Every time I see a Linux user’s criticism of a problem with Windows, it’s the kind of thing your grandma asks you to fix for her and takes ten seconds 😂

Calling Windows unstable in this day and age is fucking laughable too. If your installation is unstable, it’s either you or your hardware

That’s what I was aiming at

Miso ANGRY

wanting to fight a fast food employee for forgetting sauce

It’s incredibly telling that this statement proves not what colour your skin is, but which country you live in

It takes just slightly longer to work out how to bypass paywalls as it does to type “pAyWaLl”

The EU fined online giant Meta almost 800 million euros on Thursday for breaching antitrust rules by giving users of its Facebook social network automatic access to classified ads service Facebook Marketplace.

The European Commission said the US tech titan also abused its dominant position by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers that advertise on its platforms.

“This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour,” the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.

Meta said it would appeal, alleging the decision ignored “the realities of the thriving European market for online classified listing services.

“Facebook users can choose whether or not to engage with Marketplace, and many don’t. The reality is that people use Facebook Marketplace because they want to, not because they have to,” the firm said in a statement.

Among the 10 largest antitrust fines ever imposed by the 27-nation European Union, it is the latest in a string of hefty penalties slapped on Big Tech companies in recent years by the commission, the regulator for the bloc. ‘Abusive practices’

Detailing what it termed “abusive practices” by Meta, the commission said that because Facebook Marketplace was tied to Facebook, the former enjoyed a “substantial distribution advantage which competitors cannot match.”

“All Facebook users automatically have access and get regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not,” it said.

Additionally Meta imposed unfair conditions on competitors in the classified ads service who advertised on Facebook and Instagram, the commission said.

This allowed it to “use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace”, it said.

Meta, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, contended it did not “use advertisers’ data for this purpose” and has “built systems and controls to ensure that”.

“It is disappointing that the Commission has chosen to take regulatory action against a free and innovative service built to meet consumer demand,” the company said.

Meta’s dominant position in the market for personal social networks comes with a special responsibility not to abuse it by restricting competition, according to the EU. ‘Duration and gravity’

The commission opened formal proceedings into possible anticompetitive conduct by Facebook in June 2021, communicating its concerns to Meta in December 2022 — and receiving the firm’s response in June 2023.

The EU fined the company 797.72 million euros ($840 million), a sum the commission said took into account the “duration and gravity of the infringement”, as well as the turnover of Meta and Facebook Marketplace.

Meta’s total revenue last year stood at around $135 billion.

The European commissions has had several run-ins with Meta as part of a broader clampdown on abusive Big Tech practices.

Its policy arsenal has been beefed up over the past two years with major twin laws, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, that carry massive financial penalties in the event of infringements.

In July the EU accused Meta of breaching the digital rules with its new “pay or consent” system. It meant users had to pay to avoid data collection, or agree to share their data with Facebook and Instagram to keep using the platforms for free.

Bowing to pressure from EU regulators, Meta announced this week it was offering non-paying users in the bloc the option of receiving less targeted ads, as well as cutting subscription rates for entirely ad-free services.

He seems to have astonishing balance for someone with one leg

I know! It’s not like they have some of the best chefs on the planet

If you knew about cooking, you’d know slow roasting is better for caramélisation than frying

Recipes can be improved upon in other ways than adding butter and high fructose corn syrup

I never thought I’d see the day

When someone writes a poem

The first thing that we say to them

Is “Did you use an LLM?” :(

If a poem neither rhymes nor scans,

Sorry for my spite

It’s no longer poetry

It’s someone talking shite

A bit more of a de-developing country

And no, I don’t have a stutter

It’s almost as if you’re not the whom it concerns innit?

Doesn’t get much more slappin’ than Partystarter

60% keyboard

Im j st im g n ng yo r typ ng loo s lik th s

An entire country of fucking cowards 😂

Christ there’s a generation of Brits only know that name because of a pædo 😂

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=SwozMhzTTbs&si=qTeXDDhVFjTMxlv9

I’ve noticed in recent times

Poetry doesn’t rhyme

And even when it can

It doesn’t scan

It’s shit, it’s true

I blame haiku

Nope, try this one - https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/french-onion-soup-recipe

It’s divine

Just days after a poacher’s snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.

