All the JavaScript in gnome make it super icky to me as an ex-webdev, and unusable on hardware that is otherwise perfectly fine with other DEs. From high resource usage, memory leaks, and breaking extensions, I have a hard time believing that their userbase is anyone other than mobile native younger folk who are good at consuming via the iPad launcher paradigm. Just my humble opinion, nothing more.

Cars are the same way, with “lifetime fluid” that should really be replaced at regular intervals. Zero maintenance appliances are absolutely consumer traps.

I bet their generation did more than you think. People’s willingness to do maintenance themselves as well as ability to DIY has plummeted over the past few decades. The funny part is YouTube shows detailed instructions on how to do it all, even how to become a handyman, and yet we are more reliant on contractors, technicians, and mechanics than ever before.

Something that most people fail to do on their tools and appliances is maintenance. My house is full of cheap appliances that are pushing 15 or so years of life and running great, but they require work. Filters need to be changed on dishwashers and laundry machines, people never check these often enough. For example, most people I know don’t own an air compressor, which means they never fully clean out all the motor killing dust. Computers, vacuum filters, air purifiers, fridge compressors, all these items need to be blasted with air, way more than you can get from a little can of air like IT people love to use.

Get the proper tools to maintain your things, and even the cheap stuff will last a while.

Maybe not massive issue for individuals yet, but I guarantee anti piracy orgs love everyone switching to a VPN that inherently weakens the torrent ecosphere.

P2P requires at least 1 person to have open port forwarding. Ideally, everyone has it open on their VPN. The more people start recommending vpns without it, the more torrents as a whole start to die as everyone I inherently becomes a burden on the system.

Airvpn or Private internet access seem to be the good options nowadays, MAYBE protonvpn if you can separate the product from the owner, due to the CEO making inflammatory statements on his socials. That’s a call you have to make for yourself and your own threat model.

PIA (Private Internet Access) seems really good. I am currently finishing up a 2 year discounted Protonvpn subscription but am reevaluating it as a viable option due to recent political posts from the CEO. As far as the service goes it was great though.

Advertising for mullvad harms the peer2peer network. (They blocked port forwarding and won’t be bringing it back)

It penetrates and ricochets inside instead of exiting, makes for good brain jelly!

Sad to hear as a long time Toyota fan, but really not that impactful personally. The cars from Toyota have really dropped off quality wise post 2019, and used market purchases don’t give any money to the company.

Wasn’t this in news cycles back in July? I feel like I’m going crazy here.

Pennsylvania has plenty too. Yes you will have to commute or work from home, but often that’s life here in the states. Yes we are being outpriced and our quality of life is trending down, but there is still housing for those trying to get by with tempered expectations. I’d rather move to Mississippi and own something than rent my whole life, but that’s just me.

You can still find sub 50k homes, but you will have to temper your expectations for the area and condition. Can’t be afraid to learn a few renovation tricks and get your hands dirty!

The idea of infrared pupil trackers is terrifying.

Imagine the tracking potential for insurance companies, law enforcement, etc…

I know this is offtopic, just the first thought that comes to my mind :(

I believe it, my disgusting little ICE brain doesn’t think of EV when I think car quite yet 😅 I hope there are good options available for the market here so that can change. In the meantime I might buy an old Nissan Leaf and mod the heck out of it to have better range and longevity, I don’t know yet.

The OP would rather an EV which tend to be newer. ICE you get a lot more years to pick from, some of which are pretty simple/low tech.

That’s simply not how it works. The only “computer” system that is required and widely used is still obd-II which has been around since 1996. Thats all the independent shops diagnose with whether the car is 1999 or rolled off the lot yesterday. Any other computer system on board is dealer specific and a specialised system NOT accessed during regular work. Quit spamming misinformation.

I don’t think we are missing much, I haven’t heard anything but horror stories about french car reliability. This is purely from German acquaintances I have as well as some mechanic opinions I have been given.

Late 90s and early through mid 2000s cars are gems as they are still very reliable as well as easy to maintain. Being a privacy advocate in this day and age practically requires you to get a cheap wrench set and learn the basics of maintaining one of these era vehicles.