"Thanks for calling the FBI, how may I direct your call?"
"I like to discuss what actually constitutes child pornography and how to rectify the laws that are causing my beautiful sensual artwork to be unfairly maligned on the internet."
"I couldn't agree more. What's your home address, we'd love to hear your complaint in person"
... gladiator pit?
First off, no, this isn't combat and I don't suffer from that delusion...
Secondly, I'm talking about crazy vs. crazy. I want QANON nuts, antivax moms, liberals that accuse everyone they don't like of being a Russian bot, etc.
Finally.... I'm having a hard time moving past you calling this a gladiator pit, and implying that I'm a gladiator.... Actually, what's your Twitter handle. You sound like someone I should follow.
This answer is very different depending upon your life circumstances.
A single person with fixed income, is different than a two income household with children. I'm not saying they can't both reach the same conclusion, just at their circumstances justify different choices being valid.
There's also your technical proficiency, and pain tolerance for saving money.
For example, you could eliminate all external services, self-host everything, and then configure an S3 object storage provider for critical cold storage backups. That might also require you spending a bit more upfront to expand your NAS storage capacity.
While that may save you a bunch of money in the long term, it will definitely cost you a lot of time and effort.
What's convenient for you? What can you not afford to lose access to? What's your budget? How much time do you have to manage different solutions?
Those aren't questions for you to provide me answers for, just some of the considerations that will impact different people's answer to this question.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but OnStar is a 3rd party service, so it makes sense they would have a bolt-on device that can be removed without too much concern for the rest of the car's functionality.
Also, isn't a TCU something that controls a car's drivetrain and transmission?
Edit: nevermind, just searched and found telematic control unit. Interesting, thanks for the info, I might look into this more if I have more time later.
I unintentionally fibbed, because one thing I do have a bit of experience with is aftermarket car stereos, including double-DIN android units.
Granted, I haven't tried to install one in a 2024 car, but a lot of modern infotainment systems can't just be ripped out and replaced with aftermarket unit and retain the car's original functionality, if it can be removed at all without breaking, or removing your access to core functions, like climate control, etc.
Here's a picture of the interior of one of the cars in question, a 2024 Mazda CX-90
You're not popping a double DIN in there, and even if you did remove the screen, I'm betting the actual infotainment system boards are inside the dash somewhere installed in a mounted panel box, and they aren't just going to pop out and be replaceable like your standard head unit.
Another photo, this one from the linked article:
I might regret not searching about this before running my mouth here, but I would assume most automotive manufacturers, in 2024, are soldering the wwan modules onto the main board of the infotainment system for cost, and to prevent user removal of their subscription vector.
I would also assume most manufacturers who are converting standard automotive features into paid subscription services that dubiously rely on SaaS backends, are NOT also designing isolated architectures that separate the IoT infotainment system from the car's critical systems like drive control, transmission, brakes, etc. I'm guessing most at least have CAN bus connections linking them together.
But I don't know enough about cars and automotive systems to even pretend being knowledgeable. So, if anyone here is actually well versed on this subject (and not just searching forums before replying to me), please tell me I'm wrong, and how so.
Seriously, I want to be wrong about this.
When? Never
Cost? N/A
Not everyone has a safety deposit box, or the ability to access a proper and secure off-site storage.
And if you're just keeping those in your house, then fire, flood, and other incidents can destroy all copies at once.
Nah, I'm with you, except I use BitWarden.
There are somethings either worth paying someone else to host, or where you trust a 3rd party more than you're own setup. I realize other users may feel different, but ultimately it's a judgement call
BW has been a pretty great opensource company, and it's worth my $10/yr for premium.
FEDNA