Again: If your intention here is to say "anything China or a Chinese company does is okay because XYZ does the same things" then you can get fucked. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it. Invading people's privacy is always wrong.
Windows Update could be easily repurposed for espionage
If you didn't before, now you see one of the reasons why so many of us hate Microsoft, have shunned Windows 10, and moved to Linux: when you don't have control over the machine, the machine can instead control you. With Windows 10, the only 'control' you have over Windows Update is to stop and disable the Service completely; you don't have any ability, like in the past, to pick-and-choose which updates get downloaded and installed. Therefore you're not in control of your own computer anymore, not in any substantial way.
Yeah sure. It's all wreaking havoc, costing everyone millions of dollars, but they're clearly and objectively sitting on their hands and not doing anything about it. Sure. {citation needed}
I'm starting to think that cyberwarfare and cybercrime are what will really be what kills the Internet once and for all. How can we continue having a 'free and open Internet' when it's weaponized like this, and apparently nothing can stop it?
nuclear is stupidly expensive and uneconomical
{Citation needed}
Compared to what? Continuing to dig coal out of the ground? Pump petroleum out of the ground? Burn that shit, shit up our planet that much more?
'Renewables' won't cover everything and you damned well know it.
Plug-in electrics are going to take over from ICEs and you damned well know it. There'll have to be power to recharge them.
People have to get over their boogeyman fear of nuclear power, once and for all, unless they want to go back to the pre-Industrial way of life.
There are better, less expensive, and SAFER ways to design fission reactors.
That will tide us over until practical fusion reactors can be built.
You can't keep running from this forever!
I've never owned a smartphone, and don't plan on ever owning one, either. They're impossible to secure properly access-wise, easily hacked, overpriced, and so-called 'data plans' are a ripoff. I understand what all their capabilities are, am capable of even writing my own apps for them if I really wanted to, and I don't regret not having one, not for a single moment. A basic clamshell cellphone capable of calls and texts is all I need, and I don't even use it for those things much. If I need internet access I have computers. If it wasn't for the convenience of being able to take a small light phone with me wherever I go I'd even dump that and get landline service instead. If you claim you can't exist without a smartphone then you need to take a hard look at your life and your priorities.
I don't know ANYONE who will turn down free money.
In this case I'd turn it down without a single thought because I would not be party to such a nonsense idea that would destroy not only the U.S economy but also likely destroy the world economy in the process; I'd turn it down on principle.
So-called 'UBI' WILL NOT SCALE UP. I don't care what anyone says, all you need is basic arithmetic to see: you would bankrupt the ENTIRE COUNTRY IN THE FIRST YEAR. The country is already being wrecked by Orange Julius Caesar, we sure as fuck don't need to intentionally crash the entire World Economy just because some lazy fucks don't want to have to go to work anymore.
Since I've commented already (and will comment more) on this topic, I can't mod you up, but I'm here to tell you that you deserve to be modded up because you speak the truth; hear, hear, one and all! KiloByte speaks truth!
Two things:
1. You clearly and objectively did not understand your U.S. History classes. Dissent is an essential part of the American DNA; without it, we'd be Just Another Dictatorship. Since your understanding appears to be deficient, I'll give you the essential, relevant understanding for the context of this discussion: Unlike some country like Thailand, where criticizing or insulting the King is an offense that will get you jailed at best, exiled or executed at worst, or a country like China, where criticizing the god-emperor will get your family and friends threatened, and you thrown in jail and/or a mental institution and pumped full of drugs, here in the United States we have this little thing called 'Freedom of Speech'; not only are you allowed to criticize the POTUS (or any other elected official), you are more or less encouraged to do it, as part of the Democratic process.
2. You clearly and objectively are a Trump supporter; as such it's no big surprise to me that you not only don't understand that the POTUS is not a god-emperor-dictator-king, or that you don't seem to understand that the 1st Amendment and Freedom of Speech we have in this country is not a privilege, it is a RIGHT, and neither YOU nor Trump nor anyone ELSE can deny someone that right.
YOU seem to be the one verging on treason; get correct, Old Son. The Constitution ain't just a 'piece of paper' you can wipe your ass with.
You Trump fucks can call this 'flamebait' all you want but all you're proving with your moderation points is that I'm RIGHT and that pisses you off. Trump sooner or later destroys everything he touches, you goddamned well see that, even you with blinders on, and it just BURNS you to have it pointed out to you, doesn't it, because you KNOW you fucked up now, don't you? I know you've all admitted it to yourselves, how about you COME CORRECT and admit it to the rest of the country so we can start putting things right again and get this son of a bitch and all his cronies the hell out of the Whitehouse?
Consider this: If you don't want to alarm people and are smart about it, you don't make wide, sweeping, dramatic changes to things all at once, you make small, incremental changes over a longer period of time, working towards whatever the goal of your agenda is. It's called 'playing the long game'. That's what you see here: they're making small changes that can be interpreted in different ways, then waving off protests like we're seeing about this -- even if those protests are correct and accurate in what they're claiming. Trump has made it clear that he supports going back to fossil fuel use and to hell with renewables, and furthermore doesn't 'believe' in global climate change or climate science, and has even put a gag order in place on climate science. Keeping all that in mind how plausible is it really that this change by the EPA, being headed by a Trump appointee, is benevolent? You have to look at the bigger picture.
