Seems like they don’t work exactly the same as they used to, as they now use MTP instead of USB mass storage, but while annoying, it’s generally a pretty trivial fix and your OS may already use MTP devices with no trouble. It seems there may be some other knock-on effects with fonts not sideloading right and needing a Calibre plugin to make pagination work how it used to.

So yeah, it’s getting worse, but Amazon hasn’t figured out how to bring the hammer down yet.

Calibre has always been a small price to pay, but if sideloading goes away, I’ll certainly never “upgrade” again, and I’ll trash my 11th gen Paperwhite if they somehow make it stop working. Usable e-ink ereaders are even doable as DIY projects now, and Kobo will probably stay less closed-off than Amazon for a good while.

That said, reading the comments and the article it seems like as long as your OS (or some app) supports MTP, everything should still work more or less as it has, which is to say kind of annoying and with Amazon pulling little microaggressions like deleting your cover thumbnails, but overall sideloading should still function.

Yeah, I don’t think this goes to trial and rewrites the lawbooks or anything, but there’s enough here to litigate, and I reckon Tesla will settle to avoid going to discovery.

This is a bit different, in that it’s not a trademark claim, but rather a copyright claim. They’re saying that the still isn’t meaningfully trying to be anything other than a Blade Runner still, and Musk’s use is not protected by any sort of Fair Use. There would likely be a statue of limitations or something for the specific cause of action, but you can’t lose copyright the same way you can a trademark.

One could argue it’s an uncreative derivative work not subject to a fair use exemption, and actively used in commerce to make money for Musk, while simultaneously it damages the Blade Runner brand if, as claimed, other car companies assume Tesla and BR have a relationship, or the BR brand is inextricably linked to Tesla and Musk. The fact that Tesla and WBD hurriedly sought a copyright clearance, once Tesla realized WBD didn’t have all the necessary rights, doesn’t speak well for Tesla’s position, nor does the fact that Musk referenced Blade Runner at least twice in his presentation.

Meanwhile I’m over here playing in the through-hole kiddie pool or dead-bug handwiring keyboards.

Tres comas, indeed.

I actually kind of like that Apple has become a boring and iterative company for the most part. I just use the same glass and metal rectangle until a few months after my upgrade eligibility on my work plan (because I always forget when it is), then I get whichever glass and metal rectangle is cheap now. I routinely forget which iPhone I use, and my life is no worse because of it.

Okay, I just looked it up. It’s a 13, and I did remember, but I was not at all confident.

At my kid’s elementary school, they just have a charging rack full of cheap Chromebooks and the kids check one out in the morning and put it back in the afternoon. The middle schoolers get to take them home.

This one is not really filling up my outrage meter. Amortize it over the first year before you finally admit you don’t want to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to your ad-hoc coatrack, and it’s 8 bucks a month, and you’re already paying $45 or whatever for the whole shebang, including what have to be some pretty expensive live classes from Instructor/Influencers who have a certain amount of leverage. At least there’s a real service involved, and likely the new bikes subsidize some of it. They should admit that’s what it is, but… meh.

In the six months before the Indian elections earlier this year, YouTuber Akash Banerjee created content highlighting the shortcomings of the incumbent government.

The political satirist made videos about topics such as the government’s divisive campaign pitch and its crackdown on the opposition parties. “Independent creators put their neck on the line to reach voters,” he told Rest of World, describing his work.

But for the past week, Banerjee has been stressed about the prospect of having to shut down his YouTube channel, The Deshbhakt, which has over 4.8 million subscribers.

That’s because the Indian government has plans to classify social media creators as “digital news broadcasters,” which would make it mandatory for them to register with the government, set up a content evaluation committee that checks all content before it is published, and appoint complaint handlers — all at their own expense. Any failures in compliance could lead to criminal charges, including jail term.

In the unlikely case you were under the illusion that this was some sort of consumer-protection move.

I run all of my DIY keyboard builds (here’s the latest) off of Pi Picos or clones with USB-C.

This is a big deal, but just a reminder that this is the District (trial) court, so the next step would be the Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by an appeal to the Supreme Court. There may be some intriguing injunctions that come out of this, but we’re years away from a final disposition.

For the curious, this one came out of the DC Circuit, informally known to be the most technically and administratively savvy circuit, as it deals with a LOT of nitty gritty stuff coming out of Federal agencies.

I have an old M560 that I actually really like. Other than ABS shine, the only sign of age is that the “back” button you click by nudging the scroll wheel from right to left does double clicks. Do you happen to know if that is similarly fixable?

In the DIY space, I think trackballs have seen more development, mostly because there’s really only three or four companies that make usable trackballs at all, and one of them is Logitech.

“Facilitated open computing initiatives and exercised independent judgment and mastery of social engineering techniques and forum software.”

On the plus side, this particular router will work fine as a stand for a fondue pot.

Headline is probably not wrong, but it’s definitely overdramatic compared to the actual story. Everything awful MS is actually doing is there barely a millimeter under the surface, but the story is more directly about how they’re jerking AMD and Intel around.

Still, it’s an impressively clear showcase of how much power Microsoft really has. It’s taken two companies that usually have their product cycles planned years in advance and kicked them into panic mode. Hopefully we don’t see a repeat once Microsoft finds it fit to bring Copilot+ to desktops.

I actually did forget mine. I think it was in the low six digits though, 2-something IIRC.

CAN YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH?