So patents last 15-20 years… regular Blu-ray patent has already expired I guess, but Ultra HD Blu-ray is the current patent, releasing in 2015… so another 6 to 11 years before consumers can do whatever they want with the technology.

Would be outdated by then by the next new thing though.

Forums instead of social media, IRC/ICQ/AIM for chat, websites were much more static… unless using Flash, newgrounds full of Flash games.

FTP/IRC was source of media distribution until transitions to, bittorrent was new, and napster, limewire, kazaa were things. Newsgroups have existed for all time, but not really including them because less mainstream.

Windows would allow broadcast messages to just pop-up on your computer. Needed to implement your own firewall like Zonealarm, these things weren’t just default… computers kinds of just ‘directly’ connected to the internet without any appliance in the way at first.

Edit: Oh yeah, and Steam didn’t exist, so games were bought individually in boxes at stores, and valve games were like sharing your IP with friends, listing of servers… speaking of, early Counter Strike and stuff didn’t have any anti-cheat… if you added anti-cheat to your CS server when first coming out, people getting caught would be shocked, since they didnt know they could get caught, always in denial for ‘false positives’, and really find out who of your friends aren’t actually good and were just cheating all along.

I have no actual list outside my head.

atm, Wendy’s because of their plan for dynamic pricing based on how busy they are, and ‘my local KFC’, because in 2017 I had to wait 50 minutes for my order (for 2), and they gave away the last of something I ordered to someone who came in like half an hour later, and they weren’t going to be making more. (that and KFC is way over priced for their standard menu if you aren’t getting some kind of ‘deal’)

This only makes me favor copyright reform more. Should really cut that down to 25 years or less; anything from before the 21st century should be public domain by now.

All companies that plan to have dynamic pricing, please let me know.

I’ve already stopped going to Wendy’s; I’d love to add you to the list of places never to patron again.

Not surprised at all it is something the Trump administration was doing considering his rhetoric on the pandemic in general, and China. Awful all around.

You’re right, my ad blocker was making it look like an image. My bad. Basically a video of missiles being launched from land, air, and sea in mass.

Was hoping to see the video in the article, but just screen caps.

Was under the impression that Taiwan would likely use thousands of Ukraine style drone boats to sink the Chinese fleet.

Instead all I see is screenshots of missiles the size of cities raining down. I assume it’s a perspective issue, but those missiles are unrealistically large.

I keep hearing ‘sanctions arent working’.

And every now and then I see things about them working; it’s almost like sanctions are a long game that don’t immediately show all the results in want within 3 months, and you need to keep them up long term. That said, of course when some don’t comply with those sanctions, it will permanently alter the landscape as the sanctioned try to work around them. Russia’s movement toward the Yuan, and reliance on China and N. Korea are not going to be undone anytime soon, if ever.

Pre-Ukrainian invasion, 1 USD was ~78 Russian Rubles. Now, that 1 USD is valued at 92 Rubles. After the start of the war, the Ruble lost a lot of value immediately, but appears to had gained value for a few months, and has steadily decreased in value as the sanctions drag on, and seem to have semi-stablized at a much lower value than going into the war. As a generalization, it appears looking back to 2003 (max on the chart i’m looking at), as Putin’s leadership drags on, the Ruble has steadily decreased in value (in 2003, it only took about 30 Ruble to value 1 USD). Looking at other major economic powers in the world is like looking at an inverse chart, where their currencies have increased in value against the USD consistently.

A few years ago, wasn’t there a company (maybe it was uber?) that was being overwhelmed by arbitration fee’s for a large number of arbitration cases? I forget the outcome, but it may be due to their agreement stipulating they would cover arbitration fees. Either way, forced arbitration needs to go.

I do use passphrases, but I combine with randomness.

I memorize one random 8 character string to use with something more memorable.

Then when I need more security, or I feel that random 8 character string is no longer safe (password leak/hacked), I memorize a new 8 character string.

Then I combine them.

Then I memorize a new 8 character string and mix it in.

It’s a process built up over years that ingrains into memory. Sometimes I forget the order, or if i added spaces, or did no spaces. Luckily, as long as I am sure of the discrete segments, I can remix them to recreate until it works (in a reasonable time).

My last addition was when I made the move from Lastpass to another password manager, after their endless bad news.

To be clear, CA in this case is California, not Canada. But if you are on midwest.social, i’ll assume you are in the Midwest. More states need to adopt some kind of similar legislation.

For compliance with EU’s GDPR and CA’s CPRA, they should have some tools to remove information.

Whether those are available to you will depend on where you live, and the companies policy.

I feel like Little Bobby Tables has grown up, and should now be Robert’); DROP TABLE loans;–

Actually… I see your point.

Are they made of leather, or just… super fake looking low quality fabric?

I think this is a great time for remaining Reddit users to do a 3 month Reddit detox.

The infrastructure will come. Beside the Infrastructure bill including funds to assist in developing nationwide charging networks:

A charging connector for all the major manufacturers to use has finally been settled on; it happens to be Tesla’s connector (now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS). They had a long while back offered all manufacturers to use it for free (still Tesla design property), but no major manufacturers took the bait as it may have terms attached; Tesla finally truly released it recently and it is now a standard: https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j3400_202312/

Tesla is opening up their charging stations to all (probably because of the above). For new cars, if you see one of those Tesla stations everywhere, like behind a target, or the side of some remote seeming parking lot, you will finally be able to use them.

Personally, I’m waiting for the prices to be more reasonable, and for solid state batteries (the safety and energy density/range to improve).

While there are many other pressing issues about our democracy (from an American perspective), this is the strongest issue I take.

I can’t see things turning out well with Trump as a wartime president, particularly if he just keeps America out of important matters on the world stage (or worse yet, panders and sides with those who seek harm to America and the ‘West’. Let your allies weaken enough/succumb to your ‘enemies’, and it ultimately weakens oneself.

I do feel many of these nations should just straight up rent ports and such to China instead of taking the loans, in exchange for a lump sum payment, with restrictions for military use/limitations, and usage in support of war.

Might not get quite as much money, but seems far more favorable than the outcomes of belt-and-road loans (not just in the unlikelihood of debt repayment, but how the funding is used [vendor/company restrictions]).

Hopefully this will be helpful (to understanding this type of debt):

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/09/27/american-creditors-say-china-should-honour-pre-communist-debts

Not saying it will be repaid, but at least the article goes into how debt is handled when governments change hands.