atrielienz

I'm not talking about "someone must make profits" that's disingenuous. What I'm saying is that services that you consume for free cost money to run. Someone somewhere has to provide if nothing else the computer/server, and electricity to run it the fediverse runs on donations and ads literally the sync app I'm using runs on ads, paid tier, etc. because it costs time and money to upkeep.

Your personal problems with tech in general and your disability don't have anything to do with that. People are talking on the tech community about how Google is taking out competing front ends for YouTube and what this means for an ad free experience, and while I agree that Google is obviously the bad guy for being the mutli-trillion dollar company it is, I also recognize that they have always been an ad company and the thing about Google is that before it existed as a free to use service we relied really heavily on an open web that was pretty empty by comparison and very disjoined. Finding things was a problem. Web rings may give people nostalgia for a "better time", but they weren't efficient ways to find information.

I can understand being angry but paying for the things you use is the one way to create alternatives to these services that are literally taking advantage of their users for profit as you put it. Lots of web services that are big "gotta make money" companies started out offering us free or inexpensive alternatives to the companies that were overcharging us and gouging us.

The fact that they've got too big is an issue with capitalism not the concept that people shouldn't have to pay for the things they use.

The Internet is full of ads because ads pay bills and keep the lights on.

They knew the risks.

The first nook I ever owned was 5 months old when it stopped powering on. I don't think this was a case of old hardware. It was a case of these types of manufacturers making "tech" without realizing that their tech might require repairs or even a warranty.

In any case, this doesn't answer my question. How does Amazon handle repairs? Do you send in your broken device with an RMA and they fix it and send it back?

Ads = revenue that keep sites and services running. What can you do about it? Pay.

How does Amazon handle repairs? I've had two of the Barnes and Noble Nook e-readers, and when they broke/stopped responding to the power button their answer was to buy a new one.

I'm looking at the Boox Tab Mini C, because I'd also like to use it for handwritten notes. But it's running Android 11 (and Android 15 should be launching in less than a month). I don't know if I want to spend over $400 on something that's already out of date and not likely to get updates for the purposes of security etc.

Didn't one of the NYPD officers get shot by another office while trying to intercept someone who was unarmed but had skipped paying the fare? Seems like New Yorkers might have a good reason.

I love e-readers and the tech has gotten pretty impressive. The thing I have a problem with is repair availability, and the fact they often run software that's years out of date. I'm looking at one from Boox but even that one is running android from 3 years ago.

Yeah. imagine if they had done it when Vine was still a thing. That would also have been hilarious.

I don't know that you can. The way a Chromecast configures is it broadcasts its own network that you connect a device with an account to. Once connected it does the configuration on Google's end, and allows you to connect that device to your home network for the purposes of streaming or casting. The thing is though, it doesn't have ports that would allow you to run custom firmware so you're stuck with a puck that you can't configure without a Google account as far as I'm aware. It relies entirely on you connecting to it as a host device to share data, updates,firmware etc.

Edit from Reddit: "You don't need a Google account but it's relatively complicated if you're not familiar with quite a few things. First you'll need to sideload another launcher like ATV. Then you need to disable the setup wizard and Google TV. All of this can be done with a simple app called App Manager which is an open source app you can get from GitHub. You'll need to go into settings then go to about phone and click build number seven times to enable developer options and then turn on USB debugging. The Chromecast is already set up to connect on Port 5555 depending on your IP address so after installing app manager it will detect that debugging is enabled and will connect to that port. You can disable any app very easily with it as well as many many other features that are very useful. As far as the Play store, you can also sideload the Aurora store which is the same as the Play store but you can login anonymously. Since the package installer doesn't work you'll need to install apps downloaded from Aurora with it. You can choose to do so in Aurora store settings. Also with app manager you can go into its settings and set the installer app as the Google Play store because some apps won't function unless they're installed or at least marked as installed from the Play store. "

I joined reddit maybe a couple of years before violentacrez was outed by gawker media. I fully remember what it was like back then, and I wouldn't say it got worse over time. I'd say that as time went on some things got better and others got worse so that on balance not much changed. I don't really understand the people who have the rose tinted goggles about reddit. I didn't leave because reddit users got actively worse so much as I left because the policies that the company were making and the things they were changing made the platform untenable.

I agree with what you're saying. This is the curse of the anonymity of the internet at large and it happens everywhere. People just like to pretend that it doesn't.

I doubt it specifically because when joining a new instance you're making a new account.