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    1. Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix 2024 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Good race, fun race, but overshadowed by the baffling stewarding decisions and race direction.

      What appeared to be a mirror that broke off a car is in the middle of the track, and no VSC or something to grab it? Then two cars get punctures, possibly from driving over that debris, one right after another in basically same place, but no safety car or anything called until a few laps later?

      Then add on the harsh penalties. Plus Max's weird penalty for impeding-but-not-really from yesterday where he lost P1 after quali. As it's said, nothing as consistent as the inconsistent stewarding.

      On a positive note, glad to see Zhou finally in the points! On his penultimate drive, no less. Only Sargeant and Bottas remain without points this year. Maybe Bottas will get some in his final race.

      At least we'll get a down-to-the-wire championship showdown in Abu Dhabi. Ferrari vs McLaren for P1 in the WCC. Who are you all rooting for?

      Next race:

      Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
      Yas Marina Circuit
      Sunday, December 8

      Provisional GRAND PRIX Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 57 1:31:05.323 25
      2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 57 +6.031s 18
      3 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 57 +6.819s 15
      4 63 George Russell Mercedes 57 +14.104s 12
      5 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 57 +16.782s 10
      6 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 57 +17.476s 8
      7 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 57 +19.867s 6
      8 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 57 +25.360s 4
      9 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 57 +32.177s 2
      10 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 57 +35.762s 2
      11 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 57 +50.243s 0
      12 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 57 +56.122s 0
      13 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 57 +61.100s 0
      14 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 57 +62.656s 0
      15 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 56 +1 lap 0
      NC 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 39 DNF 0
      NC 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 38 DNF 0
      NC 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 8 DNF 0
      NC 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 0 DNF 0
      NC 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 0 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Lando Norris

      Source: F1.com

      0 votes
    2. Struggling with nihilism and the inability to enjoy things

      Update: https://tildes.net/~health.mental/1hnb/struggling_with_nihilism_and_the_inability_to_enjoy_things#comment-e8s1 Preface #1: I know the first response with something like this will be "go...

      Update: https://tildes.net/~health.mental/1hnb/struggling_with_nihilism_and_the_inability_to_enjoy_things#comment-e8s1

      Preface #1: I know the first response with something like this will be "go see a therapist" - I have been in therapy for over a decade now. There are a lot of things it has helped with (specifically trauma-focused), but nihilism is not something I've been able to get help with. The help has ranged from things like "focus on the micro over the macro" (which I think is probably the best advice, but also can be boiled down to "don't think" and I can't not think), to "find religion" (for me at least: religion doesn't breed hope, hope breeds religion), to "I don't know how to help, I can't relate to that" (...not all therapist are good).

      Preface #2: I know the quick response to "life is meaningless" is "so make your own!" but I absolutely despise that logic. If everything is meaningless, than that means making your own meaning is meaningless. It's self-defeating in and of itself. That said, I don't really care about "meaning" anyway. I personally view things as "irrelevant", as if you dig deep enough you get to a point where everything is relevant to nothing. And the conclusion to draw from that is: "it's irrelevant that everything is irrelevant" - similar meaning, but checks out logically significantly better to me. But this has it's own problems that I will go in below.

      Preface #3: I know the quick response to the inability to enjoy things is "you don't enjoy things because you are depressed." What I'm positing is the inverse, "I no longer enjoy things, and it's causing me to be depressed." I'm very much not saying the former doesn't happen and I've gone through time periods like that. What I am saying is that the latter is also true, and I'm sure that other people who have dealt with depression for decades understands both "My depression is causing this to happen" and "This is causing my depression to flare" happen.


      To give quick context for myself: I had become a nihilistic atheist by the time I graduated elementary school; I had a rather traumatic childhood and my official diagnosis is (C-)PTSD and all the offshoots that come from it like depression and anxiety (Bringing up as I recognize myself these are thoughts that, according to the DSM/ICD, would be from someone with mental disorders). This led to things like dropping out of high school and becoming a mute hikikomori. To make a long story short, in my late teens I got to a point of either suicide or completely revamping my life with the belief that enjoyment could be found via actually being social (friends and dating) and proper self-sufficiency/money. I chose the latter for one simple reason: there was nothing to lose, so just trust the process. It took over a decade of constant self improvement, but I became a sociable person part of different clubs and hosting my own parties/gatherings with a very active dating life. I also got my degree in comp sci and have done quite well for myself with that. And a lot on top of that just in terms of trying to make the most out of life.