Controlling access to information, education, and news, are all Dictatorship 101. No authoritarian leadership wants the general populace to be well-educated and well-informed, because well-educated and well-informed people tend to think for themselves, and no authoritarian dictatorship wants that, they want people dumb and kept in the dark, and fed only the information that they want them to know, because they're easier to control that way. Don't forget the Dark Ages, when only the clergy and The Rich even knew how to read! There are people in this country right now that wouldn't have a problem with going back to those old ways, where the rank-and-file citizen doesn't even know how to read and write, and only learns what they're told. Trump goes out of his way to paint the Media as 'liberal' and 'fake news' to persuade his support base to ignore all the news services and only believe what he and his Administration tell them; how is this really any different than what I was talking about, above? Remember also that Trump actually said he wanted to 'shut down' NBC as an entire television network merely because he didn't like what their news department was saying about him. He literally wanted the FCC to revoke their broadcasting license, and had to be told that would be a violation of the 1st Amendment!
Has it occurred to you that you just aren't smart enough or aware enough to see what the rest of us are seeing? Or perhaps you're just wilfully ignorant and refuse to see what's really going on, so long as you get to 'stick it to the (so-called) libtards'? Or are you just a shitty troll baiting people? Any way you cut it: bugger off. You're of no use to anyone.
..yeah, I know about Pence and Dominionism. There's more of those extremist nutjobs around than you'd be comfortable knowing about. Some people say things about 'men who just want to watch the world burn', but those guys are Amateur Night compared to what Dominionists want to see happen. Go read "The Handmaids' Tale" for a preview. Also, forcing the Apocalypse to happen, sooner the better so far as they're concerned, so Zombie Jesus will come back and 'take them all home'. *shudder*
Except that Facebook doesn't even get implicit permission from it's users, not really, because they do not disclose in detail who your data is sold or given to, they just do whatever they please.
Yep. Trump's idea of 'making America great again' is dragging us backwards to the 1940's, complete with both the willful and unknowing ignorance, racism, sexism, and so on that went with it.
Slashdot Mirror
Again: If your intention here is to say "anything China or a Chinese company does is okay because XYZ does the same things" then you can get fucked. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it. Invading people's privacy is always wrong.
What is the purpose of your saying this? If it's to claim that it's all perfectly okay and no one should give a damn, then you can get fucked.
Windows Update could be easily repurposed for espionage
If you didn't before, now you see one of the reasons why so many of us hate Microsoft, have shunned Windows 10, and moved to Linux: when you don't have control over the machine, the machine can instead control you. With Windows 10, the only 'control' you have over Windows Update is to stop and disable the Service completely; you don't have any ability, like in the past, to pick-and-choose which updates get downloaded and installed. Therefore you're not in control of your own computer anymore, not in any substantial way.
Yeah sure. It's all wreaking havoc, costing everyone millions of dollars, but they're clearly and objectively sitting on their hands and not doing anything about it. Sure. {citation needed}
Nope.
So they're part of the cancer? Gotcha.
Fuck off, troll.
Nitpicking as a way of bypassing my central point
Oh I'm modded a TROLL because I have principles and would say no to UBI, personally speaking? Fuck all of you who did that here.
I'm starting to think that cyberwarfare and cybercrime are what will really be what kills the Internet once and for all. How can we continue having a 'free and open Internet' when it's weaponized like this, and apparently nothing can stop it?
nuclear is stupidly expensive and uneconomical
{Citation needed}
Compared to what? Continuing to dig coal out of the ground? Pump petroleum out of the ground? Burn that shit, shit up our planet that much more?
'Renewables' won't cover everything and you damned well know it.
Plug-in electrics are going to take over from ICEs and you damned well know it. There'll have to be power to recharge them.
People have to get over their boogeyman fear of nuclear power, once and for all, unless they want to go back to the pre-Industrial way of life.
There are better, less expensive, and SAFER ways to design fission reactors.
That will tide us over until practical fusion reactors can be built.
You can't keep running from this forever!
I and many others would just walk out of somewhere if they don't accept cash and take our business elsewhere.
I've never owned a smartphone, and don't plan on ever owning one, either. They're impossible to secure properly access-wise, easily hacked, overpriced, and so-called 'data plans' are a ripoff. I understand what all their capabilities are, am capable of even writing my own apps for them if I really wanted to, and I don't regret not having one, not for a single moment. A basic clamshell cellphone capable of calls and texts is all I need, and I don't even use it for those things much. If I need internet access I have computers. If it wasn't for the convenience of being able to take a small light phone with me wherever I go I'd even dump that and get landline service instead. If you claim you can't exist without a smartphone then you need to take a hard look at your life and your priorities.
I don't know ANYONE who will turn down free money.
In this case I'd turn it down without a single thought because I would not be party to such a nonsense idea that would destroy not only the U.S economy but also likely destroy the world economy in the process; I'd turn it down on principle.
