True, to a point. Perl made _some_ commitments to maintaining the "multiple ways of doing things". Which led to a lot of unreadable code (intentionally, at times). And like Python, Perl was a glue language. And proud of it as well. The problem will become that in the step to Rust, there are things that Rust can't do (efficiently, at all, or without "unsafe" keywords). And then where will we be?*

Larry Wall is a linguist as much as anything else. He didn't have a PhD thesis and associated reputation on the line with "a new thing".

*I lived through the era of things that just worked on various flavors of UNIX and Linux. And then the Microsoft consultants came in, picked up our requirements documents and a red Sharpie and started to cross out anything that Windows can't do. Just to get it in the door.** History repeats itself?

**I worked in a secure facility with armed guards. At one point, I asked the boss how these people even got in the door. "We gave the guards guns. Why can't they use them?"

Except that nobody is really desperate to get on broadcast TV anymore in urban and suburban areas. Other than to get onto the cable systems via "must carry" rules. For free, to boot. There's no quicker way to get your Sunday Morning preacher carried all over the city than to put up a crappy low power transmitter and ask no remuneration. The Word of the Lord spread far and wide is sufficient compensation. Same for the shopping channels. They ask no money, so they can't get bounced off the cable. And they make plenty by advertising cheap jewelry, silver (plated) coins, personal injury attorneys and CBD infused everything.

Somebody needs to look at the economics of cable and broadcast and figure out which way the value is really flowing. Without input (coke and hookers) from cable or the NAB.

What happened to the "must carry" rules? Where the Big, Bad cable companies had to carry local broadcasts? Including every 500 Watt Jesus Channel in town. It's getting so you can't tell who's on the receiving end of this corporate daisy chain anymore.

Here's an idea: Everyone divest themselves of content providers and studios. And become common carriers for local regions. Then let the big boys fight for room on your cable, fiber or r.f. spectrum with their cash. Which will go quite a ways toward funding local news and programming.

Well then, I'm taking my Tannerite and going home.

... take your Mac down to the rifle range and use it as a target.

It's the only way to be sure.

Because she's gonna be rich pretty soon.

As long as it's my hand on the lever, I'm OK with the outcome.

So, "But our car violates Part 15" is not exactly what I'd call a good reason to let them drop AM receivers.

And selling a car that violates Part 15 can cause BIG problems for the owner of the car. The FCC can show up and tell you that you're not allowed to operate your car. So unintentional radiation is something that MUST be fixed no matter whether the car has an AM radio or not. And car manufacturers shipping cars that don't meet Part 15 is eventually going to get them sued, and going to result in them losing and having to pay a LOT of money.

Manufacturers should not even be trying to fight this. Their liability exposure is potentially huge if they're shipping RF noisy cars.

... because when Israeli intelligence breeches FBI security, they don't deface the home page.

The OPM subcontractors "lost" government employee records (including security clearance information) so many times, the issue is moot.

Well, something went horribly wrong between python 2.x.x and 3.x.x. Because many v2 apps won't run on v3. And the application maintainers won't port every time someone picks up the language and tinkers with it.

So, the reason for mandating it in cars isn't the right wing talk garbage.

It's the highway information radios. The ones the transportation departments have set up in cities and around construction projects, along with the signs with flashing lights that say things like "tune to 1620 AM when flashing" to let you know there's something going on with the road that you should know about. The low power AM signal propagates further than low power FM would, and the band is less crowded.

And it's not a couple hundred bucks. It's maybe $5 worth of parts. And the car companies can't market it as an add-on if it's mandatory.

AM works just fine in my plug-in hybrid, and those electric motors are spinning any time the car is moving.

Well, python is currently implemented with C. so we've already gone down this road.

I just hope that the jump from 3.17 to 3.18 (python with Rust) doesn't introduce another incompatibility branch. I've already got two versions on my system and I don't want any more snakes on my plane.

Soup of the day.

Cell phone coverage is practically nil out in many areas. Yes, we did build out the cell phone network. But then we switched to 4G/5G and in promptly vanished. Gotta keep those basement-dwelling autists happy with low latency networking for their vidya games.

And actually, "we" didn't build out anything. The corporations got lots of bandwidth to offer revenue producing product providing service we were getting for free. Compare the net present value of the fees you will be paying AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for the rest of your life to the few hundred dollars an AM/FM radio will cost you once.