      Unfortunately, none of that actually helped. Having to mask to be able to be social/date is exhausting and frankly people suck, and wasting life working 9-5 one of the most depressing things to me. The reason I bring this up is because I did really fucking try, I tried the stuff that everyone says brings happiness - but it don't. And it's all just so irrelevant.

      Over the last half decade or so, I just can't bring myself to care about anything. And I mean anything, even super simple things. I'll talk to people or listening to a song and think "why do I care what you have to say?". I'll watch a movie or read a book and can't keep focus because seriously who cares about these imaginary things some person thought up? People I know die and I'll just think "yeah that happens." And the absolute worst for me was when it came for knowledge. Because knowledge was the thing I always cared above all else. But what does "knowing things" matter if "things" don't matter to me?

      Which brings me back to preface #2. Everything is irrelevant, but it's irrelevant that it's irrelevant. Except that society demands relevancy to justify ones own existence within it. It's not possible to live an irrelevant life and be part of society. I personally really only see two options: reject society or embrace absurdism.

      Speaking strictly personally, I do not see rejecting society as a means of living an enjoyable life. Mostly because I know it will lead to me living out of my car again, spending my time embracing hedonism via drugs and alcohol to fuel escapism until the end comes. And if in the end I'm just going to fuel escapism, why not just escape to begin with?

      Absurdism is mostly what I fed into while "turning my life around". But I do have issues with it. One is how much it feels like the "this is fine" fire meme; it recognizes the problem but then rejects that it's a problem. This is fine if "life" itself is not a problem and you are able to enjoy your time regardless (after all, the problem itself is irrelevant so yeah just reject it as a problem), but then that gets to my second and main issue: if you don't enjoy life, what defense against suicide does absurdism have? Yes there is the whole thing of "suicide just adds to the absurdity by claiming meaning is needed" but that's only if you are committing suicide because life has no meaning. I don't care that life is irrelevant, I care that life fucking sucks. Suicide then is not rejecting the lack of meaning, it's rejecting time spent unenjoyably.

      I've been able to get through things being both meaningless and unenjoyable with the belief that things would become enjoyable. Now I'm nearly 40 years old, things have played out, and I do not buy into it anymore. Either life needs to be enjoyable, or there needs to be some relevancy to it. Which, I reject the later as even being knowable as a human. Which leaves the former.

      Which then comes to the silly question, how do you just enjoy things?

      I am able to recognize one of my issues with enjoying things: In order to raise my emotional floor, I have embraced being stoic. Things happen that are out of our control. Things are lost, hardships are had, people die. They are simply facts of life. The problem is that it also prevents enjoying things - enjoyable things are also out of your control, so do not embrace them for they will be gone. Which, moments in time then neither "good" or "bad", they simple are just moments in time. Every moment is simply some indefinite, irrelevant moment in time.

      Which, kind of tied to that as well, but another issue I recognize: as I have understood my own trauma and how it's affected me, I've really understood just how much is deterministic in life. Which is especially sad in the case of trauma responses, and how much society basically double downs on the trauma (just easy eg of how "hysterical women" have been treated throughout history, but look at the overlap of BPD and traumatic childhoods).

      But now these are not just moments in time, but determined yet irrelevant moments in time.

      But that still doesn't preclude enjoying things. And I guess that's mostly what I'm for the search for in life, to figure out what things I actually enjoy/how to actually enjoy things I want to enjoy. Because enjoying life is certainly enough, but that requires life to be enjoyable.

      And it's actually part of why I'm even posting this. With all the different ways I've changed my life and such, I've tried to look back at what was actually enjoyable. And long-form text communication is definitely the way I prefer to communicate (oh do I miss when 'social media' was forums). I also recognize the importance of being part of more smaller, tighter-knit communities compared to being a blob in a mass. So it's part looking for help, and part just trying to get back into posting on smaller communities.

