It didn't say "e-book" when I originally wrote the reply

You can donate books to the library, you know. They're always looking for more copies of popular books and what they don't add to their collection, they'll resell them and use the money for more books.

Paper books aren't "waste" by any means as they are easily recycled.

Most authors I've heard from (through their Internet posts) don't mind libraries, but they'd rather you enjoy their books legitimately than pirate.

It might not be legal, but in my book, it is perfectly ethical to pirate a copy without DRM if you already own a legitimate copy (paper or DRM-inclusive)

I would be astonished if publishers figured out a way to put DRM on a paper copy of a book.

Here's a DRM-free copy for sale:

It'll look like this:

Once you buy this, it is truly yours. Nobody can take it away from you. You don't have to agree to any EULA to read it. No account needed, no activation, no sign-up. You can even resell your copy if you want. There are no technical restrictions on it whatsoever. You can enjoy it any time of day, anywhere in the world, and there's no need for an Internet connection.

Whenever something funky is happening to a drive, back up all the important data on it immediately. Better safe than sorry, and the first fix I'd try is to essentially factory reset the disk, since you seem to have already tried the other fixes.

Try a USB to M.2 adapter. These aren't particularly fast but see if your computer can detect it when it is connected through the adapter. It should show up like a USB drive if successful.

Open Windows Powershell as an administrator to open a command terminal.

Run Get-Disk in the terminal. Find the disk in question among the list and note what number it is.

Run Clear-Disk -Number 999 -RemoveData -RemoveOEM, except with the target disk's actual disk number instead of 999. This will erase all data on the disk. You won't be prompted for confirmation. Ensure you give it the right disk number. This might take a while to complete. You'll know it is complete when the PS> prompt appears again. If nothing happens right after you press enter or the terminal seems to freeze, just wait. It is running.

After the drive is cleaned, try putting it back into the M.2 slots on your motherboard as usual and see if it is detected. If so, initialise the drive as usual (GPT is suggested if you are given a choice between GPT and MBR) and format it.

Don't do that. Authors make next to nothing from their books. You don't have to support Amazon, but at least buy a paper copy or audiobook to support the author.

Unless it's J. K. Rowling. Fuck Rowling.

Betting market odds are 2 to 1 against Trump debating Harris again

🐔.

If you don't like Vim, you should stop being a milk-drinking sweetroll-eating WUSS

Valve has enough lawyer money to keep Microsoft at bay.

This puts competitive pressure on Microsoft. Valve's goal is to turn Steam OS into a legitimate competitor to Windows for gamers, and Microsoft should fear Valve's success.

Right now, Microsoft has no legitimate competitors in the PC gaming space. They are free to do anything they want to their OS and consumers have no choice but to tolerate it. If Microsoft say "watch these adverts", consumers open their eyes. If Microsoft says "pay up", they reach for their wallets. If Microsoft says "suck", they kneel.

If a competitor arises to Windows, then Microsoft will have to actually start worrying about losing customers to Steam OS. More importantly, every customer who switches to Steam OS is one who isn't paying for Game Pass and one who isn't buying games from the Microsoft Store and paying Microsoft their 30%.

Valve is not well meaning. No large for-profit company is ever well-meaning. It's merely the case that Valve's best interest happens to align with those of the consumer, and they have decided that their business model is going to be to win over consumers' loyalty through goodwill rather than milking them for every penny they can get. And they are very successful at this, seeing that there has still not arisen any serious competitor to Steam. That's entirely because consumers are loyal to the platform. Valve provides a good service, consumers reward them with loyalty. It's not friendship, but it's symbiotic, which is as close as you can get to friendship in the harsh world of business.

"Voter ID" refers to the fact that the voter must have an ID card. You can use any ID and some ID-like documents as well (such as a firearms license). In states where these laws are in place, voters who do not possess an ID card or passport book when they go to the polling station will not be allowed to vote. The part I highlight is that there are no acceptable ID cards for voting that can be easily obtained free of charge. Some states that have voter ID laws will allow people to obtain a "voter identity certificate" that can be used to vote, however, obtaining one usually requires a trip to the motor vehicle agency.

