There's a fascinating YouTube series called "The Most Complex International Borders in the World" about enclaves and exclaves. [1] There are even some "counter-enclaves", e.g. a part of the Netherlands inside Belgium inside the Netherlands. [2]
syncthing-lite [1] is already supposed to do what you want for your second point. But it's not really there yet. I haven't managed to get it to work reliably (unlike the original app, which is great).
On Android I've found that the volume that the phone thinks the AirPods are at can get out of sync with reality, the result being that Android's idea of full volume is actually very quiet. (Perhaps I tried to change the volume before they were fully connected?)
Re-pairing them from scratch fixed this. Might be worth a try.
Not necessarily, some items have only one listing for all sellers and you click the buy button that has the prime logo. Who are you buying from in this case as far as Amazon is concerned for their inventory accounting?
It's always been clear to me which specific vendor I'm buying from, it lists it right under the product. I can click on new or used in order to see other vendors and select one of them if I prefer. Based on my experience, the vendor defaults to Amazon if they have the product themselves, otherwise it is likely based on whoever they make the most money on. That is not a straightforward computation - they might make more profit on a more expensive listing, but then fewer people would buy it. I'm sure they use some proprietary ML algorithm to decide which vendor to show, but its always been very clear to me which vendor I'm purchasing from, both on the item page and also in the cart.
Yes, but that’s not I was talking about in my original post, at least. I was discussing the fact that even if you explicitly choose “Amazon.com” from that list of vendors, Amazon itself is shipping goods from other vendors and making it impossible for you to know that, which can lead to receiving counterfeit goods. There is zero indication, anywhere, that it’s being shipped from anyone else’s stock in these cases.
True but storage is an issue and as I said in another comment, Project Orion-type endeavors become more palatable when launched from a stable orbiting rock rather than empty space or a manmade platform.
Plus, I get an instant notification on my phone whenever my card is used. And if I see anything suspicious, I can freeze the card via the app (declining all further payments).
I am visiting Berlin at the moment, and I miss the convenience and speed of being able to pay with contactless, by card or phone.
Regarding the speed of transactions: cash might be faster than signature or even Chip+PIN, but is surely not faster than contactless.
For example, anyone with a contactless Visa/Mastercard or phone can enter the London Underground by simply tapping at the barrier. They do not need to have a pre-existing relationship with Transport for London, to buy a ticket in advance, or to preload a stored-value card (as you generally must do in other city transport networks). And the ticket barriers open on average in 480ms. [1] That's pretty fast. You can't even pay by cash on a bus in London any more.
My example was to give quantitative evidence for the speed of contactless transactions.
It is true that there is no barrier in Berlin, but you still need to buy a ticket. For casual users such as myself, who don't have a season ticket, this takes significantly longer than 480ms: find ticket machine, queue, navigate menu, insert cash, wait for change and ticket to be printed, find ticket validation machine.
It is quite possible to miss the train here by having to queue to buy a ticket, particularly in busy places like the airport. This could be avoided if the tourists were able to use their existing cards/phones to tap in.
