Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
I concur with this. There is no reason for having an entire embedded OS in each device except for creating "smart devices" and "internet of things" which ultimately has the same goal as connecting all humans to a central digital control system.
Its much easier these days to hack into someone's smart fridge and then get access to their internal network, than hacking into someone's computer. This is also by design. Every vulnerability in the OS is a back door for the intel 3 letter agencies.
I am going to pick a topic that might look hard (maybe this is actually an exception to the everything is f'ed, lets see): bicycles
E-bikes are a fucking abomination. Other than people using them for commutes that are too long for a regular bike to be practical, which I can see, the vast majority of people I see on them should be on a regular bicycle, and look like they thought they can't manage a regular bike but figured they could "get back on a bike" with the assist. Apparently they don't know about gears. Then there's the batteries - usual issues there including environment and fires. Complexity and cost. Just fucking stupid all-around except like I say the one application.
Now, speaking of gears - I think modern bicycles are, as you say, an exception - the tech is great, like mine is around a $700 price point (in 2018) and has a carbon-fiber fork which still impresses me with its ride (feels like steel). And hydraulic disc brakes are the real deal, and hot dip chain wax, ahhhh. But back to gears - THIS is where they fucking annoy the shit out of me - the trend to one chain ring is so damn dumb. My bike was one of the last years to have 3 - and I do use them all. The website for the current version (Trek FX3) actually says, last I checked, "all the gears you need and none that you don't" but guess what it's missing about the top 3 ratios or so - and I do use those (I forget how it is at the low end). So they save a bit deleting the front shifter and a tiny bit on the rings, you end up with more cross-chaining/wear by definition, and you end up with less ratios no matter how they spin it (or bigger gaps in ratios if you did spread them out the same). Stone the bloody crows....
To hack a bike, remove the wheels or the air in the tires.
The wheels must go around, or there is no purpose.