The spam is still here, it's part of the topic now ^^

Monty Python is way funnier than Monty Java.

Aw, the real spam is gone now. I'm going to miss it.

No!  Don't stomp on teh ducky!!
 ||
c_)
     o<
 →  <_)

Can I just interrupt the ASCII art to grumble about CMake?

Here it is:

*Grumble*

Thank you, please carry on.

Hehe, that ducky is totally about to get eaten by a lion. Um... yummy?

This topic was about to die, so here's a story:

I got a Nexus 6 through AT&T back in March. All was good during that time. Come October, Android 6 (Marshmallow) came out, I never got it. November, I get some Lollipop update to apply November security patches, but no Marshmallow, December, same thing. Just before the December update, I found out that if you use a Nexus 6 on AT&T's network (including the MVNOs) you'll end up on a upgrade path that forces you to stay with Lollipop, while everyone else with a Nexus 6 is running Marshmallow.

At some point (first week of January), I did an OEM unlock with the plan to manually flash Marshmallow. Never got around to it because the hassle of doing that (it does a factory wipe) with the backups, I got lazy on doing that. I did however root my device so I can kill of the annoying AT&T boot animation. (Actually, it was more annoying that I had a password required to unlock my phone on boot, so every boot had me hear that sound twice!)

Yesterday, AT&T finally allowed an OTA patch from the December Lollipop to the December Marshmallow (the week before, everyone else got a January update to Marshmallow, so AT&T is still behind, but at least the build is what everyone else got).

Oh but wait, I rooted my phone, since Lollipop, the OTA update actually checks the system partition, so having rooted my system, the update would fail. To fix this I just needed to download the factory image, erase the system bit, and reflash it so it would be clean.

The factory images for the Nexus 6 doesn't include the build I was running, so I used the previous build by do that system thing, downloaded the OTA for getting to the build I was at. Nope, something somewhere still had my at the wrong build. The system was at Y, but other stuff it checked for the OTA update said Z (That's the last letter of the build BTW), so I did a complete flash (without wiping the data) to Y, then OTA to Z, then the new OTA yesterday, then I downloaded the OTA to so I would have the latest version of Marshmallow. From now on, I'll download the OTA and manually flash so I'm not stuck on AT&T's schedule.

Once the phone is paid off, I'm switching to Fi.

If they had gotten it right then neither the carrier NOR the vendor would control the OS. The user would control the OS!

That requires the OS to be open-source (which Android is, no?). And most users aren't developers, so there would need to be some update channel for laypeople... which the carriers would want to control, and then we'd be back in the same boat as we are with Android.

So given the choice between the two evils (because there's really no third option, the real world being what it is), I'm much more comfortable with the vendor providing immediate OS updates than being filibustered by the carriers.

On the other hand, suppose everyone is allowed to do all that with no arbitrary restrictions in place... okay fine, but your carrier is now under no obligation to allow you to connect the device to their network as it's out of spec. That's well within their rights, as they own the network.

For the sake of my sanity, I much prefer having things locked down with a vocal minority railing against it (or hacking their way past it, which if you know what you're doing, is a big part of what makes rooting/jailbreaking/etc. fun), versus half the population effectively soft-bricking their phones and causing a massive uproar because their carrier won't accommodate the modified software. And let's face it, changing your OS isn't exactly for the faint of heart. I wouldn't recommend a layperson to install Windows themselves for example, not even Win10 where that process is pretty much seamless now.

If all this makes a large portion of the population sheep for not questioning such a state of affairs, so be it. I'm a pragmatist. Sheep are much easier to deal with (i.e. ignore) than ravenous werewolves.

I see this line all the time in one form or another, and I find it not only patronizing but presumptuous. It suggests the person just hasn't done their research and would come around and "see the light" if they just opened their eyes to The Truth(tm). The funny thing is, that's exactly the same thinking that drives religious fervor (the exact opposite of being open-minded). "My worldview is right, and you're all just too blind to see it." It's a stupid argument, like people that blithely call iPhone users "sheep" because they happen to prefer the more popular option. You will never win an argument with me that way.

My eyes are open. I'm one of the most open-minded people I know. I know the NSA and similar agencies exist. I know what they do. I just don't see it as the big issue everyone makes it out to be, given the real-world evidence in front of me. The world isn't as scary a place as everyone makes it out to be. The planet keeps turning anyway, none the worse for wear.

Open-minded people don't try to win converts. They work with the hand they're given.

Anyway, I think that's enough politics for this topic. Here everyone, have an eaty pig:
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My girlfriend literally scrolls through Facebook on her phone "liking". Every. Single. Post. Rapid fire. Like 1 per second. She insists that she reads them, and she does read very fast, but there's just not that much likable content... It's absolutely stupid. Which is exactly why I don't go anywhere near those services.

I read a few of them, but there was too much wording for stuff that is pointless fighting.