I can also explain Microsoft’s straglehold on enterprise/government/institutional IT in two words: Group Policy. Nothing - absolutely nothing - from any other OS maker comes close to the granular level of configurability, customisation and flexibility that comes with Group Policy, not even ChromeOS or iOS.

"That’s great! I’d love to help you discover the exciting world of programming! The best language for a starter is probably HTML, which stands for Hypertext Text Machine Learning Code 5. You can write HTML in an environment which is a kind of software. The best environments for creating HTML are:

• VSCode
• Visual Studio Code
• Code
• HTML
• Eclipse
• Visual FoxPro
• Visual Basic
• Visual C+++
• Borland Turbo
• Pascal
• Vienna
• Innsbruck
• Salzburg

Remember to install your favourite using one or more supported environments. Begin with something basic and work up from there. You’ll be in no time. Have fun! Or should I say, Have Fun!"

Sarcastically Shaking My Many Hydra Heads.

I used to have an iMac that I loved (screen was excellent) but it quickly became a shitbox (because Apple) so I turned it into a X Server for my far more powerful Linux box. Is there a modern equivalent of that? Basically turn it into a thin client?

Edit: for kiosks, Windows 10 can be quite happy on 1GB RAM, but that 16GB storage is a problem.

UK here. It’s just not a thing any more. I regularly drive - or am a passenger - on a ~200 mile round trip and insect strikes just don’t happen.

That said, I recently drove from the North of England to the South of France. Almost as soon as we crossed the Channel we were instantly getting insects splattered on the windscreen to the point we had to refill buy some bright pink no-nonsense washer fluid at the next services. So I assume some counties are more responsible than others with their use of pesticides.

I recently drove from the North of England to the South of France. Almost as soon as we crossed the Channel we were instantly getting insects splattered on the windscreen to the point we had to refill buy some bright pink no-nonsense washer fluid at the next services.

Oh, fuck off.

Upvoted, obvs.

Sheēble pārpmpā rpm gek dē parp ¡cheese! flurdle,

Yeah, but how were they to know the central reservation on the autobahns would need a barrier as well as earthworks?

Not that I’ve seen and I’d take what Purism say with a grain of salt: they’ve acted like pretty shitty gatekeepers themselves. Nothing they mentioned in the article seems too egregious in truth and they’re exaggerating the scale of it: Play Store app DRM exists already, and the restrictions on browser-downloaded apps they mention can be bypassed (albeit by having to go into settings) and don’t apply to apps installed through other apps stores (F-Droid, etc).

No. Unfortunately, ActivityPub just isn’t geared up for that kind of thing. It’s why BlueSky uses a different federation protocol called AtProtocol which is a lot more demanding than ActivityPub but is specifically intended for Twitter/TikTok style services.

How dare you bring nuance, experience and moderation into the conversation.

Seriously, though, I am a firm believer that no tech is inherently bad, though the people who wield it might well be. It’s rare to see a good, responsible use of LLMs but I think this is one of them.

Oh, fuck off.

Upvoted.

The fundamental difference between religion/spirituality and science/reason, as far as I’m concerned is this: religion demands that you accept something as an indisputable truth and that questioning it is not only discouraged but forbidden and will be met with an arbitrarily horrific punishment (eternal damnation, etc), with what the specific something is dependent on the teacher, their interpretations and their intentions. As a mental framework, I don’t think it’s healthy for either individuals or societies to unquestioningly accept - or be made to accept - that any ideas are defacto sacred.

In case anyone is wondering, yes, this is utter nonsense. The EU made USB-C mandatory only as a charger for portable devices like phones, tablets, headphones and mice. That’s all. This new standard, unwelcome as it is, has nothing to do with charging phones so there’s no reason why it can’t be used in the EU.

But let’s not allow measley facts get in the way of having a moan at nothing, shall we? Fucking EU. Forcing us to [checks notes] charge all out things using a single connector, reducing e-waste, and, uh, ensuring there’s lots of futureproofing built-in. BASTARDS.