WFM. Looks like you’re using Let’s Encrypt, which is fine, and everything seems to be consistent. I think you’re good.

<Sips licence like a fine wine served at a dinner party.> Ah, yes, GPLv3, exquisite choice.

I don’t know why but I thought they were some special inaccessible computers.

It’s their marketing. Marketing, marketing, bullshit and marketing. Macs get viruses, Macs have vulnerabilities, Macs crash. Doesn’t matter how much their indoctrinated fans might claim otherwise, Macs are just weird PCs. In that context, their refusal to allow their owners to control them is all the more jarring and makes owning the older models like you mentioned all the more sensible.

Corrections:

MacOS:

• Featureless Apple™-branded oblong with 195% profit margin (support for 160% profit margin dropped in Apple™ Mac™OS™ 12.8.3.1.6.4 West Coast Yuppie Resort)
• Devices no more than two years old
• No pride, self-respect, personality, etc, except that provided by ownership of Apple™ products.

For Windows:

• CPU generation newer than an arbitrary, shifting and easily-bypassed watershed.
• 1, 2, 4, 16 or 128GB of RAM, depends who you ask.
• Windows License 😉
• Copilot+ AI requires Microsoft CoPilot+ AI compatible Microsoft CoPilot+ AI CoProcessor+ and Microsoft CoPilot+ CoProcessor+ AI Microsoft CertificAItion+
• A lack of awareness or interest in operating systems.

For Linux:

• Turing-completeness.
• Memory, networking, inputs, outputs, power (optional).
• Another computer to occasionally Google who ‘initramfs’ is and why he won’t let you boot.

Depends on your local laws and such, but in most European countries you can get a prepaid SIM card for a couple of euros/pounds/whatever at any supermarket, making them practically free. If you need a temporary number for a scammy special offer or any situation where your number is publicly visible (Gumtree, etc) it’s a no-brainer IMHO.

If your phone suppprts running two SIMs at once, it has two IMEIs so as far as the network(s) are concerned it’s two distinct handsets unless they deduce otherwise.

A fun aside: years ago I did some work for a small phone company (the company was small, not the phone) and they gave me a SIM with 100 numbers in a block and access to a portal I could manage them with. Sadly, I forgot to pay the annual £10 renewal fee.

IIRC that rule applies to debit cards only, which most businesses pay a flat monthly fee to handle, as opposed to credit cards which charge a percentage. Also, fuck AMEX.

A lot of the convenience of the modern UK high street baking sector is because of Girobank, the 1960s Government’s successful attempt to force modernisation on the banking industry. When I hear about the ass-backwardsness of other country’s banking arrangements (especially the US) I give a little thankyou to Girobank.

Edit: Also, yes, tourist ATMs are predatory bullshit.

So I was about to say “I love my Fairphone 5 and recommend it wholeheartedly but it’s not supported by Lineage is yet, which is really frustrating, especially after its been out nearly a whole year”, but then I checked and - well, I’ll be damned - LineageOS does support the FP5 now so I know what I’ll be doing later on: eating chicken wings. But after that, upgrading my FP5 to LineageOS.

charmap.exe? Holy shit. Windows 95 called, but I didn’t have a 33.6k modem ready to answer.

No. Yes. Kind of.

My home setup is three ProLiant towers in a ProxMox cluster. One box handles all-the-time stuff like OpenWRT, file server, email, backups, and - crucially - Home Assistant and is UPS protected because of how important it’s jobs are. The other two are powered up based on energy costs; Home Assistant turns them on for the cheapest six hours of the day or when energy costs are negative and they perform intensive things like sailing the high seas, preemptive video transcoding, BOINC workloads and such. The other boxes in the photo are also on all the time basically being used as disk enclosures for the file server and they are full of mismatched hard disks that spend virtually all their time asleep. At rest the whole setup pulls about 35-40W.

Depends where you live, but in my area pizza boxes go with the cardboard.

It’s plaintext all the way down.

GDPR. Honestly, one of the greatest laws ever passed by anyone, anywhere. No hyperbole, it’s so simple and pro-dignity. It also offers a simple litmus test: if you oppose GDPR, I oppose you.

Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is one of the advertiser’s most powerful tools.

And before newspaper?

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Ten pictures of Feddit users reacting to clickbait headlines that will make you say “no, these are all trains. No, I’m complaining as such, I like trains, I just… I thought… No, the headline said something about… reactions, yeah, and ins- actually, hang on, how did you get in here?”

Fedi Punter in Media Lingo Rant Slam: Reaction

And your email, identity document, photo, payment method… lots of fun data points to boil it down to a demographic of one person.

Bought? Never. I have a 2024 Western Europe road atlas in the pocket behind the driver’s seat, but I don’t know who bought it. I like to look at the pretty lines and funny names from time to time, but really OSM and it’s various client apps are what I actually use.