I have mine behind a Pihole too. It blocked all the ads at first but Roku seems to actively varying the ad servers and they’ve started showing up again. I haven’t had a chance to see if I can block them again.

Roku is chocked full of ads too, and regularly sets the default for the “Select” button to open those ad sites or apps. Roku used to be great. It has now been completely enshittified.

I have a convertible laptop with a MicroSD slot. A 4TB card would be great for backups.

This would be of limited use for many people. Carriers lock people in by selling lots of phones that are missing frequency bands and cannot be used on their competitor’s networks. For instance, many of TMO’s phones cannot be used on AT&T and Verizon’s networks. My Oneplus 9Pro is a great phone, but if I wanted to switch to Spectrum (on Verizon’s network) or AT&T I would be forced to buy a new phone.

Some phones like the Iphone and Pixels are compatible with every U.S. network, but plenty of others are not.

Teamviewer has a history of lying about serious security breaches. The company’s networks have been breached before and they literally spent years denying it and blaming it on their customers: https://www.securityweek.com/teamviewer-confirms-it-was-hacked-2016/

HP has known the hinges are defective since they introduced them. There are so many people having problems a class action suit was filed about it.

Must depend on the model. I’ve been running Mint on that (repaired) X360 for years without significant problems outside crappy Realtek wireless module issues.

HP laptops are garbage. This is the hinge of my HP X360 laptop after 6 months of occasional use: https://i.imgur.com/LhZWBIt.jpg

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t look like this has anything to do with Syncthing vulnerabilities. Instead it looks like a hack that uses a preconfigured Syncthing installation to transfer sensitive data. Disturbing nonetheless.

It’s also important to remember that Microsoft has no monetary incentive to force people to use Windows Recall.

With that in mind, there would be no reason for Microsoft to automatically enable Windows Recall in an update down the line. If it does happen, the user will be able to instantly tell thanks to that that visual indicator and turn it off again.

This article is nothing but propaganda. There is huge monetary incentive to force people to use Windows Recall and collect their data, and Microsoft routinely uses Windows Update to enable data collection. They began that practice years ago on Windows 7. It’s a ridiculously simple matter for MS to disable the visual indicator and force This Week’s Plan on their users to monetize their data.

Windows Central pretends to be critical of plans to enable a feature that can be made into malware by Microsoft in a couple of minutes, but then back peddles and says it can’t be done (utter BS) and if it could be, it wouldn’t be that bad.

Who are you talking to? Nobody has the power to do that

How embarrassing for you. If he is a member of a Bar association, he can be disbarred.

If you’re selling a product that you can’t produce by paying employees a lousy wage, you have to pay what’s needed to produce a salable product. This is the way business works everywhere and is true for both skilled and unskilled labor.

These companies have radically increased their prices while allowing the products produced to go to shit, and their customers are doing what customers always do when faced with crappy products and high prices. We’re going elsewhere.

Not only have the prices become absurd, the quality control has gone to crap.

For years we’ve taken regular road trips and use to stop at fast food places every single time. In the past 3 years we’ve repeatedly been served triple salted food, awful sub sandwiches, “cheese” burgers missing the cheese and condiments, and cold burger patties so old and dry they couldn’t be choked down. When you factor in the amount of waste due to the lousy food, the actual prices are way higher than what’s shown on the menu.

The ridiculous prices and regular bad experiences pushed us to a tipping point and we now find a grocery store along the way for deli sandwiches. It usually only adds about 5 minutes to the trip. Not only are the prices about 30% less but the food is consistently edible which makes the real price probably 1/2 of fast food places.

This is something we wouldn’t have taken he time to do a few years ago, so for us there’s been a big upside to the absurd prices and lousy food. We’re permanently changed our habits and cut fast food out of our diet completely. We are now spending less and getting consistently better quality, healthier food.

Maybe we should send “thank you” notes to the various fast food corporate headquarters.

Servers are paid below minimum wage because they receive tips.

Not true everywhere. For instance Washington requires servers be paid the full minimum wage of $16.28/hr before tips.

A tomshardware.com article about how to bypass the account requirement from February of this year:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/install-windows-11-without-microsoft-account

It requires numerous steps to bypass the account requirement or the creation of special installation media. I ran into the Internet and account requirements when installing W11 on a VM in January.

Perhaps the screenshots you posted were accurate at some point or in some situations, but you need to do better research before accusing others of spreading misinformation, and it is you who needs to stop spreading misinformation.

Regular users are absolutely forced to use a Microsoft account, no matter how tired you are. People shouldn’t have to be techies to keep their information private.

Windows 11? Let’s see here…

Spyware/malware since that infamous Windows 7 update sending everything (including passwords) to Microsoft. Ads spread across the UI in W11. Simple features hidden or disabled. Bing Internet search results in the Start Menu that can’t be disabled unless you edit the registry. Search engine in the Start Menu cannot be changed. Numerous other previously simple settings changes that now require registry edits. Menu items gone, and others that still exist but inexplicably have been removed from the Start Menu search. Edge browser forced down your throat no matter what you set as the default browser. Upgrades that you can’t do at your convenience and forced restarts that happen even if you have open files that you’re editing. Long (sometimes really long) upgrade restart times. Forced Microsoft account use to install and use the OS & Internet access required to even install the OS. Absurdly inflexible hardware requirements that make no sense for most people. A taskbar that can’t be moved. Numerous programs and garbage spread through the OS that cannot be removed or disabled.

Besides that, what’s not to like?

Where do you think you are? The E.U.?

Linux is actually becoming easier to deal with than Windows in many cases. Microsoft has removed so many settings from the GUI that editing of the Registry has become required even for simple things. That’s much less user friendly IMO than backing up and editing a text .conf file.

A sentencing hearing broke down this week over a disagreement about a sentencing enhancement for a self-employed handyman from Texas who admitted to using a metal whip and unloading a can of bear spray on officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Taake had been on pretrial release for a pending child-solicitation case in Texas when he went to the Capitol ready for violence, armed with bear spray and a metal whip, prosecutors said.

Only the best people.