I wonder where installs through Microsoft’s Software Center, or when updates are pushed to managed devices fall in the known vs unknown category.

Completely anecdotal, but a lot more of colleagues use FF than I would have expected, and they only have one source for the software.

That’s the reason I killed IPv6 on my network.

I believe it. Umami is a very common woman’s name in the U.S., where pizza delivery chains glue their pizza together.

Ooh. I made a New/Classic/Diet/Zero joke with my colleagues last week.
I wish I’d thought of Halo, rather than soda. Your version is much better.

While also selling you technology you don’t need that will spy on you in your home and scan your network for every device, open file share, and anything that has data it can harvest and share back to its corporate overlords, so they can sell it to Facebook and Google, along with any nudes it captures (because you know people will set them up in private spaces).

Edit: This particular one is apparently a workout product, which I’m unfamiliar with. I guess that’s … fine? (I don’t get how it’s functionally different than a laptop on a a table if you’ve already got mirrors, but I mean… whatever.) I was under the impression this was a smart mirror used to virtually try on clothes. My comments about data exfiltration and spying (just maybe not nudes) still stand.

I don’t smoke, though. I’m a gummies kinda guy, and those are hard to get right unless you’re like, an operation, you know?

Dispensary gummies are lab tested. Although there’s a bit of a problem with lab shopping here, they’re going to be pretty consistent in terms of dosage. I won’t wind up accidentally couch-locked because the dose was too high or the gummies had an unexpected activation time.

To buy weed, my state requires folks hand over their ID, and the shop records the person’s info to make sure they’re not selling to a minor.
For someone that doesn’t want their info anywhere, I’m mildly annoyed by this, but I understand it.

My weed shop had a loyalty program where (because obviously they have to track your purchases because of state law), you got points based on how much you spent. It was automatic. No opting in or out or whatever. They had to collect the data, and figured they’d reward their customers for coming back.

Last week, they told me they were discontinuing the existing rewards program, and spinning up a new one that customers have to sign up for.
To me, that means they’re not just handling the data they’re required to maintain in house, but need me to opt in to something or otherwise waive my right to privacy in some fashion. I scanned the QR code they referenced and the page (off-site from their actual website) wouldn’t even load unless I disabled tracking protection/ad-blocking.
I closed the tab and am now wondering if I need a different weed shop.

I just saw a headline that he’s going to work for Microsoft now.

My employer heavily uses Microsoft, and I’m in IT.

Since June, Microsoft eliminated all their training staff - the folks who show others how to use their software, reclassified their customer experience staff to eliminate the role - these folks met with customers to solicit product feedback and find out what people actually want, made unilateral and poorly communicated changes to security policies that impact hundreds of our users, turned on beta (preview) features for end users without testing - in some cases rendering software inoperable in our environment, and is disabling or limiting features that work(ed) in software covered under our enterprise license end is encouraging people to purchase entirely new software systems from Microsoft to regain the lost functionality.

Honestly, if he was fired for pursuing profits over quality, then he’ll fit right in.

I’m almost purely digital for pretty much all of notifications that come my way - even my doctor.

I don’t live in the area code where my phone number is from, and haven’t in so long that there’s only a few people that would call me from that area code.

And - well spotted - The 38 call salvo from the day prior was actually a contractor trying to get ahold of me. Because it was a number from my current area code, I went ahead and called them back. The person who called me only tried to dial once, and the redials were all the computer automatically retrying.
Admittedly, it is less than optimal, but in the 5ish years I’ve gone without a voicemail, it’s the second time I haven’t picked up for a desired call.

Usually when I know I’m going to be receiving calls from new folks, I’ll first try to call their number or text them - even if the number isn’t in my contacts, if I’ve interacted with it in some fashion, it will ring through. Or I’ll disable the ‘straight to voicemail’ for a time.

It’s not too onerous, and I really hate spam calls, so the effort of remembering to enable/disable it a few times a year is worth it to me.
And, for what it’s worth, I do think it has an effect. Earlier this year I let calls through and forgot to block them again, and it was 3 weeks before I got a spam call. Before taking such extreme measures, I was getting about 5 a week.

I just had my carrier remove my voicemail.

I’m on iOS, and I have “silence unknown callers” turned on. I’m sure a similar Android option exists.

Basically - any number that calls me that is unknown (that isn’t in my contacts or I haven’t called/picked up before) goes right to my nonexistent voicemail, which means they’re immediately hung up on.

Auto-dialers are funny. Most are configured to redial on connection fail. Yesterday I received 38 calls in a 2 minute period. Never got a single notification about it

Not just land and water use, but there may be market reasons, as well as reasons relating to consistency and application specific variations, too.

A bad grow season means lowered supply, higher global cotton prices, etc. Natural farming means lots of supply at harvest, money spent on storage and dwindling supply during the off seasons. There’s often transport costs (usually), and there’s always cleaning and deseeding, too.

On the environment front, while polyester and other plastic-based fibers have their uses, they are often used instead of cotton due to cost. Consumers are becoming more aware of micro plastics, and may start changing buying habits as a result. It’s also possible that governments may start to regulate artificial fibers, too.

Technology-wise, it may be possible to tweak the fibers for specific use cases. It may even be possible to grow colored fibers, or fibers with enhanced strength.

A lab-grown option, especially if at scale, can mean a constant supply of fibers near looms that are customizable, need less post-processing, and are more appealing to consumers.