“This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that … I don’t know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares,” said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center, located in the reserve where the event took place.

“We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas … so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that,” Vecellio added.

(Also see “Dian Fossey’s Gorillas Exhumed for Investigation.”)

Bush-meat hunters set thousands of rope-and-branch snares in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, where the mountain gorillas live. The traps are intended for antelope and other species but sometimes capture the apes.

Adults are generally strong enough to free themselves. Youngsters aren’t always so lucky.

Just last week an ensnared infant named Ngwino, found too late by workers from Karisoke, died of snare-related wounds. Her shoulder had been dislocated during escape attempts, and gangrene had set in after the ropes cut deep into her leg.

The hunters, Vecellio said, seem to have no interest in the gorillas. Even small apes, which would be relatively easy to carry away for sale, are left to die.

(Related pictures: “Baby Gorilla Rescued in Armed Sting Operation.”)

All-Natural Arsenal

Poachers build the snares by tying a noose to a branch or a bamboo stalk, Vecellio explained.

Using the rope, they pull the branch downward, bending it. They then use a bent stick or rock to hold the noose to the ground, keeping the branch tense. A sprinkling of vegetation camouflages the noose.

When an animal budges the stick or rock, the branch springs upward, closing the noose around the prey. If the creature is light enough, it will actually be hoisted into the air.

(See National Geographic magazine mountain gorilla pictures.)

Rwema and Dukore Save the Day

Every day trackers from the Karisoke center comb the forest for snares, dismantling them to protect the endangered mountain gorillas, which the International Fund for Nature (IUCN) says face “a very high risk of extinction in the wild.”

(Related: “Gorillas Extinct Within Ten Years in Central Africa?”)

On Tuesday tracker John Ndayambaje spotted a trap very close to the Kuryama gorilla clan. He moved in to deactivate the snare, but a silverback named Vubu grunted, cautioning Ndayambaje to stay away, Vecellio said.

Suddenly two juveniles—Rwema, a male; and Dukore, a female; both about four years old—ran toward the trap.

As Ndayambaje and a few tourists watched, Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch and broke it, while Dukore freed the noose.

The pair then spied another snare nearby—one the tracker himself had missed—and raced for it. Joined by a third gorilla, a teenager named Tetero, Rwema and Dukore destroyed that trap as well.

Gorilla Tactics

The speed with which everything happened makes Vecellio, the gorilla program coordinator, think this wasn’t the first time the young gorillas had outsmarted trappers.

“They were very confident,” she said. “They saw what they had to do, they did it, and then they left.”

Silverbacks in the Kuryama group have occasionally been caught in the snares, so Vecellio thinks the juveniles would have known the traps are dangerous.

“That’s why they destroyed them,” Vecellio said.

(Related: “Gorillas Seen Using ‘Baby Talk’ Gestures—A First [With Video].”)

“Quite Ingenious”

Despite the unprecedented nature of the event, Vecellio said she wasn’t surprised by the reports. “But,” she said, “I’m always amazed and very proud when we can confirm that they are smart.”

Veterinarian Mike Cranfield, executive director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, also said he wasn’t shocked by the news.

“Chimpanzees are always quoted as being the tool users, but I think, when the situation provides itself, gorillas are quite ingenious,” he said.

Cranfield speculated that the gorillas may have learned how to destroy traps by watching the Karisoke center’s trackers.

“If we could get more of them doing it, it would be great,” he joked.

Karisoke’s Vecellio, though, said actively instructing the apes would be against the center’s ethos.

“No we can’t teach them,” she said. “We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don’t want to affect their natural behavior.”

I was always told never to talk about politics or religion because guaran-fuckin-teed you’re not going to change someone’s mind, and it’ll just end in arguments.

Obvious exceptions are politicians/pedophiles but that’s neither here nor there

There are a billion topics you can share your opinions about and change people’s world-view for the better, please America, SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT POLITICS AND RELIGION!!! 😂

Yes it’s only yous savages

Scotland was, oddly, the last country in the UK do get rid of blasphemy laws, so the generation before mine used phrases like -

Jings, crivvens and help ma Boab!

And

In the name o the wee man!

Definitely don’t Google “2K spray paint” because it’s impossible to remove and you can seriously damage surveillance devices with it, like cameras and stuff I dunno