Even retail gas stations have to pay upfront before operating to have their underground tanks dug up and removed in case they go out of business. Why isn’t this standard for petroleum extraction? If nothing else, the public government would benefit from investing those prepayments until the oil company successfully completes their properly secured inactive well and that money is returned to them.

As long as you’re doing your own whole disk encryption, you have a valid path to still be secure. However, if you’re running an unencrypted disk, you’re much more likely to lose your data to a non-state actor.

A pocket computer that can call.

I held that same mindset for years in the prior generation of technology. I had a Sharp Zaurus and later a Nokia n700 for pocket Linux computing. It took a large amount of effort to make them useful devices. Most people simply don’t have the time or ability to do that for themselves and products like iOS and Android deliver what they’re looking for right out of the box.

I like the essay’s highlighting European contributions to software and technology, but it doesn’t quite answer the fundamental question of its title:

Why there’s no European Google?

The essay’s answer is [paraphrased] “…because we don’t need it.”.

I don’t quite understand that position because if a Google wasn’t needed in Europe then Google could disappear from Europe and no one would notice or care. Yet that isn’t likely the case. If Google disappeared overnight it would likely have massive impacts on business and personal lives across Europe.

I guess my answer to the article’s question as to “Why is there no European Google” is that creating Google (or a European Google) is extremely resource and financially expensive. Unless the funding for that effort comes from somewhere, it won’t just happen in Europe spontaneously without replicating the same private business model that many dislike about Google.

P.S. Another European created technology that should be added to the list for accolades is the creation of Deepmind machine learning/AI. This also lead to the creation of Google Gemini. While this is owned by Google, it was created out of the London offices.

I hope it succeeds, but history hasn’t been kind to others that tried.

I want to see real Linux phones that don’t run Android and are somewhat competitive with Android phones, at least in the mid-range space.

There’s a large graveyard of attempts at this. The most recent and successful is probably Tizen. Prior to that Firefox OS. People just don’t buy them so there’s no market for them.

Thank you for that link, I appreciate it. Here’s what I searched, and as you can see your link doesn’t show up:

Your direct link does indeed show China successfully tested it. Thanks!

I did search it before I wrote my original comment, thats what I cited about the anti-satellite satellite effort China did. So I’ve already taken the time and came up empty. You’re saying it exists, but I didn’t find it in my original search. So I’m asked you because you encountered the info firsthand and may have a better chance of finding it.

Except for the Nazi ringleaders, I’m perfectly ok with denying them due process

Sadly even Nazi ringleaders, otherwise Republicans will simply label those protesting ICE as “Nazi ringleaders” to deny them due process. I’m a big fan of the due process that Nazi’s received in Nuremberg and the outcome of those trial against those assholes.

I haven’t seen it. I’d happy to look at a link if you have one.

Maybe, but not guaranteed. Starlink satellites aren’t very big (meaning not very large pieces if they blow up). Additionally, Starlink satellites have active avoidance systems that can “dodge” debris to a degree (its slow, but space is big). Lastly, because the pieces would be small, they’d experience more atmospheric drag and fall back to Earth faster. Whether that means weeks instead of years, I don’t know.

That picture of the F-15 jet firing the missile was at a satellite 300 miles up. Starlink satellites are about 350 miles up.

Your meme contains text. One of those words in that text is misspelled.

It would be hard to do? How much would that affect the general use of starlink for users on other parts of the world?

Only two countries have demonstrated air launched rockets that can destroy satellites on orbit, the USA and Russia. There is good speculation that China has built anti-satellites satellites, but no one is aware of any actual proven test.

Here’s the USA’s anti-satellite rocket being launched on its one and only test:

Now, lets assume that all 3 countries decide they want to attack Starlink satellites at once with all their weapons. Perhaps they destroy 30 satellites in total. As of November 2025 the Starlink network surpassed 10,000 satellites in orbit. As for replacing the lost satellites, a single launch places 25 to 28 satellites in orbit at a time. Within the next 24 hours 25 more Starlink satellites will be launched:

In 4 days, another launch is occurring that will place 24 more Starlink satellites in orbit.

source

So destroying a few dozen Starlink satellites might cause a slight blip in coverage for maybe a few minutes tops in specific narrow geographic locations, but only for a little while until replacements move to positions.

Your meme has a misspelling.

The SA (Brownshirts) were the generic rabble with no training or professional education as soldiers. Hitler invited them off the street and gave them a fancy uniform and a mandate to harass and kill those he didn’t like. Doesn’t that sound a lot like ICE today that will hire anyone with a pulse and a white supremacist attitude?

The SA were replaced in a power by the SS, the professional soldiers, in an uprising initiated by Hitler that murdered the SA leadership.

The parallels with the SS are striking

The SA, but yes.

Yep, this is what I do too and what I as pointing out. The carrier locked phones are even cheaper used than carrier unlocked.

You’ll usually end up paying more in the long run then if you went with unlocked and a MVNO.

You’re missing a component: you can buy used phones and go with an MVNO and skip the contract subsidy requirement for savings

I purchased a used carrier locked flagship phone for $250 when they were still selling for $1100 as new carrier-unlocked, then put it on my MVNO which is a subsidiary of the primary carrier (so the carrier lock doesn’t matter).

You can’t get those cost savings with a new contract phone nor a new carrier unlocked phone.

Make sure it’s carrier unlocked, but yeah.

I’m all for buying my own phones and not getting one bundled with service. However, many times getting a carrier unlocked phone carries a price premium. As long as you’re fine sticking with your current carrier, they can even be carrier locked and work just fine. I agree though, ownership of your phone outside of your carrier’s billing is the right way to go.