I use AWS to host a far amount of servers and some micro services and for them if you don't build the backup into your architecture design and the live data gets corrupted, etc you are screwed.

They give you the tools to built it all, but it is up to you as the sysadmin/engineer/ dev to actually use those tools.

Good thing seeing that a game is published or developed by EA, or one of its subsidiaries, is 9 times out of 10 enough for me to not bother with the game to begin with. They don't make a thing that is worth dealing with them to get to play.

That company burned all of its good will and trust with me years ago. So sure go ahead and put as many ads as you want EA. I know for sure I won't be seeing them.

No way in hell would I do that if I had that kind of knowledge. Look what happened to Snowden for doing something like that.

He would still spend the remainder of his life in federal prison or be executed if he ever steps back on US soil or the soil of someone with an extradition treaty that is looking to get some brownie points.

That wouldn't happen to all of them, but I bet you there are some working on some classified mess that would be found and made an example of in short order to shut the others up.

As much as some of us may dislike it when a company does these kinds of things. You can't really blame them for following the laws of the country that they are headquartered in.

You can blame them for operating there to begin with in cases like Apple in China, but you could hardly blame them for following the laws of the US where they are headquartered for example.

If the law of the land where the headquarters is requires them to give up the data they do have to partner nations then they don't really have much choice in the long run if they want to continue to exist.

I think Rossmann tends to be a drama king about things sometimes, but the general overarching message he is trying to get across, sometimes poorly, is something I usually agree with. This included.

The whole thing reads like just some lawyer on retainer was sent a memo telling them to send a threatening sounding letter and no further thought or research went into it on Googles or the lawyers part.

Because the world cannot allow Georgia Prime to be reconciled. They would be to powerful.

Can't believe you forgot the bread sticks.

Last time I had a Roku you could block the static home screen ads with PiHole. So as long as they don't start serving these from the same domain as something you need for the box to work right or start hard coding a different DNS server into the OS that won't respect your local network settings it will probably keep working.

But if they are not doing one of the above to get around DNS adblockers yet, they will eventually in the name of those sweet sweet ad dollars. Best to just start planning an exit from Roku products if you care about such things.

That is a lot of words to say "they found out that the big tech executives had been lying to them about being family, changing the world. etc" just as much as their last employer was.

News flash, working in big tech is every bit as soul sucking for the rank and file as it is working in big healthcare, or big law firm, or <insert large industry here>. Nothing special about it, they are large publicly traded companies that have shareholders and investors to answer to as the number 1 priority.

I moved to Podcast Republic, and sometimes AntennaPod, on Android, Downcast on iPhone, and just import the OPML from one of those into gpodder to listen on desktop/laptop.

No accounts or other BS to keep up with, just the latest OPML export. Much nicer, and no one can take it away from me or "shut the service down" in the future.

Yep, while this meme is funny and in jest. If someone actually seriously gave me shit for saying "folder" or "directory" I would have to ask them what Stallman's toe nails actually taste like. Because that is up there with his level of being rigid about something that I just can't stand.

What it proves is being a greedy self serving prick that will do anything for a buck if given the chance is not the exclusive domain of white people. Anyone can be an incompetent executive.

Something I have been thinking a lot about lately when it comes to Googles products, especially the Chromecast since they started shoving it so full of ads with their Google TV launcher.

Most of the flexibility I like about Android TV over say tvOS is that it allows me to customize things like the launcher or use SmartTube over the official YouTube app. The thing is the only time I care to do such things is to get away from the mess Google made of the product or service, usually with ads, to begin with.

So it becomes this circle of I prefer it only because it lets me undo things that it pushed upon me that its competition doesn't in the first place.

Long winded way of saying I'm not real sure what Google could do with the new model that would make it compelling to me beyond a bottom of the barrel product for a guest room or something, and even then the Onn 4k is cheaper and more or less the same experience, over just replacing it with an Apple TV when the time comes.

And like it or not they are allowed to fire you for voicing that dissatisfaction. Don't like it? Protesting the company is the wrong seat of power to point your dissatisfaction at. "Freedom of speech" says you can say what you want, but does not mean you are free from the consequences of that speech either when it comes to your dealings with non-government bodies.

Never worked for one of the big tech firms, but I have been in the working world for ~16 years and one of the few things anyone that has been around for awhile can and will agree on is you don't talk about salary within earshot of the boss, you don't badmouth company decisions within earshot of the boss, you don't talk about politically charged topics, and you certainly don't combine 2 of those 3 and protest company decisions on politically charged issues literally in the office.

You also don't do those things on company provided equipment, software, or services. If you want to bitch about something the company is doing, you go out to lunch or do it after hours, preferably without written or video evidence.

While I think it is gross that Google fired them for this, given the history of the company almost encouraging such things, I can say these people just got a hard lesson that most of us learn about the corporate world long before we make it to working for the likes of Google.

Rightly or wrongly freedom of speech, assembly, etc protects you from the Government, not your boss. And your boss is a petty little ego maniac that controls your livelihood, so best to stay out of his gaze on matters you know he/she would view negatively where at all possible.

As much as I like Linux, and use it almost exclusively on desktop/laptop, every time I see something like this I am reminded how much I hate the fact that Apple of all companies is about the last bastion of commercial and consumer operating systems who isn’t trying to derive the bulk of their revenue from advertising.

They can try, but it is unlikley to work for long. So my general reaction is:

This pretty well describes smart watches in my mind outside of those that need to keep track of certain vitals all of the time as well.

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Because that gives the user as much or more control over the device as Apple themselves have. One of the fairly consistent things about Apple over the years has been a desire to maintain tight control for themselves over the products they make.