I don’t own a gun, actually. Your assumption is bad and you should feel bad.

I am doing nothing but thinking about ensuring my ability to obtain one, should the political situation continue to deteriorate. That’s prudent, not delusional.

The only one here acting obsessive and unhinged is you.

Please explain how I can “do literally anything productive with my life” when I’m murdered by MAGA fascists because I had no means to defend myself.

Guess I ought to go find a set of machining schematics.

Neat, I would’ve assumed you’d need a mill or a lathe, not just a drill press. Kinda want to know how to do it myself, since I own the former but not either of the latter.

You’re not wrong about wanting to actually own the stuff you buy, but your comment is predicated on the false notion that you don’t own a game you bought as a digital download. Everybody needs to quit falling for the copyright cartel shysters’ lies.

(This is also a reply to the sibling comment by @Cherry@piefed.social, BTW.)

Lemmy’s population is overrepresented by software engineers who know more about how LLMs actually work than the general public does. Let that sink in.

Data centers ought to only be allowed in rural areas to begin with. Even if the noise/vibration/heat/etc. weren’t an issue they’re still a goddamn hole with zero foot traffic, and that’s just bad urbanism. They’re like public storage warehouses, but even worse.

They need access to the Internet backbone, but that doesn’t mean they have to be in cities. Put 'em somewhere along the fiber halfway between.

Even at $3.5 billion, “slapped” is an appropriate characterization 'cause all they hit was the wrist.

Your ISP must have a colocated Steam cache.

This is the exact fucking polar opposite of an oversize truck. It’s nearly identical in size to a compact pickup from the '90s.

Never mind the low price, not having that shit built in is the killer feature for me, making it the only new car I would even consider buying. (It’s just too bad they won’t have a 4x4 version for another couple of years.)

It is kinda good that there’s an optional module available, though, because it means there’s an interface that, in theory, a third-party module running Free Software could hook into.

Just kidding… mostly.

Realistically, your diary is safe enough on your Mac. (By the way: you say “I am certain I need to install a Linux distro or a BSD,” but technically, MacOS already is a BSD.) IMO the main threat vector you have to worry about would be Apple changing something to start harvesting your data itself, either for its own purposes (e.g. AI training) or legal compliance with Orwellian bullshit. That risk is a lot lower than the certainty it is with Windows, but it’s still proprietary software so it can’t be zero.

If you’re really that paranoid about it, any device without an Internet connection would do just fine, including something that isn’t on the Internet because it’s too old to be compatible with it (hence the typewriter, but a very old computer running DOS would do fine, too.) Otherwise, if you want a maximally-paranoid but still modern system, look into something like Tails or Qubes OS on a PC, or Graphene OS on a mobile device.

No, it’s time for people to finally get their asses in gear and fucking ditch Chromium-based browsers for Firefox-based ones.

the larger gauge wires were to carry more current required by the old halogen bulb and are unnecessarily large for an LED light

To be fair, just because the controlling factor is mechanical strength rather than current capacity doesn’t mean the need for heavier gauge wire isn’t legitimate.

Possibly more complicated than OSes.

(Depends on the browser, and possibly what counts as the scope of the “OS.” For example, you could be comparing GNU/Linux+wayland+KDE to Netscape 1.0, or you could be comparing modern Firefox to QDOS.)

Remember, a modern web browser contains a Javascript VM, which arguably makes it an OS in and of itself.

We can (and should) just stop buying Sony items however as they are not doing so great on that front already.

Waaay ahead of ya there, buddy. I’ve been deliberately boycotting Sony since at least the rootkit in 2005, and I think the newest Sony product I actually bought was a Walkman cassette player.

Trouble is, Sony somehow still went right on existing as a huge multinational corporation for the last 20 years anyway. It’s almost as if boycotts aren’t enough and we actually need consumer protection law. 🤔

Revoke Sony’s corporate charter? Ban Sony products from being imported? Criminally charge the CEO and board?

Locally, I’ve not been able to find anything that is certified food safe, only various epoxy fillers and primers for boats.

Call the manufacturer of the locally-available epoxies and ask them what they recommend.

I went looking for contact info for one common brand as an example, but found instead this product support article that suggests, to me at least, that their “limited food contact”-rated epoxies would be good enough for your use-case.

(I never did find a phone number or email for product support, but they do at least have a chat widget, so… 🤷)

It has to do with EVs in the sense that (practically speaking) every single one of them is new enough to be infested with surveillance, so (unlike with ICE) there’s no option to avoid it by going with an old vehicle.

Also, nobody gives a shit about new ICE cars, so there’s no point in mentioning them when they weren’t within the realm of consideration to begin with.