>"If you havenâ(TM)t heard, the voice actor for John Redcorn was murdered last week"

That is true. And very unfortunate.

>"by a homophobe."

That is not certain at all. But it won't stop the pushing of a certain political narrative. Joss was apparently quite agitated, unruly, hostile, irrational, and was involved in lots of armed and semi-armed spats with neighbors about property rights and such. Basically, a lunatic. It appeared to have nothing to do with "homophobia" but a statement by Joss's "husband" (a female) was the only basis for this bizarre narrative.

The SAPD has already issued a statement that "Despite the online claims of this being a hate crime, currently, the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that the murder was related to sexual orientation."

>"every browser company thinks they know what is best, not all sites render properly and Google of course changed things so"

There are only three rendering of sites. The Firefox way, the Chrom* way, and the Safari way. And if you are not using Apple stuff, there are only two. It shouldn't be hard for sites to handle 'three' browsers, and yet, here we are, trying to slip back into the days of "IE Only".

My continued advice to people, lest we end up in a complete disaster of mono-browser/non-diversity is:

1) Do not use any Chrom* browser. Which is all browsers except Firefox (or those based on it), or Safari. For most people, this will mean "use Firefox or similar".

2) Complain very loudly to a site's admin if it isn't rendering correctly, or they are trying to push you to use a Chrom* browser. Put your money where your mouth is.

3) Promote the switch to non-Chrom* browsers to family, friends, associates, etc. And for heaven's sake, make sure you also show them UBO.

4) Support any concept for additional browsers not based on Chromium (which are under Google's direct/indirect control). We desperately need a third multi-platform, open-source alternative, if not more.

>"Anonymity is preserved in the context. An IP address does not identify a person, it identifies a network endpoint."

Yep

>"Knowing my IP address does not identify me, only my ISP can do that."

Nope, your ISP can't do that either. At home, you should have NAT and very likely multiple endpoint devices and possibly multiple people using them. And your ISP doesn't know everyone who lives in your house or visits (or which neighbor is stealing your WiFi access in the case of insecure setups). So they can't know which exact person is actually using the IP address assigned. They can come a lot closer, though.

Hence the sites working so hard to uncover you based on cookies, tracking, web storage, and fingerprinting. Then they can figure out who you very likely are, regardless of IP address (unless you are deploying countermeasures).

I am not a programmer, but work with/on computers all day, every day (sysadmin, documentation, projects, maintenance, setup, config, Email, etc, etc).

I never learned to touch-type. However, since I have been doing it for so incredibly long (perhaps 42 years), my fingers figured out their own method. I don't have to look at the keyboard to type. Although I sometimes have to look to position them (especially for certain rare symbols). It really is a sight to see me type- it seems a little chaotic, but it works and I think I am around 70WPM or so (sometimes faster, sometimes slower). Rarely do my hands cross the midline into the other hand's area, and I have had to use a split keyboard due to CTS for maybe 20 years now.

Typing was offered in high school at the time (it had not yet been on computers, since they were too new) but was an elective. And it was on electric typewriters. For the advanced diploma track, we had only a single elective, and that was going to be band every year for me. It would have been valuable had the class been mandatory and not an elective. But that was a different time.

Post-university I tried to learn to touch-type on my own (using typing software), but it was way too late. I couldn't "unlearn" what I had already self-learned.

>" 'Chromeâ(TM)s engineering team claims to have improved the browserâ(TM)s performance on this test by 10 percent since August 2024. That might sound small, but itâ(TM)s not.'

Keep telling yourself that buddy."

LOL! This "Smashes" and "Massive Performance Gains" is just 10% on some benchmark! Hmm. I mean, perhaps that is impressive if it translates to real-world effect, but I wouldn't attribute the superlatives the article did.

Well, doesn't matter to me, I won't be using any Google-based browser for so many other [more important] reasons.

>"I can't imagine modern Linux versions running KDE running on 10 year old hardware is going to be a great experience."

It will be fine. I have lots of machines that are 10+ years old and can run KDE/Plasma with no problems. But there is also Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE, lots of choices for lighter weight if needed.

Thankfully you don't even have to install anything to find out. Just boot a live Linux off USB and play with it, but keep in mind it will be slower on a flash drive so the ultimate experience will be even better. Many distros, like Linux Mint, that *is* how you install them. You boot into a real Linux desktop and can do anything you like, then if you choose to actually install it, you launch the installer icon on the desktop. It will even set up dual boot if you want (you will have to turn off secure boot in BIOS, and might want to turn off any disk encryption in MS-Windows, first).

