Break into your comma? Google-fu is letting me down on this one

I assume auto correct for “coms” or “communications”?

Threat intel of the IP or network you're coming from matter as much as anything else. FirefoxLinux on a clean IP can access places ChromeWindows on a dirty high-risk IP cannot.

Store and restaurant apps, discord, streaming apps, most games, payment apps, apps for school, ride-sharing. I tried the "degoogle" way and tossed after two days because that's impossible unless you're willing to adopt a more expensive boomer/millennial lifestyle.

Aside from payment apps, you can (and probably should) just use the web browser for most of those things

What's to say it "can't" think? These are not tasks you can do without thinking.

You don't need to imagine words, sounds, or pictures to absorb information. There's the live image of the text, but you don't need visualization.

Horrific. Wikipedia is one of the very few large entities on the web left that are not actively harming the species.

In terms of species-level harm arising from the ways their systems can be abused, I’d rank them roughly as follows. To be clear, I’m ranking a platform’s potential for species-level harm based on its scale and its ability to concentrate, enforce, or algorithmically amplify a shared narrative or behaviour while limiting meaningful challenge or escape.

  S-tier: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube [shorts, recommendations]
  A-tier: Facebook
  B-tier: Wikipedia, Reddit
  C-tier: X, YouTube [subscriptions]
  D-tier: Most major LLMs, e.g. ChatGPT.
  Null-tier: Bluesky, Truth Social, Mastodon, etc. (too irrelevant to have any meaningful species-level effect.)

I can imagine how this analysis might look bonkers at first blush. But I strongly account for how much disagreement is surfaced. Say what you will about X, at least the arguments are visible for all to see. By contrast, the proportion of Wikipedia readers who also read the talk pages to understand active disputes probably rounds to zero.

LLMs such as ChatGPT are problematic because they can reflect and reinforce prevailing views embedded across their source material, most significantly Wikipedia. But their conversational nature provides an important escape hatch: you can challenge an answer, interrogate its assumptions, ask for competing interpretations, and explore multiple perspectives.

I see the mm indicator on my phone in most cities.

Why would it be ripped out?

This is not even remotely settled law yet, what an absolute falsehood!

It will take years for the hundreds of jurisdictions in the world to write new laws and (in common law countries) establish new precedent.

What does that have to do with the business model?

You do not need to be a documented US resident to get a driver's license, it is surprising anyone would expect that. Immigration is federal — the state only wants to know if you know how to drive. The state cares very little about your immigration status for almost all things.

We were talking about national versus state managed ID systems, not drivers licenses.