From what I know, those agents can be absolutely fantastic as long as they run under strict guidance of a senior developer who really knows how to use them. Fully autonomous agents sound like a terrible idea.

The Tates sell their “be a man” coaching package

As if he’d know how.

Or is xAI paying for access to Telegram conversations to train Grok?

Over 60?! Can we please classify Friendica as over 50? I feel old enough as it is.

It’s worth remembering that there was a time when the highest US tax bracket was taxed at 90%, and that didn’t stop the US’s longest period of sustained economic growth.

Ridiculously high tax rates for ridiculously high incomes have been done before and are entirely feasible.

There are a few exceptions. JK Rowlings became a billionaire simply by writing some really popular books, and even stopped being a billionaire by giving much of her wealth away. As far as I can tell, she didn’t become an asshole until later.

I’m willing to say more positive things about him. His dedication to Linux is great of course, but I’ve also heard that people working for him get a lot of freedom to choose what to work on. And no crunch. In the games industry, that’s pretty good.

So yeah, he seems to me to be one of the better among the tech billionaires. But in the end, he’s still a billionaire, and he’s god that ridiculous fleet of super yachts.

There was a time the same was true for Elon Musk, before he suddenly decided to jump the queue. I really hope Gabe isn’t going down that path.

The parliaments don’t, and they don’t have the loyalty to the security apparatus that US Congress has.

Either way, this is a distinct and important difference between the US and the EU, and a frequent point of disagreement in treaties and discussions between the two. It’s silly to claim they’re the same on this.

Not “the EU”, but one particular group in the EU. This sort of thing pops up every couple of years, and unlike in the US, it always gets shot down. The current law says the exact opposite.

EU law prevents any government from accessing your email or other data, whereas the US demands easy access to your data. That’s what I’m referring to.

But I’ve also never heard of them blocking anyone’s email, and certainly not in retaliation for investigating war crimes.

I am not the one forgetting that. You are forgetting that the EU is not the US, and EU law is the polar opposite of US law on this issue.

It doesn’t matter that they’re forced by law. That just means no US company is safe. It still means you need to get your stuff out of there.

And yes, your data and email can be safe, because EU law requires your data to be safe. It is becoming impossible for international tech companies to obey both US and EU law, and if you want your stuff to be safe, you should choose one that obeys EU law.

Mind you, Microsoft is actually planning to do something about this; they’ve suggested (but not yet implemented, I think) separating their EU based servers into a separate daughter company under a European board. But until they actually implement that, your data isn’t safe.

And your data is even less safe with some other US tech companies which have a longer history of flaunting EU data protection rules in order to exploit your data.

Doesn’t change the fact that they did it, though. Although “US govt forced MS to shut down prosecutor’s email” would indeed have been more accurate.

The question still remains to whether corporations should bow to tyrannical demands. I think they do so too eagerly and should fight it more. If they don’t, that’s a pretty clear sign to anyone that your data and email simply isn’t safe in their hands.

There are also showers that reclaim shower water while you shower. Most water goes down the drain clean. It’s apparently easy to separate that from water that’s mixed with soap and dirt, and send it back op the shower again. This can dramatically cut back on your water use much more effectively throttling the water flow.