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  • @[email protected]
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    452 years ago

    Guess I’m driving my 2010 Honda Accord and burns oil and leaks steering fluid a few more years.

    Should probably get the steering thing fixed.

    • @[email protected]
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      122 years ago

      I believe that the 2012 Honda Accord V6 we had was near the height of automobiles.

      Quit laughing.

      It had excellent power - 270 HP. It was comfortable and reasonably fun to drive. It had modern safety features like air bags. It didn’t have any of the nanny driver crap that drives me nuts in the car that replaced it. It got decent mileage for a heavy V6 - on trips we’d see around 32 mpg, 25 mpg around town, day-to-day driving, in part because of the cylinder deactivation when cruising. Damn thing likely would have run forever if it hadn’t been wrecked - at 8 years old and 100,000 miles, we had zero plans to replace it. And at that point, aside from regular maintenance, I think we had replaced the driveshafts and one lug stud that had broken (which was likely the result of someone overtightening it at some point, not a failure at the manufacturer).

      I never thought I’d say this about an Accord, but: Damn, I really miss that car. A lot.

      Maybe a 2013 to get the better styling and improved infotainment system; the 2012 was not a looker, and it didn’t have things like music over Bluetooth, and the DVD-based nav system was dated when the car was new. But it ran and ran and ran, and I never had to worry about that car.

      Since then, cars have become less powerful in a bid to offset inefficient SUVs and still meet CAFE, and they have those irritating driver nanny features with alarms blaring as the system misinterprets the situation and thinks you’re about to crash into something. God, I hate the car that replaced that Accord. And pretty much all cars have those damn “features” now, so even if I turn them off, I gotta pay for them and carry them around all the time.

      That era was apparently the sweet spot where you could buy a modern, comfortable, powerful, efficient sedan and still have fun driving it.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        My car is “dumb smart”, having some features like Bluetooth but nothing like Android Go or whatever other internet functionality in it. It’s like the end of the era of cars that have CD players and AUX ports, no Sirius, the only connectivity it really has is playing audio through my phone.

        Toyota Corolla 2016, I’m very happy with it. I’m approaching 130k and I’m sure it’ll go over 300 if it’s well taken care of.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Yeah! Fuck the environment when your car wants to track which apps you use on it!

      *Edit: Lol you guys would be hilarious if the climate situation wasn’t so dire.

      Is it better for the environment to drive an old car?

      In conclusion, buying a used car may avoid the carbon emissions of manufacturing a new one – but you should also bear in mind the lower fuel economy, higher exhaust emissions, and ongoing maintenance requirements.

      So no, it’s not always better to just drive a leaky piece of shit forever instead of upgrading. The car you’re buying has already been made, it’s carbon been produced, and now you’re generating less emissions with the newer more efficient vehicle. This is pretty simple stuff to keep in mind next time you want to act smug about smog.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 years ago

        Lol and the only reason “that car is already made” is because car companies can bank on people thinking like you are. If people like you didn’t exist they would pull back a bit on the production of new cars.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 years ago

        I bet you it’s more environmentally friendly to keep driving a car you already have as opposed to getting a new one even if it’s “cleaner.”

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          See my edit, there is a cut-off point. And if your old car is already burning oil (a contributor to climate change) and leaking fluids (terrible for the ground water and environment) then you may have hit that point dawg.

          • @[email protected]
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            62 years ago

            You’re right it’s possible, but I’m still not sure if it outweighs the emissions to create a new car. Ideally we would have widely available public transit and we could do away with cars for the most part. That’s what we really need to solve climate change, not drive cleaner cars.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          When was that ever posited?

          The statement was from a person who was going to upgrade his bad for the environment car for a newer, and thus better for the environment car, but decided against it because he’d rather burn oil and contribute to the downfall of the planet than give over his information that he’s already sharing from his phone anyways.

          • @[email protected]
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            62 years ago

            Majority of emissions come from a handful of companies. Stop. Blaming. Individual. Citizens.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Not to mention the best way to address an oil leak is to fix the fucking leak, not get a whole new car.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          …not if it’s already environmentally unsound, gene yes.

          Please, go back to school.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              Good point, I change my stance, let’s all burn oil and leak chemicals together to expedite this journey to its inevitable conclusion.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        Your inflammatory tone aside, I do understand the impact of my car environmentally, and I have the privilege of being able to take public transportation for a lot of my work and university trips. But unfortunately I do need to use my car sometimes.

        I bet I’m still making less of a carbon footprint from my car than someone who drives a newer car everyday though.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          I imagine my “tone” would be better if we weren’t already facing catastrophic global sea level rises, bigger and stronger and longer hurricanes, intense droughts and heatwaves that persist for weeks, wildfires six times the size of normal, global temperature increases, more tropical diseases moving north….but hey, I guess I should just be nicer to people that think it’s okay and would rather be a contributing factor to all that than be tracked by their car less than their phone!

