Thanks, freedomforall. It was a fun project, but also had a more personal touch as my wife will not get on a plane so we ride the rails around the country and added RR safety is a bonus.

Edit add: Another "bonus". My friend with the startup company with the RR project had no money so I wasn't getting paid to help out and I knew that up front. I looked at it as a hobby to keep me active in my retirement. He asked what I'd like if this thing ever developed into a real saleable product. I said a stack of C-notes on my dining room table would be nice. Well, a couple of months ago he came over and dropped a stack on my dining room table. 'Nuff said, :-)

MS Windows. What is that? When they no longer supported XP thus making my computer virtually useless for me and many others, I transitioned to and tried various Linux flavours. A bit of a learning curve, but would not go back. I like having choices. I am afraid that if the government had its way, they would take this away from us as well.
Thanks to Linus Torvalds and he crew for giving me and others the freedom to choose.

You do not have the option to not be tracked. The internet is inherently insecure and that is routinely exploited. You can block some of it but it is mostly not in your control.

I agree.
We voluntarily enter into an agreement with Girgle when we sigh up. Read the terms of the agreement. When (as an adult), you accept and acknowledge the terms of the agreement, you are entering into a contract. That is the case with so many other things we sign up for. We do it voluntarily and many complain about it later and claim ignorance because they have not read the terms of the agreement. I did and accept the results.
I also am free from M$S and have the option to not be tracked as I surf and use the net.
The world is full of choices, but are tethered when the government interferes. The government dictates that my doctor (for example) records my information on a public database. He and I have no choice. That is also the price I pay for being forced to use public healthcare as I have no other alternative for medical treatments/care.

We don't need more government control. I want to be able to make my own decisions and be responsible for my own life. It is natural that people want to be taken care of (especially when they make poor decisions). That does not teach chem anything other that they do not have to be responsible. I am getting the feeling that the more our Canadian government interferes with our economy, the worse things are getting.
We as free people need to be responsible for our own lives, otherwise we will eventually be subject to the dictum of our government/leaders. I choose freedom.

"I swear by my life and my love of it not to be herded and not to herd others as prey."

Obviously Microsoft did not and could not "force customers to use its products [with] no alternative."

There are a couple of immature, cowardly militant conservatives here who can't control their emotions. Sometimes they blow up with irrational personal accusations in addition to the mindless 'downvoting'. It's not a matter of "popularity", but mindless resentment by a few. They lack basic objectivity, speculating in their own minds what they imagine "must be". They lash out mindlessly, often without even understanding what they are 'downvoting', and don't care -- they are harboring festering personal grudges that never made any sense to begin with, and it doesn't take much to set them off into a bulk 'downvoting' spree.

As for the "Girgle" scenarios, when you provide personal information such as a credit card number to someone for a specific purpose it does not become their property (or in the public domain) to do whatever they want to with it. They are also responsible for securing it so that it is not stolen. The form in which they keep it for their own internal legitimate purposes is proprietary, but its proper use is not unlimited, either in selling it or neglecting to protect it.

But the problem is wider than that. Organizations such as google, facebook and NSA are stalking people and gathering information they have no right to at all, and aggregating it in massive databases kept hidden from the public with no way to even challenge misrepresentations.

Google and facebook routinely spy on what you are doing even when it is not at their own websites -- look at the cookies they store on your computer as IDs by which to track you; and look in the firefox extension NoScript to see how often they show up as para-sites running java programs to collect information from connections to other websites.

Google routinely invades your privacy by monitoring what you do on your own computer or cell phone, along with where you are, misappropriating your property to gather and send the information back to its home planet. That is built into all versions of its android operating system and its apps no matter what OS they are running on. NSA routinely monitors and collects whatever it wants in its massive data bases as information passes through the internet. NSA also has access to the data accumulated by others. What all these organizations collect is aggregated with what they already have to build up massive dossiers on everyone.. All of them are lying and misleading us about what they are doing.

The solution is to recognize property rights, formulating new specific definitions in law as required to apply to new technology as it develops. Instead, we hear an increasing clamor for "regulation" in which government bureaucracy controls private companies without regard to either their or citizens' property rights (or freedom of speech). The "progressive solution" is statism replacing a system of limited government that exists to protect the rights of the individual under objective law with "progressive" control by politically elite government "experts" making up their own rules to "regulate", not prevent and punish, the violation of your rights.

I’m using an Echo Dot like that now. I’ll get back to PI projects when I am done with my recent gun collecting efffort.

There is a British magazine on he project you can often find at Barnes and Noble that is very good. These guys “Make” publish all kinds of good stuff too. The Plex Server is a nice setup, but I honk you have to pay for the SW.
https://makezine.com/category/technol...
Crazy people like me are always excited to see others with crazy interests.

Great cool project, ,mcc!

