bopbop

This is true, but they do completely remove the google spyware from your android device where they work, even with the proprietary blobs.

It's also possible to get an AOSP device de-googled, or to de-google one.

There's an open source version of the Half Life engine called Xash3d which is feature complete:

https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d

It's also got an excellent Android port:

https://www.moddb.com/games/xash3d-android

> Government, democracy or not, generally means I am being governed according to some, but not all of my wishes.

The fact that Government is being governed according to some of your wishes is coincidental. It's only in a democracy (or an autocracy where you are the ruling party) where the fact that some of your wishes are the laws is built in to the fabric of the system.

The word compromise is an interesting choice - a comprimise is an agreement between several parties in which all sides agree on a less then optimal solution for themselves in favour of a resolution the group can agree to. It's essentially a democracy - it's certainly the basis for participatory democracy.

I'm not sure where the on-off switch analogy is coming from - it's definitely not my opinion - hence the Churchhill comparison. Also, on-off seems very binary.

On a similar note, I would say that the comparison to the 2016 US Elections feels a little simplified - being given a choice of two parites doesn't mean you are being given a choice representing your wishes. At best, it can mean you are being given two options from a range on a spectrum, but even then the spectrum and gap between political parties is normally more then a single issue.

The American Left, for instance, would in Europe be on a fairly right wing part of the spectrum.

No, this from next series and has a happy ending /s

A rational need for democracy for you would be so that I don't govern you according to my wishes.

A rational need for democracy for me would be that you don't govern me according to your wishes.

A rational need for democracy for the uyghurs would be that Xi Jumping doesn't govern them according to his wishes.

I've always understood this to be what is meant by democracy is the worst form of governance, apart from all the others.

That's what I was missing. Cheers.

Isn't wordpress more the technology? Or do you mean otherwise?

Who would you see as pushing it? Or do you mean it's monetizable?

It's definitely an excellent piece of software.

This walled garden isn't working! Quick, let's get back to the last one!

Seriously though, blogs and RSS - communication on the internet has been solved. It just doesn't seem to be easily monetizable, so a big commercial entity isn't pushing it.

This is quite interesting though:

"Everyone I knew aged out of it, lost interest in chronicling their personal lives <b> or got jobs writing the kinds of blogs they used to write for free." </b>

So does this mean there is money out there for the kind of tumblr/blog weirdness people like to read?

I agree the tone of the parent comment could use a little work, but think it's a valid point - I'm not sure it can count as denigration if it's something they've actually done.

In terms of "put up or shut up" I should make clear I'm not advocating Mozilla shut up, more that they put up next time something like DRM in browsers is on the table (which they ordinarily do, which is why I use their browser).

I didn't appreciate that difference in them, thanks.

It's the As-A-Service model - the idea that software not only shouldn't be free, but also shouldn't even by run by the client. It's a pretty fundamental renegotiation of the terms of ownership.

On better days I see it as a last gasp by entrenched interests to re-establish the landlordism of old now that compilers are free.

Not sure why the downvotes - I think it's pretty relevant to view statements in terms of previous positions taken. I'm a big supporter of Mozilla and Firefox is the only browser I use, but another point would be the promotion of the closed ecosystem of Pocket.

Android is a lot closer to being open source then the Apple IP system. Also, Google just lost that one with the European Union.

Author is calling it now, for bragging rights in 2027.

edit - judging by the downvotes this comment is accruing it would appear Hackernews believes my cynicism is unfounded, which is quite nice.

The task of FLOSS authors creating clients for walled gardens like Spotify always seems like a bit of own goal to me, tbh.

I think we all love our phones - it's this amazing silent revolution that's happened where ubiquitous computing has already happened (at least in the first world)

I understand you likely want specific features from the services you list but for others, if they were generics, this is the best either FLOSS or if not available, De-Googled list I could compile:

///Music

Mp3s

Spotify (closed source with a downloader on FDroid)

I'm not aware of any open source clients for the streaming services. Some friends use Youtube-dl on a pc and send then files across.

