The thing is, MS made a command line package manager that allows users to submit configs for new packages via GitHub. But they haven't made a UI for it and don't tell anyone that it exists. You have to go out of your way to find out about it, which 99% of users are not going to do.
I use it when I set up new Windows VMs and it's a lot easier than manually navigating to websites for software installers.
Shout-out to the GM of the Aaron's calling me an idiot that doesn't know how to operate a dryer when they sold me one out the door so clogged I'm amazed my house didn't light on fire. Swore up and down they quality checked everything, the 2 hours I spent with that machine open scraping the lint out suggests otherwise.
I didn't go full keto, but I did tighten up my sugar consumption once and tried to keep it as close to zero as possible for a couple of weeks.
I can't say I had hallucinations, but the cravings are seriously real. I didn't even stop because of the cravings though, I stopped because sugar is so ubiquitous in everything that trying to find a drink to buy while working that didn't contain sugar and I actually liked was difficult. I tried drinking tea with stevia as a main drink, but the taste of it never really acquired for me.
The relative lack of content on Lemmy, for me, has been a boon. I go through New, then Top 6 Hours, then Top 12 Hours, then I need to find something else to do. When I was on Reddit, I found myself bouncing between Reddit and YouTube for entertainment. With Lemmy not having boundless amounts of crap to scroll through and no algorithm, my tech usage is far more varied.
unbearable due to the sheer amount of advertisement.
I spent 3 days in a hotel room this week, and while I did bring my Steam Deck and dock with me for entertainment, I got there to find that the TV had no HDMI ports. I was stuck with basic cable and the only saving grace being Showtime, which wasn't at extra cost and doesn't have ads.
But when both Showtime channels had stuff I was less than indifferent to watching, the advertisements on any of the other channels were horrible. The shows felt like they were 1:1 in terms of content to ads.
Don't get me started on the radio, either. I used to love listening to the radio, but now all they play is the same set of a couple dozen songs, with 5 minutes of ads that play every 3 or so songs. Also, no rock station in my area plays anything newer than ~15 years old, tops. They're all still playing the same music that I listened to on those stations when I was a teen, and I'm a little over 30.
If they're going by user agent, then a VPN won't help. But user agents can be spoofed trivially, especially on a PC. If it's geographical, you could try parking in a place with low average income and look up prices with the browser set to incognito/private.
If I had to guess, they're probably not doing it just because they want to. It's entirely possible they got a threat letter from one or more publications about the topic and are doing it to avoid litigation. Or they're afraid that they could face litigation if they don't take action.
We shouldn't assume ill intent unless there's something to substantiate it.
And adding 0.081% to the population every year are stealing all the good jobs uh... checks notes, working in construction and on ranches where actual citizens usually don't want to work anyway.
I worked in a restaurant and someone called the health department on us. He stepped in the walk-in for about 2 minutes, looked at the make line, said "Nothing seems rotten to me" and left.
It stemmed from a lady claiming she got food poisoning from our food, but the timing was pretty fast, and half the ingredients were fully cooked upon delivery stuff anyway that just got heated up in the oven. So honestly, we figured she probably got it from something else and the inspector probably thought the same thing.
The thing is, MS made a command line package manager that allows users to submit configs for new packages via GitHub. But they haven't made a UI for it and don't tell anyone that it exists. You have to go out of your way to find out about it, which 99% of users are not going to do.
I use it when I set up new Windows VMs and it's a lot easier than manually navigating to websites for software installers.