Not all rich people are smart, and not all smart people are rich. Seems kind of obvious to me now, but it took me a long time to comprehend this.

I’d prefer no tyranny at all, but if I had to choose, I’d pick the tyranny of corporations because, at least, companies don’t have a monopoly on violence.

As a non-American, I only recognize Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan in this picture. I would pick seat 7. The person in front of me looks innocent, and behind me is a woman, so she probably isn’t too tall and won’t kick my chair. She might even allow me to recline my seat. I don’t know much about Hulk Hogan, but he seems like a cool dude, and I like his mustache. Tell me, did I choose wisely?

Prolly Clojure. He’s heavily on Clojure these days.

They don’t. Piercing jewelry is usually made from robust materials that are inert in normal conditions, like stainless steel, gold, plastics, and sometimes glass or gemstones. So, no, you don’t taste anything, just as you don’t taste a plastic cup, ceramic mug, or stainless steel pot.

I’m laughing out loud at the skeleton picture! He seems happy about his prints! 😂

But what’s an ᗋR𝖢ꔠ?

Isn’t it kinda funny that the “most harmful applications of AI tools are not hidden on the dark corners of the internet,” yet this article is locked behind a paywall?

Now I want this set! What is a wooden palette for? Can you explain?

Haven’t touched Factorio in ages. Really looking forward to diving back in with the Space Age expansion!

Games really have to strike a chord with me to stick around in my memory. The last ones that truly left an impression were from when I first got into gaming. I can still vividly remember the impact of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, GTA 3, and Vice City and San Andreas—they consumed my thoughts entirely. The allure of uncovering hidden secrets, areas left unexplored, that’s what really drew me in. Half-life 2 was a mind-blowing breakthrough with its physics and storytelling. But nowadays, that spark just seems to be missing. The closest I’ve come recently was with Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm. The thrill of snatching a victory against the odds, the sense of connection with total strangers—it was something special. It’s the only game that still gets my heart racing these days. However, I’ve found myself drifting away from HotS more and more; it feels like the game is losing its luster (or maybe it’s Blizzard who’s letting it fade… or perhaps MOBAs in general are falling out of favor). As for recent gems that really struck a chord with me, I’d have to mention Hollow Knight, Control (seriously underrated in my opinion—easily one of the best metroidvanias out there, if not the best), and Baldur’s Gate 3, which was unexpectedly captivating.

2% for the reliable independent monetary system seems like a good deal. How much does our current one consume with all its flaws?

But why though? I’m serious. People willingly want to be customers of this. They know that *polies are going to have leverage on them and still buy their product. Why should we say, ‘No, we’re not going to let you do that’? Or maybe you think that people are just not informed enough and don’t understand the consequences of their actions? Then maybe we should educate them instead of trying to control?

But that’s the thing - they aren’t. Not once they’re bought. At that point, they’re my device, or your device.

Well, you may want it to be completely yours, but in fact, there are many things that you can’t and sometimes don’t want to control on your phone. But Apple never claimed that you can control everything. Apple never advertised their phones as having many application stores; quite the opposite, actually. You don’t expect a satellite connection from a phone that doesn’t have it; you don’t expect a phone without water resistance to work underwater. I understand if some product does not meet your expectations, you’re frustrated, but in this case, you received exactly what you asked for. Want something else? Buy from another company. Why force this company to do things your way?

Surely you can see how having a single supplier can be a bad thing, right? That supplier has no incentive to deliver quality. Why would they?

Of course, I can see that having a single supplier can and will cause many issues. The problem for me is that I don’t believe in monopolies. Monopolies are very unstable. Firstly, for a monopoly to form, a few things with low probability should happen: in your analogy, there should be no other cookie provider (neither now nor in the foreseeable future), and customers should be willing to buy cookies that I produce at any cost. In reality, there’s always someone else who’s willing to (or at least can) produce more cookies, and customers are not complete idiots. If I increase the price or lower the quality beyond their limit, very quickly I will be left with full warehouses and a bad reputation and go bankrupt. Secondly, you always have a choice. Present me with a situation, and I will tell you which choices you have (they all may be bad, but whatever they are, they are options). In the case of Apple, there are obviously plenty of choices. They’re not the only company producing smartphones. And even on their phones, there’s Cydia. So, what monopoly does Apple have? Well, they’re the only corporation that can produce iPhones. Should we allow other companies to produce iPhones in this case?

I’m an anti-Apple advocate and an Android user. And I’m against this law. What good does it bring? These are Apple’s devices; let them do whatever they want with them. Don’t like how Apple does business? Buy another brand. Advocate against Apple. Suggest alternatives. But do not force them to do things how you like. It’s just toxic. I believe that the most anti-consumer thing is when governments try to decide what customers want or need. I hate it when they take me for an idiot (I might often be, but let me make my mistakes and learn from them).

https://vanillaos.org/