> The idea of spending $1,000 on a phone is just something she is unable to bring herself to do
Your parents are smart. 1000 dollars for a phone is absolute nonsense. A luxury car is something you should be sure you will thoroughly enjoy, because they are a good way to set money on fire. If you do want one, buy it second hand, for it will cost hundreds of dollars per km for the first kilometers.
I think this news won't dominate the headlines, but I think it is a clear sign the circle of authoritarians have lost the plot. Europe turned out to have too many cards. This seems intended to hit Germany and destroy its industrial base (after the billions of dollars in coerced investments in the USA). But part of me thinks this is also an assignment given by the Russian handler in last week's 90 minutes phone call.
Note that Trump managed to alienate Stubb, Merz and Meloni by now. I left out Macron, as the rift with Macron came earlier. In my view, it is quite over now. I don't expect Merz trying to flatter the American president, nor do I expect Europe to accept further extortion.
There is less need to. EU still needs domestically build awacs-like capabilities for information gathering, but the US is also reliant on the EU for many things. What has changed: the EU is rapidly rearming and politically it has become clear that the USA is a dead-end, even the staunchest transatlanticists have fallen quiet by now.
What I do believe is that once the 15% deal has been signed by all required parties, Trump will back down his new tariffs. But I see there is, at this point, a little bit of chance that the original deal will be flushed down the toilet as well.
> There is definitely truth that Europe has relied on US defense for too long,
That wasn't the problem for the USA, on the contrary.
«The U.S. is lobbying against SAFE because it mandates contractors from the EU/EFTA/Ukraine. One reason why Tusk is speaking candidly about how shaky the U.S. is as an ally: Washington says it wants Europe to arm itself and take its security into its own hands, but then it demands Europe rely on American hardware. You can't have it both ways.
The U.S. said: "Take over Ukraine's war needs." So Europe did so. Now PURL purchases are being slowed down or are on hold because of America's prioritization of its own requirements for the war with Iran. Talking out of both sides of one's mouth doesn't work anymore, and if Trump wants anyone to blame here, he should look in the mirror. Forfeiting America's security patronage always meant forfeiting our ability to bully and coerce.»
src: https://xcancel.com/michaeldweiss/status/2047689018683408593
Even before Trump, and the invasion of Ukraine, it was transparently obvious that the idea of minimum spending commitment to NATO was intended to prop up the US arms industry rather than actually achieve anything military.
To a certain extent the US occupation of Germany was intended to prevent Germany rearming on its own.
> it was transparently obvious that the idea of minimum spending commitment to NATO was intended to prop up the US arms industry
...to Trump. European leaders took it literally: since the USA stopped being a reliable partner, Europe needs to depend on itself for protection. It makes zero sense to buy American weapons if you can produce/purchase them on the continent.
> So it will get much worse before Americans finally read a book and figure out we should maybe do something different.
You better forget about the books. Don't count on the media either; the abolishment of the fairness doctrine and financial incentives via corporate ownership can and will distort reality in a strata-optimized way. Social media is overrun by bots and influence ops as we speak. New threat: people will ask their LLM. Journalists will source their LLM. Next question: Who trains the LLM?¹
Understandable wishes, but you might have to put something from yourself into it if this is a pressing concern. Or you will be left to your own corporate devices.
The leadership is great. Persistent, patient and friendly.
They were able to improve. I don't think many of the often negative and ad-hominem critics would be able to endure such a pressure as they had in the past.
The GOS (GrapheneOS) lead had responded to criticisms like yours that he gladly retreats inside his tech role if others would take it upon them to refute the claims from rivals. So if you are that balanced, normal person, you could take that work out of his hands. Or help fund a full time PR person.
«In 2018, matters between Micay and Donaldson came to a head over Donaldson’s desire to pursue business deals with criminal organizations, and his attempts to compromise the security of CopperheadOS, including by proposing license enforcement and remote updating systems that would allow third-parties to have access to users’ phones. As part of this process, Donaldson began to demand that Micay provide Donaldson with the “signing keys” - i.e. the credentials required to verify the authenticity of releases of CopperheadOS. Donaldson advised that, in order to secure certain new business, potential customers required access to the Keys.»
Micay is rightfully paranoia, just having a GOS phone makes some government agencies quite mad. There are many ways a project like GOS could die, disinformation could certainly kill it. Other projects don't help the case if they throw mud at it. Rather, they should focus on their real technical shortcomings, but such articles aren't written somehow. https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
EDIT
> Should I make my own fork?
You could contact him to offer your help where he falls short.
Bad idea. This is pretty much endgame territory you are talking about.
You would give the brains of the younger generation to American tech oligarchy, a class of people openly hostile to the principles of the democratic rule of law. If you want to see the damage actors like Fox News et alii alone can do, just take a look around in the US. Now imagine them taking over the parenting and teaching role; you wouldn't need gerrymandering if you can control people's beliefs.
I remember that Firefox is orders of magnitude more performant in css processing, especially for complex documents with many elements. Can't comment on the javascipt interpeter, so I assume firefox is losing points somewhere else outside the screen painting engine.
I used to work for a GSM messaging gateway/SMSC. And seeing first hand how most of those SMS messages (2FA, password reset, bank transaction/balance ...etc) are usually routed (sure over SSL but stored/forwarded as unencrypted GSM packets) through several different companies around the world - before reaching your mobile operator ...
And on top of that you add stuff like sim cloning, and all the other things that one gets by having a direct SS7 connection (there were blog posts/YouTube videos - IIRC Linus Tech Tips calls/SMS got routed to Australia).
Using SMS for 2FA or anything similar is my last resort.
Granted I stopped working there 15+ years ago - but I imagine that the basic economy reasoning where it's impractical for every mobile operator to have a direct peering contract with every other operator in the world - is still the same.
And messages originating from non mobile users/operators (like DigiD 2FA) always start at one of these messaging gateways/SMSCs (e.g. InfoBip.com), and often go through a few different ones before reaching your mobile operator.
You can replace bride with dog and nothing changes.
We can sugarcoat it all the way we want, but in biblical times, when parents are under economic stress, female newborns are laid in the sun for post-natal abortion. Female offspring is a financial liability, they do not provide the same 'value' as males do. So when a father raises a women, the father gets compensated.
There is a reason Trump had to be saved over and over during his 'career'. Extreme incompetence + clinical narcissism = "I am a winner". This conman and more importantly the powers that prop him up have been very costly for the world, including the USA, and it is about time to hand the bill to MAGA.
Rednecks gonna redneck, the USA clown show has some very determined sponsors, so I don't count on any improvement, but I prefer they at least enjoy their party indoors.
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