      But I also feel like I'm all over the place and I do apologize for that. I think to try to summarize to bring the points clearer...like I said before, life either needs to be enjoyable or there needs to be some kind of relevancy to it. So either how do you find relevancy/where am I wrong on that, or how do you find enjoyment (and I don't mean "try new hobbies until you find what you enjoy!" kind of stuff - I've already ran that gauntlet. I'm not asking where to find enjoyment, I'm asking how to feel enjoyment; how are you able to care about things might be a better war to phrase it)?

      34 votes
    3. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      12 votes
    4. Tildes Minecraft Survival Weekly

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 1.21.1) Dynmap: https://tildes.nore.gg Playtime Tracker: https://tildes.nore.gg/playtimes.html Tildes website extension (shows online status & location):...

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 1.21.1)
      Dynmap: https://tildes.nore.gg
      Playtime Tracker: https://tildes.nore.gg/playtimes.html
      Tildes website extension (shows online status & location): Firefox (Desktop and Android) - Chrome
      Verification site: https://verify.tildes.nore.gg
      Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TildesMC

      Plugins and Data Packs Data Packs:
      • Terralith - Overworld terrain upgrade
      • Nullscape - End terrain upgrade
      • Armor Statues [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Bat Membranes [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Cauldron Concrete [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Husks Drop Sand [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Mini Blocks [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • More Mob Heads [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Player Head Drops [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Silence Mobs [Vanilla Tweaks]
      • Wandering Trades [Vanilla Tweaks]

      Plugins:

      • Clickable Links - Makes http URLs in chat clickable (only for registered players)
      • CoreProtect - Records all block/container/mob changes (Anyone can look up changes with /co inspect)
      • Dynmap - Adds a live web map
      • EasyArmorStands - GUI for editing armor stands
      • Hexnicks - Enables Tildes usernames to be displayed
      • LuckPerms - Locks down unregistered users
      • Nerfstick - Allows survival use of the minecraft:debug_stick item (requires admin to spawn in)
      • Rapid Leaf Decay - Increases the speed of leaf decay by 10x
      • WorldEdit - Used for occasional admin stuff
      • WorldGuard - Prevents unregistered users from changing anything in the world

      The server operates on a soft whitelist. Anyone can log in and walk around, but you need a Tildes account to gain build access.

      14 votes
    5. November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion

      Only a few days left! Post your current bingo cards. Continue updating us on your games! Finish your Backlog Burning by December 1st! Quick links: Backlog Bingo Site Week 1 Discussion and Event...

      Only a few days left!

      Post your current bingo cards.
      Continue updating us on your games!
      Finish your Backlog Burning by December 1st!

      Quick links:


      Week 4 Recap

      10 participants played 9 bingo cards and moved 27 games out of their backlogs!

      • 4 people played Flow bingo cards
      • 5 people played Flux bingo cards
      • 1 person played free choice

      There were FIVE bingo wins.

      Congratulations to:

      Thus far, a total of 114 games have been played for the November 2024 Backlog Burner.

      Week 4 Game List:

      Week 3 Recap

      12 participants played 12 bingo cards and moved 34 games out of their backlogs!
      There were 0 bingo wins.

      • 4 people played Flow bingo cards
      • 8 people played Flux bingo cards

      Thus far, a total of 87 games have been played for the November 2024 Backlog Burner.

      Week 3 Game List:

      Week 2 Recap

      14 participants played 13 bingo cards and moved 36 games out of their backlogs!
      There were 0 bingo wins.

      • 6 people played Flow bingo cards
      • 7 people played Flux bingo cards
      • 1 person played free choice

      Thus far, a total of 53 games have been played for the November 2024 Backlog Burner.

      Week 2 Game List:

      Week 1 Recap

      11 participants played 10 bingo cards and moved 17 games out of their backlogs!
      There were 0 bingo wins.

      • 6 people played Flow bingo cards
      • 4 people played Flux bingo cards
      • 1 person played free choice

      Game list:

      19 votes
    6. Font size?

