I normally dislike self censorship of profanity, but replacing fuck with fsck (filesystem check) is a Unix joke, and I can appreciate that.

I’m sure I hit numbers like that on my DSL.

If you are trying to get the Wordpress software and install it on a server you own or web hosting account you pay for, yes.

If you’re trying to do something else, like sign up for blog hosting from a privacy-respecting service provider without having to administer software yourself, then no. If you want recommendations for services like that, you should probably make a separate post asking for that, with as much detail about what you want to do and whether you’re willing to pay for it as possible.

Edit: I see you did make such a post. If you’re “not tech savvy” as your post says, I don’t recommend administering Wordpress yourself. While it’s something nearly anyone can learn if sufficiently motivated, it’s much more effort for someone without a technical background.

Wordpress the software is open source and isn’t known to do anything shady. Wordpress.com the hosted CMS product uses tracking pixels.

I had someone tell me in almost the same breath that I had written the cleanest code he had ever seen, and that he could hire someone with a PhD from India for a fraction of my rate. I told him to do it if he thought that would get him better results. He didn’t.

When companies try to use the cheapest possible labor, it usually results in a decrease in productivity and quality, which causes them to lose business to competitors in a healthy, competitive market.

If a company can find cheaper labor that performs just as well, they’ll do so and outperform the competition. If they can find a way to distort a market so competitive pressure has less impact, then they’ll do that absent a sufficient threat of punishment.

Yes, that’s adequate for someone who knows how their phone works and doesn’t stream video while out and about.

Signal seems unlikely to comply. It will be interesting to see how they respond. A way to register without a phone number would be ideal.

It looks like that plan allows 35gb of data use in a month before it throttles, I don’t think I’ve ever used that much mobile data.

The fact that casting to older devices is allowed on the expensive plan but not the ad-supported one offers a clue.

Headline is bullshit. This is an archiving feature for sectors where the law requires employers to retain records of certain kinds of communications. It only applies to phones set up with mobile device management, and it displays a clear notification to the user that the conversation is being logged.

Here’s Google’s announcement.

It’s a good charger if you’re not in a hurry - fast is just a user experience benefit.

Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm.

Yes, this looks like a dual-chemistry slot charger that handles both NiMH and 3.6/3.7V Li-ion, which would charge each battery independently.

The battery in the third slot looks to be an Energizer L91 lithium-iron-disulfide primary battery. Those are not rechargeable, and attempting to charge one may cause it to explode.

Are you trying to charge a lithium primary? That seems… unwise.

Lithium disposables beat alkaline in longevity, but lose in cost and are only 1.2V.

They’re about 1.6V open-circuit, and maintain 1.5V under light load for a large portion of their discharge cycle. They maintain 1.5V much longer than alkaline.

They’re terribly expensive for regular use compared to pretty much any other option though.

You can’t just mix and match battery chemistry and call one superior.

Superior is a value judgment I wasn’t making there. You made a claim about cost and capacity between different chemistries (unless you meant something else by “rechargeable equivalents”), and I said it only holds up for cheap (alkaline) primaries under light loads.

you absolutely have to be pedantic about it

I’m trying to share additional information, not win an argument on a technical point.

And you can’t just allow for different voltage ranges without all the electronics also being adjusted for that.

That’s true. The broader topic of long-term obsolescence ought to include device design though. Someone designing a device today that could potentially use AA batteries should think about whether they’re obsolete for the use case.

Google has partly backed away from this plan, and it was only announced for “certified” Android devices, which yours isn’t after rooting.

It does affect you indirectly though. If open source on Android gets harder, fewer people will do it.

That does raise another issue: some of the retail-grade chargers are pretty terrible and may have led some people to a bad impression of how rechargeable batteries perform.

A charger should charge cells individually, at a reasonably fast rate, and terminate correctly to prevent overcharging. Yours hits two points out of three: it’s individual and correct, but slow.

I had NiMH batteries in mind since we’re talking about types that come in alkaline, and low-self-discharge NiMH batteries (e.g. white Eneloops) are generally fine to fully charge before storage.

You might end up with a bit shorter runtimes storing charged batteries for years than charging them right before use, but it doesn’t matter much when your runtimes are measured in years.

There’s one potential snag with certain low-power devices though: a few only work in the 1.3-1.5V range. That’s terrible design since it doesn’t use most of the power in an alkaline, but some of those won’t work at all with NiMH.