          • @[email protected]
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            32 years ago

            Privacy is very important to a lot of people. It doesn’t seem like it is to you, but to some of us it really is a reason why a new car is simply unacceptable to us.

            There is no reason they couldn’t make newer vehicles that are eco friendly without the data collection. Just because you are willing to trade your privacy for marginal emissions gains doesn’t mean everyone is.

            And I say marginal, because many older vehicles could easily be maintained at a much lower cost than a new vehicle is. And an older vehicle, well maintained, can easily get very close or better than modern vehicles emissions, excluding EVs.

            It isn’t the age of the car that’s the issue so much as maintenance and size. Sedans and coupes are far more ecological than trucks and SUVs.

          • @[email protected]
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            92 years ago

            And most of that comes from private jet usage or large corporate manufacturing. But yes, go off on some random university student on Lemmy because -checks notes- I drive an old car.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas.

              Oh shit, well if it’s only 20% we shouldn’t even think about it then! Blame-less Blame-less Blame-less! Woo!

              • @[email protected]
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                42 years ago

                Cool stat, I don’t live in the US. Sounds like Americans have more to answer for than I do in regards to car emissions. By your own (uncited) quote, taking every car off the road would still leave 80% of polluters operating. I wonder how many of those are related to some sort of corporate entity.

                I already said that I take personal responsibility and take public transportation unless I absolutely cannot, but you don’t care because you just like being angry, so whatever. How much exactly are you doing to stop carbon emissions?

                You know that meme where people say “eat the rich” and then target doctors and artists who charge $200 commissions instead of billionaires? That’s you rn.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 years ago

            Anger isn’t going to fix anything. We need to come together and not be divided further.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              It’s going to take both of those things combined to overcome the natural instinct for human apathy. People overwhelmingly don’t give a fuck until something affects them.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        The car you’re buying has already been made, it’s carbon been produced, and now you’re generating less emissions with the newer more efficient vehicle

        Actually, no. If millions of cars are sold it doesn’t mean that all of them immediately popped in existence, materials brought, wages paid and emissions produced. They do them in batches and scale production based on demand. One person not buying a car might not make a dent, but a thousand will. So, while the carbon emissions of that car you see at a dealer’s has already produced, by buying it you’re giving manufacturer the funds to produce the next one, effectively the same as if you’ve enabled the carbon emissions of that car in the first place.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        By buying a new car, the car companies continue to invest to build more new cars… Just because it is made now doesn’t mean a new one has to be made to take its place… SMH

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        A new car lasts for about 6 years, needs upkeep like an old car, and has little if any resale value. You then buy a new car, using more materials many that are plastic and cannot be recycled. Even a electric car is not green, the batteries alone are a mess, not really recyclable and made of non-renewable resources. New cars are not meant to be re-used and repaired they are disposable like everything else in our society. What we should have as an environmental goal should be a dynamic public transportation, right to repair, and end our disposable ways.

    • zoe
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      82 years ago

      i am holding on to my 2006 dumb hunk of metal…no spyware…also solid body instead of those new cars with body made of thin aluminium…or the alternative which would be an impotent electric smartphone on 4 wheels

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    Any idea around what model year this started to take off? I drive a 2000 so I’m not worried now, but thinking of upgrading to something slightly newer.

    There are EV conversion kits available, so it is possible to turn an old car electric. They won’t have the storage capacity of a natively electric car, but it is an option.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      I have a 2012 VW Golf 6 and it’s still ok. You can connect your phone via Bluetooth, but it acts more like a BT headset. It can show a contact list and caller ID, but that’s as far as it goes. Maps can only be updated by buying a special SD card from VW. The car itself cannot connect to the Internet at all. It can read mp3 music from USB drives and SD cards. It also has a cd drive, and radio.

      I’m quite happy with what it has. I know WV isn’t very popular in the US, but it’s common in Eastern Europe.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      There are EV conversion kits available, so it is possible to turn an old car electric. They won’t have the storage capacity of a natively electric car, but it is an option.

      Unless it’s a classic, don’t. Just don’t.

      You’ll be forever fixing and tweaking it and the integration usually sucks.

    • Roboticide
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      112 years ago

      Depends on the OEM, but generally late-2010s is when it became more ubiquitous.

      Any car with an infotainment system is probably a “risk,” but especially '20s cars with features tied to apps are the real vulnerability here.

  • @[email protected]
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    1222 years ago

    Lucky for me I can’t afford a new car anyway. I’ll just keep driving my unconnected car.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      It would be a long time until I get a car (because it’s convenient to live without one anyway), so I’m afraid the older “dumb cars” could become harder to buy or maintain then. I wonder if there are modern ones that you can make fully “dumb”.

