And after thet, they will turn the lighter socket into a subscription model.

That is a true statement. You can’t have both securtiy and wireless (convenience).

Every wirelessly transmitted signal, whether it is your network signal or bluetooth, can be intercepted from afar. It is even possible to encrypt the accoustic signal emitted from a needle printer and determine what has been printed because every letter/word emits a specific sound pattern. Sound travels wirelessly. This link from 2009 refers to that. Unfortenately it is written in German and I didn’t find anything in English, but you could translate it.

Edit: typos 2 nd Edit: Addition: Needle printers are still in use - at least in Germany - for printing prescriptions at doctor’s offices, among other things. The paper used for that provides a (physical) carbon copy.

Before there were blue LED, the indicator light for full beam was a blue tinted incandescent bulb. My parents had a Volkswagen Passat from the 1980s (?) where the usually blue indicator light for full beam was a green LED, since blue ones were not invented back then.

Until now I thought this Whassup?-Sketch refers to that scene in “Scary Movie” from the early 2000s. I never would have guessed that this was a beer commercial for the Superbowl.

The map is outdated. Since April 4th 2023, Finland is also a member of NATO.

Thank you for clarifying.

Never been a Twitter - or “X” - user, but:

Isn’t it the whole point to show everyone your blue check mark that you have been approved or something like that? How else would one know that you are the real deal?

In addition to my comment I leave this article here:

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/723755486547181568/autoenshittification

This article sums up the ongoing enshittification with cars and other devices, backed up with further sources.

“Saturday” references to the planet “Saturn”.

Here is a video about the origin of the weekday’s names in different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifimOF5a_U

I addition to that, here is a video which explains how the months got their names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iOt48bTw4&list=PL5x1QB-VRuDtHCWcuSx0DgJr2mnuNXkSB&index=4 This channel has very interesting videos about the ethymological origins of different things. It’s worth watching.

Edit: spelling

Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn’t need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.

The car as a device to transport one from A to B has been developed to completion. Any car is capable of fulfilling that task. The next stange of developement is that the comfort features in cars are being replaced with a universal control unit: a touchscreen (-computer).

All physical buttons (air condition, radio, etc.) are being phased out and are accessible over the central touchscreen, hidden in menus. This way it is easier to get customers into subscribed services (e.g. for the ability to lock your car remotely or to use the heated seat feature you have to subsribe to this particular service in order to use it).

Also, when features are controlled over a software interface like those touchscreens instead of physical buttons, it it easier to give access to users - or restrict them from it:

IIRC at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tesla remotely enabled their cars by allowing free supercharging as a helpful measure to help people to escape from Ukraine. Pretty nice of Tesla, isn’t it? Well yes, in this particular case, but this kind of remote software interference from the manufactor can also work in the other direction. They can easily restrict the functionality of your car. Functions your car still would have if they weren’t controlled remotely.

Cars become a Software-As-A-Service product.

Edit: spelling

A Bronx Tale

A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106489/

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

There is no point. We realised it only recently. If you remember the cell phones from the time before smartphones, there hadn’t been much technological progress. My first cellphone, a Nokia, could store up to 10 short messages. It’s pedecessor had the same storage capacity. Of course, there were technological milestones that have been passed, e.g. antennas which didn’t protrude out of the phone, vibration motors, (in comparison to today) really shitty photo-cameras (and the buggy software that was needed to transfer the photos to the computer), etc.

The point is, that they all were capable to do the same thing: calling and texting. Looking back, there was not really a need to replace the old cellphone. Advertising made us want new shiny things.

This changed when smartphones emerged. Hardware wise, there are not many differences. Some have faster processors than others, others have better cameras. The storage capabilities are sufficient. For the normal user these specifications don’t matter. All smartphones are capable of accessing the (real) internet. The main difference today is in the software (operating system). Older phones run on software that is too outdated to keep pace, and the software support is often limited, which as a result leads to possible security flaws - because the user is supposed to upgrade the hardware, not the operating system only. And that’s why new phones are bought, despite the old ones would still do.

My smartphone ist running on Android 8 (Nougat). It’s still working and is sufficient for my needs. But I wouldn’t run my online banking with that phone. Also, it gets pretty hot and slow when navigating with Google Maps.

Conclusion: It’s not the hardware specifications which lead to the replacement of smartphones. It’s the more complex (security wise) software requirements certain applications (online banking apps, medical apps, e.g. insuline tracking apps, overall more sophisticated apps that runs slow on an outdated smartphone) demand today.

When a website features an (embedded) video at the top and you need to scroll down to read the text unterneath the video:

If not disabled by your browser, the video playback starts. You stop the video. You beginn to scroll down to read the text unter the video, because you don’t want to watch the video. Now the video pops out and begins to play and hovers over the area where the text is displayed.

News websites are prone to this behavior.

Virus Shark (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-aTRpXAP8A) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13785940/)

This movie is really really awful. ALL of the actors and actresses are so bad, it’s not even good ironically. Just awful. I really don’t mind B-Movies with a limited budget, as there are some out there, which are not bad. But this one in particular? The (badly made) rubber shark is a more convincing actor than any of the other protagonists of the movie. This movie is acted out so poorly that any movie you can watch on Sci-Fi are Hollywood quality in comparison. I dare you to watch the whole movie!

We do have these signs (crossed cellphone) also at gas pumps where I live (Germany). As I stated above, I think these signs were introduced with the beginning popularity of cellphones and serve mostly as a precaution measurement because nobody knew 25 years ago if cellphones pose a harm to gas pumps when both are in use simultaneusly. In the same fashion that cellphones had to be shut off during the entire flight in an airplane. Gas pumps were there before cellphones. I personally witnessed people pumping gas and use cellphones at the same time and nobody cared. Depending on where you are from, your experience may differ.

Edit: typo, spelling

It’s probably just a precaution measurement or for liability reasons (like don’t put your hamster in the microwave).

Here’s more to read: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fuelish-pleasures/ The rumour of cellphones not to be allowed at gas stations has proven to be false.

what are yall doing with your time?

We use our time more efficiently. Since you can stream everything from the internet, you don’t need to work your schedule according to the time, a show on TV starts. You don’t need to be at home at 7 because a new episode ist airing. With streaming you can decide on when you want to watch something.

Another benefit of not having (classic) TV is, that you barely see any commercials or ads (given you use an adblocker). When I have the chance to watch TV (when staying in hotels or visiting friends wo have TV) I’m astonished how many ads (even in the TV menu) and commercials get thrown down our throats. It’s like a stream of ads interrupted with shows.