smeg

I was recently ordering food delivery, and a local restaurant replaced most of their image-free menu items with AI generated photos. (Some of their items always had real photos, but most didn't until the AI photos were added)

I ordered from somewhere else and sent the first restaurant an email that I didn't order from them due to the AI images of the food.

Also, fuck Thuisbezorgd for adding AI photo generation. I would have not ordered anything but it was already late and the family was hungry.

The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).

I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I've left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don't want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.

Also -- with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.

Yeah, about a decade+ ago I paid for mIRC and WinRAR as a way to pay them back.

Even more money lost for rural schools. Getting high speed, high capacity internet connections to much of rural America is extremely cost prohibitive. E-Rate was the only way the rural district where I was network admin could possibly afford it.