it’s going to be a civil suit because it’s not even criminal here.
Meh. I don’t know about OP but where I live ISPs are forced to relay the legal notice, but nothing more happens. There is no prosecution and nobody will knock on my door.
I have been torrenting on and off since the protocol exists and never once hid my IP. My ISP relays me the threats from the industry, I ignore them, and continue what I was doing before. Same for everyone in my country. Those that end up paying for a VPN and hiding their IP are just intimidated onto doing so, because of the threats. But again, aside from getting that threatening email, nobody will knock on your door for torrenting here.
I’m using Android but I can give you a few personal examples on why I still prefer mobile websites to apps.
The place where I take weather has a shitty app full of ads and always sending notifications. They don’t have PWA offered on their site but just going through a browser instead of the app is significantly better.
YouTube’s app is also full of ads. So I use the mobile website in Firefox with uBlock Origin.
Again with awful apps full of ads. Twitter is also much more tolerable through the mobile website. There’s no autoplay on FF and again, ads blocked.
I still use IRC and my client is web based, so that I can see pictures and videos in my chats. The web based IRC client (The Lounge) offers PWA and it’s very nice to have the thing in a “clean” browser.
Again, I don’t use Apple for reasons like this, but Firefox is already pretty bad with PWA and having those possibilities mangled or removed wouldn’t be acceptable to me.
Maybe you don’t use a browser on mobile and just do everything through terrible apps. Maybe most people do the same. But if you don’t use it, why do you care if those using it want to retain the possibility to do so?
I personally don’t watch TV so nobody watches TV anymore, right?
The poor.
As long as it’s not à la Musk where the new versions will be inferior to the previous one because “no modern trains should rely on antiquated technology so we’re scrapping everything from before to start from scratch”.
I’d be curious to see any numbers on that. Uber and Lyft played the card of “but it’s car sharing and thus reducing trafic” but in the end, it doesn’t really change much, and sometimes even increase trafic.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congestion-car-ownership-study/
As someone that doesn’t have a licence, never have driven a car and avoids them if possible, taxis (autonomous or not) are generally useless to me. They are still cars and they keep people dependent on cars.
In a city, people shouldn’t need a taxi (read, a car) to get around. In urban areas, people can walk, bike or use public transit. And if you want to go from one city to another, one shouldn’t also need a taxi (car) to get there.
I’m aware that this is kind of “utopist” and requires efforts to change things but, if the solution to wanting less cars is “cars but shared!”, this is not a solution. It’s just proof of failed policies. It will not encourage any change, just stagnation. Things will stay based on cars… but autonomous… and electric (oh so green)! Oh and also, now big tech knows exactly where you’re going, and when.
EDIT: And if robotaxis would be “part of the solution” for the last mile, why wouldn’t a normal taxi already fulfil that role? We don’t have enough? So we’d need more vehicles on the road, But autonomous? Why do they need to be autonomous? How come is the last mile such a huge problem for most people? Is walking or cycling a mile that difficult for most people? Is everyone carrying a 42" TV around?
God forbid we have public transit instead of fucking cars everywhere. There’s no need for buses or trains when we can spend huge amounts of energy to autonomously move two tons of metal for each and every individual that exists.
Humanity is not running to ruin. It’s taking a car.
You know it’s not one or another, right?
I’ve been using Linux since 1999 and I’m a strong defender of free software. I’ve been rooting and installing roms on my phones for years. I’ve repaired them several times. I’m well aware of the issues and I still have the right not to like Louis Rossman, even if I support his cause with the right to repair.
I don’t think it’s necessary to tell people they are losers because they don’t like him. We are not ennemies. Some people can actually dislike him, or his style, and still support the cause. But if you want to antagonize them…
Ok fanboi.
This guy was offered an insane salary for doing engineering for US defense contracts and turned it down because he felt like calling out bad practices and improving repairability on our devices was a better thing to do.
I guess that makes him our lord and saviour then, and we can then only take him seriously because of that. Knowing this changes everything. He is so good to help us lowly people in our quest for repairable devices! And if you just keep watching his videos he can teach you how you also can be successful like him. And by the way you can buy his tools too!
He’s right on the right to repair, but every time I tried to watch his videos (and I tried a few times, I work in tech and like the subject), I always felt like I was being… patronized.
But if you just watch his videos and buy his stuff he will teach you how to repair yours!11! /s
The few times I watched his videos, he sounded like a libertarian bro, saying that if you just put the effort, you too can become successful. You just have to pull yourself by the bootstraps or something. He’s showing you everything you need to know to be as successful as him! And maybe it was sarcasm and I didn’t catch it but at one point he muttered something about Trump fixing the potholes of New York. That’s about when I stopped taking him seriously.
He’s still an important voice for the right to repair movement but you’re right. I also can’t stand him. Unfortunately he has very dedicated/vocal eeehm, fans, so legitimate remarks on him are often met with downvotes.
If you own your music, you can have it in a digital format and copy it somewhere else.
I’m an old millennial that started with dial-up and downloaded MP3s from IRC/Napster/Kazaa/torrents.
Eventually I started to buy what I could on CD then ripped them, then bought MP3s when possible. Otherwise I don’t mind using yt-dlp.
Those MP3s have been played by a portable CD player, then a Samsung MP3 player, then 3 or 4 phones. I’m still playing that collection on my actual phone, using Poweramp.
The device that plays the files may not last but you can certainly copy those elsewhere and do what you want with them, for as long as you want.
Quite candidly, it’s not articles selling the spiel of tech bros that is going to help us. I’m one of those commenters and I also wish “Technology” was about technology instead of trying to sell the latest gadgetbahn or a solar road or self driving cars.
EDIT: It’s not technically about “helping us”, but more specifically about the kind of spiel those “articles” are trying to push. It may very well be about technology, but it’s misrepresented as something that could help us and save us in the future while in reality, it’s just marginally interesting, Think about how many articles there has been about bitcoins, NFTs, AI and crap like this, coming from techbros and their simps. That’s why you’ll see the sort of comments you complain about. It certainly is tech, but it’s more like tech they’re trying to hype, misrepresent and sell.
I love tech. I work in IT. But I can also smell BS and will not hesitate to point it out.
Being “anti car” is good for people that love cars. More public transit means less trafic, less congestion, less demand for gas and generally just more space for people that actually like to drive cars.
Plus, if some people don’t want to drive a car and just want to get places, maybe don’t get a car? There’s already safe and proven “technology” to do that. I understand the added safety bonus of “autonomous” cars but let’s be real, it’s not advertised as something to boost the safety of everyone around, it’s advertised as “autopilot” or even worse, “Full Self Driving”.
I am certainly anti car, but pointing out the flaws in “FSD” or “autonomous cars” and how it’s being falsely marketed to people is also on topic and is not exactly “inserting my views”. People can still love cars and use them, just don’t BS us with the “FSD” and “autonomous” spiel.
I know it’s not the answer you’re looking for but, what is safer for pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, is to have less cars on the roads. Buses can move dozens of people with a single trained professional driver. Trains can move hundreds. It’s illogical to try to push for autonomous cars for individuals when we already have “self driving” technologies that are much much safer and much more efficient.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism
I’m a middle age Québécois and we learn about that system in secondary school when we talk about the early ages of New France. AFAIK it was however a bit different from empire to empire. In New France there were seigneurs (lords) holding vast pieces of land for the crown, called a seigneurie (lordship). Within that there were censitaires (serfs) that had to make use of the land and pay taxes.