I think you misunderstood me. I looked online and made a shortlist of TV’s that I liked. Then I checked which physical stores near me had those TVs on display. I didn’t limit myself to MediaMarkt’s offer, they just happened to include 2 of the models I wanted to see.

I bought my TV there. I wanted to physically see and compare the options I’d narrowed my choice to, and I believe in rewarding the company that provides the service I need. I’m really happy, I got a great deal on a display model.

That was an interesting read, thank you. An unexpectedly depressing ending though 😆

In Switzerland Galaxus overtook Amazon years ago. Brack appears to be improving lately, offering faster delivery options.

I don’t want to end up with a duplicate Amazon problem though, so for 3rd party sellers on Galaxus, if they have their own website, I often buy directly from them.

Depends on the user. For example, the developed world has a rapidly aging population. Many elderly people primarily need support for long distances or uneven surfaces. Stairs also become treacherous as hips and knees age. I can see a potential market for a device that can extend their independence and is less bulky and unwieldy than a wheelchair or a scooter.

Also, if the concept works well, I see no reason that they can’t add alternative seat designs. As I understand it, getting stable walking is generally a robotic challenge. Presumably easier to start with a simpler chair and then build on that.

Gromit from Wallace and Gromit

I’m there as well.

I used to get so excited about the newest technology and tech gadgets, but that excitement gradually waned until now, I find myself trying to make my older, unintrusive devices last as long as possible. If it needs an account or an internet connection to function, I’m simply not interested anymore.

I switched to Graphene OS recently, after I discovered that an iOS software update had added a “consent” option (default opted-in) for Siri to learn from my interactions with my apps, which you have to opt out of for each individual app. It’s ridiculous but I felt so betrayed by Apple. I opt out of everything and have never used Siri, and they still sneaked it in and opted me in.

I live in Europe so safety isn’t an issue, but I can’t use the simplest things anymore, like the post office app, and the govt auth app. It’s madness - these are govt services that require me to share my data with American tech companies. Wth?!

I won’t pretend to understand what it’s like living in the Middle East right now, but I can relate a little. My family still live in South Africa. Fortunately the current govt is too incompetent for privacy tools to be dangerous. That could change though, and then their white skins will make them vulnerable.

Anyway, just wanted to say you’re not alone. Stay safe.

UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland both. UBS required a bail out at the time.

I recently came across this 2023 Mozilla article on data privacy in cars and it’s horrendous. This was based in the US, so one would expect some differences in the EU to comply with GDPR, however who even thinks of asking about the data their car collects?

Suffice it to say, I’m rather hesitant currently to buy any data greedy product from a company headquartered outside Europe. It’s not entirely avoidable but with cars, we do have options, so please do ask lots of questions before making a choice.

I can’t believe I just wasted time reading this.

Tldr: GOS accused OP of trying to create public drama and instead of taking multiple opportunities to deescalate, OP kept pushing and got banned.

So, if GOS was wrong about OP wanting to create public drama, then why have they made this post?

I’m not saying GOS didn’t overreact but that whole conversation was at the level of 13 year olds. Surely, OP, you can do better?

Specifically:
If all you wanted was to share the information with CalyxOS, wouldn’t the logical option have been to copy the relevant text from @jertek’s comment (which you had already recovered), and quote it in a comment on your CalyxOS feature request? You could have linked to @jertek there and continued the conversation without involving GOS.

You know GOS aren’t intending to implement this feature - you were informed of that on the GOS discussion forum before opening the ticket. (I just searched the forum for this topic because I was so sure I must be missing context but no, not really.) So when they deleted the request, why not let it go? I just don’t get why it mattered so desperately that they deleted your feature request, and why you couldn’t clarify that anywhere except on a clone of their repo. I really, genuinely don’t.

I’m not convinced it’s efficiency driving the difference.

China have the advantage of lower labour and production costs (although that will change as their economy matures).

Regardless, pharma costs are heavily driven by R&D, risk, and regulation. A huge amount of R&D goes into products that never make it to market, which is a necessary investment. Most (all?) western pharma companies operating in the US have had massive Tort settlements, and their prices have to include a margin to finance that risk (insurance is expensive, if it’s even available). Then there’s regulation. The US and Europe very heavily regulate these companies. I’d be interested to know how the Chinese regulations compare, especially for Chinese headquartered companies.

Finally, China should be doing more clinical trials than the US + EU combined given the size of their population, so it’s great that they’re finally developed enough.

I see their growing competitiveness as a natural consequence of their developing economy and not due to any failure in the West.

Precisely, that’s what I meant. Different market segments need different approaches.

Why not both? ;)

Some FOSS apps are only available for a fee in the play store and I think that’s great. They’re able to access a bigger market for funding purposes, and we both know the vast majority of play store users won’t make the effort to figure out how to make donations otherwise.

You can’t download paid apps through the Aurora store.

Update: They’ve released a roadmap.

They have a fixed plan for the next 3 months, mostly back-end improvements for app developers.

Longer term plans are listed in order of priority but without a time line, it depends on how much of their funding goal they reach.

Current funding on Github shown at 10% of goal.

I don’t think they’re aiming to replace F-Droid. Rather think of this as a tool to wean the masses off the play store. It’s also an alternative for those people currently using microg and Aurora Store.

Personally I have some proprietary apps that I don’t want to be without. If Accrescent could provide them, I could finally delete my google account. I literally just have an account to download apps.