asking how to swim without getting wet

Wetsuit? Though, I don’t think that covers the head. Full on diving gear?

And now I wonder if you can swim in dry water.

I’d be very surprised if that were true for ones not registered with the FAA.

I’d be surprised but perhaps my information is just out of date. They do need to make sure you return the correct model but typically that’s done by visually verifying what you return matches what was sold. This can be problematic which is why you sometimes here about people having returned bricks instead of the proper item at Walmart.

Though, a PS5 may have been a bad example because you do tend to reach certain price points were things differ. Like CPUs typically are kept track of individually, though GPUs often aren’t.

That’s not typically how this works. A specific item, e.g. a specific PS5, is rarely ever tied to a new purchase. There’s no reason for it. They don’t care that a specific PS5 was sold to someone. Just that a PS5 was sold.

However, there are exceptions. Pawn shops for sure. They keep track of those IDs because they have to make sure things that are pawned aren’t stolen. So they check databases when acquiring goods to make sure. When you purchase a PS5 the receipt is for a specific PS5, for similar reasons. If something gets reported as stolen they can track it down.

Broadly speaking, if you’re worried about a company knowing exactly which PS5, or whatever you bought, I wouldn’t. Amazon and Ebay certainly have no clue. Amazon would have no way of knowing what item you purchased cause they don’t know which one in the warehouse will be packed. There’s no reason for them to keep track of things like that.

Of course, a wide variety of things can be purchased on these sites so there may be exceptions to this, such as vehicles. Don’t know if that’s still around on ebay but those would almost certainly be for specific VINs.

They say it was made at the behest of a service provider in Kenya. Given that I can’t find the app and it’s not on my phone I’m inclined to believe them. It certainly sounds like something a service provider would request too.

EDIT: Someone else pointed out you have to toggle show system apps to see it and I see it after doing that.

I might need to get a door decoration that tells them to leave me alone. Then I won’t feel bad about telling them to leave. I gave them a chance.

Even if it’s entirely random you’re bound to run into some spooky occurrences.

I’ve seen ads for things I’ve only thought about but haven’t actually done any searches or even talked about yet. Innocuous stuff too, like a movie I wanted to buy on DVD. An older movie at that.

It’s very eerie.

That and the feeling of pride and accomplishment.

Compression has nothing to do with it. Had to do with line strength and packet overhead. Like DSL, if you were too far away from the central location you’d have reduced speeds. Typically 3KB. If you lived close enough you’re speeds would jump to 6K. That’s about 48kbps and overhead eats up a good chunk of the remaining 8kbps.

It’s fine if you’re cool being lied to. I’m not. Though, it’s hard to find any company that isn’t lying to you one way or another.

Why call out the company that claims they protect privacy when they fail to protect privacy? No idea.

Considering I don’t connect it to the internet I’d be surprised if it was doing anything.