Today's cars are rolling smartphones with constant Internet connections. You can't access the OS and you can't see what data is being transmitted. It's a privacy nightmare.
Last summer I bought a 2021 Toyota RAV4 hybrid, I spent ages doing research before choosing to buy that vehicle. Does this one have that same tracking technology? Of course, however, in my research I found a way to disable it.
What can be done with this particular car, and possibly many other Toyotas, if you remove the fuse providing power for the Data Communication Module (DCM) it will kill the transmission of this data. Keep in mind this isn't an immediate solution, there is an 18650 battery in the module that will stay alive for a few days. Once that's drained you've successfully stopped having Toyota spy on you remotely. Obviously they can still access this data if you go to the dealer and they plug into your car, but factory resetting your car should negate this (not confirmed, just a theory). Alternatively, just find a local shop you trust to do your basic maintenance if you can't do it yourself.
Other makes and models might be able to have the same trick pulled on them, but in my reading doing this in some cars might actually trip the car into limp mode because of some bullshit failsafe built into the car. I believe some Mazdas have this issue.
Downsides to doing this do include losing any remote start function you might have available with the remote app, as well as remote tracking of the vehicle (obviously).
Feel free to look into this type of remedy for any modern rolling cellphones you might be considering buying or already owning, check owner forums or even ask within them if any owners have tried this type of solution for a car you might want to buy.
Also, the DCM in my particular car can be removed without causing issues, I just haven't had the time to tear the dash apart to remove it, as it sits in the dash below the infotainment screen.
To add to that, most of the time there are easy work arounds like just using the apps browser version instead of an app. The only thing I've had a couple times was my keyboards just wouldn't pop up. No matter what I did the keyboards were dead for about 3 minutes each time it happened, they started to work again but it's just a quirk of a privacy focused OS
I don't know what I've beaten more times, New Vegas or my meat. Either way that game stays installed on my PC, Steam Deck, Xboxes, everything. I ain't no fink, dig?
Honestly it's just amazing Obsidian was able to make that game's story and assets in 18 months with Bethesda looming over their necks.
You couldn't pay me to ride a bike in ABQ, most of it is stroads and the rest are roads that people treat like stroads. Everyone speeds, half the drivers are on something or drunk and everyone constantly has their phone in their face while driving. It's a car centric hell scape and no amount of painted gutters or protected lanes will solve this. Drivers see cyclists as extra points in ABQ.
Got married in August 2018, the beginning of the next month my dad died of cancer. Obviously I was mourning him and was in a shitty place, my then wife took that as me not being active enough in our relationship and decided to start cheating on me with multiple guys. Once I found out and called her out on it, and also subsequently kicked her out all of a sudden I was the bad guy. I can't even imagine the mental gymnastics she was hopping through to think that was justified.
Anyway I've moved across the country since then and have met who I believe is my soulmate, and things are amazing with her. Just had to go through sewers to find my green pasture I suppose
I was desperate for a job years ago and took a car sales job. Firstly, I felt slimy as fuck doing it and didn't sell many cars because of it.
That said, the guy that owned the auto group owned 4 dealerships out of the 6 in town that weren't used only car lots. Hyundai/Genesis, Honda, Nissan and Toyota/Scion. They constantly ran "sales" that only saturated the market since the town was like 200 miles from another city. Then he goes and buys the Ford/Lincoln dealership, leaving only the GM (Chevy, GMC, Buick and Cadillac) and Dodge/Chrysler ones not owned by him.
Dude was stupid rich, had literally the largest house in the city and bought a brand new C8 Corvette (when it was first released), burned through 4 sets of tires, got 3 speeding tickets then totalled it all within 2 weeks. To him it was a tax write-off. Not to mention all the other toys this guy bought and abused.
I met him once, he was a complete dick to even his store managers. Fuck that guy.
I dumped Spooterfy over a year ago now, moved all my liked song library to Tidal. I moved to AntennaPod for podcasts too. I never really make playlists, Tidals mixes are usually pretty good. The daily discovery is leagues above Spotify's weekly shit that would constantly play songs from artists I had blocked. No Spotify, I do not want to be ear raped by 100 Gecs I told you this!
They pay artists better and it's been a much better experience. My only issue was I couldn't easily like songs from the notification bar, but that was added a while ago in an update. It has started playing the same songs frequently lately, but thats not the worst I guess.
Obviously if you care about supporting your artists, buy thier CDs, vinyls (if you're into that) or buy them digitally on Bandcamp, streaming doesn't pay as much as direct support.
This reads as an ad but I'm genuinely just a satisfied user. Fuck Spotify.
As someone else here mentioned, Pandora is still a viable option too, hell my mom uses Pandora.
If you want to prevent your TV from getting stolen just get a Trinitron, it's heavy as fuck and old enough where no thief would take thier time to steal it. Mine's 109lbs
I did exactly the same thing, I have a Galaxy Gear 4 but I stopped using it about 2 months after getting it. I got tired of it constantly vibrating over everything even after turning off all notifications on the watch. I got tired of going to look at the time only to see the "you've walked 10,000 steps congratulations!" screen. I work outside and always have my hands full, I can't just swipe it away, I need to see the time.
I wanted it for seeing the time and knowing who's calling me without having to dig my phone out of my pocket. Got a G-Shock that shows me time, date and day of the week and I haven't worn the Galaxy watch since. Added benefit is not having to charge the damn thing every night too.
My girlfriend has an iPhone, and the storage is full. We've been trying to get all her pictures transferred off to delete some of the older ones off the phone and holy fuck is it a pain in the ass. Move them to her MacBook? Pain in the ass because of how they setup their Photos app. Move to a flashdrive via a dongle? Pain in the ass because it downloads from who knows where and fills the storage back up before I can start the transfer. Connect to my Windows PC? Lmao yeah right.
So far I've just gotten Immich to backup all her pics to my server but due to the amount on her phone it takes forever then bugs out and stops transferring.
Link to proposed 2023-2026 National Agreement that was voted down.