Ronno

Thanks for the insight!

No clue, I’m a Dutch citizen. Do your require to do an iris scan to get a passport in the USA? Might be covered there.

Its been here for decades. It was already mandatory to provide an iris scan upon arrival in the US back when I visited New York in 2013. At the time, I was already baffled it was a requirement and wasn’t happy, but at that moment there is nothing else to do then comply. The US probably has a very big iris scan, fingerprint and passport database of at least the western world.

It will be difficult to switch my friend groups again, now that they are finally on Signal

I don’t want it to turn into Telegram, just give me a lightweight, secure and privacy focused messaging app.

Sure they are for now, but I doubt there reason changes will attract additional revenue. They had a golden position in which people simply paid the subscription, because the service was convenient and cheap. Now they make it way less convenient and more expensive, I doubt people want that. I sure don’t, so I’m out

If any company knows how to fast track their way into bankruptcy, it would be Netflix. Kudo’s for them to try and improve their previous track record!

Ah the infamous wizardry of the backdoor in encryption discussion.

Yeah, imagine running a company, with customers that simply pay the monthly, because it is cheap enough to cancel. But then you start annoying the users and reduce convenience, then increase the price. What could possibly be the end goal here?

FTFY: 👏 Do 👏 not 👏 buy 👏 smart 👏 stuff 👏connected 👏to 👏the 👏 internet 👏
Nothing wrong with wanting smart stuff, as long as it doesn’t send your data. For example, I run all my home automation hardware on a local network that cannot speak to the web, yet I can control everything I want just as the next guy with his fancy Alexa, Google or whatever, but my house doesn’t leak as much data.

For cars this is still very difficult to do. The only way we can stop sharing as much data would be if we had legislation that would ban this type of information sharing/data mining. In Europe we tried barking, but we didn’t bite. The GDPR is a joke, forcing people to consent to cookies, net result is nothing. They should have banned data mining, fingerprinting and tracking al together, but the tech lobby is way too powerful for that.

I thought the same, until I tried. High quality ergonomic chairs push you into a certain position. They are only comfortable if you sit on them in the right position. Buying a proper chair was perhaps the smartest purchase I made during the whole covid mess.

I unfortunately cannot attest to the reliability of BMWs. I have been driving BMWs for the last 6 years now, but these were all company cars, which I swapped every 2 years. So never done more than 130.000 km on any of these cars. What I can attest to is that in these 6 years, I never had any, seriously any, problem with these cars. The only thing I noticed was the maintenance cost, which I luckily didn’t have to pay. For example, the brakes on these cars are awesome, but you must replace them often. Worst case I had was with a Mini, in the two years I drove it (~130.000 km total) I had to replace the front brakes 3x and rear 2x. When I asked the mechanic if this was normal, he said yes.

And that is exactly where it is at, which makes me happy for the future. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay provide such much more connectivity than the native UX/UI in cars. I personally never used the built in navigation software of cars, since every time I try or need to use them, they are shit. I’d much rather have a car that doesn’t have built in navigation or other “apps”, but has a flawless CarPlay experience.

Everyone their cup of tea. I personally dislike Toyotas for their UX/UI and use of gigantic large fonts, I get why old people love them though

I literally never drove a German-made car made in the last 8 years and thought “wow, what a thoughtful infotainment and user experience”.

Did you, or did you not drive German made cars in the past 8 years? Because in my experience, currently driving a BMW 320e (2021), I can attest that it is by far the best system I have used in any car. In my experience, way better than the brands you mention above. Perhaps I am one of those people that ensures these brands survive, because they make great automobiles that fit my needs.