Calling something “literall 1984” is trite, I know, but this is pretty damn close to getting charged with wrongthink.

Magnetic tape. It’s one of the better long-term offline backup solutions. It is compact, inexpensive, has no moving parts (bearings, motors, reader heads), no scratchable surfaces, and can last for decades in a moderately climate-controlled room.

Just keep it away from magnets… or iron vaults. According to an anecdote (that I can’t find right now), a large bank vault was repurposed as an offsite backup storage, except it kept wiping the magnetic tapes because the thick iron walls reacted to changes in the geomagnetic field.

DB would be an improvement.

What’s your guess?

You wrote an SQL statement?

Just off the top of my head:

State-sponsored higher education that is later paid back through taxes. Free healthcare, also paid for by taxes, and affordable medicine. Decent mass transit, although railways are a disgrace. Labour laws. Paid sick leave and mandatory minimum vacation days. Paid maternity leave, and tax breaks for new mothers.

PM is a Russian asset, but still better than Trump.

Depends on the location. House in a European-style suburb (grid streets, mixed-use zoning, good public transit) over apartment, but anything in an American-style suburb (long, winding streets, car-centric, Euclidean zoning) is an instant deal breaker.

There are no “problems” with Firefox. The problems are with Mozilla and how they operate Firefox, so they could easily start affecting Thunderbird too.

Check the wording. I said Mozilla, not Firefox.

I think Firefox is a great product and want it to succeed, but lately Mozilla has been burning its reputation by chasing the advertising and AI trends. Make no mistake, they are a for-profit company. That doesn’t mean their products should be shunned, but they shouldn’t be exempt from skepticism and rational distrust simply for being the lesser evil.

The question is, can you trust Mozilla to respect those settings, to not change them, and to not remove them? Judging by the events of the last week, I certainly wouldn’t. I would prefer a solution that is entirely out of Mozilla’s control.

Congratulations on completely misunderstanding the comic.

Ladybird is not a new standard. It is a new implementation of existing standards. Nobody has to change or adapt anything.

We’ve seen a little confusion about the language

Tastes like “I’m sorry you feel that way”

The privacy notice document lists how each data type is used. It includes in-browser ads on the new tab page, AI chatbots, and “to market our services”.

Оф корс ит из сэтайрь. Ай’м виллинг ту бет мост Американс вуд шит брикс иф дей хед ту лёрн а секнд алфабет.

(Approximate transliteration of: “Of course it is satire. I’m willing to bet most Americans would shit bricks if they had to learn a second alphabet.”)

Not the point. I’m bringing up the geth because they also communicate data over sound.

When I said I wanted to live in Mass Effect’s universe, I meant faster-than-light travel and sexy blue aliens, not the rise of the fucking geth.

It’s more accurate to say that I’m growing disillusioned with the movement as a whole and the people who claim allegiance with it, not its ideals. I support the ideals that I find right and just, and given limited options (votes and such), will support the people who promote those ideals.

I can’t address the entire reply since it’s 3 in the morning, but I just want to point out something.

I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist, or a Marxist-Leninist. I don’t consider myself to be a “leftist” (which I see as an overly broad term), and I’m sure as hell not a centrist. If my views are inconsistent, it’s because I don’t follow any single doctrine.

Your example is about as spicy as lukewarm water. The responses I got involved the words “bootlicker”, “nazi”, “fascist”, and “chud”, various expletives, called into question my mental health and respect for minorities, and listed several examples of why holding those views made me the scum of the earth.

I’m generally leaning towards progressive or left-wing ideas, but with a few exceptions.

• While I support the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I believe that DEI initiatives are highly susceptible to exploitation because of the widespread and largely uncritical public support of the concept (or even just the abbreviation) with little regard to the implementation; and by tokenizing ethnicity, gender, and identity, it is at risk of doing what it was meant to prevent.
• I believe that law enforcement is a deeply flawed system to say the least, but ultimately necessary because the alternatives are lawlessness or ineffectual systems. This is of course colored by my European perspective where guns and driver’s licenses aren’t handed out like candy.
• The “tolerance is a social contract” mentality is hurting society. A person who experiences rejection and exclusion from progressive communities for voicing “intolerant” opinions will not be interested in reconciliation, and will inevitably fall in with a more radical group where they experience acceptance and belonging, where they will never be exposed to different ideas and their views will never be challenged. Integration should be sought whenever reasonable.

The last point is especially important to me. I grew up in a fairly conservative environment, and it took me a lot of conscious effort to un-learn my prejudices and learn acceptance. But whenever I get downvoted and shouted down for voicing an opinion that aligns with conservatives, or simply isn’t “leftist” enough, it makes me want to distance myself from “leftist” ideology and adds to my disillusionment.

No, those are the punishments. They won’t hurt you, but you have to tolerate them. Eternally.