Disabling Microsoft 365 Copilot from Startup on Windows 10 is a bit of a challenge for those familiar with Windows from the old days. It does not appear in Autoruns anywhere, nor does it appear in MSCONFIG. It only appears in the task manager startup section.^[1] I have done this to run H & R Block tax software, which is the last program tying me to Windows. I have succesfully migrated to Linux otherwise. That covers Steam gaming, document scanning with Brother scanners

Apple requires British customers to provide a physical identification card or they will face content restrictions on their mobile devices.^[2] The measures are not required under the U.K. Regulation.^[3] Apple apparently chose to pursue a maximilist identification verification strategy on their mobile devices. The U.K. Regulation requires websites to verify rather than operating systems. The approach by Apple removes no liability from the services. They must continue to verify.^[4] That makes this a data gathering expedition for Apple to obtain identity documents associated with devices on pain of restricted website browsing. In addition to web browsing controls, the lock down activates monitoring of photos and video calls for nudity. That means that every single device from Apple will default to monitored photos and video calls. “The British government does not require Apple and other OS providers to institute device-level age checks”.^[5] Apple recently sought to allow iPhones to serve stand-ins for passports^[6] and this is the beginnings of their thrust for a complete identification device.

An excellent essay appeared in February. That author titled that essay “Hold on to your computer hardware”.^[7] ”HP, on the other hand, seems to have already prepared for the hardware shortage by launching a laptop subscription service where you pay a monthly fee to use a laptop but never own it, no matter how long you subscribe. While HP frames this as a convenience, the timing, right in the middle of a hardware affordability crisis, makes it feel a lot more like a preview of a rented compute future.”^[8]. It might be useful to learn how to map around memory failures if one will keep the old hardware.^[9]

One unfortunate feature of AI is that it will erase a great deal of the historical record. Dee Mclaughing recorded an instance of attempting to profeed historical quotes in ChatGPT wherein the service refused to profeed certain quotes.^[10] Many authors will simply remove the quotes that the mechanisms refuse to analyze. Some of history’s greatest written works allowed us to know of other works by quoting them. Now such works will fail to contain all possibilities. The relevant quote was related to the war in Iraq, from back in 2007. This relates to one of the Sem-descendant nations targeted for destruction, and the major English speaking AI companies are controlled by adjacent interests. It is sad that the young may not care for old books. Old books are the only way they will know the truth in the future.

A court ordered Meta to pay $375 Million in damages for failing to protect children.^[11] This is one of the reasons for the coordinated efforts to push identification to the device. They want to remove liability from the services provider. Apple naturally aligns with that since they want the smart phone to be a global universal digital identification device.

Fighting for freedom, privacy, and digital sovereignty is not a lost cause. The EU Parliament abandoned mass observation of Chats. The Apple monitoriting mentioned earlier will now contain greater levels of monitoring than the EU.^[12]. It is important to celebrate the wins.

Most everything written in America will be long forgotten due to the 95 years of copyright protection on it if a business created it and the 70 years after an authors death.  They have gauranteed the vanishing of most great stories into the sands of time by locking anyone out of republishing them for a century.  Most stories will simply never be told against since only the stories sought and purchased by the rich will be republished.  The old books that Google scanned had only 28 years of copy protection and that is why they survived for hundreds of years in reprints.  Back then, anyone could repriting someting that was thirty years old, and many did.  Now one has to identify rights-holders and pay a license fee, assuming that one could even locate a licensor.

The term of copyright for a particular work depends on several factors, including whether it has been published, and, if so, the date of first publication. As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For works first published prior to 1978, the term will vary depending on several factors.  [1]

I was going to compare some aspects of society to the castle, but am posting this now and may get back to the castle comparison later.

1. How Long Does Copyright Protection Last?, U.S. Copyright Office, accessed 6 March 2026 at https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.htm.

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