Formatting a USB flash drive with FAT32 filesystems on Linux
[Sun Mar 27 15:39:12 CDT 2022]

Nothing extraordinary. However, since there are a few different versions of the FAT filesystem, one may wonder what option to use to format a drive with the FAT32 filesystem. Here it is (assuming we are trying to format /dev/sdb1):

# mkfs -t fat -F 32 /dev/sdb1
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On the perils (and potential benefits) of digitalization
[Wed Mar 16 14:31:40 CDT 2022]

Here is an interesting read: You Don’t Really Ever Own an EV, by Cory Gunther. He centers his attention on electric cars but, truly, the same arguments apply to pretty much everything else these days. The key, I think, is summarized in the first two paragraphs of the article:

Buying an electric vehicle is a lot like buying a subscription to a car. Almost no one can work on them except the manufacturer, features get locked behind in-app purchases or software updates, and those features can get disabled at the flip of a switch. If carmakers can dictate how you use your car, do you really even own it?

Now, I know this is a hot take and will certainly ruffle some feathers, but it’s an honest question. It’s not just Tesla, either, as every major auto manufacturer is working on or releasing their own EVs. As vehicles get more advanced, this problem will only continue. There’s a difference between having and owning an EV, and I’m not sure which is better.

The potential issues are countless: repairability and maintenance, lack of control by the owner, the use of black box technology, remote control by the manufacturer without any knowledge of the end user, decisions made solely in the interest of the manufacturer, etc. Yet, as the author says, it appears to be the way of the future, wether we like it or not. On the other hand, as he states, perhaps all we need is to take a different approach and set up a new framework to view things:

If we’re thinking big picture, like the really big picture, I imagine a world where no one owns vehicles anymore. Instead, people everywhere pay a monthly or yearly subscription to access an autonomous vehicle. There’s no need to get all passionate about the car you own when you don’t actually drive it.

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