Well this is the first time I think I’ve been genuinely bloody livid about an update because of iOS 26.4.

I don’t do credit cards, only debit, which is common enough in the UK, and none of the cards I input were enough to prove I’m over 18, despite the fact I purchased the damn phone, it’s tied to my Apple ID which has my birthdate, and since we don’t have ID cards and I don’t drive, my one method of verification (that being my passport) was not accepted.

As a result I cannot change some settings on the phone I spent my own money on….. What the actual hell is this utter fucking bullshit? Age verification laws strike again. Fan fucking tastic.

RE: https://mastodon.me.uk/@pikesley/116244381124234374

Marc Andreessen is proof that p-zombies exist:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie

After listening to an entrepreneur, a philosopher and a psychologist burble confused inanities about “griefbots” for two consecutive nights on the radio [https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-radio-national-hour/grief-ai-end-death-bot/106338094 and https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-radio-national-hour/the-promise-and-pitfalls-of-ai-griefbots/106341670] my takeaway was this:

If someone you love needs to hear something from you, for fuck’s sake say it to them now, with your own voice and your own intention, lest some slimy techbro insert himself into their life after you’ve gone, and exploit their loss and pain. Also, tell your spouse/kids/whatever that no, you don’t want your face drawn in crayon on a clumsy digital sock puppet for all eternity.

RE: https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/@thenewoil/115971195227745876

Next up will be a VPN ban. Many tech-y people will see that and think “lol yeah well that’s not going to stop *me* from using a VPN”

A VPN ban isn’t really meant stop you from using one. It means when they catch you doing so, they’ll use the fact you’re using this harmless technology itself as a *pretense* to lock you up without needing to do any “hard work” (i.e. an investigator’s job) like actually confirming whether you committed a real crime.

Don’t think you won’t be impacted just because you know how to outsmart an ISP filter! This is not a plan to protect children or stop you from consuming adult media. It is a ploy to eventually eliminate ALL freedom of expression and free access to information in the UK.

And the same goes for Chat Control and encrypted messengers, btw

#UKpol #VPNban #PornHub #ChatControl #Privacy #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia

Deep truth

(creator: unknown)

There’s something darkly funny about all the crackpots breathlessly declaring that “Writing science fiction about the near future is impossible now, because soon superintelligent AIs will change everything!” when the actual reason that writing science fiction about the near future is difficult is the range of uncertainty in just how thoroughly the current US experiment of putting all decisions of the Federal government in the hands of the people least qualified to make them will trash the country and wreak havoc across the rest of the planet.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3zjxy3dwo

"Sideloading" is the rentseeker word for "being able to run software of your choosing on a computing device you purchased". There is no reasonable case for an operating system developer having a say over what programs you run on your hardware.

#Android #Google