FriendOfDeSoto

We can all agree kids shouldn't be watching porn. We do not agree on how to achieve this.

That was only option 2.

You need to try for yourself. Or consult a therapist who knows you well enough. Us idiots on the internet cannot look inside your head.

I think "vibe scripted" is harsh. The writers were bumping against the restriction that they need

It's a version of "commander, you better take a look at this." It keeps the suspense up for the audience as Riker saunters over, maneuvering over multiple chairs, to take a look at the corpse of the mortal enemy of the federation. In a real military, Worf would say something like "heads up, Romulan casualties on the premise, everybody be on the lookout." That's to prevent the commander or anybody else from getting shot by a possible half-dead Rom in the rubble. But that's not great television. It's just script writing 101.

Consider leaving reddit. Vote with your feet. I did when they made these API changes and I beat the FOMO with my furious anger.

A lot of good ideas like that died when reddit pulled APIs or made access to them prohibitively expensive for developers. They are so set on making you use their shitty app.

Gul Darheel* is dead and buried on Cardassia. Smug Dukat tells Odo he attended his funeral. That's kind of a big ask for Bashir to accomplish resurrection from DS9.

Marritza suffered from the HDJ syndrome as well. It befalls characters whose death fits the story - and it is a more impactful ending with Kira almost mourning the loss of this guy.

*previously mentioned in the title but since edited out.

I would say "AI" didn't decorate it either. It provided an image of an idea. It'll take the fictional wife another 30 years to make it happen. And my money is on divorce before that. How come it's her job only? Pull your finger out of your butt, "AI" meme maker, and do it with your wife.

If you were using Photos as a photo roll app you need to stay angry at yourself a while longer. That's on you when you should know you cannot trust the G. Don't grant an app permissions to photos and videos that could sync it to the cloud. And as another precaution, don't keep sensitive pictures in the DCIM folder. If I have to take pictures of sensitive documents like that I disable WiFi (sync set up on WiFi only), take the picture, move it to a folder that's never backed up elsewhere on my phone, and then turn WiFi back on.

You are not normal because you care about these things. The normal user doesn't care and that's who they are catering for. I'm not excusing their behavior (I don't like it either) and at the same time you need to be more on your toes.

I'm planning to move to Ente this year when my Google cloud subscription runs out. Not looking forward to the work it entails but to the [paints face blue] FREEDOM!

I think the future will surprise us with a new method of digital obfuscation other than bitcoin et al. Crypto is a bit tainted. We can only look at the tools we have available today to make a guess about the future. My belief is that we will come up with something new, something else that isn't as speculative and volatile. People don't want their bribes to be devalued because some people found their long forgotten hard drives with crypto wallets and eff up the exchange rate.

Maybe barter is the wrong word in this instance. I mean rudimentary, handshake trade within an equally rudimentary community. Farmer A has wheat, hunter B shot two deer. A agrees to give half a blurb of wheat to B for 2 blorbs worth of prime venison. Both make it through the winter. That's what I meant.

I'm not Scandinavian or live there, I think they are possibly the most cashless countries today. I'm in Japan where we just moved away from fax machines for banking and cash is very much alive and well. So I don't have any specific experience to share, just general thoughts.

how much longer until they take cash and browser-based banking from us?

I would question the framing here. I don't think "the man" will come in and "take it from us." The move towards digital money and online banking isn't so much prescribed by a dark cabal than it is driven by convenience. If the majority of people didn't find anything useful about it, they would not adapt these things like tap to pay or online banking.

Bartering wasn't made immediately illegal when currency came in. Currency was made to make bartering easier and more fairly divisible. Things changed at a glacial pace to get to our modern economy.

Banks and credit unions do have an incentive to get you to do your banking online. They can close all their locations except for ATMs and get you to do your in-person interactions with a central video call center. That saves them labor costs and they like that.

And security agencies and the revenue service like people spending digital, traceable money. It cuts out the gray area where under the table shenanigans take place.

As far as a push to online banking is concerned, there are a few factors that overlap. The aforementioned labor cost issue for the banks. A lack of legislation or regulations to provide banking that is accessible to preferably all people online. And then there is competing regulations to make it safe for people to use. And with that you run into the issue that you need the two biggest mobile OS's to get you access via the web or the app that does all. This is where we need to lobby our political leaders and the stance should be: don't leave grandma in the lurch. We have more old people than young ones in most western countries, old people vote in higher numbers, let's frame a way to preserve online banking in the most privacy-friendly manner around how an octogenarian should be able to use it safely. I think this is how you cover most bases with a good chance of success, even in the pre-authoritarian US. That should include browser-based banking and authentication means that don't only depend on Google and Apple.

As far as cash or concerned there will come a point where governments and central banks just throw their hands in the air and say: it's too expensive to keep printing and then maintaining the money in physical form. That's it, we go digital, damn a possible apocalypse and the fact that when we do we will be absolutely hosed when that happens. And, realistically, even if we retained physical money during the apocalypse, the economy would still collapse. Wars have shown us that money is quickly replaced by barter of cigarettes, booze, and other desirable or necessary goods. So you're "only" left with the privacy and liberty considerations to spend cash without anyone keeping a constant ledger. And I fear they will be drowned out by "hey, we can stamp out all drug trafficking" promises. Not realizing that like most rivers finding the sea most drug traffic participants will find a way in the new digital only system as well. And that gives me hope. I think we will see physical cash disappear this century. But at the same pace, people will find ways to avoid being tracked.

What can you do? Keeping your fingers crossed, become politically engaged with parties who want to protect old people in an online banking world, and vote for politicians who want to preserve cash. Just know that your best funded co campaigners will be the mob and tax dodgers.