Hats off, that's both an argument for the use of third party apps and for eliminating third party apps at the same time...

I am a dull and simple lad, but I've held a belief ever since Musk purchased Twitter he did it to wreck the platform. I'm still undecided if he's just looking to liquidate its assets, or drive off reasonable users so he can turn it into his personal soapbox.

Thankfully the price of my YT free account is still only the cost of everything I've ever written in email or a web browser so all good 👍

Many will die.

Definitely Fall for me. It's a great time of year if you're a gardener- finally seeing the literal fruit of your labors. The fall festivals are fun and the weather is typically perfect for a street fest. Mosquitoes die at some point so great for get togethers with a small- or large- fire. Plus I confess I am fond of winter being a birdwatcher and loving the snow when I don't have to drive in it. So the expectation during Fall makes me pretty psyched.

I really enjoyed hearing "enshittification" in the voice of Ian McKellen as Gandalf in my mind 👏👏

I hate these, too. I decided to put a compact computer in our bedroom (already a bad plan, I know) to quickly check the security camera at night (I rolled my own, no phone app). I plugged in a mouse I had laying around. I discovered the first night when this particular mouse does not have its custom drivers installed (gimme a break, this is Raspbian not Windows!), it freaking blinks, and in the dead of night it's as bright as a flashlight. Blink. Blink. All night long. I never noticed before because, wackily enough, I rarely compute in complete darkness.

I also have a USB desk fan I thought I might run at night and yes, it has blinky lights when charging. F that, I bought an old Caframo Dragonfly instead... best compact fan ever made, first produced in the 1950s.

Big Ag Protection Agency

Nonces and muzzies! Terrifying!

100%. I own four thinkpads now. I have upgraded all of them with no issues whatsover. I crammed 16GB of ram and a SSD into my old X-230 and it outperforms my dad's brand new Dell. Although to be fair, I am using Manjaro and he is using Windows 10. I forgot how incredibly slow Windows can be.

Spot on. the placebo effect is powerful and very likely plays a role in both scenarios.

Often I have supposed really expensive cables improve things just because it was time to replace cables already, or the connection was janky to begin with because the budding audiophile is upgrading from bare wire connectors to banana plugs.

I looked into building an earthship in my area and was shot down pretty fast. But also, I wonder if Terlingua and other places in the US don't have codes for the same reason some countries don't have them- corruption. The recent disaster along the border of Turkey & Syria is the dark side of no building standards.

Another long-timer. Would add to your list of apps that made it all tolerable BaconIt (Windows Phone, went through a phase). 3rd party apps ARE (sorry, WERE) the Reddit experience for millions of users. Huffman's declarations are hubris. He may own the 2-monitor setups, cubicles, payroll and have keys to the building, but he is not the owner of the thoughts, feelings and ideas users forged into the site's lifeblood. It's not his to monetize.

you live a couple blocks from me, don't you?

It just confirms what we in gerrymandered states already know- it will take a tsunami turned against conservatives to reverse the damage they've caused. It has to be so incredibly bad, even the guy across the street with the NRA bumper sticker thinks enough is enough.

I think I could get away with this at my office, as long as I didn't bring a shepherd's crook.

Technically this is an aspic, you heathen. ;-)

What's wrong is systematic indoctrination by corporate-owned media has been wildly successful.

And every time Republicans get control, they threaten to end publicly-owned media because they think objectivity is "leftist." I suppose if you're shooting for as right wing as you can, it might look that way.

These conspiracy pushers. It couldn't possibly be THEIR fault.

If your position can't survive the scrutiny of the light of day- that is, open discourse- it's flawed and you're a fool if you stick to it no matter what. All I can say is nowadays we have a lot of fools in JC. That makes them vulnerable to outside influence.