And you could say that playing other people's music instead of writing your own is a 'sad lack of ambition.' Or playing instead of conducting.

You can always shit on somebody else's sundae if you try hard enough.

"Nobody should ever need more than 640k of RAM."

Once everyone found it easier to just add more memory, the idea of efficiency started to go away... knowing the more efficient way to divide by 2, knowing how to avoid unnecessary program pointer jumps (if the first character of the string does not match, why run strncmp() for when you have a large data set)... these are things taught by experience. One of the best efficiency teachers would be to write for an embedded system with very limited memory. You learn very quickly about memory management and operational efficiency.

If, at this point, it's not being upgraded, it's because the users are demanding free labour.

Like I said, if it's important to you, it's a cost of business, and needs to be paid for.

Welp, then the users can pony up the cash to have the changes made.

If your embedded industrial systems are accessible by 'nation states,' the state of your patching isn't the issue, nor is it going to prevent exploits.

Oddly enough, the software already running on those controllers won't simply disappear, and the last working build will also still be available.

Yeah.

Fundamentally, you can take any living human being, and find something 'neurodivergent' about them.

That kid twirling their hair while reading? Stimming, clearly. That kid who would rather go outside and play than read a book? ADHD, clearly. That kid who'd rather read than play football? Social anxiety, obviously.

When I was a kid, 'autistic' meant you flapped your arms, and screamed when somebody turned on the lights wrong. Behavior that nowadays gets labelled as 'ASD' was..weird. Awkward. Shy. Introverted.

Honestly, I think we give too much accommodation in this day and age; kids don't get taught that sometimes, they need to manage their behaviors and bend to the expectations of the world, and they get rudely shocked when the real world doesn't bend over backwards for them.

Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child, and all that.

At least those of us who grew up with "The Six Million Dollar Man"... Death Probe

If unauthorized purchases will continue to happen on my account, at least it will be something I kinda want.... erg

-m

I'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or not.

As I point out, the importer brokers the fee, in that they're the ones that remit it to the government, yes. But they immediately pass that cost on to the consumer, as you say, rather than eating it as a cost of doing business.

So while the tax is assessed to the importer, it is a defacto tax on the consumer (specifically, to encourage them to buy non-tariffed products) rather than a cost to the foreign manufacturer, or to the middle-man importer.

Don't make daddy mad, you know daddy hurts you when he gets mad, and if you make him mad, it's your fault when he hurts you.

No.

A tariff is something that the consumer pays for the privilege of buying a foreign product, not something that the foreign producer, or the importer, pays for the privilege of selling it to you.

The tariff is assessed to the importer, sure, but the importer doesn't eat that cost; the importer charges that cost to the consumer.

If the importer doesn't think the consumer will pay, the importer won't bother importing.

Now, there was a bunch of stuff already in the shipping pipeline when the tariffs came down, and in a lot of cases, the distributer *did* eat that cost, for strategic reasons.

But now that the pipeline is empty? Those costs are 100% being passed on to the consumer.

In other words... subsidized?

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fadvisor...

"What Is a Subsidized Loan?

As the name implies, direct subsidized loans are a type of federal student loan that come with a subsidy for borrowers, making them one of the cheapest loan options available. The âoedirectâ in their name comes from the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, the U.S. Department of Education initiative that makes these loans available. You may also see direct loans referred to by their old name, Stafford loans.

As soon as you take out a subsidized loan, interest starts accruing, but the government pays it on your behalf. As is true for most federal student loans, you are not required to make any paymentsâ"on interest or principalâ"while in school or for six months after leaving school. That means that on a subsidized loan, there will be no interest to add to the principal when those six months are up, so youâ(TM)ll only repay the original amount you borrowed.

The government covers the interest on a subsidized loan during the following periods:

        While youâ(TM)re in school at least half-time
        During your six-month grace period, which occurs after you graduate, leave school or start attending less than half-time
        During periods of deferment, a type of payment-postponement period youâ(TM)re eligible for when youâ(TM)re unemployed, are undergoing cancer treatment, meet income guidelines qualifying you for economic hardship and in certain other circumstances
"

Yes, I realize not all student loans are subsidized, and in this case, the subsidy only is effective during certain conditions/time periods. But they do exist.

If you voluntary quit, they don't have to pay you severance or be on the hook for unemployment (at least here in the USA).