Microsoft uses some of these. I remember having to do something like that to setup a minecraft account and at some point I thought I would just give up and lose my money.

No thanks, I’ll keep pedaling.

I am fortunate enough to know how to set up VMs and use Linux, so I run my own IRC server with a web interface (TheLounge). I can set the upload limit to what I want and settled for 100MB. This way my friends and I are not at the mercy of some proprietary software.

I do pay for a dedicated server that I also use to host my games’ servers and also a mumble server, but it’s so worth it, just to have control over our stuff.

They sell these in dollar stores here.

I didn’t have to unclog a sink for years and didn’t own a plunger. I was looking for a “classic one” but they only had these and I wasn’t sure. I gave it a try anyway and to my surprise, it was very efficient.

Never tried on a toilet and I suspect it would work fine too, but I tried it on my bathtub drain and unfortunately it fails to make a seal.

The hunt for the cofounders of torrent site The Pirate Bay was a lengthy game of cat-and-mouse, spanning several continents. In the end, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm all ended up in prison.

No it makes sense. That’s why Hatsune Miku in North America is not a projected hologram; the equipment has been seized and used by the Biden team!

Wasn’t MTG doing crossfit? Maybe they should look into it. She could be not feminine enough for conservatives if she has been doing ‘men activities’ involving strength and muscles. Maybe MTG is secretly a men! Just sayin.

It is I that misunderstood the whole thing.

But since we’re here, I use an SSH server app worth about $3 on my phone to access it from other devices with an SFTP or SSHFS client. The app is literally called “SSH Server”. Once the server is active I can use an app like Solid Explorer (free with ads or paying for a license) on another Android device to connect to my phone on the same Wi-Fi network. Or from Windows I can just map a network drive using the format \\sshfs\user@ip. And on Linux just find the “Connect to server” option in your favorite file explorer to use SSHFS. Or any SFTP client of your choice.

I’m not familiar with Wi-Fi Direct since I’ve been using SSH for years now, and certainly much more work this way, but it works okay across all my devices.

EDIT: In my excitement to share a way to do this I didn’t realize you don’t want FOSS or other apps so I deleted my original comment.

EDIT2: See my reply to OP.

Apparently it’s when they are old enough to be in school shootings that they cease to be a precious important life to be protected at all cost.

I hope it’s using a shit load of energy, like other “AI” stuff. Because we’re absolutely not in a climate crisis where reducing consumption is necessary. More “AI” that consumes more power, that’s exactly what we need.

Only for Israel…

South Africa did not compete at Olympic Games from 1964 to 1988, as a part of the sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era.

It’s an interesting question. If someone could go back in time to try to shoot Hitler but ended up missing, would it still be a good deed?

More like it doesn’t want to get the money to maintain those infrastructure by going into further debt.

I’m not following German politics very closely but the article mentions that this restriction is in their constitution.

There was something in that genre in my province decades ago when a government dedicated itself to ‘zero deficit’ by cutting on infrastructure maintenance for many years. A bridge eventually fell. Classic story. It seems like a common thing.

This can also be practical in places where the police can force you to unlock your phone with biometrics but not with the PIN.

Ever since I’ve seen the police here force people to delete the videos of them abusing citizens, I have been very wary of biometric identification.

So far my ‘emergency’ procedure would be to restart my phone, as it’s asking for a PIN after a reboot.

Meh. I have a cabin in the countryside 130 km away from my apartment and I can cycle the whole way, or take a coach with a foldable bike and pedal the 30 km left.

It’s actually in the region where I grew up so I have to get there frequently to see my family. It’s a hassle sometimes but it’s only because my government can’t adequately fund and maintain a decent transit network.

I also bike to national parks nearby, and sometimes haul my inflatable kayak with a bike trailer.

People overestimate distances and think the country side justifies a car but it’s usually just excuses. I did move in a big city eventually but I lived in small towns and cities for a decade before that. I still hated cars and didn’t have one.

For example, my mother lives on a rural road outside a village of less than 2000 people. And she works in the next town that is 7 km away. Meanwhile I live in a city and work in the same city but I have to bike 9 km to get to work.

So sometimes distances are shorter in smaller cities and towns but people still insist they need a car. People will give any excuse to use their car. It’s like cocain.

Also, here Uber is only available in major cities where it’s competing with public transit anyway. AFAIK you can’t take an Uber to a small town or a rural road.

EDIT: Also, most people DO live in a city anyway. And they still have excuses to use a car.

Today, some 56% of the world’s population – 4.4 billion inhabitants – live in cities.

I prefer to be compared to Diogenes of Sinope, thank you.

Jokes on them, I hate cars, don’t have one, and would never take an Uber.

Oh they’re not suing anyone for a change. I guess they have the means to give some of that money away now.

I still remember them from the times they threatened to sue their fans for not buying their music.

Metallica hadn’t sued fans directly, but were making clear their intent to hunt them down. A consulting firm was hired, and complied a list of over 300,000 internet users in a single weekend who were alleged to have downloaded Metallica songs.

Let’s now wait until they learn about shrimps and hermaphroditism in animals.

Northern shrimp, also commonly known as northern prawn, are a sequential hermaphrodite. This is a term used for animals that start their life as one sex and change to the other later in life. In the case of northern shrimp, they are born as males and become females at around four or five years of age.

In a group of anemonefish, a strict dominance hierarchy exists. The largest and most aggressive female is found at the top. Anemonefish are protandrous sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they develop into males first, and when they mature, they become females. If the female anemonefish is removed from the group, such as by death, one of the largest and most dominant males becomes a female.