That’s still worrying: wouldn’t some central authority know that “site X requested age verification for this person”?

Also it hasn’t, because having your actual collection on a streaming service is leagues less convenient than a bunch of mp3s on a hard drive.

Base Mint now is just Ubuntu but with bullshit cut out. My first and current one was actually Debian, but at this point I’d rather recommend Mint)

Cool, I just don’t have patience to scan through a 1000-page book prior to reading) Do you upload these for others to use? And again - what software?

I recently switched to wireless over-the-ear headphones and overall happy. However, when it comes to earbuds - they would only be wired. Unlike my large headphones, which can be unscrewed for that, most earbuds would have trouble wen replacing the battery. And - maybe more importantly - easier to lose since they’re separate and so small.

Yes, but far from all mistakes are like this. You’d need to manually scan through a potentially long book. Fine if you do it occasionally for some books to contribute to Libgen, but you’d go insane if you try to do it to your whole library for personal use.

Edit: I meant not repeated and more or less obvious mistakes like these, rather those like “one term got mistaken for another real word”, which you won’t catch automatically.

“Do a light editing” you mean read through a huge book? I have downloaded automatically-converted versions like this and they’re unreadable at times. Also would that work well on complex math formulas?

Edit: might try doing so to upload for others, but looking through the whole book must be long, tedious work, definitely not something I’d do for every book.

Most of the books I have on my reader are not available in epub or formats like it, rather as pdf/djvu scans. So I’d add it might be absolutely worth it to pay more for a big screen.

Also the device never ever connects to the internet. Gives you more freedom.

Most importantly - more such phones that are affordable. Even specifics like giant size aside, the only Pixel I can afford is the one that is either not supported or close to the end of support. Also they’re not even officially available here, which seems to be a common problem.

I wouldn’t trust it anyway. I would only trust a TV that does not have Internet access, period.

Plus the arbitrary requirement of a mobile device as a primary, so it would be either inconvenient Signal-cli or something like Waydroid.

I only really know better-off people in big cities doing so with phones (closest to a really common case would be important things like Whatsapp stopping working). Also a non-flagship phone doesn’t cost nearly as much as a computer.

$500 is an enormous sum to throw out without thinking, even in places where it’s not an above-average monthly salary. An average person wouldn’t throw out a perfectly good computer just because his OS told him to, he would think “how bad could it be?” unless the system literally bricks itself.

Often it is not even “apathetic”. Often it is rather “scared”.

I don’t think most people would buy a new computer if the OS cannot upgrade. Average Joe can’t afford that, Joe would rather stay on an EOL system and hope everything is alright.

Gen Z here. Only “age-inappropriate” things I found in the woods were condoms and syringes :(

Yeah, I don’t deny there are significant negatives. But this is the closest we got to mass-adopted digital cash YET. Buying it can indeed be tricky, I did get lucky with that.

And the vast majority of purchases, the mass adoption, aren’t stuff that people care to hide or they would already be only using cash.

I don’t think crypto is even supposed to be for the “vast majority of purchases”. It does and always will exist alongside traditional payment options, which are, indeed, preferrable for many things.

But when it comes to learning the tech… Isn’t it the same for proper privacy, anonymity and safety in general? Instead of proclaiming it as a “lost cause”, I think we should lend a hand to someone who needs protection but has trouble figuring it out.

Also paying with card might just become impossible even for people who don’t mind it (like me). Sure, I could go through a middleman, but their commission would far exceed Monero fees and there’s a bigger chance of being scammed.

opportunities to get hacked and all your crypto stolen

Oh, forgot to reply to that one. In some cases the individual responsibility is actually preferrable to the nonzero chance that a bank or government would freeze your bank account.

most crypto is completely traceable because of the public ledger

True, but it is possible to purchase anonymously. KYC exchanges are just the most convenient option. Or exchange with Monero, which is what a lot of people do as well. Although if there were actual stakes, I wouldn’t depend just on what Monero provides, just because you shouldn’t have just one layer of safety anyway.

However, for most people, crypto doesn’t work like cash, and does work like a stock.

Not exactly the tool’s fault that it was used not for its initial purpose. It is quite literally hammering in nails with a microscope, lol.

there’s stupid high fees for the common Bitcoin and Etherium networks

I myself have only used Monero, and the fees there are negligeable. But yea, transactions do still take a while. Never dealt with BTC yet, but it is a bit frustrating that it’s so much more widely accepted despite higher fees.

Basically if you’re not buying something highly illegal, there’s 0 benefit to a normal person

First - there might be things as simple as sanctions. My own purchases are completely innocent, but crypto turned out to be the simplest and safest way to pay in such a situation. Second - this argument kind of steps into the “I have nothing to hide” territory. Normal things might turn into “highly illegal” overnight - first thing that comes to mind is what happened with abortion laws. There are always vulnerable people who aren’t criminals, and saying they shouldn’t have such a payment option is kind of close to “only criminals would need end-to-end encryption”.

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First - mail server might literally be on a box in your home under your full control. Second - if it’s not the case, you don’t need to stick to a single provider. I have mailboxes tied to different platforms on different providers, so I cannot lose all at once.