What bothers me ain't the subscription, but the lack of transparency. I'm asked to pay for future updates and support here, but I don't know what that would be.
Some visibility into the roadmap and operations (an anonymous LLC doesn't really say "Trust") is needed for me to feel good about typing my credit card number into the form.
It’s true, and briefly made the news at the time[1]. The CSRB was also decimiated, and the current DHS deputy secretary, in his confirmation hearing, called for wrecking the agency, as he disagrees with their efforts to maintain election security.
Many wouldn't, but some people share his values, and given the compensation, it makes saying "no" much harder. Money may not be the most important thing in life, but it does make them extremely easier to live.
X has only brand recognition right now, and an extremely toxic one.
Big customers may buy but won't give them logos, people who are offended by Musk's worldview won't pay them either. You don't do well with a toxic brand: just look at Ye having to buy full page apologies ads to try and sell a record.
People born in the 90s wouldn’t have a chance to be old enough to belong to any group other than a preschool before the collapse of the Soviet and Soviet aligned regimes.
For those who were adults before 1990, while they may have been party members for reasons unrelated to political ideology, it wasn’t as common: in the late 80s, only ~10% of adults in Warsaw pact countries were communist party members. Far from “everyone”.
And even if you check that in the DS-160 visa application form, you are allowed to add an explanation. Consular visa officers are very well familiar with the political situation at the countries they are stationed in, and can grant visa even if the box is checked.
It’s kinda like “qualified investors” - you want to make sure people who are wiling to do something extremely stupid can afford it and acknowledge their stupidity.
We don’t need regulation to protect those that can afford to buy protection: we need it for those who can’t.
We want to protect against the unknown, not the known. The less surface area, the better, and containers have much wider surface area than VMs. Both had their faults, of course.
Walmart famously refuse to pay the extra couple of basis points that are charged by the various payment-rails-involved-entities when doing NFC payments instead of physical card.
Some visibility into the roadmap and operations (an anonymous LLC doesn't really say "Trust") is needed for me to feel good about typing my credit card number into the form.