That’s great! Competition in this space is working to improve both.

Instead of this stupid fanboy shit of Android vs iOS, we should celebrate an actual success in development.

I 100% get my prescriptions without insurance and just use the local pharmacy discount rate they offer. My insurance is employer provided aimed at people who make a lot more money than the employer actually pays. Such is US healthcare

Can anyone explain why Apple is such a target when there are several other companies that truly are a Monopoly, not just popular? They might not have super great business practices, but under capitalism that it not only okay, but it seems to be the default.

There isn’t a single product they sell that only Apple sells, there is a huge market for smart phones, smart watches, home computers, tablets, headphones, chargers, etc. Being a popular product does not make a company “a monopoly” and if we wanted to just go off market share, Microsoft needs to continue to be pursued, as does Amazon, Google, Disney, Comcast, the single other ISP in your region of the country, your power and water utility companies, every chain restaurant, most places that cut men’s hair.

Why go after Apple specifically when there are many companies to go after? Because people don’t like them? Do you like your power company? Tough shit, they are the only game in town. Do you like your ISP? Tough shit, you have two options and one is the worst DSL connection you’ve ever seen. Did you like any of the 20 streaming options in 2018? Tough shit, 12 of them merged into 3. Want to buy a computer in a store? Better like Microsoft or have the ability to install and maintain a new OS (is Linux the only other option?)

I’m not saying Apple is amazing or they have good business practices. But there are far more insidious companies where there simply isn’t many or any legal alternatives.

I agree that if Google is getting the content for free they should, at least try, to keep it ad free for the consumer. But I don’t know if Google has to pay licensing for stuff like PBS. PBS does technically have ads, but they are unobtrusive, shown at the beginning or end of a show and are presented as “Brought to you by….” Less of an ad and more recognition that a company has paid to support bringing PBS to you for free.

I’ve never uses this service, so I’m not aware of how they might insert ads either. Between shows? Typical ad-breaks times every 8.5 minutes of broadcast time? More?

Isn’t that the agreed upon consolation for free content? Was nobody alive when TV was the primary means of content consumption?

It always irked me that people are upset over YouTube running ads. Like, of course they had to start running ads, hosting/programming/daily operating millions of videos isn’t free for them. They need to make money some how, even at “break even” which prevents the idea of profit seeking would mean running ads.

Hate to sound like a “kids these days” but seriously, absolutely nothing in life is free and if there isn’t a direct cost, advertising is going to be present.

HP is the one responsible here, Windows is just the delivery service HP uses to deliver their updates.

I’m all for hating on Microsoft, but you don’t blame the UPS driver for delivering a bomb to your house.

I mean, you got a 2 year extended warranty and free delivery, both of which I’m sure Best Buy charges for.

History channel went from the Nazi channel to the alien channel, this is just its final form, Nazi Alien channel

TNG is the definitive Star Trek for me. I don’t think DS9 or Voyager would have existed had TNG not been a success. They also appear to be in the same universe, all three had similar aesthetics and had crossover between them. TOS always felt a bit dated to me in the 90s, most of the stuff after didn’t really catch my interest.

It would be an interesting issue to resolve if the EU were to pursue it. I guess one could argue that PS5s are sold in the EU, even with the PSN restriction in certain regions. I’d guess a resolution to this would have Sony remove all of their content on Steam, which I consider a negative for gaming in-general.

I’m guessing there is, or will be, a carve out for this type of thing. Precedent could be argued with my PS5 example above.

I’m glad to hear you are off the opioid train. Have lost family members to it and my father is currently been on them for years. I tried to get him on the THC train, he even has a medical card, but he claims to not like the effects. I live in a recently legal state so I’m waiting until I can show him a store with a wide variety to try. I know there is some strain that will help with his pain and suffering without the effects he didn’t like.

The “gateway” drug thing was taught to me through DARE in the 90s. But has been confirmed propoganda for decades. Calling Cannabis (marijuana is not the proper name) a “gateway” drug is like saying water or air are “gateway” drugs. Sure, a crack head has probably smoked weed, but that isn’t what got them into crack.

I would guess that these materials are, either, very old or they categorize cannabis differently because it is so common. It doesn’t help that it is illegal in half the country and legal in the other half. So any state with cannabis not, at least, decriminalized will still have the talking points for the 1930s.

I don’t think they should, TBH. Sony needs the reminder that this was a giant mistake. HD2 is already a successful game with extremely positive reviews from before the PSN issue. Now that we know the HD2 dev was not included in the decision to require PSN, not many still hold a grudge against Arrowhead.

If they hold to their promise going forward, the reviews will start coming down/changing. Let’s just see how they deal with Ghosts of Tsushima release.

Running Windows 11, is updated, VPN works perfectly

Record companies have been stealing artist record sales for 70 years. This is nothing new to musical artists. The motivation to get on a streaming service is so sell tickets to your tour shows. Inflated album prices of the 90s made very few artists any money.

Streaming was never going to be profitable, it was the only option the music industry had to make any kind of money over piracy.

Most artists are happy to be making nothing on streaming, because giving access to your recorded music sells tickets. Tour tickets sales and merch has been the bread and butter for the musical artist for decades and remains the primary source of income.