Not like they used to, mostly. They just replaced “contract” with “equipment payment plan”. Because $50/mo for 24 months is easier for a consumer to swallow than a lump payment of $1200, especially when the carrier is giving you a $10 or $20 (or more) “discount” on the phone.

But as long as the EPP is active, the phone is locked to that carrier. And I think that’s fair. No different than the bank holding the title while you finance a car.

The thing is that the plans that have these equipment deals are significantly more expensive than others. Namely big name plans like TMo or Verizon, compared to MVNO plans like Mint or Visible. So you end up paying more for the plan because you get “a deal” on your phone (but still end up ultimately paying more).

In the beginning…

Well my 6th grade science teacher told us that Chernobyl was fortold in the book of revelations and it meant that the world will end soon. Public school. In New England. In the 90s. The 1990s.

And there were nine of them!

And the bastard, American.

And people who work menial jobs don’t deserve to live since they can’t afford healthcare. Those people are obviously lesser and should die.

After all, if you wanted to live a long healthy life, they should’ve gone into a prosperous and productive career…like stock trading. Those guys have tons of money and thus deserve to live.

Right?

You realize that by the time today’s mortgages are paid off, a millionaire will be nearly anyone who owns a home, right? Being a millionaire isn’t the benchmark it used to be. It’s nothing. “Millionaire” is very, very close to what “middle class” used to be, and yet it’s still somehow completely unachievable to most.

Yet somehow we have people walking around today that could literally give $1m to every person in Flint, MI (population 100k) today and still have more wealth than all of them combined. And they’d still be the 15th richest person out of some 8,000,000,000 other people.

And people like you see them as an ally and inspiration.

World is fucked.

If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk.

If you save the cheerleader you save the world.

System76!

You mean to tell me, three days a week, they have to:

• wake up extra hours early
• pack a lunch or plan to pay for one
• put on hard pants
• drive their own vehicle in traffic, with their own gas and wear/tear
• pay for their own parking.
• do the exact same work in their designated space
• drive back home in traffic 9 hours later

All for the same pay and several hours away from my family, home, or bed?

No fucking thanks.

Going remote was the best fucking raise I ever got, and it didn’t cost them a dime.

I’ll start integrating the webhookers with Slack.

Jambalaya is a rice dish ya donut.

You must make a very interesting jambalaya. Or lasagna.

I consider myself vegetarian now, but you make a sound point…all proteins are really made by their preparation. I’ve had some damn good tofu and some really bad steaks.

They aren’t getting beaten up for their money. They are gleefully handing it over to the bully for protection from the real bullies…trans women playing highschool basketball.

We really need positive digital ID. The US DoD has the right idea with the CAC, though really it’s just a digital certificate issued by the government. The smartcard format is convenient for being wallet-able but there’s plenty of other form factors for these things these days.

It amazes me that we as a society do official, important real-life things on the Internet with no way to validate our identity.

I even cringe a bit anytime someone tells me to DocuSign. Buying my house was a trip, especially all the forms that took place before closing. Like, it’s great that I’m signing these things digitally, but there’s still no proof that I’m the one signing these. I’m not in the presence of a notary, lawyer, or any sort of witness. I’m just clicking a link on an email and drawing my finger on the screen. That could, theoretically, be anybody who gains access to my email, with or without my permission.

But, if I’m signing with a certificate, I have provided a PIN or password to unlock this device I carry on my person, that a trusted third party had given me when proved that I am who I say I am, in person. It’s a solid technology and it really needs way better adoption.

But muh mark of the beast!

I thought that the idea was to stop crashing old satellites into earth and instead require they maintain enough propellent to move themselves off into a graveyard orbit.

I’m a millennial and I got a bootleg ridge wallet from temu and I love it. I’ll probably get a real one if/when this breaks.

What does that say about me?

All insurance is. So are warranties.

:::The house always wins.:::

No, he was performing software updates and forgot to change windows.