If only there were some way to use a phone to contact people, without going through a social media platform.

1.) What is the exact way to contact people via phone if those people do not have phone?

2.) And yes, organization among 12 years old means that someone writes "lets do X" and other write back "cool". Those available show up. Those not available sometimes talk back and negotiate different time.

3.) If 5 12-16 years old kids organize in a group chat, not being on that chat means missing out spontaneously organized actions. Even if they are unusually serious and recall to call your parents instead of just jumping into action, you are not there to have input into agreements. So, the meetup will be when you are not available and it will be too late for you.

4.) And yes, even among adults, if others have to jump through special hoops to join you specifically whereas everyone else does not have such requirement ... you will miss out.

Yes, 12-14 years old act on impulse and organized spontaneously without creating org chart around it. That means forgetting to do extra steps so that people not being in chat even know what you are about to do.

If they really want them, they can get them, one way or another.

Unsurprisingly, XKCD has already contemplated this:

https://xkcd.com/993/

British supermarkets had this long before the XKCD, though they've since reverted to more traditional design.

Search Tesco Value or Sainsbury's Basics for the 1990s version.

Canada too, with all yellow No Name products at Loblaw's.

Couldn't help but be reminded of Eddie Izzard's old "Career Advisor" bit:

"I want to be a space astronaut, go to outer space and discover things that have never been discovered!"

"Look, you're British, so scale it down a bit, all right?"

https://youtu.be/xGGeLHnDQk8?si=XNEC8Pg8xER6EBOX&t=12

The difference between generative AI and math is that math gives everybody the same answer every time.

Why does the picture at the top of the article look more like Cassini–Huygens than Voyager?

I wonder if removing the antenna would possibly cause the modem to try to transmit at a higher power level, thus running the car's battery down.

There's also OPVS, which supposedly can be self-hosted (I don't know how good their product is; I'm content with 3G-only 2012 Leaf being permanently offline).

https://www.openvehicles.com

I was trying to explain to my grandmother (born in 1923) what the Internet was. So I pulled up Ask Jeeves and typed in, "What's the weather in [grandmother's hometown, population 4000]. And the precise current forecast came up. That was in 1997.

Great idea. Now do ATL, please!