Makes not the least bit of difference: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/20/the-microsoftcrowdstrike-outage-shows-the-danger-of-monopolization

Literally hundreds of millions of people around the world have seen the Microsoft BSODs that resulted from this fuck up. Millions of people have had their lives disrupted. The vast majority of those will blame Microsoft. Executive boards and IT groups may know better but it won’t matter all that much - they will be aggressively looking to reduce their exposure to Microsoft’s near monopoly anyway.

I worked in sales for a Fortune 500 tech equipment and software manufacturer. When a customer had a serious outage with a single piece of our equipment it would cause them to stop and reevaluate their purchasing plans and dependence on my company.

IMO every government and business out there is going to be looking at this at every level and IT departments will be tasked to significantly reduce their reliance on Microsoft products. It will take years to actually happen, but I think Microsoft sales are going to take a serious, long term, and well-deserved hit.

These are the same people who want to know why Obama wasn’t in the Oval Office on 9/11.

I know that Boeing’s on everyone’s shit list these days, but the company doesn’t even make aviation tires. Unless a failure in one of Boeing’s systems caused tire damage this is probably due to poor maintenance by the airline, or a defective tire manufactured by Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone or Dunlop.

If you’re thinking about buying, be aware they removed the audio jack.

Even Hersh’s article lacks any kind of supporting evidence, only siting a single unidentified source. His story is plausible, but plausible does not mean true.

nottheonion

Whatever happened, the robot rebellion has begun.

True if Soylent Green was immortal and sought money and power at any cost.

The GOP and right wing justices’ blithering about the Founding Fathers, Originalism, and “historical tradition” is absolute, self-serving BS and regularly the opposite of historical reality. If you have a few minutes this history of U.S. corporations is fascinating. An excerpt:

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these:

• Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.

• Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.

• Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.

• Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.

• Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.

• Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.

For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

Don’t forget, Corporations are Peopleᵀᴹ

Government used to actively dismantle companies that acted as monopolies. There doesn’t need to be a lot of government regulation until things get to that point, but you’re right - Everybody wants to rule the world.

Pretty funny. Thanks.

The richest man in the world facing consequences for his actions? Not in this timeline.

Or there need to be lots of competing services owned by different companies. That worked reasonably well until companies that are essentially monopolies became the norm, and it’s not just news agencies that are a problem. The high inflation we’ve been seeing is largely caused by record profits that little or no competition allows.

I’ve removed it more than once and ended up reinstalling. It blocks the full screen paywall notice on many sites, at the cost of regularly being infuriating.

I’m guessing that as a supervillain (as @bionicjoey@lemmy.ca pointed out), Musk expects the CIA and NSA to have nice thick dossiers on him. Since Musk has Putin on speed dial, the KGB probably shares their file and asks him for updates.

Two that reduce the number of paywalls. Cookie Autodelete to clear cookies after a tab is closed, and NoScript for blocking Java scripts. NoScript can be a real PITA, but when it’s turned off there so many more popups, ads and paywalls that I always end up turning it on again.

I think it’s too well-intentioned for Musk also.

I really don’t believe that Putin would essentially end up destroying his own warships by dropping nukes to keep those same ships from being attacked by Ukraine. The whole point of leaving these activities to government is that they have much, much more information, real expertise and are able to actually make informed decisions. There is no way that Musk can make decisions that can even approach the level of those informed by the CIA, NSA, FBI, MI5, MI6, SIS and other 3 character agencies we don’t even know about.

Even if Musk were on America’s side instead of just his own, the idea of him successfully managing foreign policy is as ridiculous as me successfully challenging Serena Williams to a tennis match. Musk has no business talking to Putin about American foreign policy or shutting off the Internet to interfere with Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, and IMO he should be arrested and tried for it. It should be and is against the law.

My $.02, anyway…

deleted by creator

Sorry, I almost never hit their paywall so I forget it’s there. Here’s another article:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html