> Yes, Ukraine is a democracy, but also one that still contains some unsavory elements
And you think getting rid of those 'unsavory elements', replacing them with an authoritarian, warmongering Putin led puppet government would be an improvement for the world?
" K Foundation Burn A Million Quid....... compiles stills from the film, accounts of events and viewer reactions, and an image of the brick that was manufactured from the fire's ashes. A film consisting of a static three-minute shot of the brick, "This Brick", was shown at London's Barbican Centre prior to Drummond and Cauty's [The K Foundation] performance as 2K in the same year."
And yes, they really did do it. (This was the same blokes who, at the top of the UK charts, as an artistic statement deleted their entire music back catalogue, meaning you could no longer buy their music. In 1992, that really did mean no more sales of their music and no more profit for them.)
> The "don't be easily annoyed" rule is increasingly needed.
Interestingly....
I recall a post on here where a bloke got very indignant about the innocent use of the term 'Chinaman'; something this Englishman (sharing an office with two Frenchmen, an Irishman and a Dane) found rather odd, especially considering the complainant was not Chinese themselves.
I think this was my introduction to the idea of the 'modern' internet user being far too easily offended (on somebody else's behalf to boot!), coupled with a modern desire to engage in culture wars and internet virtue signalling. This has certainly not lead to rational and healthy discourse.
As long as we hold onto the USENET tradition, that all posts pointing out a spelling or grammatical error must themselves contain such an error. Including punctuation.
I'm willing to bet only Private Eye readers (where to story broke and who continue to demand justice) are aware of this debacle and the shear scale of misery it has caused; all due to software being considered infallible.
> I suspect the modems will be around for a very long time.
No they won't.
'Dial up' modems need a PSTN line to work. The roll out of full fibre networks means analogue PSTN is going the way of the dodo. You cannot get a new PSTN line anymore in Blighty. In Estonia and the Netherlands (IIRC) the PSTN switch off is already complete.
"Ordinary" antennas are completely passive, just a bit of metal. It's the maths for data recovery and trilateration (not triangulation!) that is processor heavy.
> For those that want to follow, what are good online shopping alternatives?
In Blighty, Argos.
No counterfeit stuff (which frankly, should be a given), same day delivery and a good network of bricks'n'mortar shops (with pick-up and drop-off) if you need it.