The Realtek RTL8125B in my year-old motherboard has been doing fine with Linux’s r8169 driver.

I’ve only used it at 1gbit/second, though; I haven’t tested its 2.5gbit mode.

Intel is probably still the gold standard.

I guess you’re not familiar with the i225-v and its variants. Intel burned their reputation for good NICs with that fiasco.

“While AT&T and Verizon only provide notice of surveillance of phone lines paid for by the Senate, T-Mobile has informed my staff that it will provide notice for Senators’ campaign or personal lines flagged as such by the [Senate Sergeant at Arms],” Wyden wrote. “Three other carriers — Google Fi Wireless, U.S. Mobile, and Cape — have policies of notifying all customers about government demands whenever they are allowed to do so. The latter two companies adopted these policies after outreach from my office.”

You might be surprised how many informed geeks will defend mass surveillance until their last breath, if it’s built with or adjacent to a technology that they feel connected to in some way.

I think most of them mean well, but unrealistic idealism and naïveté are definitely in play.

In order to retain our rights to private communications, we have to win every time.

In order to take them away, they only have to win once.

They will keep trying.

Stay vigilant.

GNU Taler requires exchanges in order to function, and hasn’t had any so far. What exchange now exists for use in Switzerland? Is it Taler Operations AG?

It depends on wire transfers to move money into and out of a Taler wallet. Wire transfer fees are typically around 30 USD. That’s not practical for most people’s needs, even if covering batches of transactions. Are there plans to support a less expensive means of funds transfer?