Yes, it is the government thst extorts from a company, hence "nice company you have there".

So it is a matter of national security unless protection money is paid, then suddenly national security doesn't matter. Nice company you have. Shame if something happened to it.

Those who elected Cheeto Benito absolutely are cool with that.

I know some on the right decided to make up some ludicrous definition at one point that right vs left was "freedom vs tyranny" and it looks like you've bought into that

Uhr? No, to me, the essence is slow, careful changes vs fast, possibly-not-thought-out, experimental changes. If I had to do it in 4 words, they would be "degree of risk aversion."

That is how Trump appears to be the furthest-left president in US history, and how even FDR (and LBJ, etc) look relatively right-wing compared to him. Comrade Trump is breaking things which had good, proven track records. No conservative (or even centrist or lightly-left) person would do that.

Well, if your government is a shitshow, it just means your people need to vo--

Sigh. Why, yes, I am an American. Why do you a--

[hangs head in shame] Ok, fair enough. I'll shut the fuck up now.

When I hired people (as developers), the last question of the interview was "How many gas stations are there in the United States?"

The answer I wanted to hear was a quick, succinct, "I don't know".

IMHO "Hmm.. let me think about how to estimate that" would also be a great [start to] an answer. (Though now that I think of, we have The Internet now, so "lemme google that" might also be a pretty good answer.)

Except "removing support" is purely artificial in the case of Windows 11 - it works perfectly fine on "unsupported" hardware, but microsoft blocks it from being installed on it.

Maybe you can suggest him to get a standard subscription instead of paying for tokens? That way the price is capped to 20 bucks per month or so.

First time?

It's fascinating that there are so many people acting like this is their first taste of Maintenance Hell.

Learn from it. After some poor choices and orphanage heartbreak, I eventually had a last time, swore NEVER AGAIN, and I haven't looked back. I'm sure there are legit gripes about Linux but the one gripe I know nobody will ever have, is "they fucked me." It's never hostile, at all. It never tries to not work. The code isn't making any decisions, ever, which would translate into English as "fuck what the owner of this computer wants." Never. It's always on your side. Always. And to me, that's what I consider to be "normal" now.

The absurdity of recent versions of MS Windows requiring TPM is right there in your face. That's a deliberate defect, making it hostile for no fucking reason that any customer ever asked for.

They hate you. And you want more from those people? Really? You must hate you too.

If you ever change your mind, there's a way out.

WTF is with people calling Republicans "conservative?" I don't get it. FDR was relatively conservative, next to this guy. No?

No. What you describe, I just call a "conspiracy" (assuming the action is harmful or illegal or .. eh, I think the word "shady" probably fits best).

I suppose the participants technically do also have a conspiracy theory, but I think it's inappropriate to call their direct knowledge that. The hypothesizing is usually by nonparticipants, and if they come up with a hypothesis with enough evidence to back it up such that their explanation becomes widely accepted in the mainstream, then they have a conspiracy theory.

(BTW, I know I already lost this argument decades ago. I lost the fight over the word "hacker" too. But that doesn't mean I can't grind this axe for the rest of my life! The word "theory" means something, or at least it did/should in my fantasy world.)

Ever heard of the survivorship bias? You attribute your wealth to the things you did. Ever occurred to you that it had nothing to do with that - capable people are common enough - and you simply got lucky?

Actually the most common standard is 230V. 220V #2 and compatible.

I have an Inster. I generally like it - the size is perfect - but it has a lot of annoyances.

Since when does private party A doing something "unlawful" compel private party B to take some action?

Ever since the first time someone pointed a loaded gun as B's face and said "do what I say or else I'll kill you" and B did as ordered, instead of accepting their death.

I think it was sometime around 1234567 BC.