Endymion_Mallorn

That sounds cool. I’ll give it a look.

Thank you, I’ll give it a look.

Mindustry is a great FOSS game, period. There’s also Shattered Pixel Dungeon.

Why use this app instead of OsmAnd?

ETA: Rereading, I realize this could have sounded very rude and sarcastic, I apologize - it was a genuine question.

Someone needs to bring a trust-busting suit against Valve.

No, banned is the right word colloquially. The media is not eligible to be distributed in the monopolistic or anti-competitive web service run by Valve. It wasn’t banned by a government, but it was indeed banned.

Fair enough.

So you’re using the Bing engine.

Which one?

Pure deathmatch? The Galaxy-class.

Cardassian Nor-class stations are strong, but not mobile. They wouldn’t be able to repair against a series of guerilla attacks in rapid succession from an enemy who’s got firepower to burn and warp energy to spare.

Nothing there except maybe the Intrepid can lay down a measure of the firepower a Galaxy-class has. Adding in secondary vessels, full torpedo loadouts, and even the possible crazy tactics like venting antimatter, it’s barely a question.

I just want to know that my wife is safe. That’s the only thing that would keep me here.

That happened in TAS.

And the main answer is “Pray we do not change it any further.”

I mean, Barclay has three programs like that.

TracFone FTW.

I don’t know how old you are, so I’ll just have to state my experience here. I’ll liken it to television, because with the way Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc., have become some of the most visited sites on the Internet, it’s likely that people are using a lot of these devices like TVs.

Commercials have been part of TV since the beginning. First it was sponsorships (if you watch old shows, you’ll find sponsor segments not dissimilar to modern YouTube), then slowly we transitioned into commercial breaks. Then we started doing both - product placements being the biggest ones, but also some shows that still had sponsors. Game shows and news shows are notable for this. If you wanted to avoid commercials, you either timeshifted (VCR, DVR, etc), or you watched PBS - except that PBS has not only their begathons, but for the last 30 years has had what amount to sponsorships and commercials between programs.

And when you got the opportunity to pay for TV, cable first was educational and ad-free. Now, there’s just as many commercials, and you’re paying for it monthly.

Radio was the same way as TV. Dragnet was sponsored by a cigarette company, Sherlock Holmes by a winemaker. And then there were ad spots. If you listen to terrestrial radio still, you’ll find commercials. I don’t know if any of the satellite providers have started running ads, but I wouldn’t be shocked.

Newspapers before that were ad-filled too. You bought the newspaper knowing that fact. Comic books had (and have!) ads. Magazines are another ad vector.

We’ve been bombarded by ads for so long as a part of media that they blend into the background. And for my own self, yes, the commercials are annoying and I have always pirated or timeshifted to avoid them across all media, but I don’t really feel the same level of hate that I do for the tracking and privacy concerns. People don’t object to advertisements - look at QVC and HSN. What we need to do is shift the conversation away from “ad blocking” over to “privacy protection”.

Why would you buy such a device, or continue using it now that you know better?

Money. The economy is tight right now, and many people don’t have the money to change devices because of what, sadly, amounts to a single flaw. If it does 99% of what you need/want, many people are willing to trade off what they see as the 1% they don’t like.

I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just making sure you and others understand that this isn’t a question without a good answer. I would be happier with devices that are more under my control, but money is the main limiting factor.

Can’t wait until it becomes a 120-month phone lifespan, or people not being willing to upgrade plans and look at budget providers instead.

There’s coffee in that nebula.

Especially since that particular Romulan happens to look so much like his Dad. It’s a wonder that Spock didn’t “logically” order an Alpha Strike the moment he came onscreen.