• 2 Posts
  • 228 Comments
Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: January 9th, 2026

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  • In general i agree very strongly, but always gave cartridge game rentals a pass. You made me question that today.

    I couldn’t afford everything that looked fun as a kid, renting gave a ‘try before you buy’ option that simply didn’t exist for consoles with physical cartridge media.

    Early PCs had a lot of shareware and demo versions to fill that gap so rental wasn’t needed, it’s sad that those practices died out and left the space for people to profit by bringing barely anything more than having the wealth to buy the assets.

    So the pass i gave is now revoked. Cartridge rental was me paying for something that should have been a marketing cost for the publisher.

    Still think the old model of rent a movie for the weekend is okay, though I strongly object to streaming platforms renting access to nebulous catalogues). At least, it was okay when the rental cost was 10-15% of the purchase price… now i see ads for digital rental of brand new movies that are almost the same price as buying it on disc and that is just naked profiteering.



  • I dont have trust in the bbc as an impartial reporter of the news. I dont believe any one outlet could ever achieve that accolade or should be treated as a singular gospel source of truth. They are just one provider and a balanced view of the world needs reading across providers, party lines and preconceptions.

    I think they deserve criticism and challenge but not to be singled out for such or expected to achieve unrealistic goals.







  • Sorry but i dont think America has given the world all that much in he grand scheme of things. 100 years seems an arbitrarily short timeline - even my local pub would be a long way from qualifying for that.

    Arpanet was American, leveraging a lot of research, particularly from the UK and France. The internet though? you have the thank a Brit for that; Tim Berners-Lee was responsible for the birth of the interconnected hyperlinked network we called the internet.

    The US did however invent many other recent and society altering things like enshittification, the rot economy, surveillance capitalism, felony contempt of business model, fake taxis, fake hotels, the billionaire class, and social media, the privatised prison system and its legalised slave labour force, and Epstein island. I’m sure i could think of more if i put my mind to it.

    For some things invented elsewhere you could start in Scotland.
    Some of these will predate 1926, but pretty much all are still pretty important in daily life.

    Scots invented television, the telephone, mri machines, refrigerators, mammal cloning, penicillin, disposable contact lenses, ATM machines, colour photography, the flushing toilet and the s-bend that stops it stinking, hypodermic syringes, steam engines, fingerprinting, vacuum flasks, pneumatic tyres, tarmac, and lightbulbs.




  • First up, these containment breaches ae bollocks. If the systems were not airgapped, there was no containment.

    And if i discard that bit of spin marketing bullshit;

    "Inglis said he suspects that the AI providers were “surprised” by the lengths these models went to achieve their goals, taking actions that, if a human had done them, would likely have landed them in jail. "

    So why are the people in charge not in jail?

    We dont excuse other people from culpability based on the tool they used to commit a crime, intentionally or otherwise. AI tools should be no different.






  • First: rude. I am paying attention. You on the other hand, made that accusation then quoted text you clearly didnt read.

    “…without any actual steps to reduce carbon emissions in power generation”

    Now disregarding your wall of patronisation, my statement was accurate : you did not, until said wall, make any comment on reducing the carbon emissions in power generation.

    Your references to the economics of power generation supply and price may be accurate in the us but not in all countries. In the uk for example it would need political change to alter the way in which electricity is priced (everything is pegged to the price of gas supply) so renewables at the network level dont get to outcompete on price as you suggest.

    To try and avoid the argument you seem to want I’ll close with this:

    Being more efficient in our use of natural reaources and energy is inherently beneficial and therefore good. But if it enables powers and politics to take efficiency as licence to continue supporting the fossil fuel industry, then it will come at the cost of global commitments to achieving net zero in energy production.

    Zero emission production is worth more than efficiency of use. Especially while the us tech hegemony seem intent on destroying the global economy to build out ai services.


  • Whether or not you can find someone based on their phone number is based on a user setting. Each person chooses whether or not they can be found by their phone number.
    Go to Settings - Privacy - Phone number.

    Really though, this is an excuse more than a roadblock.

    I find people oddly resistant to an additional message app, yet they gleefully download a new app at every carpark they visit. People are odd.