TLDR: I’m still very suspicious of how that is quantified - “leading to an overall better product”.

Who quantifies that and how, on a case by case basis, especially in the form of Chromebooks or phones for revenant, popular examples?

Let’s say it was a laptop: I can see issues with lithium batteries perhaps reaching a cycle count that lead them to be dangerous. Wouldn’t that mean though you should produce a good that has replaceable batteries? Is the battery designed in such a manner on purpose?

Businesses with shareholders that live quarter to quarterly profit are the issue. There is no authoritarian legislator that reallocates resources like China did the last few years, for example, whether you like it or not.

The US relies on legislation to be passed to mandate the changes or prohibit a device from being built a certain way. That legislation can be lobbied for loopholes, have various people in power also own percentages of the companies, etc. Whether you agree with it or not, there are many checks and balances and simultaneously a lack thereof.

I went and deactivated my twitter accounts today. I got Lemmy and when I do my own servers via my own app, I’ll enjoy a twitter alternative again. Edit: Im saying this because my mind went to action not bitching. I think the X rebrand is like a sign of the times and the official “okay twitters dead” moment.

Sigh. Whoever they have working in their DRM department has been an asshole for a long time now.

This is what the third or fourth - minimum - thing like this they’ve tried to pass in a few years? I actually like Google as a product family but every time they do this it hits me right in the “maybe I should reconsider” department. Its also usually met with a hard resounding no from everyone. Maybe its that they have a task force that is paid well to protect their ad interests and recover some sort of deficit they see in their ad product.

I donate to the EFF to fight things like this at a professional level…also good to point out though that its not just google’s fault. If they build a moat for businesses and everyone installs one, that is everyone’s fault.

To be honest I noticed a drop in quality of code generation via prompt by ChatGPT.

Still useful. Especially for boilerplate nonsense getting projects started. But it’s ability to understand complexities in code dropped drastically.

I don’t know man, I watch a ton of YouTube everyday and YouTube also comes with YouTube music. I just prepaid for two years of their premium service and I might do another two in the event they raise their price, I want my access locked in. Besides OdyseeTV and Peertube are WIP. It was like $100 a year flat or something.

PIA and NordVPN are probably fine. If your pockets aren’t super flushed those are good services.