///Maps

OpenStreetMaps (edit: meant OSMAnd)

Maps

///Messaging

Signal

Silence (Secure SMS text messaging)

Telegram (On FDroid - again haven't checked with MicroG)

Whatsapp (Closed Source with a downloader on FDroid, although I haven't tested it with MicroG)

///Sygic car navigation

I don't think there's much hope for this one...

(edit: sorry for the horrible layout)

Well, anecdotally, I'm from the UK, and hadn't heard of the Nissan Leaf until you mentioned it. Tesla, on the other hand... Although yes, actually that's very impressive.

With regards to Hybrids, my (limited) understanding is that they are part of the problem - they're better, but only better by half. From what I'm reading about global warming, we need to push as far as possible towards a fully electric, mostly renewable future as quick as possible.

According to a study reported in this article in Motherboard, children are easily peer pressured by robots.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3qqep/children-a...

When you add in the idea of their constant childhood pal being a device designed to sell them items from Amazon, it's quite worrying.

If you wanted to take a positive spin on it, you could see it as the possible beginnings of a form of digital post-scarcity centrally controlled economy communism, I suppose.

I think there's still quite a significant difference between "popularizing something that may save the planet from extinction from global warming which could have been pursued for quite a while by other large companies automotive and otherwise but hasn't been" to "people prefer shopping with them over how they used to shop". But I can see that the net gain of the time saved using Amazon could be argued as a good for society.

It doesn't, but it makes the intent of the submarine construction a lot clearer - it takes it quite far away from a useless PR stunt to, at the very least generous interpretation, a requested PR stunt.

Interesting to think of in the context of Alexa, Cortana, etc - a literal won't-someone-think-of-the-children story.

The answer to stopping ubiquitous pervasive surveillance probably isn't installing more ubiquitous pervasive surveillance.

It's clear many people feel there are benefits to owning one of these devices, but it does seem all of the benefits you are listing can be achieved without making such a sacrifice to a giant multinational conglomerate with a poor history of user rights and privacy.

With your comment “Alexa, drop in on [child’s] room”, the point that immediately came to mind is that Alexa doesn't drop in. Alexa is always there. I guess a lot of it will come down to whether you believe that:

a) Amazon will honour whatever promise they have with the consumer not to monitor them/keep records of your communications safe

b) That normalising such devices will not lead to their expanding use in direction you do NOT agree with in the future

c) That the device, system and amazon servers your and your families information is stored in is secure from being taken control over by third parties.

Personally, I think b is the biggest concern, as I believe arguments similar to yours (you already carry a smartphone) will be replaced in the future with (you are already recorded by alexa) to justify further things I would consider to be beyond reasonable in a free democratic society (whats wrong with a little facial recognition, etc).

I rather delicately confirmed with a few co-workers and they are aware of the usage, so it could be regional? They're rather reserved PHD kind of people (I'm not), but seemed to find it hysterical.

With regards to Twit, that's a great point - although in that instance it seemed like a more intentional slur, as I think I'd normally default to "tweeter".

Because it is a verb substitution it has this kind of wordbomb effect of corrupting every sentence it could be used in. Some examples!

-the latest release by the Jonas brothers made me so happy i just had to toot.

-these toots are a breath of fresh air.

-Welcome! Let's get you tooting!

For when Mastodon social gets it's first celebrity president:

-President Trump released another obnoxious toot in his seemingly never-ending tirade

and finally,

-I toot, therefore I am.

Apologies for the vulgarity, but I am presuming someone has informed the initial design team that toot is slang for a fart (at least in England) - which leads to the phrase "a mastadon toot" being quite a double entendre.

How well ingrained is the name? Is it as commonly used in the community as a tweet in twitter? As in do the users identify the messages they send as toots, and are likely to say as such?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=toots