Windows isn’t an OS? What kind of nonsense is this?

I’d say the team from DEC who created it, would differ.

Wouldn’t you validate that update on a test machine in an isolated environment…like we’ve done since forever?

I had to create an email filter to stop getting emails about that dumb shit.

Which is exactly what I said. You get the interface you choose.

Yet Another Call Blocker has worked brilliantly for me, for years how. This stuff doesn’t even show up in my call log.

XMPP/Jabber has whatever interface you choose (determined by the client you use), and does voice pretty darn well.

I’m currently using Jmp.chat as a SIM/data provider, and they provide an XMPP account via Snikket. I can connect to that account with pretty much any XMPP/Jabber client.

To me, XMPP/Jabber is the most flexible, because it’s a protocol, and you choose which parts you want. And you can choose which clients you use. I have 2 clients on my phone and one on my laptop. They all work fine with the same account, with messages showing up at all simultaneously. One client (Snikket) has multiple accounts in it. The thing is XMPP/Jabber as a protocol is like SMTP - it’s a standard, so all clients can communicate with each other, if they support the same features (eg OMEMO encryption, which is popular now).

Alternatively check out:

Teleguard, it’s from the folks at SwissCows. They claim E2E, and from the way you connect devices, and that you can’t recover an account from them, I tend to believe it. Though I haven’t seen a third party evaluation (I belive they’re closed source, unfortunately). So do with that what you will.

Simplex Chat, self hostable, they claim it’s very secure. I’ve used it some, the phone app is a bit heavy on ram use.

There are numerous others out there.

Wait, you remember your dreams?

No, it’s an ale! 🤣

(I’ll see myself out)

Oh, damn. And by the time they got pulled out, enough concrete had cured on the car to need:

Rims

Rotors/drums

Pads/shoes

Perhaps ball joints/suspension components.

Expensive lesson.

Fuck advertisers at this point.

Maybe in 1999 I was still with you, but they’ve continually shown, not just disregard for out concerns, but a flat out “fuck you” malicious adversarialism.

So fuck all advertisers at this point. Every fucking last one of them.

I will block them every way I can. I will poison their tracking. I will do everything I can to fuck with them.

Don’t be an apologist for their bullshit.

And if you bring up the “well websites will cost you then”. That’s a whole lotta not my problem. If you want to host a server, that’s your problem how to pay for it.

I currently pay for my internet, and you want me to subsidize your ads by paying my ISP to deliver those ads.

I also pay for my own VPS, and related services, for stuff I want to do, such as provide some services to family and friends. Should I serve ads to them to subsidize my server costs?