    • dantheclammanOP
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      62 years ago

      I did use Onstar, but when my 2013 Volt went offline because of the 3g network sunset, I lost that functionality. Would have loved the ability to upgrade the cellular module in my car so I could have the security and safety features back, but one silver lining is disconnecting :) Of course, GM was going to quietly continue charging me for the same service after the connection died, but I canceled.

    • @[email protected]
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      192 years ago

      I will drive my 2013 Honda Fit until the wheels fall off. I love it and with a $20 Bluetooth adapter, it has all the amenities I could need. I think it’s insane that people are driving around with a tablet that controls their heat and radio.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        Honda Fits are amazing little cars. I only would want them to be able to be modernized to have some of the advanced safety features like Lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking like in the newer cars, but would require a redesign and additional sensors added to the windshield area.

        I’m able to fit a double sided mattress box spring in it which is insane for a subcompact car. It’s a mini minivan.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          I’m so glad I don’t have lane assist.

          But yeah, I pass Honda minivans and think they’re fits.

        • Dion Starfire
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          12 years ago

          I knew someone with a newer model (2019 I think?) Honda Fit with the emergency braking feature. It did absolutely nothing to prevent them from running into the back end of a pickup truck that swung out in front of them and slammed on the brakes. Literally it didn’t engage at all.

          Also, the interior room on the Fit is terrible post-2013 due to some design changes. My 2010 Fit was a TARDIS - a 6’, 400lb guy could ride (or drive) it comfortably. That same guy riding in the 2019 model was cramped as a passenger. We didn’t try asking him to drive, after seeing how he fit as a passenger.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        HondaLink came out in 2013/2014 so your car may have wireless services, but it’s probably for an older network that mostly doesn’t exist anymore. So your car may have at one point been collecting information, just not what newer vehicles are doing today.

    • @[email protected]
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      582 years ago

      No kidding, it’s ridiculous to think they expect us to fork over $25k for cars that will invade our privacy. I have a 23 year old car I’ll drive till it’s dead before that ever happens.

  • @[email protected]
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    322 years ago

    I’m over here in my wife’s Hyundai smoking weed, having unprotected sex and drinking hard liquor. I can’t wait for my targeted ads. Served to me on my prison issued JPay translucent tablet. Thank god for technology.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 years ago

      I wondered about that too. Maybe it’s stuff like “driver visits this address every Friday and Saturday night” but that hardly seems like solid data. Could just always listen to the installed mic intended for hands free calling and instead analyze for moans…

    • Roboticide
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      172 years ago

      Best way to sell a browser and software services built on privacy is to do a lot of consumer reports emphasizing the value of privacy.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        This is what bothers me about Mozilla. They position themselves in the privacy space, but thus far their efforts there have not been shown in their actual browser, and only in what I would call clever “green washing” or “privacy washing”. That is why things like Mullvad browser have a market, because the people who actually care about privacy and have spent time to look at what Firefox actually provides in that respect, are not particularly impressed with their “privacy” stance being realized in their product. While I applaud Mozilla for putting this article out there, as it is beneficial to raise awareness about this issue, I wish they would put as much effort into the actual privacy of Firefox as they do in their marketing around it.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Because when you’re big enough to have a recognizable brand name, it nearly unequivocally means you have to sell out to those who can fund you. Consumer Reports dropped off decades ago.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 years ago

      They keep it pretty narrow, their focus has always been very heavy in privacy. They don’t report on anything else really, just the privacy aspect.

  • @[email protected]
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    112 years ago

    Maybe a dumb question, but if all of the vehicle’s bells and whistles are meticulously recording my every move… how do those data get back to the auto manufacturer anyhow? I read the article and the “how that works” link, and sure it mentioned phone connectivity, but if I don’t connect my phone, then my car presumably has no way to communicate what it collects… or are there a bunch of extra radios that phone home (satellite, cellular…)?

    • Notorious
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      362 years ago

      Many (if not most) new cars have their own cellular service built in. They spin this as being able to hotspot to your vehicle if you pay for data or being able to remote lock/start your vehicle with their app. However, the vehicle manufacturer has their own plan allowing them to relay back telemetry data regardless of whether you buy a data package.

          • @[email protected]
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            72 years ago

            God you folk are dummies.

            You’re a fucking idiot

            There were a beautiful few weeks when Lemmy was a more pleasant place with better quality of discussion than reddit. Unfortunately that time seems to have passed.

        • Nobsi
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          122 years ago

          Bruh those are highly illegal. At least in not backwards countries.
          Youre also jamming other peoples services. what happens in an emergency?

            • Nobsi
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              72 years ago

              And chinese laser pointers are also exactly the mw that is specified.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 years ago

              God you folk are dummies.

