Wish that was the case in AU, ours is paid upfront in a lump sum and is non-refundable. If you refinance above 80% you pay it again, in full, upfront. If you pay the loan down to below 80%, doesn’t matter, no prorata refund. It’s 20-30k down the toilet, just in LMI. That’s on top of the 50-80k in stamp duty also pissed away :(

To make it worse, many add the LMI to their mortgage, so they pay interest on the higher balance. It’s also a deterrent for people to refinance while they’re within that 80+% LVR bracket, so shopping for a better deal is mostly pointless. Banks aren’t just disinterested in pushing for a better deal, they’re actively incentivised against it.

Regardless of your stance on the name change, doesn’t the executive order (and subsequent updating of the names register or whatever it’s called) make it official? In which case the maps are just being updated to reflect it.

Afaik they’re not changing it anywhere outside the US as (so far…) that’s the only place it’s been changed, so it’s not like they’re pushing that name in places where it’s not official.

It’s also not unheard of to have map details that vary depending on where you are, to align with the official stance of wherever the map is being viewed from. Ukraine, bits of the India/Pakistan border, IIRC some islands off Japan disputed by China, etc.

Not saying the name change isn’t stupid and not suggesting at all that the companies in question aren’t scum, but getting angry at the map maintainers for this change seems pointless. What did you expect them to do?

Am I missing something?

That is brilliant, should I be worried? 🤣 (Just noticed I had a message, oops)

Does your ISP block ports? Many do, at least where I am. Some allow you to opt-out.

She makes some good points, but only focuses on Google’s monopoly being an issue. It is, but there’s no mention of privacy concerns, the oversaturation of ads, space being created for ads by deliberately worsening the UX, etc. The industry itself is a shitshow.

The issue isn’t so much that Google has a monopoly on the enormously invasive data that’s collected. The issue is that it is being collected.

As cool (heh) as this is, it saddens me knowing it’s just going to be used for data mining and ads

Bet you they will make them work in inhospitable conditions and forget they exist until they don’t meet an unrealistic performance target.

No wait, sorry. I was thinking of their human workers.

It’s just virtualised Deliverance

Yup, this is on form for them. This isn’t the first product they’ve done it to and surely won’t be the last.

The moment the news broke we started migration planning, a short while later their new pricing came through and immediately justified the project spend. Tens of thousands of VMs migrated, a ton of labour, and even some hardware refreshes thrown in - and still cheaper than renewing, by a looong shot.

Shame, I liked VMware.

Ah yes, KeepAss

If you mean signed by your CA then this is me too, albeit with an intermediate CA in the middle (honestly pointless in my case, but old habits etc).

I don’t host anything externally and trusting the CA certs internally is easy as Ionly need to do it on a handful of devices. This + reverse proxy keeps things tidy and uncomplicated.

Yup, had to read it twice! Just about had a heart attack

Yup and that is the same issue with elections. Candidate A wants to ban private jets and burn tyres, candidate B wants to legalise child labour. A wins then claims they have a mandate to burn tyres

and among advertising, programming, and security professionals that fraction is more like two-thirds to three-quarters

Leopards, face etc

the pairing restriction would “undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin in consumer devices.”

If only there were options that would encourage the use of safe, genuine parts.

Good call. Being crashed into with a 16km/s closing speed probably would be a hindrance.

I wonder if this kind of thing might make conversions into older cars more viable. If the body and the million computers etc will cost heaps to fix in a newish EV, that might mean an increased supply of electric drivetrains at the wreckers. They’re not exactly a drop-in proposition but having the parts available has to be a good start.

It might be a jumper on the board. Mine (Q770G4) boots on power, if I can organise some downtime with the family I’ll take a look at it (set it up ages ago so can’t remember).

Edit: CAB approval was easier than I expected! Mine is in the BIOS, under Chipset > PCH-IO Configuration, set State After G3 to Power On.

You could replace the names in this with Telstra and NBN and you’d get Aussies having flashbacks

You’re spot on, however the pervasiveness of this kind of data collection and analysis seems to have really picked up in recent years.

In my workplace a similar tool was put in place to keep an eye out for potential fraud, sensitive data being shared, that kind of thing, but at least one exec very quickly started asking questions about “enhancing” it, laughingly suggesting it could help identify flight risks in areas they’re looking to cut headcount in, so they could “remove barriers to their exit” rather than having to pay severance. (To quote the great philosopher Nelly, “I’m just kidding like Jason… unless you’re gonna do it”)

Don’t forget too that this is just monitoring chats, there are plenty of other sources of data that could be used against you if so desired.

IMHO the issue isn’t so much that people are using work-controlled platforms to say things that workplace doesn’t like (though that is an issue), it’s more the shift in the employer mindset that tools like this enable, and the huge imbalance it can create when it comes to salary negotiations, constructive dismissal, mass layoffs, union busting, etc.