It was similar in Germany. I owned a pickup truck campervan a few years ago (really old ford ranger which was tiny compared to current models) and they suddenly taxed the vehicle as a commercial truck instead of an RV, this made it really expensive. Taxes are the way to go to discourage people from driving these cars.

It’s an interesting discussion to witness in these posts: convenience vs privacy and control.

The convenience and integration you get with commercial products like IOS or Android comes at a price. Everything that matters to you on a daily basis bundled together in one convenient package means that all things which define you as a person are conveniently interconnected for corporations to sell out your data for everyone who wants it.

GPS: your current whereabouts at any moment in time and a complete history of where you have been in the past

Payment functions: what you are buying and where you have bought it

Communication (Messengers, Phone): Who you communicate with and what you are talking about

Photos and Videos: Real life evidence from all the stuff mentioned above.

Web Browsing: Interests and Needs which will be used against you in a totalitarian surveillance state, at a glance

If you in 2025 still think this convenience is there to please you as a consumer I have bad news for you.

Convenience and interconnection of services look nice and useful but at the same time they’re a privacy nightmare that makes Orwell’s 1984 look like a bedtime story for children.

What this all comes down to: Strictly airgapping the boundaries between the different services is the only way to have a modicum of privacy. Photos do not belong in a cloud controlled by someone you don’t know and should be taken from a separate device. Navigation belongs on a separate device with no internet connection, payment should not be done with a personal identifier at all (if avoidable) etc. Living your life this way might seem terribly inconvenient, but as someone who was alive at a time where all this convenience didn’t exist I can tell you it has its advantages too. You’ll rediscover what really matters.

Always has been. “We cannot afford x any more” has been their standard argument for dismantling social security and lining up their own pockets for decades now.

Only if you still use the obsolete Gregorian calendar. Linux support for this was dropped as well

They sort of do. “Alligator Alcatraz” comes to mind

The US sets the pace, and the EU has no choice but to react at that pace. In Trumps world view there are no allies, only exploitable resources and enemies. International relations erode quickly when souvereign countries are threatened to either bend the knee or be treated as an enemy.

Similar to the crypto hype. Adoption is imminent, bro. Just a few more months, bro. Please, bro

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This should be illegal. We had webcams like this 20 years ago. But Nintendo customers seem to enjoy outdated hardware. It’s a tradition at this point

I personally try to reverse smartphone usage. Got myself a dumbphone and try to use a computer for everything else. The reasoning behind this is, I want it to be a conscious decision to do internet things at a defined physical place, instead of mindlessly using the smartphone everywhere. This should encourage me to reconnect to the world around me.

I’m still in a transition phase though.

That’s an excellent idea, particularly because that service would use AI against the type of people who typically shill or welcome AI products. Let’s build more of those.

Hello??

and got a promotion for it

You can just use powershell. It’s that easy. /s

Ding dong the witch is dead. I remember that. Good Times.

It still is perceived as such. Actions like these erode relationships and shift perspectives. But before you take countermeasures it is good to think about cui bono.

As an example: the EU member country Hungary is currently plagued by an autocratic leader named Orban. This man is openly hostile to the EU and provocations are his daily business. The EU could a) play hardball and retaliate, which would have grave consequences for the people of that country and give Orban an opportunity to spin this in his favour. Or b) Play nice (within limits) thus having a greater chance for the people of this country to realize in the upcoming elections in Hungary there is a better choice than Orban.

Bought a new PC and switched from dual boot Win10/Linux to Linux only. All of the games I’m playing work well, so no need for Windows 11

Also the stakes are quite high to become the greatest war criminal of all time.

Of course not. Visas can be revoked at any time for any reason. Why do people always expect some kind of benefit for their donations? /s

Finally some closure after all those years

little choice for amazon the logistic company

Depends on where you live. Here in Germany we have a few alternatives, like “Otto” and a few others with specialisations like electronics. Some of them have a marketplace just like Amazon and they even offer the same cheap chinese crap that Amazon has to offer. So you could feel right at home.