Yep. Mind numbingly stupid.

Unironically, it is.

It would cost significantly more to the owner of said crypto to move it via a bank. That’s partly why crypto is so appealing.

I think so. I’m not an expert in crypto, but I know that there are ways to connect identities to transactions, though my understanding is that it’s not a simple thing. You have to have enough data to connect a wallet to an ID, IIRC.

I read a really good book about it earlier this year: Tracers in the Dark. (Which I highly recommend. EXCELLENT book.)

Some use crypto for illegal activities yes, but some just like their privacy, and it’s good that we have a means for people to continue to maintain their privacy in their financial dealings. Especially now that Donald has normalized the surveillance state to a formerly unimaginable degree.

And besides, the fees for transferring crypto internationally are significantly lower than transacting internationally through a bank, so saying there’s not utility for it isn’t exactly true.

It appears the Binance hack was a social engineering stunt. Can’t say I’m surprised. Often the biggest weaknesses in any system is the people running it.

Clearly there was minimal testing by Microsoft before they rolled out copilot in teams.

Oh yeah. They rolled out an update a month or two ago that turned notifications for project tasks I had that I had flagged for higher importance, inexplicably. Absolutely infuriating stuff happening with their vibe coders.

Good question. (Though kind of absurd, really.)

Historically, billionaires contribute to both parties massively, especially at the national level. This is, arguably, why no positive change happens at the federal level no matter who we elect. I think the best evidence of this is the fact that across multiple Democratic and Republican governments, the minimum wage has remained stuck at $7 an hour, even in the face of massive poverty and inflation. (And that shitty wage is probably going to turn 20 years old a couple of years.) In that time war funding always passes, even if the war itself is illegal and unauthorized. Neither party gives a shit because they don’t have to. They’re getting fat off insider trading, lobbyist gifts, and political contributions from billionaire PAC’s, and as long as they play ball, the money keeps flowing.

In the last two cycles we’ve seen big billionaire spending at the state level, also for both parties. You saw it in this last election with billionaires spending big in California and Texas. This is because whole states’ governance can be captured for a fraction of a billionaire’s wealth, and that’s a great investment for billionaires. If you can buy a Greg Abbott and a few Texas legislators, your data centers get fast-tracked and regulations get cut. If you can buy a few people in California, it’s harder to pass a billionaire wealth tax. And you’ll recall even Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, fought hard against the billionaire wealth tax, because he was paid to by his billionaire golf buddies.

Elon is an outlier and shouldn’t represent the whole of your opinion.

LOL

Sure thing. Have a great day. :)

I recommend looking at everything in ‘settings’. There are some cool things you can do, such as limiting your home page solely to communities you’re subscribed to.

Also, blocking works differently here. People you block will still see your posts, you just won’t see their replies. (Which I find to be kinda fun, personally.)

Ah. Bummer.

Totally correct.

And the only reason we’re getting movement on spyware TV’s is because these bastards are affected by it.

Agreed 100%.

What they’ve done is no less criminal for being legal.

Yup.

My work uses MS Teams and Sharepoint, and MS is dumbing down both products as much as is feasible in order to force people to use CoPilot more. It’s moronic, and I hate discovering changes to the UI that appear to be bugs and then finding out it was deliberate. (Like buttons and scroll bars that are invisible until you hover a cursor over them. Stupid.)

But LLM’s were only ever useful if the validation of their output didn’t outweigh the supposed time saved, and that is rarely the case.

Stupid business practices. Can’t wait for a popping of the bubble.

Generally, I am anti-doxxing… but the billionaire class at the very least deserves loud protests outside their little enclaves.

Here in the US, all we’ve done the last 40 years is pass fewer laws. (and you can check the count of bills passed, at least here in the US, if you don’t believe me.) This last Congress actually passed significantly fewer bills than the ‘Do Nothing Congress’ of 1947-1949.

All this has achieved is forcing states to lead and creating a patchwork of around 2/3 similar but different regulations and 1/3 that are not meaningfully regulated at all, leading to all sorts of problems. The one that comes to mind immediately is Freedom Industries in WV knowingly polluting a whole state’s water supply on purpose, because it was legal. Your Smart TV is also now spyware, likely for China, because we don’t regulate domestic surveillance and tech adequately. (Though that is changing fast because it affects the Epstein Class.)

I have to conclude that you haven’t thought this through if you honestly feel that way.

Clearly, evidently, and objectively it’s a bad thing that laws aren’t being passed. That’s especially true with the rapid and severe technological changes.

Sad stuff. I feel awful for this kid, being stuck with two dumbass parents who cared more about virtue signalling to their pals than their kid’s life and health.

There are FOSS alternatives to this junk, folks.

I made a video about it earlier this year because I absolutely, fucking hate Spotify with the fire of a thousand suns.

The TL:DW, though, is the apps Metrolist and OuterTune.

Guilty.

And I made sure they knew precisely why.

Your replies would make more sense if you read the comment first.

Have a nice evening.

You can always count on at least one person to ignore nuance and reply with a thought-terminating cliche.