On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 22:44:01 -0500 Alvin Starr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I have a client who buys systems from https://www.servergiant.net/ I have also bought systems from them. The prices will not be as cheap as a minipc from amazon but you can get a decent HP or Dell tower system.
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On 1/19/24 17:53, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
| From: Peter King via talk<talk@gtalug.org> <snip snip> <https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.ca%2FBeelink-Computer-4-0GHz-Screen-Display%2Fdp%2FB09SYSPSSM%2Fref%3Dsr_1_12&data=05%7C02%7Cpeter.king%40utoronto.ca%7Ca97ddf7fa2d44dd6541c08dc19417faf%7C78aac2262f034b4d9037b46d56c55210%7C0%7C0%7C638413016304615956%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=KiIfTsoqjCi3rn4MMBit7E0irCAeb6bGTr51tb2ISCE%3D&reserved=0>
look at these two "links" above, see whence they came, what they were and what actually happened :) to me, it is interesting that there are so very many things (and increasing at an alarming pace every and each passing day) things that are "helping" us as society or FORCING help on us, to"make our lives better" (some help is truly pervasive and even invasive, more like : Use this help or go away) by doing and increasing list of various things "for" us, most of the time these are creeping "little changes" and "improvements" and 99% of the time nobody really notices (or even cares) yesterday I went for blood tests and I realised that, wow, so many people may actually legally receive my private data. If I do not like this or if I wish to object to something in a designed system, where a multinational corp is involved, I have the choice of simply not using the service and no other choice at all. I have lost some freedoms, protections and privace in return for convenience of quickly seeing results on an 'app'. In the past I could have elected to receive paper or printed results or have one piece of paper sent to a medical doctor. So instead of planting a sustainable amount of usable trees, in a carbon neutral way, the pond is being pulled from right under the duck. Speaking of "Ducks" and "Trees" - will we still be eating these eventually and in the far future? What are we as human beings now actually busy doing to ourselves? We are choosing to be in the matrix pods? or what are we choosing (are we even aware that we are choosing this?) - everything is going to be electronically connected and sooner than I even thought (I thought we have at least until 2060 odd, but I was so very wrong, maybe the singularity is around 2032 after all?) So, imo, Google and Microsoft already relays over 80% of all internet ham email. They achieved this not because they are "better", more ethical or more trusted but by many other methods. Many of these methods are imnsho, pure evil, not ethical and really not nice. If any of these corporations (both of whom hate me) wishes to challenge me in public I will gladly discuss this in public, using actual data, actual examples all of which should be usable in a court of law) Anyway, so to issues of user trust: To me, it seems that utoronto.ca uses/pays Microsoft and outgoing emails, opens and reads all email Even https links in already replied to chains (which are now seen as outgoing links from the users@ utoronto.ca - are clearly - visited, indexed, checked/scanned (probably Microsoft would say : the websites/domains/links etc are scanned for malware, I would say that Microsoft has previously, and in the past, simply 'blocked', 'broken' or done other things to various websites it does not 'like') It does so many other things as well, one small one being 'brand dilution' as readers and senders of emails and DM etc etc - where names are re-written to the Microsoft or Facebook or whatever abbreviated link brand name - this serves to underline the brand doing the re-writing - as the "safe" link in the above example - COULD easily been displayed as AMAZON (with the actual a href -> protection.outlook.com/ as in example: <a href='https:outlook.com'>https://amazon.com</a> Which would then just display the original link, but with an outlook landing. BUT - Microsoft 'chooses' to display : protection.outlook.com?var=very.long.&data=ascii.long.long.long.long.long.long.long.long.long.long.long Apparently because users@ utoronto.ca (and microsoft users) send out malware links and this is a way that Microsoft chooses to try to protect recipients and their users from malware/abuse - instead of their users or recipients relying on other software, like browsers, local anti virus, local script blockers, etc (taking the control away) Of course it is still bad to receive spam emails and scam emails from Microsoft users, even with "safe" scammer links. - this does not much for that and seems to mostly do things for the brand name and 'feelings' there is of course a lot more and many other issues, but I guess that society seems to not care about losing their small little freedoms and creating one or two corporations which will eventually "make all of our lives just a lot easier". We are all losing these freedoms a nano meter at a time, very similar to boiling lobsters. Science fiction : truth is truly stranger than fiction. More scary is that, imnsho, we are already past the point of no return. We as global planetary society - are going to harvest the very nature of humanity, planted over some decades. It is eventually going to be a very bitter harvest.