My hybrid dash is anything but minimal. I have a zillion selections to show me a slew of random things. None of them are an engine temperature reading. So frustrating.

Print out and laminate this entire post.

Plus references that it leads to the answer to the super secret nobody would believe, and untraceable riches to boot.

I agree that there is survivorship bias, but I disagree that its “just” that.

Things are made cheaper today, regardless. There are $400 toasters, but I guarantee that one wouldn’t last as long as a 1950s toaster.

Plumbing fixtures are a better example, as essentially you can’t find one that is equivalent of a 50 year old faucet, no matter the price. They just don’t make them like that.

Electronic components are another factor. First off, we stopped using lead in solder which results in weaker, more brittle connections. They just don’t last as long. True, we have advancements that make components run hotter in certain scenarios (so those connections get more stress) but even disregarding that the fact still stands it’s not as good.

Then we added those electronics into everything to make them “better”. Old washing machines were essentially all mechanical so they would run forever, and be easy to maintain or fix. Now they have computers running them that are designed to not be fixed.

Its hard to find a company today that wants to make a good product. They just want to make one that is good enough. Our culture has shifted to that mindset. Things don’t last as long, so we switched to a disposable mindset.

I remember when the EGAs came about. Damn, it was like stepping into the future. But I didn’t have a color monitor so it didn’t matter. I was probably more envious than your friend.

“Most” is optimistic. I don’t have statistical information proving otherwise, but anecdotally I am not so sure. A big company like Disney with their own team of IT and official policies and this still happened is exhibit A.

I’ll second the recommendation for GrapheneOS. One of the available options I use is to keep mic, camera, and location off at all times until I need them. That simple toggle ability changes your privacy stance greatly.

Prefect. It can click buttons and complete tasks.

No sir, I did not accept your terms and conditions, my browser did.

I’m with you on the philosophy of tech freedom, which is why I’m back to trying Linux again. So yeah, we’ll take that journey together.

I just think its over simplified by most, and I guess I got the wrong impression of you by your 15 minute comment.

I’ve seen multiple people recently post something like, I’ve switched to Linux and can never go back…but I hated it for a year. That makes so much sense to me, and I just feel that most Linux users leave off the learning curve part, and just gloss over to fully knowledgeable use.

So many people just don’t have the time or energy to just jump into something new. I’ve been using windows for 30 years, and learned a lot along the way. Its going to be tough to learn Linux without daily usage and experimentation (and totally screwing stuff up). That’s a tough pill for most people to swallow.

Worrying about learning an new OS isn’t as simple as you make it. It takes time, dedication, and will power to work through the pain points.

Most Linux users give answers like “just use Linux” but it’s not that simple. Yes, it’s easier to switch these days because more and more apps are browser/cloud based. But technically a chrome book would be an easier switch if that’s the mentality.

I “use” my PC. I don’t simply check email and go on Facebook. I’m currently trying Linux for probably the 4th or 5th time. It’s easier to get into these days, but it still functions completely differently than Windows, as it should.

For example, It took me at least an hour to figure out how to partition and mount a drive. There’s some not so clear information out there so finding the right info wasn’t as easy as it should be. OK no big deal, now I know, but I don’t necessarily want to chase answers like that every time I use my computer.

Lastly, I’ve never accepted using Wine as a work around for unsupported programs. OK, maybe if you have 1, but not if you have 6. That’s not an acceptable solution when your needs scale up like that. And I have many. I’m not going to 100% get away from Windows. It sucks, but it’s reality.

I don’t think anything is un-addictable (making up words here). I do agree that the social media mindset and fedi are not compatible though, basically because of the algorithm concept.

At the end of the day I hate all social media because they feed me what they think I want to eat. Regardless of how well they do that I hate the concept because I want to decide for myself what I want to partake in. Fedi allows that without getting in my way.

Correct, if the profiles are separate. They only share key hardware aspects (like WiFi and Bluetooth settings). The profiles can not talk to each other.

So if the first profile does not have google services it can’t run anything that relies on it even if a second profile has google services installed. For all intents, they are “separate phones”.

I’m interested to see how they handle customer service. The article points out shipping as a big part of Amazon’s success but customer service and return have been too. Point being, I’d rather order some random no name brand shirt from amazon because I know I can easily return it if the fit isn’t right. Will amazon push this service on the vendor? Sort of like the eBay model.

None. I don’t engage enough for it to be an issue. I also know how to move on with real life if things get spicy (which happened on Reddit a lot).

I tried a handful, and the one I liked best is Thunder. There were aspects I liked about Voyager too, but Thunder was set up better in my opinion.

GOS play services are sandboxed by default, it’s how they implement it. The sandbox just keeps it from having full system root integration so its not in everything by default like normal android. It still is full play services though.

What I’m saying is that if you don’t want that on your phone but you do want to use apps that rely on it then you can set up a secondary profile. On the second profile install play services and any apps that need it. That way its segregated from your main activity. Other profiles are essentially viewed as their own phone installation so they dont talk to each other.

This is common with bank apps. They basically use google as their security instead of programming their own. That’s typically why people run a secondary profile with play services enabled.

They already grabbed the data when you gave them access to your contacts with their current model.

That’s what confuses me, I’m not seeing what their benefit is in this. They have one, and I’m sure it’s nefarious, but I don’t see it.

Sow doubt. As in spreading it like seeds to take root and grow. 100% in agreement with you, just being a grammar Nazi. Carry on.

Hotspots work well. They are hotspots though, so you have trade offs. For instance, you probably don’t want to leave it on all day (because it won’t last all day, probably 8 hours). You can set it to turn off if there’s no connected devices for x minutes to save battery. When you turn it on you need to wait for it to actually turn on and connect, then have your phone connect. It takes a while, relatively speaking (not long but longer than turning on your phone).

The Mifi X Pro also has an Ethernet port which is convenient for hard wiring a laptop.

The service is solid. Overall there’s no issues. I’ve had issues in hotels, but it’s a T-Mobile network so I’d presume a standard sim card would equally have issues.

Privacy is an interesting take. I’ll go ahead and trust them to not share my data (which you can sign up anonymously if you wish). The number is still trackable though, and I’d suspect stands out more because it’s in a specific spectrum range. But the sim isn’t in your phone, so it’s not technically tracking your phone (and a side benefit is you can’t get sim jacked) and I use a VPN to connect to it as well. I don’t think the sim card tracks the same way because there’s no GPS in the hotspot, but of course it still calls out to cell towers. I don’t know if it does this when off like a phone does (I’ve always presumed it does).

Overall my experience has been a positive one. Choosing a phone service has been a harder issue for me. But that’s another story.