One of the companies making GPS navigators for cars used to advertise lifetime map updates. Small print: lifetime of the device, two years after release

https://imgur.com/gallery/edI8Zjc

Sadly your average person just doesn’t care about consumer rights, in any matter.

I learned my lesson about malicious DRM when Starforce broke my new computer’s DVD drive back in the day. Fortunately it was still under warranty so I had it fixed, but sucked all the same.

EU is at least trying to do something about that. As of last year stores are required to display the cheapest price they’ve had for an item in the past three months when they have something on sale. Not all stores comply, and of course they try to get around these by the usual shenanigans, like basically the same product being available from the manufacturer with two slightly different item codes.

Edit: I think I was mistaken, and it’s 30 days, not 3 months

Well, technically both Julius and Caesar were his last names, Caesar was an extra name of unknown origin in his family branch. Since him it became a title.

This is pretty close to how it works here in Finland, although I’m not sure if it’s based on national or EU legislation. The cost of recycling is baked into the price of any electronics, and as a rule of thumb, you can drop off any small devices to be recycles at stores that sell appliances. When it comes to bigger appliances, the stores only need to take your old one if you’re buying a new one. You can of course also bring them to municipal recycling centers.

I realize I’m very privileged. If I’m working on an issue for a whole day or a half day, everything I do during that day is part of the solution and will be billed to the customer (and I’ll be paid for by my employer too). If that includes taking a nap, so be it. Results are what matter, as it should be. If someone ever starts saying I’m taking too long to do something I may consider changing my ways.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Stupid question probably, but as someone who hasn’t really gotten into V or VI yet and thought that at a cursory glance they seemed pretty similar - what kinds of big differences are there between them?

Reminds me of quite a dark joke that made the rounds in Finland some years ago, when a grooming ring run by recently arrived immigrants was discovered in Oulu.

“A sex holiday for the whole family: Dad goes to Thailand, mom goes to Gambia, and the kids go to Oulu”

This takes me back to the era when every other online store was selling DVD-gramophones.

A large group of Russian soldiers in the border area in 1939 are moving down a road, when they hear a voice call from behind a small hill: “One Finnish soldier is better than ten Russians”. The Russian commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the hill where a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, followed by silence.

The voice once again calls out: “One Finn is better than one hundred Russians.” Furious, the Russian commander sends his next best 100 troops over the hill and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again silence. The calm Finnish voice calls out again: “One Finn is better than one thousand Russians!”

The enraged Russian commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the hill. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought… Then silence.

Eventually one badly wounded Russian fighter crawls back over the hill and with his dying words tells his commander, “Don’t send any more men… it’s a trap. There are two of them!”

Not really relevant, but where do we draw the line of first time he threatened nukes? As a Finn, feels like Russia has been making threats about their nukes almost monthly for the last thirty years.

Critical mass. When it has been the default way to message anyone and everyone for over a decade, it’s pretty difficult to start converting everyone and their literal grandmother to start adopting something else. I understand it doesn’t enjoy quite the same status in the US though.

Yet somehow it still resulted in W Germany.

It’s quite disingenuous to compare the worst atrocities committed by individuals, which were then tried and sentenced, to Russia’s standard operation procedure and doctrine.

And some say there were two WWs on their account

Very glad I saw this. I’ve been getting increasingly fed up with Google Maps. Their map in my area is full of annoying errors, such as routing you through roads that haven’t existed for a decade, or along private roads that are not open to the public. And no matter how many times I report them, nothing ever gets fixed. Going to give OSM a try and hopefully make the switch for good. Already saw that the map in my area is in much better shape than Google’s.