      I recently upgraded to a pixel 9 pro and noticed that the higher resolution resulted in text that was often too small. I went to my settings and increased my font size to 125%. However, I noticed...

      I recently upgraded to a pixel 9 pro and noticed that the higher resolution resulted in text that was often too small.

      I went to my settings and increased my font size to 125%. However, I noticed that this doesn't seem to apply to titles on Tildes, at least not in a uniform way.

      It's hard to say without going back to my old phone, which I can't easily do right now, but I do think I recall title font size varying depending on the length of the title. But perhaps the difference wasn't as drastic on my old phone due to the difference in resolution? Perhaps the titles with smaller font sizes were still easy to see so I didn't really notice? It's just very noticable on this phone. I don't want to increase zoom on Chrome for every website just to solve this issue.

      Ideas?

      7 votes
    7. New gaming PCs - price sanity check and recommendations?

      Hey Tildes, I'm super super out of the loop for gaming PCs. If I wanted to play AAA games like Stalker 2 on higher (!) settings, what kind of specs am I looking at, ballpark prices, makes that are...

      Hey Tildes, I'm super super out of the loop for gaming PCs. If I wanted to play AAA games like Stalker 2 on higher (!) settings, what kind of specs am I looking at, ballpark prices, makes that are good vs red flag don't buy? Everything seems way too expensive now I guess due to demands for AI and crypto stuff. Does it maybe make more sense to wait half a year or won't get any better?

      Thoughts on GeForce rtx 4070? Need some kind of solid state hard drive, and it'll be a windows box it looks like for games. Or has Linux OS for gaming a good contender now esp when paired with steam ?

      I should have done my homework well before cybermonday etc, but figure even weeks of work still isn't as good as copying you guy's homework. :) thanks in advance


      Edit: Thank you everyone :D I've been leaning on the community for two big things this week (this, and learning to type software) and you guys really came through like eagles at Mt Doom.

      Person I am asking for read all your comments, checked out a ton of sites you guys suggested, and
      ended up finding a BlackFriday/Cyber Monday deal for a laptop with (reads sheet)

      GeForce RTX 4080 Ryzen 9 7945HX 32GB 1TB SSD 240Hz 16" laptop

      price was $2500 CAD ($ 1785 USD) + taxes. (non affiliated product link here)

      many thanks again~

      31 votes
    8. Is Wise bank safe?

      With the recent news about Synapse, I am a little on edge with the safety of my money. I am currently living in France for school, and am hoping to immigrate here permanently. All of my savings is...

      With the recent news about Synapse, I am a little on edge with the safety of my money. I am currently living in France for school, and am hoping to immigrate here permanently. All of my savings is in USD, so I need a way to easily and cheaply convert between USD and EUR, and be able to spend EUR locally. After a ton of research, I decided to move almost all of my banking to Wise. They don't offer traditional banking features like in-person branches or checks, but I didn't use those anyway. I can get a local bank number in any of the many countries they support. The savings account APY is insanely high (higher than I have seen from even the best high yield savings accounts. I have a debit card that allows me to spend directly from any one of my bank account currencies, and auto convert to other supported currencies. And the USD account is insured by FDIC passthrough insurance.

      In the thread about the Synapse collapse, people were saying that passthrough FDIC insurance doesn't always mean that the customer's money is actually insured. And apparently some fintech services will just lie about what is covered by FDIC insurance. I am not a lawyer, and I have no idea how to validate Wise's claims about passthrough FDIC insurance.

      I was recently able to open a France bank account, which was surprisingly difficult. (To open a bank account you need proof of address, like a cell phone or electricity bill. I don't pay for utilities in my school apartment, and to get a cell phone plan I need a bank account. That was fun to try and navigate.) I have these bank accounts currently: my Wise account with US USD, Belgium EUR, and UK GBP, a US Credit Union account, and a French EUR bank account. My US credit union and French banks give a very low or zero APY, so keeping my money in my Wise accounts is preferable for that reason. But I also can't afford to loose all my savings if Wise collapses. My question is this: Is Wise safe enough for general money storage, or should I use it just for converting between currencies and keeping a small amount for spending? If Wise isn't safe, what about another similar product? I have heard of Revolut, but I didn't do much research since Wise seemed better for my use case.