This is a voter suppression tactic. The goal is to make it more difficult for people whose political leanings you want to discriminate against to vote. In all cases in the US, these tactics are used against left-leaning voters or those who live in left-leaning areas. A common voter suppression scheme usually has these properties:

1. You must register to vote. This involves filling out a form and submitting it to the local elections authority. In some states, you cannot submit the form electronically and must send it by post to the elections office.
2. People who register to vote but don't vote will have their registrations cancelled and must register again. Voters who vote for right-leaning parties generally vote every single election so this will not affect them as much.
3. Polling stations are open for one day during normal working hours (usually 09:00 to 18:00). The goal is to make it difficult for people who have to work during these hours to vote. Election day is always on a Tuesday and is not a public holiday.
4. Postal voting is restricted. You must apply to receive a postal ballot and provide an excuse as to why you cannot vote in person. The elections office can reject your application if they do not like your excuse. Left-leaning voters generally prefer postal voting while right-leaning voters prefer to vote in person, thus the goal is to make postal voting harder.
5. The number of polling stations are reduced in large cities because large cities generally vote for left-leaning politicians and parties.
6. All election material is published in English only. Citizens who do not speak English and only speak another language typically are left-leaning and thus the goal is to make it more difficult for them to vote.
7. You must bring an acceptable identity document to vote
   1. State-issued ID cards can be obtained from the motor vehicle agency. The motor vehicle agency offices are deliberately located far away from minority neighbourhoods and are only open during normal working hours. The queues are also very long, meaning it is an all-day affair to obtain an ID card. The purpose is to discriminate against the poor, who are less likely to be able to take a day off to go obtain one. There is also a fee to obtain an ID card.
   2. Passports and passport cards can be obtained by post but cost a lot to obtain if you haven't had one before (165 USD for passport book or 65 USD for passport card). Poor people tend to lean left and generally don't have a passport because they can't afford international travel.
   3. Military ID cards are acceptable. This voter group happens to lean right.
   4. The elderly are allowed to use expired documents. This voter group happens to lean right.
   5. Student ID cards issued by universities are not acceptable. This voter group happens to lean left.
   6. Firearms licenses are acceptable. This voter group happens to lean right.
8. Electoral boundaries are drawn by the legislature to favour one political party.
9. The election authority can invalidate ballots for trivial reasons (e.g. the square next to the candidate's name is not completely filled in, the voter use the wrong colour ink or used pencil, the voter forgot to write the date next to their signature on a postal ballot, a ballot punched by a machine did not fully punch through the paper, etc.)
10. The ballot design is deliberately confusing.
11. The legislature reserves the right to overturn election results if they believe fraud has occurred. This action cannot be challenged in the courts.

I don't mind paying for high-quality journalism but not CNN.

I don't think Google "taking a page" out of the Apple playbook is quite the right analogy. It's more like both companies were reading the same book to begin with—tight control over a market means you can extract more value out of it without needing to worry about competition.

Another common W for Steam, but in all seriousness, arbitration clauses in consumer contracts need to be banned.

"Add to cart"

"Check out"

And if you fail the V2, it'll just take your word on it and let you pass anyway.

Hot take: Global geopolitics within the current rules as we understand it don't allow for countries to genuinely respect each other as equals. Might will always be right on the global stage regardless of whether it should be that way. So when it comes to picking a global hegemon, the United States is really not a terrible choice compared with the alternatives.

Yep. The passport card is the American national identity card.

Americans have several forms of identity cards. There's the famous green card for non-citizen permanent residents, passports and passport cards, military IDs for military personnel, school and university ID cards, and ID cards issued by states.

Passport books in America work the same as passports in every other country. You apply for one and it's a little booklet that lets you travel internationally.

A passport card is a national identity card that is legally identical to a passport book for identity and citizenship verification purposes.

Green cards are cards issued to immigrants who have been granted permanent residency.

The most popular form of identification card is an identification card issued by a state's motor vehicle agency. These function as identification cards only and are not proof of nationality or immigration status. If the holder is also licensed to drive, the words "identification card" are replaced with the words "driving license". The card is otherwise the same.

Military ID cards are issued by the military to soldiers and civilian staff members.

Student ID cards are issued by educational institutions to their pupils.

All of these documents are valid identity documents and can be used for any purpose (except that student ID cards are generally not valid for voting, buying alcohol, opening bank accounts, admission into casinos, or anything that requires the holder to be of adult age). Domestic airplane flights require a "REAL ID"-compliant identity card, which includes everything except student ID cards old state-issued identity cards, because those cards generally are valid for 10 years or more, and some are very old and lack security features present in newer cards.

The passport book and passport card can be used for land and sea travel within North America. The other documents cannot.

The disgusting thing is that other than university and school ID cards and military ID cards, none of these documents are issued for free. All of them require a fee to be paid before they are issued, which is why voter ID laws are controversial in the USA; they discriminate against those who cannot afford to pay the fees for an identity card and the offices where people can apply for them generally aren't located in the poorer areas of cities. Applying for a state-issued ID card is also generally an all-day affair as queues at the motor vehicle agency offices are very, very long.