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In the words of Barry Humphries:

If you have to explain satire to someone, you might as well give up.


Oh, I'm happy to tolerate decent and fair advertising.

But since the ad-tech industry (worth billions) is now dedicated to invading my privacy, using underhand tactics to avoid the GDPR and is busy sniffing my underwear to work out what I had for breakfast, then they can all follow the advice given to them by Bill Hicks.

And I will run an add blocker.


Good lord!

I knew the USA has poor data protection law, though the very idea that companies can legally share such personal information is truly mind boggling.

Why on earth aren't people doing something about this?


Heh

In the 1990's and for us GenX'ers, selling out was the worst thing you could do; to take the man's money instead of keeping your integrity. Calling people and bands 'sell outs' (sometimes without justification!) was to insult them.

Now with the rise of 'influencers' selling out is the norm, and people are praised for doing so.

This is a massive shift in the cultural landscape and is perhaps something many born after ~2000 are unaware of.


Can you name a "zine" or whatever people had in the 90s that experienced a drop in subscribers after it sold out?

Meh

In Blighty, the worst case scenario simply involves sending a snail mail letter to the company secretary (address from Companies House) saying "I cancel".

When sending it, don't forget to collect your(free) proof of posting certificate from the post office counter just in case of legal shenanigans.

Job jobbed.


Seconded.

How Crapita continue to get government contracts despite all their failings is simply beyond me.

Their latest cockup is fucking up civil service pension administration, so it's not like those who work for the government are except from their screwups.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/27/capita_pension_portal...


Good lord!

It was once common knowledge that VHF radio ("FM") typically doesn't travel over the horizon, LW and MW radio ("AM") travel by ground wave and are regional, but that you need shortwave kit for international and global communications.

Quite how a reader on a modern technical news site is unaware of this (no, you can't send direct messages to spies half way around the planet to be received on an "AM/M" car radio) shows just how common public knowledge of radio communications has faded over the last few years.


> Control: Free App

Ugh.

I have as much love for solar as the next hippy, though I can't be the only one put off by a lack of an open API and, *gasp*, a complete set of physical controls.

This IoT shite has gone too far.


It's always better to back up ones arguments with facts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

The USA really hasn't been doing well lately.


That's just a small part of it. EU has a better quality of life, better food, better housing, better public infrastructure.

You would do well to understand why that has happened since 1945 and just how the USA hugely benefited from that state of affairs.

I'm not here to argue who this has benefited the most, or if the benefit has been mutual to us all and for world peace; however Mango Mussolini has shown us the USA can never again be entirely trusted as a good faith partner. We are indeed living in changing times and there is no way of going back to the old hegemony.

EDIT: Britain finally finished paying back war loans to the USA in..... 2006! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American_loan


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