Executives likely to use such a device aren’t using public transit.

Yes they are. Probably not in the country that calls it transit, mind. And lots of people would like to be able to have more private conversations in public, whether or not they’re travelling at the time.

Plus, I’ve seen a lot of threads over the years from gamers, or the people who have to live with them, looking for something exactly like this.

I used to live round the corner from a strange little place that sold cassette tapes (what we used for music and sometimes even data before CDs, for those too young to know). Everyone was convinced it was a front but it turned out it was a world famous tape supplier. Just happened to be based in my quiet little back street.

The newsagents next door to my last place have to have been a front though. Shelves were half bare, only ever stocked with stuff that doesn’t go off. Always two or three guys hanging out in the back room, looking slightly surprised if you wanted to buy something. Cash only, no cards (not that unusual round here but they usually have a minimum purchase rather than just no card machine at all these days).

They were absolute sweethearts. Took loads of deliveries for us, always really nice about it. And that’s more evidence that it’s a front. Proper criminals are the best neighbours anyone could ask for because the last thing they want is complaints bringing the police to their door.

The Huawei Talkband series does it. It’s a smartwatch which turns into a bluetooth headset. For some reason, most reviewers struggle to see why anyone would want that but I struggle to see why anyone wouldn’t…

They’re different sorts of foldables. Hence Samsung calling one of theirs “Fold” and the other “Flip” (because the latter is the same form factor as older clamshell designs).

There is this thing called context. And you forgot all about it.

Not defending the thin-skinned rich kid but the tweeter formerly known as @X didn’t lose anything apart from the name. Anyone can change their @name on Twitter and keep the rest of the account intact. Twitter changed his @name so that they could change their @name. Nothing else changed on either account.

It’s not a paywall on information. What you’re paying for is a better search engine and better privacy. People have to be paid to provide you with that and, if you don’t want to pay them with cash, you can go and pay another search engine with your time and data.

Both articles point out that it is not possible to calculate because Tesla is withholding some of the necessary data (and has asked the NHSTA to redact the rest).

The WaPo gets closest to naming all the data you would need (miles driven in FSD; type of road being driven on) but you’d also need to match it to the Tesla owner demographic (wealthy, white, middle-aged men), and cars with an NHSTA 5 rating for structural safety.

I have no doubt that most of the autopilot miles driven are in Teslas, thanks to Musk’s reckess promotion of it as FSD.

To know whether the technology fails more or less often than other autopilot systems, you would need data that Tesla are withholding, and much more detailed data on other cars than you can google up on the NHSTA website.

Which is why I asked if you were sure.

Because I don’t think you can possibly be sure. But you say you are, so say why you’re sure.

The NHSTA ratings are based on crash tests. Not real world accident statistics.

You didn’t read your own link but did you read the article I linked to (and ideally the WaPo article it links to, for more detail)?

If so, I ask again, are you sure about that?.

they have lower than average road fatalities

Are you sure about that?

Most people have more than the average number of legs.

Put your hands over your ears and drum your fingers on the back of your head for 20-30 seconds.

It doesn’t last for long but (if it works for you), blissful silence.

I am not a member and I have never ever had problems accessing Doctorow’s site?

E2A; Firefox kills all my cookies so it might just be that they don’t know how many free reads I’ve had?

The foreigner in question almost certainly did not know the age was 21. This happened to me in the US. Sitting with my mum and sister in the hotel bar, having a quiet beer. Then I get asked for my ID and it all gets very confusing. “But I’m 18, what’s the problem?”

No need to use an archive link for Doctorow’s site. It’s not paywalled and he deserves the clicks. Here it is for anyone who wants to give him some clicks.

I used it as a newsfeed (for the broadest possible meaaning of “news”) with informed commentary attached. Most of the organisations, publications, writers and researchers I’m interested in were on there or would be injected into the feed by someone else.

Same as Reddit really. Just based on following individuals rather than topics.

I didn’t post much, apart from retweets.

Specifically on she/they:

I use this on the internet sometimes because, when I give someone help on something technical, 90% of the time they thank an imaginary bloke. And if I correct them I’ll get trolls harassing me and patronising pricks giving me tips for beginners (including, often, the person whose question I answered).

When you don’t know, keep it neutral. Reinforcing stereotypes is harmful even if you mean no harm.

Completely harmless? C’mon.

Defederation just means that Threads is blocked from viewing/interacting with fediverse servers. Right now, Threads is deferated (because it cant interact), but simply because they havent set it up yet. People can still learn about the fediverse and join up whenever they want. I dont think I understand your point.

My point is that the Fediverse is growing because of exiles from Twitter and Reddit. The vast majority of those users want/need a bigger network than is currently available on the Fediverse to get the breadth and depth of content that was on those sites.

If all instances defederate, then many of those users will reluctantly hand their data over to Zuckerberg instead. The vast majority of them already have through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc.

Meta might well want to murder us but universal defederation is just committing suicide instead. It’s the wrong tactic.

My hope is that Threads sticks with a shitty algorithmic feed and bombards people with corporate bullshit, and its users find out that independent instances exist and will give them more control.

My other hope is that other mega-corps (Google, Mozilla, etc) open up their own instances and end up holding each other hostage because it’s so easy for their users to jump ship to a competitor.

It’s a difficult situation to be sure but universal defederation is giving up without a fight.

You’re not addressing anything I said.

Do I have to write “Meta is evil” as a preface to every comment?

Meta does not need the Fediverse. In terms of user numbers, we’re a rounding error. It has no need to embrace in order to extinguish. Pootling about on your high horse demanding the Fediverse become a monolith (FFS) will do absolutely nothing to stop them.

If the Fediverse universally defederates it will force millions of users who want/need a larger network to hand their data over to Meta and the Fediverse will die for everyone who wasn’t on it before October 2022.

There are no good choices here. But there are some absolutely daft ones.