OpenStars

Damn... good point.

I was even all set to argue back with like: each individual cow makes their own choice, as in the ones who fight back against the system get killed, whereas those who simply accept it as-is continue to exist, leading us to today where those who are left are those who are genetically predisposed to not fight (but theoretically, they could still fight back?). And that even before we delved into direct genetic manipulation, to increase the meat-to-effort ratio. Maybe one day we'll design cows that just walk directly into our mouths and beg us to chew them?

So humans in essence foundationally altered what a "cow" even is - like imagine a wild boar that humans actually feared, vs. today's mere "pigs". What is left is a shadow of the former glory that the true bovine herbivore ruminant was in its prime heyday. i.e. nobody alive to today has ever seen a true "cow" (unless like boars there is some wild variant somewhere, not descendants of some escapee but a truly untouched species?).

That's all on us. As people elsewhere are saying, we treat cows almost as bad as we treat humans beings.

Perhaps that is why shows like The Matrix are so horrifying - it's what we would do (/ are already doing), if the situation were reversed.

Perhaps not individually - although even there, what is the average lifespan of a cow in the wild? - but collectively there have been far more cow offspring than there would have been if they had not been domesticated.

Also, looking at every other wild species that we've eradicated, they seem to have decided to get in on our good side, which since they aren't extinct may have worked out well for them.

And even individually, if they live >3x longer, in a more comfortable environment where food is provided routinely... it's arguably not as bad a trade-off as it first appears.

A lifetime of slavery ending in death, or try to outcompete the species that invented guns? We might each make a different choice, but they made theirs.

I think some Samsungs might be depending on the carrier. Verizon in particular has a BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone) program where you don't have to buy one that is locked down. OnePlus was similar iirc where like T-Mobile made you jump through very many hoops if you purchased from them, so for my previous phone (a OnePlus 7T) I had it shipped straight from the company as an unlocked device, and I've definitely put alternate ROMs on it no problem.

That's always much harder to set up though bc for every phone I've done that for I need to call Verizon, spending an hour or so for them to transfer me to a level 2 technician and do something on their end to enable me to send text messages (here I mean the initial BYOP of OnePlus, not yet with a custom ROM just whatever it came installed with, so it's something related to the account connecting to the device rather than whatever ROM it is running).

I never use banking apps on a phone - it seems too much of a risk if someone were to steal it.

You can put GApps on most custom ROMs - certainly on Google devices like Pixels it is far easier but people have gotten them to work on like OnePlus phones as well. I forget about Samsungs. Thanks for the warning about Open Street Maps though. It is getting harder and harder to break out of their walled gardens on both sides and use the devices and apps that we want.

Oh wow that's awesome that it can use a standard cable. I imagine that varies per device like some built-in car ones might need a special one.

I am glad to see this level of interactivity. At the same time, I hope it doesn't try to do too much at once - like trying to be all things to all people holding it back too much from moving forward in any one lane, if that makes sense?

On the other hand, the developer can do whatever they want, so I totally get working on the exciting stuff, especially if they (unlike Ernst) are amenable to allowing others to flesh in the details for the stuff that they enjoy less.

Wow, the more I learn about it, the more exciting it seems!? Thanks for sharing that.:-)

Do it!

Some already exist though, if you want additional inspiration:

Tell your work to put in a bidet? Yeah, that'll happen /s :-D.

Hrm, that doesn't remind me of Momo like at all... but even so I searched for a different one and found this:

This guy seems totally safe to be around kids, sure why not? :-P

I would think the map would need to be refreshed at some point, as new roads are built and such, but possibly that can be done manually somehow or at worst a trip to a mechanic.

But for me I sometimes need a device while traveling to another city I've never been to before. I suppose a laptop would mostly work.

That's a great idea. I almost bought an A22 but it took ~6 whole seconds after pretty much any button press to respond (I thought no way, but confirmed at a store first and it was true) - some kind of horrible software update that has since been corrected iirc and thought I needed something reliable so I spent more for the more premium phone.

My S22 is pretty much the only device I've ever gotten that works as they seem to have intended it but I actually regret purchasing. I hate Samsungs now, based on this experience. Maybe it's bc I didn't go big enough for the S22+ that cools better, more likely it's bc I won't make a Samsung account and this is their way of punishing me, by constantly checking a thousand times a second for if I've done that yet - in that case maybe I can root this one and get a whole second, better life out of it!?

I've had a replaced OS on a Nexus 5 as my daily driver before and loved it, but in general I'm very hesitant to do that with a non-Google phone that I NEED to function as my only phone. Except nowadays Google phones are only super-premium cameras attached to the shittiest specs I've ever seen on such an expensive phone.:-(

For my work I travel very rarely, sometimes not even once a year, but I don't want to be in a city I've never been in before without a reliable phone, maps, even an app to schedule an Uber (unethical company issues aside), plus subway/train/bus connection apps. Likewise if I have a 5-year-old phone (w/ 5-year old battery) that gives out on me halfway through the day... so then I'm looking at either carrying a giant charger block and spending time at an outlet, or getting like a second battery replacement thingy to swap out, either way an extra hassle.

Phones didn't used to be this way. My Nexus 5 would last all day, especially if I had a charger at work, and while I guess I did buy it at half price as it was discontinued, even the original price wasn't a fucking thousand dollars like phones are today.

But there's definitely all kinds of non-premium phones out there, if only the reviews could be trusted or we roll the dice and hope it lasts a little while.

I've not met anyone who enjoys buying things these days. Reviews aren't trustworthy, and even as I type this my hands burn from using a (checks notes) standard web browser app (Firefox, Android) - possibly my own fault for using Blokada VPN but iirc I've shut it off before and the issue still persists. On a Samsung Galaxy S22 for fucks sake!?!?!?

My next phone will probably be either a Fairphone, dumb phone (except I really need Google Maps rarely but occasionally), or maybe I'll get a pihole (or sth) on my home network and buy an iPhone, except I don't want to pay premium prices for just a handheld web browser attached to a phone and Maps device.

Anyway, companies don't sell what we want, only what they can extort from us to buy. If we don't like that then... well no, that's it, we have no choices between "become god-tier expert in every subject that we might ever want to make a purchase in, even once a decade", and "we enslave ourselves to the whimsy of chance to do with us what it wills".

But in that case, wouldn't you be as equally stressed if that happened while at work?