A few years ago I booted up Windows after months of exclusively using Linux. When I ran Windows Update it deleted and overwrote my Linux partition! This wasn’t a grub issue, my files were gone and even file recovery utilities couldn’t find much. Plenty of others have experienced the same thing.

This is still happening and is unquestionably pure maliciousness on Microsoft part.

So you’re just another Internet “expert”. Got it.

Lol. Read what? Does your TV manual or privacy policy tell you what’s being transmitted? Have you ever even bought a connected appliance?

Since I haven’t pulled it apart or tried to decrypt the ssl traffic I have no idea whether it has “a microphone or something.” That’s the point.

Ours has needed very little maintenance and has quickly become a necessity because it gets the floors much cleaner that we ever did. An unexpected consequence is that the whole house stays cleaner because we still spend some of the time and energy we were spending on sweeping on other cleaning tasks.

As much as the thing irritates me you’d have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

My robot vac will only operate when connected to the Internet so it’s only allowed to communicate when actually in use. As soon as it returns to the charger Internet access is automatically blocked.

Unfortunately the manufacturer has deliberately made this as inconvenient as possible. If communication is blocked for more than a few hours the vacuum loses all maps and will no longer even load saved maps from the Tuya app. To use it the vac must be powered down and the app killed. Only then can a saved map be restored.

It’s too bad it’s so useful.

Wifi calling is another pain point with GrapheneOS. According to what I’ve found online it works on T-Mobile, sometimes works on Verizon and is completely blocked on AT&T.

I just dumped T-Mobile because incoming calls from just about everyone regularly went to dead air and T-Mobile could not find anything wrong. Calls come through on Verizon but their coverage is shit where I live, making wifi calling is a must and GrapheneOS a no-go.

Anything including a unnecessary war to distract from the Epstein files, the fact Trump’s a rapist and pedophile, inflation, tariffs, unemployment, and recession.

Dumb downed? They’ve taken a simple error and made it into something that does scare users. The “Repair application?” was far more alarming to my visiting friend than a “No Internet connection” would have been. It is astounding that any company would put out such complete shit.

What kind of idiots create a program that says, “Outlook failed to load. Repair application?” when the only problem is the wifi is disconnected?

Don’t Be Evil.

I apologize. Next time I’ll check with you first.

Imagine being such a piece of shit you’re evicted from an entire continent.

Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified.

I’ve been side loading apks since I bought my first Android phones and am much more concerned about malware “safe” apps from Google’s Play store. Google’s quality control is shit.

Many in the FFmpeg community argue, with reason, that it is unreasonable for a trillion-dollar corporation like Google, which heavily relies on FFmpeg in its products, to shift the workload of fixing vulnerabilities to unpaid volunteers.

Google may once have felt an obligation to support the open source software they rely on, but that day’s long gone. They have become nothing more than a skeleton of distilled capitalism, shedding any pretense of being of benefit to society along with their “Don’t be evil” motto.

Google’s behavior makes perfect sense with the understanding that every single move, no matter how small, is only about generating more revenue.

Reflect Orbit 2.0 Hacker Edition:

Move corporate HQ to Russia, place mirrors in orbit to block sunlight, then charge big $$$ to unblocked it. Profit.

OpenWRT is a permanent solution for older TP-Link routers. Their newer routers are locked down and not supported by OpenWRT.

Thanks for that write-up. I’ll continue to ignore the electric company’s marketing efforts and remain blissfully disconnected.

Samsung did something similar with one of their tablets when they remotely removed an app that provided an IR remote function - a primary reason for my purchase. Samsung’s support not so politely told me, “Too fucking bad.” when I objected.

There was something I could do about it though. Even though a replacement 3rd party app was less than $5 I haven’t purchased another Samsung consumer product or service in almost a decade.

If you live in the U.S., you can also help by letting your representatives know about this. Here’s an ActionNetwork page that Fulu set up so that you can easily do so: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/right-to-repair-reform-section-1201-of-the-dmca

Do you still have a representative government where you live? I have a Republican House rep and trying to get him to do anything even remotely consumer friendly is just masochism.