81–90 of 230 posts
This is why I have my own domain and control the MX records on the DNS on it, so that I can reroute email to a new email provider, if needed (I pay for Fastmail). Another nice thing about having a catch-all on own domain is that you can sign up to each service with a unique email address, e.g. @ , which makes it easy to see if any services ever sold your address.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're nothing like utilities and it makes no sense to treat them that way. Instead the u.s. needs laws that protect user digital rights, and all companies should have to adhere to those laws, not just big ones.
That could have a huge chilling effect on start ups, indi devs, and hobbyists
These companies want to become as ubiquitous as a public utility. Therefore they should be regulated like a public utility
Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza. The real solution here is to use Signal (or something like it). And I don't mean to criticize Microsoft or regulations. Microsoft is faced with an impossible task here, I assume they're doing the best they can.
I shall have to add this to the list of counterexamples wherever anyone says "America has an inalienable right to free speech".
Was this decision made in Redmond or in Israel? Microsoft has offices in Israel and these offices are likely responsible for things happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Israel is currently at "war" with Gaza and having Israeli employees of Microsoft having the ability to disable anyone's account calling civilians in Gaza is pretty horrible. Is Microsoft via Skype and Hotmail participating in what Israel's lea…
It has R&D centers and local business centers. Skype is not in Israel and there's no reason for a VoIP solution to route through a country local facility. The "complete siege" ended ages ago. Israel provides power, food etc.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/10/is-there-famine-in-...
> “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” 10 independent UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the right to food and the special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Tuesday.
...
Three conditions must exist to determine there is famine:
- At least 20 percent of the population in the area faces extreme levels of hunger;
- 30 percent of the children in the area are too thin for their height; and
- The death rate has doubled from the average, surpassing two deaths per 10,000 daily for adults and four deaths per 10,000 daily for children.
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Israel prevents anything better than 3G connectivity in the West Bank and Gaza for Palestinians, although I believe that Israeli settlers living admits them can use the latest and greatest tech:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/israeli-restri...
Thus using old technology makes sense.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza. The real solution here is to use Signal (or something like it). And I don't mean to criticize Microsoft or regulations. Microsoft is faced with an impossible task here, I assume they're doing the best they can.
> Regulations are why Microsoft is banning users who call Gaza. That sounds an awful lot like simply being a Palestinian is being criminalized.
This is why I have my own domain and control the MX records on the DNS on it, so that I can reroute email to a new email provider, if needed (I pay for Fastmail). Another nice thing about having a catch-all on own domain is that you can sign up to each service with a unique email address, e.g. @ , which makes it easy to see if any services ever sold your address.
You don't need your own domain for that. Gmail (and probably the other big ones) support it as well, just add a plus sign and whatever after your username: username+microsoft@gmail.com will end up in the inbox of username@gmail.com.
I left LinkedIn before MS bought it, because it was clear it was being copied by all and sundry.
I left GitHub once MS bought it (and I thank God for that, ever time I see another story about MS being awful).
I never used Google - they were obviously evil and from quite early on.
I may be completely wrong, but I think large companies are completely amoral. Not in a malicious way, but in a can't-be-anything-else kind of way; that is is an emergent property.
All large organization have absolutely no moral sense, which is to say, doing things because they are ethical, regardless of costs or benefits, or possessing a capability to assess or modify their own actions on moral criteria.
Complaining MS do these things is like complaining a cat jumps on a mouse.
I'm not a fan of brutal mouse death, so I don't own a cat.
What's critical of course is knowing this, and before deciding to buy into what these companies offer, rather than discovering it after buying into what these companies offer.
And these companies will only tell you how wonderful their services are, and nothing about what they're up - nothing about how much and what data they collect, and what they do with it (give it to the State, sell it to all and sundry, with real-time updates included), or what's done with it (mandatory State mass interception).