>"Especially if they're still using a PC with a hard drive for storage."

No system will run "well" with a spinning hard drive anymore. But how many machines in the past 10 years have those as their main storage? And a drive update to SSD is cheap and simple now.

Good point/observation.

>"You have a gear box with 5 gears, but call the car a "5 speed", do you not think that is odd?"

Yes, I do think it is somewhat odd that we say it. Sorry, I misread what you were saying :) I thought you said it would be *unusual* to hear one say "5 speed" in the US, but here it is normal. The fact we say it, though, is odd, but, technically, all transmissions have a lot more than 5 or 6 gears in them. So there is that. So it comes down to having 5 or 6 engine-to-wheel "speed ratios" or "speeds" available for selection.

Oh, it applies to bicycles, too. We say "15 speed bike", not "15 gear bike". So at least we are consistent.

>"Nobody is shopping for a Nissan anyway."

I just bought a 2025 Nissan Ariya a few weeks ago. Nissan is quite popular from what I see. They make quite nice vehicles- both in styling and function. I think their recent issues have been mostly financial mis-management. I hope they can get back on track (no pun intended).

>"It's called a CVT."

No, he was talking about a motorcycle. No motorcycle I have ever seen has a CVT. A few motorcycles have clutchless manuals. And I think of those as abominations. Some have "quick shifter" assistance, making them easier to not use the clutch.

When you know what you are doing, you don't even need the clutch for most up shifts, anyway, even without a "quick shifter." I rarely use the clutch for upshifting into 2nd and above. Downshifting clutchless is a lot more challenging.

>" It is my opinion that having to pay attention to the actual physical act of driving keeps you paying attention to driving."

I agree with you.

It is the same problem I have with non-traditional cruise control. I need to be monitoring speed changes in cruise control, if not, something in my brain switches off and it seems more dangerous. So I have to turn it off every time I start the car. Which is something I really hate- why the F can't we set the default of many of these features in modern vehicles???

>"I always thought it was fun. It becomes such routine muscle memory that even traffic jams don't really bother you. I drove one for 4 years in Miami; lots of traffic. "

I learned on stick shift and my first two cars were stick shift. So much more control and being "connected" to the car. And more fun. Until I moved to a mega traffic area. Then it was just a nightmare of put in gear, creep forward 10 or 20 feet, then hold a heavy clutch forever or knock into neutral, rinse and repeat for a hundred times for many trips. I gave up and every car since has been automatic.

But hey, I still have the motorcycle. That is what defines my need for speed, gear control, and performance, and generally is used on joy trips when there is much less traffic and the point is to get OUT of the city and enjoy driving.

>"Do you really say "5 speed" instead of "5 gears" in the US? That sounds pretty odd ..."

I have never heard a 5 speed transmission called a "5 gear" transmission in the US. And I was born here and lived my whole life year and owned a 5 speed CRX Si. So why would that be odd?

>"Do not have Apps for Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Twitter/X, etc etc etc. I use some of these services in a "privacy" window with Ad blockers, etc and delete all cookies afterwards.""

I will do you one better. I don't even have accounts on any of them, never have, and don't use any social media (unless you count Slashdot and a few forums as "social media" (I don't )). And I survive just fine. I do have an Amazon account, I don't consider that the same thing at all, however.

>"Fuck them."

Indeed

>"Especially if they don't offer any cheaper plan. So of course at that rate they can afford not to increase price for 3 years."

Bingo. And that is pre-taxes (which can often be a lot). I pay less than that for Cox 300/35. And I don't NEED anything faster.

Metronet fiber became available a few months ago, finally, in my neighborhood. They have been PLASTERING my mailbox with the same fliers over and over again (10 so far, once a week or something). The pricing looks great until you read the fine print and it is another of these scams- price doubles in 6 months, then again in 6 months, then again a year later, etc. I have never print so small- I literally had to get a powerful magnifying glass to read it, the "normal" one wasn't strong enough. They just want you to switch and then be lazy and they "have you".

I am so freaking sick and tired of "introductory rate" scams. I think maybe one person in the neighborhood has had it installed. So maybe people are learning to read the fine print, and consider the "later" price the ACTUAL price. And that is before the typical, unknown, annual cost increases.