So-called 'UBI' WILL NOT SCALE UP. I don't care what anyone says, all you need is basic arithmetic to see: you would bankrupt the ENTIRE COUNTRY IN THE FIRST YEAR. The country is already being wrecked by Orange Julius Caesar, we sure as fuck don't need to intentionally crash the entire World Economy just because some lazy fucks don't want to have to go to work anymore.
Since I've commented already (and will comment more) on this topic, I can't mod you up, but I'm here to tell you that you deserve to be modded up because you speak the truth; hear, hear, one and all! KiloByte speaks truth!
Two things:
1. You clearly and objectively did not understand your U.S. History classes. Dissent is an essential part of the American DNA; without it, we'd be Just Another Dictatorship. Since your understanding appears to be deficient, I'll give you the essential, relevant understanding for the context of this discussion: Unlike some country like Thailand, where criticizing or insulting the King is an offense that will get you jailed at best, exiled or executed at worst, or a country like China, where criticizing the god-emperor will get your family and friends threatened, and you thrown in jail and/or a mental institution and pumped full of drugs, here in the United States we have this little thing called 'Freedom of Speech'; not only are you allowed to criticize the POTUS (or any other elected official), you are more or less encouraged to do it, as part of the Democratic process.
2. You clearly and objectively are a Trump supporter; as such it's no big surprise to me that you not only don't understand that the POTUS is not a god-emperor-dictator-king, or that you don't seem to understand that the 1st Amendment and Freedom of Speech we have in this country is not a privilege, it is a RIGHT, and neither YOU nor Trump nor anyone ELSE can deny someone that right.
YOU seem to be the one verging on treason; get correct, Old Son. The Constitution ain't just a 'piece of paper' you can wipe your ass with.
You Trump fucks can call this 'flamebait' all you want but all you're proving with your moderation points is that I'm RIGHT and that pisses you off. Trump sooner or later destroys everything he touches, you goddamned well see that, even you with blinders on, and it just BURNS you to have it pointed out to you, doesn't it, because you KNOW you fucked up now, don't you? I know you've all admitted it to yourselves, how about you COME CORRECT and admit it to the rest of the country so we can start putting things right again and get this son of a bitch and all his cronies the hell out of the Whitehouse?
Consider this: If you don't want to alarm people and are smart about it, you don't make wide, sweeping, dramatic changes to things all at once, you make small, incremental changes over a longer period of time, working towards whatever the goal of your agenda is. It's called 'playing the long game'. That's what you see here: they're making small changes that can be interpreted in different ways, then waving off protests like we're seeing about this -- even if those protests are correct and accurate in what they're claiming. Trump has made it clear that he supports going back to fossil fuel use and to hell with renewables, and furthermore doesn't 'believe' in global climate change or climate science, and has even put a gag order in place on climate science. Keeping all that in mind how plausible is it really that this change by the EPA, being headed by a Trump appointee, is benevolent? You have to look at the bigger picture.
Controlling access to information, education, and news, are all Dictatorship 101. No authoritarian leadership wants the general populace to be well-educated and well-informed, because well-educated and well-informed people tend to think for themselves, and no authoritarian dictatorship wants that, they want people dumb and kept in the dark, and fed only the information that they want them to know, because they're easier to control that way. Don't forget the Dark Ages, when only the clergy and The Rich even knew how to read! There are people in this country right now that wouldn't have a problem with going back to those old ways, where the rank-and-file citizen doesn't even know how to read and write, and only learns what they're told. Trump goes out of his way to paint the Media as 'liberal' and 'fake news' to persuade his support base to ignore all the news services and only believe what he and his Administration tell them; how is this really any different than what I was talking about, above? Remember also that Trump actually said he wanted to 'shut down' NBC as an entire television network merely because he didn't like what their news department was saying about him. He literally wanted the FCC to revoke their broadcasting license, and had to be told that would be a violation of the 1st Amendment!
Has it occurred to you that you just aren't smart enough or aware enough to see what the rest of us are seeing? Or perhaps you're just wilfully ignorant and refuse to see what's really going on, so long as you get to 'stick it to the (so-called) libtards'? Or are you just a shitty troll baiting people? Any way you cut it: bugger off. You're of no use to anyone.
..yeah, I know about Pence and Dominionism. There's more of those extremist nutjobs around than you'd be comfortable knowing about. Some people say things about 'men who just want to watch the world burn', but those guys are Amateur Night compared to what Dominionists want to see happen. Go read "The Handmaids' Tale" for a preview. Also, forcing the Apocalypse to happen, sooner the better so far as they're concerned, so Zombie Jesus will come back and 'take them all home'. *shudder*
Except that Facebook doesn't even get implicit permission from it's users, not really, because they do not disclose in detail who your data is sold or given to, they just do whatever they please.
I don't use Facebook or any other 'social media' nonsense and if you do knowing what you know then I don't think you're very smart.
Yep. Trump's idea of 'making America great again' is dragging us backwards to the 1940's, complete with both the willful and unknowing ignorance, racism, sexism, and so on that went with it.