Apple recently removed the USB-A only SuperDrive, and replaced the Magic Mouse with a USB-C variant.

Other than perhaps old-stock, the only current Lightning device Apple is currently selling anywhere is the iPhone SE, which appears due for replacement soon.

Agreed — this is overall a really, really good thing for consumers. Now that my MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iPhone Pro all use USB-C it’s trivial to swap devices between them and generally they all just work. The USB-C Ethernet adaptor I have for my MBP work with my iPad Pro and iPhone Pro. As do Apple’s USB-A/USB-C/HDMI adaptors. And my USB-C external drives and USB sticks. And my PS5 DualSense controllers. And the 100W lithium battery pack with 60W USB-PD output. Heck, even the latest Apple TV remote is USB-C.

AFAIK, this is the first time ever that there is one single connector that works across their entire lineup of devices. Even if you go back to the original Apple 1 (when it was the only device they sold), it had several different connector types. Now we have one connector to rule them all, and while the standard has its issues, it’s quite a bit better than the old days when everything had a different connector.

It’s worth remembering however that there weren’t a lot of options for a standardized connector back when Apple made the first switch in 2012. The USB-C connector wasn’t published for another two years after Lightning was released to the public. Lightning was much better than the then-available standard of micro USB-B, allowed for thinner phones and devices, and was able to carry video and audio (which was only achieved on Android phones of the time with micro USB-B by violating the USB standard).

Also worth noting here is that the various Macs made the switch to USB-C before most PCs did, and the iPad Pro made the switch all the way back in 2018 — long before the EU started making noise about forcing everyone to use USB-C. So Apple has a history of pushing USB-C; at least for devices where there wasn’t a mass market of bespoke docks that people were going to be pissed off at having to scrap and replace.

I’ll readily agree we’re in a better place today — I’m now nearly 100% USB-C for all my modern devices (with the one big holdout being my car — even though it was an expensive 2024 EV model, it still came with USB-A. I have several USB-A to USB-C cables in the car for device charging small devices, but can’t take advantage of USB-PD to charge and run my MacBook Pro). But I suspect Apple isn’t as bothered by this change as everyone thinks they are. They finally get to standardize on one connector across their entire lineup of devices for the first time ever, and don’t have to take the blame for it. Sounds win-win to me.

I’m still of the opinion that Apple benefitted from this legislation, and that they know it. They never fought this decision particularly hard — and ultimately, it’s only going to help Apple move forward.

I’m more than old enough to remember the last time Apple tried changing connectors from the 30-pin connector to the Lightning connector. People (and the press) were apoplectic that Apple changed the connector. Everything from cables to external speakers to alarm clocks and other accessories became useless as soon as you upgraded your iPod/iPhone — the 30-pin connector had been the standard connector since the original iPod, and millions of devices used it. Apple took a ton of flak for changing it — even though Lightning was a pretty significant improvement.

That’s not happening this time, as Apple (and everyone else) can point to and blame the EU instead. If Apple had made this change on their own, they would likely have been pilloried in the press (again) for making so many devices and cables obsolete nearly overnight — but at least this way they can point at the EU and say “they’re the ones making us do this” and escape criticism.

The big question I’ve never really seen answered anywhere is how does CCS stand up to geologic timeframes?

The Earth isn’t static; we already know of natural methane pockets that have opened up and leaked into the atmosphere because of geologic changes to the earth. What will prevent this from happening in 200, 500, 1000, or 10000 years? Isn’t CCS just ultimately punting the problem to a future generation, and pretending like we’ve done something to fix our problems?

Even today amongst a certain segment of Americans they still revere the concept of “Manifest Destiny”, whereby the entirety of North America will eventually be under American (and traditionally, white Christian) rule.

This wasn’t always envisioned as being done via force; typically it was simply believed that the American system was so perfect and blessed by God that everyone in North America would eventually want to be part of it, and would simply join the US as an inevitable eventuality. To their minds, the entire concept of full American control of North America was ordained by God itself, and so couldn’t be wrong.

Of course, as with any pseudo-religious prophesies when the expectation doesn’t happen some will want to cause/force it to happen. When their Manifest Destiny doesn’t come to fruition, it’s not because of a fault in the concept (to their minds), but that the Canadians/Mexicans (and now Greenlanders?) are standing in the way of inevitability.

There are Americans who continue to believe they’ll eventually control all of North America. You can’t just ignore them and pretend they don’t exist.

That’s quite a straw man argument he’s setup there.

My main problem with this argument is that he’s misdefined “centrism”, and then decided to beat up on the wrong definition. I think we can all agree that his definition of “centrism” would be pretty weak and unpopular politically.

But what he’s defined here isn’t centrism. Steve’s definition here is that the centrist looks at a single policy, looks at how the left views it, looks at how the right views it, and then tries to craft some in between policy for each and every policy on the map.

Now that can happen with every party on certain policies — but more typically centrism picks some policies from the left, and some policies from the right. It’s led less by ideology than by science and a notion of “what’s best” — and sometimes what’s best is a leftist policy, and sometimes it’s a rightist policy.

And it’s not hard to see that this is true with the Trudeau Liberal Government. Marijuana legalization is very much a leftist policy. The National Child Care Plan is 100% a leftist policy. So is gun control. And on the flip side, Carbon Pricing was a 100% rightist policy, as it’s a minimalist market solution to the problem of climate change (one which people need to remember was originally proposed by right-wing think tanks. The leftist policy would have been heavy legislation against industry directly). Modifying the Safe Third Country Agreement also followed the Right’s playbook. As was joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership.

If you want to boil the three ideologies down to their cores, at the extreme right we have a purely free market system with minimalist government and few social services. At the extreme left side you have a system that heavily regulates and controls markets, but with strong social support systems and larger government bureaucracies. True centrism is effectively the notion that the free market is best in some situations, but government is better in others. For example, that the free market is best for making and selling smart phones (rightist), but government is better at providing health care (leftist).

That is centrism — and it’s not difficult to look at the bulk of Liberal Party of Canada policies and see that this is the general pattern they follow. Not some simplistic “let’s look at what the left wants and what the right wants on a specific policy and craft something down the middle”. Centrists pick some rightist policies, and some leftist policies. That is what makes them centrists.

I started back in the Wild West BBS days on the 80s; graduated to USENET in the 90s, website forums in the Web 1.0 days, /., Reddit, and now Lemmy. Yeah, I’ve been around. Been “Yaztromo” all that time too.

I don’t mind that “Eternal September” hasn’t infected this space yet — that’s a feature, not a bug!