Please wait...
I didn't become a "youtuber" though. It was a fluke, a one hit wonder. As I mentioned earlier, I fell under the threshold in 2024. So I deleted the account.
My son publishes a lot of videos. His channel makes what most would call "beer money."
So, what is the point?
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I'm so drunk now I'd electrocute myself. There are a lot of rooms to work through visiting a week at a time.
Especially drinking whiskey.
So, first hand experience in this, so its real, as hard it is to believe it is.
Recent upgrade to Android, installed Gemini ( not unexpected ). Much like IE in the past, you cant remove it, But in this case you can disable it, sort of. One of the 'features' is they re-map your power button. It no longer works to turn the device off, it spawns Gemini instead. And if its disabled it STILL does it, and asks you to turn it on. Took me a good 30 mins to disable the nonsense and make it a power button again.
Really Google? Disabling the power button by default?!?!? While i agree not everyone turns off their phone, ever, but it does get in the way of turning off the screen quickly, or the reboot you need to do every so often. If you have a tablet, i bet you turn it off. ( In my case, it was a tablet. But, I'm sure my phone will get hit with it soon )
I just did a post where I noticed, in 1984, they made us all read the book - and we went, "That is stupid... we would just turn off the TV, or not talk in front of it."
And now, my wife and I talk about... I dunno - rain gutters, in the living room - or wheels for our Razor, or blinds...
And the next time I log onto Facebook - that is all I have ads for - and we go, "That is just coincidence - the algorithm is just so well defined it can determine what it wants before you know you want it."
Seriously.
But - instead of a TV - I have this device, that I can talk to, and ask a question - and it will seek the right answer - that is ALWAYS ready to respond. It is, I know, listening for me to invoke it - so it can provide assistance. Hey Google - Alexa, Siri... what is the name of this song. It answers - sometimes when I wasn't actually asking it to. Then it apologizes, and goes quiet. But the proof is there - it was listening - as obedient as a faithful dog. But - who is its master.
And now - Google - the Do No Evil company - is making it so I can't turn it off?
I don't see what could possibly go wrong with that.
So, first hand experience in this, so its real, as hard it is to believe it is.
Recent upgrade to Android, installed Gemini ( not unexpected ). Much like IE in the past, you cant remove it, But in this case you can disable it, sort of. One of the 'features' is they re-map your power button. It no longer works to turn the device off, it spawns Gemini instead. And if its disabled it STILL does it, and asks you to turn it on. Took me a good 30 mins to disable the nonsense and make it a power button again.
Really Google? Disabling the power button by default?!?!? While i agree not everyone turns off their phone, ever, but it does get in the way of turning off the screen quickly, or the reboot you need to do every so often. If you have a tablet, i bet you turn it off. ( In my case, it was a tablet. But, I'm sure my phone will get hit with it soon )
And today, its banned in schools.
I just did a post where I noticed, in 1984, they made us all read the book -
...or, "How I Wasted My Afternoon".
At work I figured what the hell, corporate is watching my machine anyway, and we use Microsoft 365, so I might as well log on to the things. Google Chrome was there, I used it, I logged in to Google, etc. etc.
Today I needed to rearrange my monitors to see two computers at once, so I selected "laptop only" and switched my big monitor to another machine. When I came back later and re-added the big display, Microsoft Teams would no longer allow me to turn on my camera or share any screen.
I spent the entire afternoon nuking caches, clearing configs, anything I could find, anything I could look up. Eventually I tried a fresh profile ... and it worked! Then I logged into Google ... and it synced back all of the corrupt configuration and Teams broke again.
Seriously, Google? How much garbage do you need to slurp out of my broken browser? Apparently it brings in service workers, database buckets, all sorts of stuff that's broken and I wanted gone.
So I installed Ungoogled Chromium, brought over my bookmarks, and started from scratch. Sure, I have to install my extensions again, and eventually I'll have to element-zap the beg screens on Wikipedophilia again, but at least my browser has broken free of Google's gravity well. There's a couple of hours I'll never get back.
(Post script: don't install Ungoogled Chromium. Install Brave. The only reason I don't use Brave at work is because it's banned due to its built in Tor client.)
It is funny how often Democratic Socialists write about the dangers of Right Wing Fascist totalitararianist (f;k that word) - systems - but their works end up getting interpreted as critiques of Left Wing Democratic Socialist systems of governance.
I wonder why that is. Weird that Orwell's preferred system of governance ended up resulting in the very same oppressive State that he feared.
And today, its banned in schools.
Few today realize he was actually a socialist. But he didn't agree with the end game 'authorization' and instead he believed in the 'pie in the sky' version. Which of course can never happen on a large scale. It can work on small scale, like within a family, or a small tribe that is pre-industralized. But not beyond that, human nature takes over and it al falls apart.
Weird that Orwell's preferred system of governance ended up resulting in the very same oppressive State that he feared.