Something that might be helpful in posts like this: Please tell us what this app does! Why would I want it? Instead we get a list of things that changed in an app that I’m not familiar with.

I bet we had microplastics in the water, then. We have only now been able to detect them.

His acting was superb in Oceans Twelve!

(He played “Bruce Willis as himself”.)

Joke (whoosh)

My head

I’m afraid I don’t follow you. Why would you sand down your dice? Wouldn’t that bias them?

Brother printers to the rescue. I think they are still untainted by crap bloatware and just do the thing.

EULA’s are widely honored and established law. However, anyone can push back on anything they put in an agreement.

To fight Microsoft, you have to fight Microsoft’s lawyers, in Microsoft’s jurisdiction. But you can’t sue them, because you already agreed to arbitration. And you’d have to pay lawyers in what would be a long, drawn out process.

If Microsoft demands things that are incredibly weird like what you describe above, there definitely would be a chance it could be appealed to a court and eventually see a judge. I think it would be a long and expensive process for both sides getting there. And Microsoft’s argument would be, “The user has the option to stop using it.”

There are undoubtedly severance clauses in there, so if a court deems a part of a license illegal, then it is stricken, and the rest of the agreement stands.

So, Microsoft’s lawyers only put things in the agreement that they are 99+% sure of wanting and winning. So they probably won’t request your spleen. They don’t want that. They just want your money, your data, and your eyeballs connected to your brain.

It kinda does make it legal. If you don’t agree to the terms of the product, then you are using it illegally. It sucks, but that’s where the law is. I am typing this on a Linux laptop in Firefox, but those have terms and conditions, too!

Yes, but - in many of those contracts (particularly end-user license agreements) you agreed to them changing the terms of the contract. You also have an “out” - not using the product any more.

You’re right though: it’s slimy. Anything slimy thing can be put into a contract!

Source: I’m not a lawyer, but worked in an office with a lot of them, and worked with software license agreements in particular.

to work harder for no reason

I think the reason might be money. There’s very little money in, “Here’s some free salvation for you!”

I was thinking of buying a Synology system. I was actually looking at prices this past week.

That being said, I’ve got an old 2019 desktop running Windows that is coming to the end of its support, that I was considering making a Linux machine.

How complex is making a roll-your-own NAS?

Wait, what?

You know, it’s possible to feel emotions about two different things at the same time.

You can feel bad about the economy if you want, and also bad about how the government treats people. You don’t have to choose one or the other.

Try it!

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. A comic book about comic books, cartoons, sequential art, and art in general.

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

Seasons 2 through 4 of Babylon 5, especially that 4th season.

Hurting women is ok for them, too.

It in Elon’s case, catches fire and locks you in

Only the programmers that have to run queries in it because that’s their job. 😭

Brother-in-law told me that the government is using weather-control machines to target Republican states.

Or Emacs, if you want a full operating system as your text editor!