Travis E. JonesHonest question from a non-programmer (although I did learn BASIC in high school and Pascal in college), how would the age of the user be useful metadata for the operating system? The reason I ask is that I view the OS as serving my interests as a user, and I can't think of a way I would benefit from having my birthdate stored by systemd. Thanks!
Aaron Toponce ⚛️
@travisejones @alatiera It's likely in place so future software that requires a birthday from the system can retrieve it.
For example, some mature video game with adult elements could ask systemd for the birthday before letting the user play the game.
AFAIK, there are no hooks in place that verify that the supplied birth date matches their birth certificate, government issued ID, etc. So there's nothing stopping you from lying about your age to get around the video game rating.
Miakoda 
@atoponce @travisejones @alatiera "letting the user".
Right there is the entire fucking problem. I bought the machine. I am the owner. There is no "let" in this situation. There is only "fuck you, computer does whatever the fuck I tell it to do!". Anyone sticking "let" in to my computer can go fuck all the way off!
Right there is the entire fucking problem. I bought the machine. I am the owner. There is no "let" in this situation. There is only "fuck you, computer does whatever the fuck I tell it to do!". Anyone sticking "let" in to my computer can go fuck all the way off!
requiem 🦫
aloei mean, you can say this about your car too, but you still have to share the road with other people
@aloe @requiem @atoponce @alatiera Yes. That does not negate my point at all. I take a knife out of my kitchen drawer, I can cook you a nice meal with it, or I could stab you. Either way, the knife doesn't stop me or demand I verify anything. Not sure what sharing space with others have has to do with it. Who gets hurt and what consequences I face are entirely dependant on what I do with my things.
well sure but roads have things like speed limits and traffic lights, most consumer passenger cars have their speed artificially capped below what the engine is capable of i think. im just saying i think an online computer will always have some socially imposed limitations, it's just a matter of who and how is constructing and implementing them
like, there are social consequences if you do a murder with the knife. i think separating that from "limiting the capabilities of the tool" is mostly academic/semantic for this conversation. you could just rip this field out of your local systemd or never update past this version if your computer wasnt going online
@aloe @requiem @atoponce @alatiera You do realize the goals are A) make sure you never escape data collection and advertising, and B) prevent you from freely discussing our dictator(s), especially with large numbers of people... Right? Or are you oblivious to this?
"You could just" comply with fascism and not get jailed.
@aloe @requiem @atoponce @alatiera
"You could just" not update... till it's too outdated to use, or your PC broke and needs a reinstall or replacement, or someone not tech saavy enough needs to speak online, or you need to use a computer you're not in charge of, or updates become mandatory and automatic.
That's the important part. Bad law isn't alone. "You could just"... till the next bad law builds off that one and you can no longer "just".