              Maybe people just don’t 100% trust the word of someone they don’t know on the internet, when they make claims without any supporting evidence. That’s not dumb; it’s appropriately cautious. Do you have any evidence to back up what you say?

  • @[email protected]
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    52 years ago

    Guess I’m happy my Toyota is the last model year that didn’t have a connection to the app that’s got privacy issues.

    Thanks for linking this. Going to share it with some friends.

  • @[email protected]
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    152 years ago

    Hardly seems surprising that Renault / Dacia is the least worst since it is a European car company that doesn’t sell in the US. I should point out though that Dacia holds the record for the absolute worst NCAP safety ratings at this time and some Renault cars aren’t far behind. So swings and roundabouts.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      I assume that you’re talking about the Dacia Spring which got 1 star (though the Renault Zoe got 0 stars recently and a few others did too in the past).

      So whilst you’re not wrong that these cars currently hold the lowest ratings of cars tested with the new post-2020 procedure, I’m sure a lot of older cars would fare far worse.

      And it’s fundamentally flawed to subject a tiny 970kg EV city car to the same tests as a 2-3 ton towering SUV. Besides the vastly different use cases, bigger and heavier vehicles will have an inherent advantage in most of the tests - hint none of them are adjusted for the weight of the vehicle.

      I’m not saying this is somehow wrong, they’re simulating crashing into an average car or a stationary immovable object, just we’re automatically discounting small vehicles which have a genuinely valid reason to exist.

      The new NCAP ratings only makes sense if we’re saying affordable, small, light cars don’t need to exist. Like everything automotive nowadays, it’s designed to gently nudge us towards big lumbering swollen hatchbacks as the holy grail of the car industry.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        So whilst you’re not wrong that these cars currently hold the lowest ratings of cars tested with the new post-2020 procedure, I’m sure a lot of older cars would fare far worse.

        The NCAP test advances over time so of course an older car would rate worse. NCAP updates its testing regime to incorporate safety functionality as it becomes mainstream, e.g. automatic emergency braking.

        But these cars were tested against their peers in 2021, not older cars. This is not city car vs SUV but city car vs city car. The Dacia Spring, Jogger, Sandero and Renaul Zoe were the worst cars in the City / Supermini category. In the same year, that Dacia / Renault were scraping 0, 1 or 2 stars, Fiat 500e and Hyundai i20 were scoring 4 stars. I’d add that all the city cars tested in 2022 were also 4 or 5 star rating. It’s actually funny in a way that the revamped Zoe scored worse than the original model for impact protection because they actually removed safety equipment.

        So basically it’s about Renault cheaping out on safety, nothing else. It’s not acceptable. Maybe the driver / occupant are fine with the extra risk of injury or death in a collision. Doesn’t mean the pedestrian / cyclist they hit was so on board with the idea.

  • 🐱TheCat
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    462 years ago

    Capitalism working as expected. 25 flavors of the same bullshit

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    It’s legitimately cool that buying a new car and having any self-respect whatsoever are mutually exclusive now.

    Fuck cars.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    Merkel years ago: " … to decide, who the cars data belongs to: the manufacturer or the provider"

    Freely translated from memory (it was about the cell providers), but the point is; the user was never in consideration.

  • @[email protected]
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    92 years ago

    I’d rather they just focused on making the browser better to be honest. Let the EFF or another org do this type of work

    • dantheclammanOP
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      102 years ago

      Mozilla is a large umbrella foundation that includes the for-profit Mozilla Corporation. The Foundation has always done plenty of work outside of the browser. I do agree that their browser development is having a ton of issues (for example, the lack of development of key features needed for the Android browser to be competitive, like a tablet UI and the slow roll-out of add-ons), but I think those are a result of flawed decision-making in the Corporation which happened independently of anything that the Foundation might be up to.

    • @[email protected]
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      622 years ago

      The people who researched this topic and wrote that article are most probably not the ones working on the browser. As any company, Mozilla has departments.

      • Fafner
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        322 years ago

        Bob I’m going to need to look into that codec bug in Firefox. Also, how’s that car review coming along?

        • 1chemistdown
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          132 years ago

          Damnit Bob, Firefox is still broken and we need that article on cars! Where do you think you are? Car and Driver?!? This is Mozilla, Bob! We have deadlines and if you can’t or won’t finish the editorial process while fixing the browser then you can move along to WaPo, or NYT, or Vanity Fair. Some rag outfit will take you if you cannot hack it as a hacker and investigational journalist for the MOZ!!

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        I know I used to develop for it. My point was directed at the funding . The web needs a strong alternative to chrome now more than ever. Neutering projects like servo does not help. Also most non technical people don’t even know of Mozilla and anyone that does probably associates it with Firefox.

        Anyway I’m downvoted for having a valid opinion. Whatever