Back in October, I switched from my then-current laptop to a MacBook Air "M1", and I'll admit the following: macOS is a polished, bloat-free experience, but its not without trade-offs. For one, I've missed having access to Tachyon's suite of encryption utilities, AhnLab V3's web filtering, and access to games. For two, I've had issues migrating to USB-C; I've mostly mitigated this with a dock/dongle/hub that connects to my laptop's USB-C port to add two USB ports, HDMI, and readers for SD and MicroSD cards, but I still find it limiting at times, especially when the other USB-C port has to be taken up with the laptop's power supply (oftentimes, I take up the other port with a USB-OTG adapter in order to gain a third USB port).
Apple's transition to their "Silicon" processors has been flawless in my experience, more-so than Microsoft's transition to ARM. The Rosetta 2 compatibility layer seems to allow stellar execution of Intel-dependent software (however, most applications have released Silicon/M-series targeting software, or software that interoperates on both, without
Without a doubt, ARM is the future of computing at this point-- ARM has power efficiency gains over x86 (and in this case, I can milk upwards of 15-18 hours out of the M1 Air if I need to), ARM also is more thermally efficient, to the point where many ARM-equipped devices don't need more than a heatsync in order to adequately cool the system.
As I'm sure some of us have heard by now, China has finally unlocked mass-dissent. This isn't without the government most likely panicking, as tyrants may only hold power for so long before people begin to see through their bullshit.
But, as a semi-surprising control measure, Huawei devices have [allegedly] begun purging photos and videos of the protests. If this is originating from a 100%-remote source (i.e. a cloud-service with system level access), it isn't exactly unforseen; however, if this is targeting media that is exclusively stored locally, that is worrying beyond a reasonable degree; Huawei devices are sold in places such as Europe, Latin America, and other Asian nations, where there is oftentimes a reasonable expectation of privacy, and a software-level capability like that could easily be abused by foreign governments.
As a smoker myself, I'm almost appalled at how high the taxes are. Ranging from 60 cents per pack in Wyoming, Virginia, and likely a few other places to over $5 in D.C., I feel as if the government wants you to smuggle them across state lines-- possibly to arrest you, or get cigarettes out of convenience and grocery stores in the state. It makes the politicans look good, after-all.
California and Massachusetts banned the sale of menthol cigarettes a while back, and my state attempted to ban them this year. I'm a firm believer that the state should not excessively interfere in the lives of the citizens, especially in regards to the health & wellbeing of citizens. If I want to smoke menthols (I smoke them), I should be able to make that choice, after all mentholated cigarettes carry no more risk than regular cigarettes, and why should it be the state's business to tell me what I can and can't do outside of a basic advisory, after-all, it's my life, not theirs.
Smoking is arguably one of the most unfavorable, yet common practices in society; yet, it's acceptable to have two-three beers in one sitting, but, it remains unacceptable to have more than one cigarette in one sitting. I simply don't get it, as alcohol is more likely to impair you than cigarettes are.
As I've been reading the posts on Twitter regarding Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform, I've noticed one thing: the same people who cried out "go make your own platform" in years prior in response to the censorship of conservative users (on the platform) have effectively been crying out that they can't make their own platform, and that they're being hurt by new policies. If they wanted to put their money where their mouths were, they'd jump ship and either A) make their own platform, or B) join a federated platform, such as Mastodon. However, this is the same group that bends over to (metaphorically) suck Joe Biden's cock, so I doubt that they're capable of actually building their own "new" platform-- after-all, the Democrats recieve more contributions from big tech than Republicans.
Contrary to the belief I see online, Mastodon is a competent platform, if anything, its federation allows for a more diverse userbase. An easy way to think of it is that Mastodon is somewhat like email: one account gains you access to a massive network of users, spanning across various servers and nations.
As the war against big tech rages on in the USA and globally, Google and a state government in the U.S. have been caught red-handed installing COVID-related spyware on Android devices with Google services. As a resident of the USA who has been an Android user since ~2015, I can't say I'm particularly shocked-- on my devices I used during 2020 through mid-2021, I was faced with near-constant popups to try and compel me to install my state's COVID-19 tracing software spyware (at that, the popups became persistent enough that [at times] they appeared every time I unlocked my device), however, to the best of my knowledge, no such spyware was actually installed on my device(s). From a rational standpoint, any unauthorized and/or uninformed installation of spyware (or software in general) should constitute either A) a simple violation of one's property rights, and/or B) from a more extreme view, unlawful access to one's devices.
Copyright 2022, Econobox_ (d.b.a konat.neocities.org)