fandango

I'm not a blind supporter of blockchains, but your view is a gross simplification. Let's replace your words "the blockchain" with "privacy":

"I've said this several times before on this site but will keep repeating it: there's exactly one use case where privacy is a superior (and, in fact, the only) solution: when you can't use contracts and the legal system to ensure trust between the parties. In other words, anything illegal".

I like to be able to buy stuff from people anonymously. Not because it's an illegal transaction, but because it's nobody's fucking business what I buy. In this age of marketing and surveillance data mining, it's better to be safe than sorry. Also, what's legal now might become illegal in a future administration.

Note that bitcoin or blockchains in general are not fully anonymous perse. Some are pseudo-anonymous (because addresses can still be linked to persons), some are almost 100% anonymous, such as Monero. See it as cash over the internet. Permissionless, tamperproof and private.

I would be delighted because imho it would make the world a better place.

However if there is a slight chance I might profit from it, I'll gladly take those odds.

It's nothing compared to G2A:

https://www.pcgamesn.com/how-to-cancel-g2a-shield

FYI, you can use Chromium instead of Chrome if you only have it installed for the Chromecast support. Chromium is open source and should be less Google-infested.

You can cast your entire desktop with Chromium and still use Firefox for browsing. I think it works well for anything besides heavy video streaming, because that probably requires native Firefox support that the linked project provides.

I agree. Most RTS games feel constrained because of the limited viewport. Supreme Commander has a nice feature where you can zoom all the way out at any time.

I got another great tip for you if you are using Chrome Developer Tools: Click in the URL bar, type firefox.com enter and press the big Download Now button. You will feel less violated!

Exactly. It'd like to make this analogy myself: Forcing somebody to decrypt a drive is like forcing somebody to keep rearranging a bunch of papers/notes (he or she supposedly produced) until a punishable offence is noticed. Are you not able to compose a satisfactory result? It's jail for you because you are hiding something.

No. Don't shift the blame to other parties. Google decided to play ball with all these external requests. Google owns the project. Google is the one to blame.

Can you elaborate on the gift card part? Have you found a way to increase Play Store credit in a private way?

I noticed that when redeeming a Play Card, I still had to fill in an address and phone number.

Please read the excellent comment of xg15 elsewhere in this thread. It basically suggests that publishers deliberately make the user experience as annoying as possible, as a way of protesting against the cookie and GDPR laws.

Just. use. Firefox.

Ah the ol' pyramid scheme and religious cult arguments.

Fair enough, now we actually have something to discuss. Do you consider the stock market and forex market also as pyramid schemes? If not, what's the difference?

The religious argument is kind of absurd though. I could dismiss every group or school of thought as being a bunch of crazy religious weirdos. Especially easy because in that case I don't have to provide any substantive arguments.

I get it. You have a gripe towards it. Did you lose money? Know people who did? Have the feeling of missing out?

Speculate is the middle ground here.

For software it has never worked that well in the first place. I have a couple of game purchases (on disc, prior to the Steam era) that simply don't work anymore. You have to rely on the publisher to support newer OS versions, drivers etc.

For the best games, I usually rebuy them anyway as digital downloads on gog.com or similar.

The solution is to just register a new account for every purchase. Better privacy, better protection againsts account freezes/hacks and better resellability. Using social features is a bit of pain, but for me that's not really a feature in the first place. I don't like Steam to become a social platform.

I will also leave FastMail because of this, just need to look for a good replacement. ProtonMail is a bit too much for me, as I rely a lot on serverside search.

Thank you for the kind words. I realize that all "problems" are relative, so I guess when you state it like that it doesn't seem so bad.

Lack of (career) ambition. Because of a workaholic dad I sworn to myself to always choose an easy worklife. Take the easy path. Currently in a family with kids and a nice job, but I lack the motivation to really make a career. Sure it's a fun (programming) job with a lot of freedom. But I only do what is necessary, nothing more. Money is not an issue or driver for me. People may see me as lazy. Will I regret this?

Also, is playing videogames in your thirties considered childish? I sometimes get the impression that people do. Not sure how to respond to that.

The biggest part is plain and simple speculation. Betting on bitcoin and other crypto is like betting on human greed. Bitcoin could possibly be worth 1 million dollar, that is the main attractor. It is gambling, but in a fairly transparent and decentralized manner. I don't think it is fair to call it a ponzi (which it is not by definition because of the lack of a central actor) and also not a pyramid scheme (because it has genuine valid use cases).

It is just a market of buyers and sellers, extremely volatile and in a very immature and experimental state.

Did you forget that there are multiple color channels? 12 bit should be 36 bit so even more is needed.

Would you say the Firefox debugger works equally well as the Chrome variant? (In terms of responsiveness, integration, overal experience). I really fancy the JS debugger of VSCode but I'd hate to drop Firefox for that.

It's probably hard to point out a specific case, but I think the biggest objection is that most Chromium developers have a tight connection with Google (if not employees anyway). They have mostly incentive to keep their employer happy. Google keeps the shareholders happy and they just want more money. (At the cost of privacy or open standards for example). Now this may be a simplified view, since this may apply to any company. However, Mozilla has some core principles they really try to stick to.

From Wikipedia:

Some houses in the town of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau are divided between the two countries. At one time, according to Dutch laws restaurants had to close earlier. For some restaurants on the border this simply meant that the customers had to move to a table on the Belgian side.

You still didn't answer the original question though. Why can't he do business with you?

Perhaps you are not legally obliged to give a reason, but it would definitely make you look a lot better then simply saying "uhuh, not here buddy".

I think you can't have it both ways, ignoring support questions and not having to deal with backlash like this.