There’s nothing inherently wrong with the concept of ANPRs (automatic number plate recognition) as these are called in the rest of the world. It’s more of an issue that there is a complete lack of laws surrounding how that data is to be used, and especially when it’s controlled by a private company. If there were strict laws limiting the situations where ANPRs could be used, such as requiring a warrant to begin searching for plate numbers and automatically discarding data from non-matching plates, I doubt people would complain as much about these.

It’s more a question about why Omani officials haven’t thrown a fit on the international stage about this blatant violation of their sovereignty. I’m not stupid enough to think that Iranian missiles stop at the international border.

Side question: Why, in this whole debacle, can’t ships just sail within the territorial waters of Oman, on the southern side of the strait? Why does Iran get to dictate what happens in Oman’s territorial waters? 've heard surprisingly little said by or towards Omani officials about this.

As someone living in America, I really hope that the next administration puts these clowns on trial and we make the systemic changes necessary to rejoin the democratic world order. Living under this wannabe fascist sucks.

I can’t believe the Board of Peace got the mandate for Gaza. They are absolutely openly corrupt. I expected France or the United Kingdom to issue a veto against it.

This is probably fine as long as they can suffer the shenanigans from the Board of Peace until 2029. The problem is that the UN gave an implementation mandate to the Board of Peace. This is extremely problematic as the Board of Peace lacks credibility and its leadership structure is completely centralised around its chairman for life, Donald Trump.

After the next US president takes office, I think it’s highly likely that the United States will use the threat of withdrawing from the Board of Peace and freezing its bank accounts (the Board has an account at the World Bank which is empty; all funds are currently held in a private account under the control of Trump at JP Morgan, an American bank) to force Donald Trump out of the position of chairman, or try to get the Security Council to withdraw the mandate. If the US withdraws all support from the Board of Peace, it would probably crumble without access to American resources. This would provide a good reason to transfer the mandate away from the Board to the UN’s own Trusteeship Council. At least the Trusteeship Council has a reputation for mediocrity when it comes to overseeing its territories.

That’s okay, Microsoft can just have Copilot subscribe 40 million times to pad out the numbers.

I definitely think Google is guilty of what the Commission has accused them of here, but I also can’t help but think: if pre-installing Google Search and Chrome are anti-competitive, why is Apple not guilty of the same thing? In fact, I’d argue that Apple is ten times worse in this regard because you actually can’t use any browser but Safari on iOS (all other browser apps are actually just re-skins of Safari under the hood). Does being a vertically-integrated company excuse such behaviour?

I didn’t say I use Windows. I only said that 7-Zip is the best archiving software available for it.

Unlike 7-Zip, which is actually free and also open-source as well

7-Zip is by far the best archiving software on Windows

On the backup line you can subscribe to the cheapest data-only plan for like $5 a month and then just add $20 worth of pay-as-you-go credit, which never expires and will be used for calls, at 1 cent per minute.

It will save you $5 a month on the backup phone plan, making it even cheaper.

If you spend US$3,000 on the Steam Machine your brain must be made of tofu.

Fun fact, Reddit users probably had a hand in this.

I’m not defending this action from Microsoft, but for most people, they buy a Microsoft product and then happily use it for years, none the wiser to any of Microsoft’s other nonsense happening in the background.

A: gets scammed by company

B: You’re so stupid, you should have known that company was going to scam you.

Urban Dictionary for people who actually want to know what words mean

In my opinion Wiktionary is probably the best English dictionary on the planet and probably the best English to other language dictionary as well.

It seems like others have already given the definition, but I do want to introduce you to the wonderful thing that is Wiktionary.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haul_ass

It’s part of the same project as Wikipedia, and it has a very comprehensive compendium of definitions for slang terms.

This doesn’t prevent Americans from going to Cuba. I can book tickets right now online from New York to Havana for $550.

No, you do. You just don’t realise it. If you live in any developed country or even most developing countries, you have all of these. Your comment is really giving off the vibes of someone who doesn’t know what they have because they’ve never lived in a world without it.

When I say “access to cheap credit”, I mean that you can, if you want, go down to your bank and ask for a personal loan. As long as you are not already overburdened by debt and have a decent income, the bank will lend money to you at interest rates that medieval kings could only dream of.

Without the financial and legal infrastructure to facilitate, what are your options? Without the state to enforce debts and contracts through legal channels, people historically have resorted to threats and violence instead. And all that risk means interest rates get jacked through the roof. Triple digit APRs, baby.

When I say you have the ability to “transact business remotely”, I mean that you can pay money, be paid money, and conduct financial business without having to physically attend in person to exchange physical objects (like coins or banknotes). The financial infrastructure in place allows you to transfer money anywhere in the world from your fingertips. You can sell or buy almost anything online, pay, and have it delivered to your doorstep without ever talking to anyone or leaving your house. Without that financial infrastructure, your options are pretty limited. Either unregulated trust-based informal systems, or you have to go and bring physical goods or money to someone.

When I say you “have the ability to plan for your future financially”, I don’t mean you have the ability to plan yourself into a comfortable future. Being poor doesn’t negate this. You have a job (presumably), and every month you can expect some regular amount of money to appear into your bank account. You can plan on that happening. You can also plan on the fact that said money has a predictable value. You also can predict with good certainty what that money can buy. All of that is because the financial system has created an incredible amount of currency stability. Even countries with poor economies by modern standards are incredibly stable by historic ones.

When I say you “have the ability to save”, I don’t mean that you personally are guaranteed to have excess money to save. I mean that the very act of saving is not made impossible. If you have the money, you can put it in the bank, and you can reasonably expect to get that money back later, possibly with interest. In comparison, in a country that’s in a state of economic collapse, you can’t put money in the bank without risking not being able to get it back. You can store cash at home without the risk that the Government will just declare your money invalid or inflate away its value. You might not even be able to buy gold because the Government forbids “hoarding” gold. The act of saving, the accumulation of excess money, is literally impossible for the everyday person in that scenario.

This might not apply to you, but as a person whose family immigrated from a second-world country to a first-world one, I see far too many Westerners complaining about how bad they have it and how they wish everything would collapse. Buddy, if everything collapsed you’d have it even worse. This isn’t even “champagne socialism” or whatever the hell the reactionaries call it, it’s just plain ignorance of how the world works and what one shouldn’t take for granted.