gh0stcassette

That would be a fair point if we were talking about like, small businesses in markets that are well-suited to competition, but that is not mpdern ISPs.

Iirc, much of the backbone of the US's fiber optic cable network is publicly owned anyway, it's just the "last mile" that's privately owned, which is the local lengths of fiber that run through neighborhoods to individual residences. But most of this infrastructure was also heavily subsidized by the state, so the way I see it, ISPs are essentially leaches that extract rent from a system paid for by the people and (directly or indirectly) built by the state. Why should we let them collect profit from a network they didn't build when we could own the entire network publicly and set monthly rates to break even, rather than generate a profit (which would keep prices very low, as seen in Every Other Country with mainly state/municipally owned ISPs).

I think they're trying to apply the same logic that's applied to internet platforms like YouTube, Twitter, etc., where the platform is only non-liable for copyright violations on their platform if they have a good-faith system in place for preventing copyright infringement and responding to DMCA requests. I don't think this logic should apply to ISPs, frankly the entire internet is far too large of a place to be monitored by any one company for copyright infringement, and I'd rather ISPs be nationalized and treated as public utilities than try to fit them into the same legal framework as social media companies.

That being said, even if the courts decide they should be forced into that same legal framework, ISPs could easily satisfy their legal obligations by simply blocking access to copyrighted content via their DNS service (which can easily be worked around by using an alternative DNS). There's no legal reason why ISPs would be expected to block individual users from their network, and even if there were, ISPs shouldn't be allowed to exist anyway, the state (and therefore the people) paid the lion's-share of the cost to lay all that fiber-optic and copper cable across the country, so the state should own that infrastructure and operate it in the interest of the people (Internet access would be considered a human right and publicly owned ISPs would only have prices high enough to break even, not generate a profit).

I'm fairly confident MacOS allows it, I've seen people do some Utterly Cursed shit in MacOS, but idk about Linux

I think you might even be able to get away with /s if you escape them properly in the filename.

There are, many turtles/tortoises are herbivorous. Also rabbits, rodents, and a few lizards.

Didn't they already put ads in the Windows 10 start menu? Every time I see a fresh Windows 10 install, it's got candy crush and a bunch of promotional links to Microsoft apps in the windows store (office, Outlook, etc.) in the start menu.

Tbh my biggest gripe with Windows 11 isn't even the ads, you can disable them or -- like I did back when I used Win11 on a spare partition for VR gaming -- just install a start menu replacement like startallback. My biggest gripe is that they removed the fullscreen launcher and mobile/touch optimized metro app system (ik windows store apps exist, but they behave like regular windows apps, which is awkward on a tablet when you're using it without the keyboard cover). I liked that Windows 10 basically kept all the Windows 8 tablet features, but made them optional so that you can have a full desktop experience on a tablet. Now windows 11 just feels kind of poorly designed and clunky on a tablet PC.

I ended up installing ChromeOS on my tablet through Project Brunch just to get a decent, polished-feeling tablet interface (with android apps, which is a huge plus since that's already a massive library of touch-optimized software). I run NixOS on my main PC, but for the tablet it was either Linux+GNOME (GNOME is the only desktop DE with acceptable touch support imo, especially paired with the cosmic shell extension for automatic window tiling), or ChromeOS, and I tried a bunch of different distros (including open-source chromiumOS distros like FydeOS).

In the end, I liked FydeOS, but ChromeOS through Brunch Framework has extra features I'd rather not live without (like Android phone connectivity), and FydeOS has borked touch support on the OpenFyde releases, so I'd need to use the proprietary Fyde For You builds with specific drivers for the Surface Pro 4, but those cost money after 90 days, and if I'm using a proprietary OS, I might as well pick the free one. If you've never used ChromeOS, it's basically like if stock Google android had a good desktop mode and could (easily/officially) run desktop Linux apps.

I’m glad my current car is a 2015 Mazda. It’s recent enough to have a touch screen and Bluetooth, but not so recent that it’s got an LTE/5G radio that can phone home and let them sell my driving data to insurance companies or force subscription payments on me. When I get my next car in a decade or so, hopefully I can import a cheap Chinese EV that’s either easy to jailbreak, or doesn’t have any of that bullshit included.

I agree with that on some level, a bit like the whole thought experiment on uploading your brain after death, bit in reverse (preserving only the body instead of only the mind). It's not really you, but it retains enough of a semblance that it's comforting to some people because it feels like some aspect of themselves will live on. Fair :)

Also Monitor Lizards. They're the most intelligent squamate reptile (group that includes all living reptiles except turtles, crocodilians, and birds, who are archosauromorphs), except for possibly the cobra. But, they're still cold-blooded, so I can just nap on a hot rock without eating for 2 days and be Fine. They do get Stupid when the temperature drops too much (lowers their metabolic rate, and intelligence uses lots of energy), but I live in Florida, so that's fine💀. They're also one of the only lizards that can both breathe and walk at the same time (apparently most squamate reptiles use the same muscles for breathing as moving their forelimbs?? Wack.). This is how they became so intelligent, there was more O2 coming into the body, so the overall metabolic budget to evolve stuff like Large Brain became much larger.

Also they're adorable, monitor lizards can be so friendly, curious, and playful, they're like the Lizard version of cat imo. I really want one, they even like to cuddle (humans are Warm, and they're smart enough to recognize and trust you enough to want cuddles). I'm gonna get a cute little Ackie monitor once I graduate college I think.

Spider would be cool tbh. Tho what if you get their fucked up reproductive process where the female lays dozens or hundreds of eggs at once and also maybe tries to Eat her male partner, depending on species.

Or like, you lose your teeth and have to eat by injecting caustic fluid inside Whole Organisms to dissolve their tissues and slurp them up with your Newly-Formed palps/pedi-palps.

You might get venom, which is cool, but most spiders are only venomous to other arthropods because most spiders hunt primarily arthropods (occasionally small amphibians or reptiles for larger species, a couple tarrantulas are known to opportunistically hunt rodents or bird hatchlings, but they don't have venom to begin with, so whatever). Unless you get a black widow or brown recluse or something. A dose of that vemon from a human sized Black Widow or Brown Recluse chimera (the Type of Thing you are now) would like 99% be enough to kill a person

What if you don't keep your memories and just come out as a genetically identical baby of yourself? Turritopsis dohrnii sounds like a cnidarian or some sort (I know loads of jellyfish have life cycles like that), and they don't have brains, so there's no part of their metamorphosis back to the larval phase (whatever it's called for cnidarians) that would preserve your brain.

Idk, humans are cleverer than the average fox, it might just make you cuter (foxes are adorable) and more prone to pissing in random locations (domesticated foxes love to pee all over your shit, they can be litterbox trained, but it's hard). Possibly claws and fangs also, which could be useful