      19 votes
    9. What did you do this week (and weekend)?

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do...

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

      7 votes
    10. Holiday season playlist

      I am wondering what people are listening to this holiday season and hoping to build a playlist BEFORE Christmas Day. I have no particular allegiance to Christmas or any other specific holiday, but...

      I am wondering what people are listening to this holiday season and hoping to build a playlist BEFORE Christmas Day. I have no particular allegiance to Christmas or any other specific holiday, but it’s fun to have a certain category of songs I only really listen to for one month of a year.

      To start, I’m a big fan of the band BROS and they have a few small Christmas albums. Their artist page on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bros/1151563604

      Their actual website: https://dinealonerecords.com/artists/bros/

      11 votes
    11. iPhone music players with good CarPlay experience?

      I’m about to take a road trip and I want to be able to easily play my music and it would be a huge pain to do this with iTunes. I’ve got VLC but the UI leaves much to be desired. I can’t even view...

      I’m about to take a road trip and I want to be able to easily play my music and it would be a huge pain to do this with iTunes. I’ve got VLC but the UI leaves much to be desired. I can’t even view my music by album in CarPlay, which is how I’m going to be accessing my music. There are tons of music playing apps out there but they are all varying degrees of sketchy. Does anyone have any recommendations?

      10 votes
    12. What are some common terminal aka CLI workflows?

      So, earlier today i read about Bagels (https://github.com/EnhancedJax/Bagels), which describes itself as "Powerful expense tracker that lives in your terminal". Not only is it really cool looking,...

      So, earlier today i read about Bagels (https://github.com/EnhancedJax/Bagels), which describes itself as "Powerful expense tracker that lives in your terminal". Not only is it really cool looking, but seems quite useful! I'm really loving the increased TUI-centric command line apps that are becoming more popular; well, it seems like they've become more popular, but i admit to not having any hard data/stats to back up my impression. However...As much as i love the command line/terminal/CLI....my daily workflows simply do not necessitate being in/using the terminal. (I only need such terminal apps on a rare basis, or i simply use old school unix/linux cli tools.) I mean, especially while on my mobile, there's not that much that i need to do from the command line. (Yes, i know there are mobile app terminal emulators, i'm simply saying that i have very little use for my daily needs.)

      So, besides the expense tracking that Bagel cites, I'm very curious to learn what other common, daily sorts of use-cases and workflows do people here have that could benefit from leveraging terminal/command line apps? Please share!

      12 votes
    13. Great shows with a truly satisfying ending?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      There was a thread about shows with a great beginning and a comment in the thread made me want to ask, what about the opposite? Shows with a really satisfying ending that feels like they wrapping things up in a satisfying way?

      39 votes
    14. Are we all capable of being slaveowners or nazis?

      for some time now, this is a question I have pondered alot. I was not unfamiliar with the slave history of the U.S. and knew it was a big reason for the Civil War, I became more aware of the...

      for some time now, this is a question I have pondered alot.

      I was not unfamiliar with the slave history of the U.S. and knew it was a big reason for the Civil War, I became more aware of the current racial issues in America courtesy of The Daily Show and the George Floyd riots (along with binging Watchmen) turbo-charged my desire to know more about it.

      and I read Night by Elie Wiesel when I was in high school and recently read Maus, neither of which are shy to fully express the horrors the Jews went through in the Holocaust.

      And the recent discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children from Residential school in Canada have sent me down that rabbit-hole of learning exactly what the catholic church was up to in these parts.

      But I think where I get stuck is I believe that everyone is capable of empathy for a fellow human being. besides the psychopaths and sociopaths, I think we all have an innate capability to care when we see someone crying or in a bad place.

      And yet, those atrocities suggest that we can be condition to turn off our ability for empathy to quite an extreme degree? Is that something that can happen to all of us?

      Not sure if this thread will be taken down as I don't know the potential for this to start a good discussion, just wasn't sure where else to post it.

      27 votes
    15. Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of December 1

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week! Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle...

      Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

      Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

      Rules:

      • No grey market sales
      • No affiliate links

      If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.


      All previous Save Point topics

      If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

      3 votes
    16. Finding real images

      So this isn't your usual art request. I'm currently looking for REAL photos of either a tiger up close, or African Savannah at sunset with animals in silhouette. Do a Google or Bing search, I dare...

      So this isn't your usual art request.

      I'm currently looking for REAL photos of either a tiger up close, or African Savannah at sunset with animals in silhouette. Do a Google or Bing search, I dare you.

      Where have all the real images gone? Everything is an AI generated crap-fest. Where can I go to find real photographs these days?

      I've tried looking through the old Bing Wallpaper archives and found a few decent images there, but Adobe, iStock, everywhere I look it is all computer generated. What happened to real photography?

      Thanks.

      Edit: Flikr seems to be the place that isn't infested with AI yet!

      32 votes
    17. How has your industry changed in the past decade?

      The other day I had to get new glasses, and I braced myself for my lenses to be incredibly thick and expensive to boot again - but then I had them made, they look normal, and they barely cost me a...

      The other day I had to get new glasses, and I braced myself for my lenses to be incredibly thick and expensive to boot again - but then I had them made, they look normal, and they barely cost me a Benjamin. Clearly, the optometrist crowd has made some major developments in the past decade or so, which leads me to ask - if you're working in an industry most people don't really think about, what's happened in your space in the past ten years?

      54 votes
    18. I am looking for 100% ad-free apps for older adults with dementia. Things like jigsaw puzzles, coloring and the like. Paid is fine.

      I work in IT, and was the caregiver for both my parents as they aged. You'd think I would be the one that people turn to to ask this question, and yet I have been utterly frustrated by my attempts...

      I work in IT, and was the caregiver for both my parents as they aged. You'd think I would be the one that people turn to to ask this question, and yet I have been utterly frustrated by my attempts to find such.

      I have a few folks who are extended family and friends that are now in the early/mid stages of different forms of dementia, and a real pain point is that they no longer have the capacity to recognize ads, and will unfailingly click and install scam apps via the Apple store. Think things like 'cleaner' apps that have a $50/week subscription fee, and other abusive tactics. The #1 subject I get called about is some ad popping up after they've finished a puzzle, and now they think they're out of space, and in a panic.

      This is not a small problem. The coloring and puzzles they can still do bring them happiness and stability through their day; removal of the ipads entirely causes them a lot of stress. (TV is nothing but ragebait, and a non-starter. They do have books on tape, but get tired of listening rather quickly.)

      I have been completely unable to locate ad-free, paid versions of these types of apps. I'm not looking for free. I don't care about the cost. I just need apps that only do what they say they do, and don't have unexpected pop-ups, ads, or anything else, and I thought perhaps the folks here might know of some.

      Any ideas?

      [edit] Only five hours in, and I've already gotten more insightful, helpful responses than anywhere else I've asked. You all are the best.

      55 votes
    19. What are the cons of Google being forced to give up its control of Chrome?

      Seeing the courts go after Google's monopoly and the unintended consequences to Mozilla (and therefore Firefox) that can happen if the courts make it illegal for Google to pay to be the default...

      Seeing the courts go after Google's monopoly and the unintended consequences to Mozilla (and therefore Firefox) that can happen if the courts make it illegal for Google to pay to be the default search engine, it goes me thinking about Chrome/Chromium.

      I know that the courts are trying to force Google to give up its control of Chrome (I don't even know how that is possible for the government to tell a tech company that it is not allowed to develop a tech product it created itself) but it seems to me that Google maintaining Chrome is not really a problem in and of itself. there are many browsers available to folks and if you as a user want to be completely plugged into the google ecosystem at the detriment of your online privacy, that is your choice to make.

      the real issue seems to me that a user should have the exact same experience browsing a google website on chrome vs an alternative.

      But that made me wonder if (like stopping Google being able to pay to be the default search engine) Google was forced to give up its control of Chrome, what are the possible negative consequences of that to users? and would forcing Google to instead relinquish its control of chromium alleviate those issues?

      24 votes