Broken

I had a VW Passat which is the same thing as your Audi, just non luxury version. That thing broke down all the time. I got rid of it after 5 years because I had to. I just couldn't afford to always be fixing it.

I've historically stuck with Honda's which are very reliable. My last civic was 20 years old when I moved on from it. It still works, just not reliably for long distances. My son drives it now.

People would always ask me when I was going to get a new car. I would say I'm always looking but I won't buy a new car until I need to buy a new car. I'm thankful for not having the monthly payment.

People would just nod their head and understand where I was coming from even though they wouldn't make that same decision themselves.

During that time I made a monthly "car payment" into savings so I built up enough money to buy the car I wanted. Since it wasn't a real car payment the money was a good emergency fund, which I ended up needing.

I do not have that drawer. Mine is at least twice as full.

Sorry to say, your wife is right. Sorry to say, even if she is wrong she is right.

I really don't like tech radar articles. There's no real information there. I know almost nothing more than just reading the headline. Clearly they mean a restructuring bankruptcy as there are mentions of future plans. But the headline makes it sound like liquidation.

I would add to the conversation with the questions;

Should all information be known? Just because something doesn't need to be hidden doesn't imply that it should be known broadly. It's not okay for somebody to know what color underwear I'm wearing right now.

Is all information equal in value? Presuming one kind of data point is okay to be public does not mean that all data points are okay to be public. My address is public record (unfortunately) but that doesn't mean my social security number, ID number, and passport number should be public as well.

I agree that it helped with adoption. In a way I wish they still had it so I could get my text messaging family to use a messaging app instead.

The flip side was, if somebody tried signal and didn't like it and uninstalled it, then any SMS message to them from signal went to their signal account that they no longer had installed so they didn't get it. You had no way of knowing so it really sucked.

I agree. I need to trust where the OS (or any software) comes from. I'd rather get a legitimate windows copy and then debloat it and turn off telemetry and other BS myself. Then I know I'm good on both counts. But apparently the IoT LTSC version is legit, not a cracked copy. This is the first I've ever heard of it.

People need to be civil. On every platform they have shown that they can't be (or have no good reason to choose to be).

Moderation is the key, but moderation is challenging. That's why self moderation (keeping yourself civil) is very important. Which loops us back to the beginning.

I get that, and I'm sort of saying that. The only difference is that I'm not calling for profit businesses wrong. In agree that its a non sustainable model for social media from the users perspective, but it's a very sustainable model from the company perspective.

But that's why I choose differently now. And others might choose differently when the platform gets to be in a poor state.

The key here is I can't make that decision for others. Now or later. If you want people to go to another platform, then build a better platform and market it better.

Nothing is "wrong" with it. Its just a different platform.

The "problem" is that its just a different platform. Nothing is really different. It's like choosing Pepsi over Coke. Its a choice and maybe one is flavored more to your liking, but they are both full of the same ingredients and unhealthy with continual ingestion.

I haven't used it either, because I didn't like Twitter or X. Today I suspect Bsky is fine, because it hasn't been around long enough to become toxic or to censor discussions etc... Just give it time, it will get there.

The issue most people are bringing up is that there are "better" platforms (i.e. fediverse) that aren't getting any traffic instead.

I can understand this, but the flip side is that the voices promoting the fediverse usually arent very compelling either in voice or ease. Think of it like somebody wanting to buy a PC. One person says to get Linux (and arch of course) because it's the best and you're a fool to get anything else. Here, take it and figure it out. Another person says to get a Mac, because it can do everything you need it to do, easily and without work, plus has added features you didn't even think about that seem useful to your life. And if you get stuck they have a genius bar to assist. So people choose Mac. Similarly people are choosing Bsky because it's easy and straightforward.

My sister in law is vegan. She is the most normal person about it I've ever met. She doesn't talk about it unless it comes up in conversation in a normal way.

She doesn't proclaim it, because its part of who she is it isn't the whole of who she is. She also understands that other people's choices are theirs and she doesn't need to convert them, or defend her own position.

When we have family gatherings, we try to accommodate with food offerings, but she says we don't need to and always brings her own food and extra to share. This is important because she's self sufficient and doesn't expect anybody to adjust their life to match her choices. Likewise, between diets and allergies we as a family just always ensure people know what is in what.

These are just simple examples. My point being, I don't think of her as vegan. I think of her as my sister in law. Be a normal person and its all good. If its not, then that's not on you. There are jerk vegans and jerk non-vegans. Don't be a jerk. Don't tolerate jerks in return.

This is the true answer, especially for such a broad question.

You dont need to be fancy about it either. When I started I downloaded a years worth of credit card transactions and put them in a spreadsheet. I took the time to go line by line and assign a category for it.

Then I made a chart and could visually see where my money was going. On top of that I then calculated each category as percentage of my annual salary.

It's very eye opening. Even things that aren't an issue at least I now know that so don't need to feel worried/guilty about it.

I don't really subscribe to the whole race thing. Its a culture thing.

And even more important is the food. Can you cook me a traditional xyz meal? Delicious. I love that you're xyz.

That's just another reason to be disappointed to find out that you're British.