I use an RPi with a DAC hat to stream via wifi both internet radio and all my digital audio collection to my stereo. Sounds good (could use a bit more low end, but the DAC was only $15, you get what you pay for sometimes;^) I use volumio which is a Linux version (no monitor needed) with a web interface to control the audio. Works well to control it with android and iphone smart phones via wifi. Getting it to access all your audio files is straightforward but you should set a static IP for the computer containing the audio files. You can set up multiple RPis to stream to different rooms, too, letting the kids hear their, (ahem, so-called) music in their rooms (preferably on headphones) while you listen to your (real) music in the hifi sound room.
Great bargain priced technology for streaming your favorite tunes!

Thank you very much! The links are just what I needed. Plenty here to explore!

This ewv seems to be unpopular, so much so that even saying there are alternatives to M$S gets a downvote. Now, there is no M$S product on my PC or the two or three before (but I could check about freely distributed fonts).

On the other hand, there is "portability of data". You supply Girgle with your name, age, etc. Girgle processes that info. Work, effort, cost go into that processing so the processed info is considered property of Girgle.
The info that you gave, in the form you gave it, is whose property? Not now yours? It may be considered to be in the public domain, it is certainly not the property of Girgle.
Suppose that info which you gave away, in exchange to use Girgle, is sold, is that ok? Did you give them that right, to do anything with the info? Suppose yes you did, and now that info, processed, is used by girgle to obtain a credit card, ok? If not, then what are the limits to which that processed info can be put?
You applied for a passport, can government sell the passport with your info to anyone? It was voluntary, you did not have to have that passport. Is ID info property in the sense that software or writing created from effort is property?
I ask, anyone who cares to elaborate, please do so from the viewpoint of Objectivism, not anarchy, or even state why you think Objectivism is wrong here.

I assume you are asking about the SW side. I can help a little there. I just did audio for my brother in law, but here goes:
https://www.sidify.com/guide/play-app...
https://howtoraspberrypi.com/media-ce...
https://mediaexperience.com/raspberry...
Kodi is very mainstream.
On the HW side, you may have what you need, but I am a speaker Nazi. If you want amp/power supply/speaker help, let me know, and I'll unload on you.

I feel a wondrous connection to other prey animals that choose not to herd.

Use the "anonymous" links in the search results to retain anonymity when viewing the results pages, but the pages do not always display fully that way.

You can also use a VPN or Tor to block your IP address, and dns crypt to hide where you are going to.

Greetings, Thoritsu. I've heard about using a Pi as a media center. Right now I'm using iTunes for holding movies and music and have Apple TV as the only way to play them and was thinking of looking into the Pi solution. Can you give a few hints as to where to start?

Wonderful stuff, blarman! OK, what about this video game emulator?

Even though I'm retired, I got involved with a friend's startup company using a Pi as the processor in a railroad car wheel/axle inspection system. It collects data real time from proprietary sensor instruments (patented) as a train goes through an inspection zone at speeds up to 90mph - actually faster, but let's not press it too hard. After the train passes, the data (in standard CSV format) is transmitted via email to any desired address or you can just log on to it and collect the data manually. The low power allows these inspection sites to be placed in remote areas as long as it can reach a cell tower or a LAN. I wrote most of the code and would give more details, but it was just bought out by a multi-national corporation and I don't want to say anything that may be considered non-disclosable at this time. The funny thing is the Pi, which is the brains, is one of the least expensive components in the whole system.

When we were testing it in a low speed RR yard we even used a second Pi with a camera that was signaled to snap a picture of any axle that had an inspection issue. I wrote most of the camera code, including a nice GUI, which is not proprietary and was a fun project of its own.

I also wrote a nice oscilloscope program for an a/d board available for the Pi, but the a/d board is so slow it wasn't much use. The GUI came out nice, though. I didn't choose the board and I got it for free so no complaints and it was a fun project. This program isn't proprietary, either, and I may - someday- decide to map it to a faster a/d board.

I was thinking maybe I'll put a Pi to work sequencing a nice yard and garden sprinkling system with a GUI to keep it all simple. I set the Pies up so they are "headless" and don't need a monitor. I can access them using my Mac or iPad or my friends Windows systems. Fun stuff.

Now that is HELPFUL!!!!!

You don't have to use bing or google. Google is generally the best search engine but you can use ixquick to get google search results without google tracking your searches. https://www.startpage.com/

There have always been alternatives to Microsoft.

Private companies setting their own guidelines do not "violate the Constitution on free speech". Government restrictions would violate the Constitution and the freedom of speech of those who own the companies. The Constitution prohibits government interference in speech; it does not restrict the freedom of private companies forced to provide you with what you want even you have good reasons for not liking what they do.

This topic duplicates the thread 2 weeks ago on the same Hillsdale article. That was also started by a conservative advocating "I'm not a proponent of government regulation but..."
https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

Freedom from government interference is the basis of the market, not someone's notion of he thinks competition should be like. Government does not "improve market outcomes" it dictates outcomes that deprive us all of the freedom that makes success and growth possible. There is no justification for statist, government-mandated "portability of data" in the name of "competition". It is unethical and it restricts development of improvements hampered to be "compatible" with the status quo.

Very nice!