"I am going to pretend I didn't understand how idioms work, nor common English vernacular so I can bitch about musk."

CS Lewis: "Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper... ...Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, 'Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black."

(tsia)

And yet in 2025 a lawyer censured for using chatgpt to make his case, was found using chatgpt in his pleading against that, and still hasn't been disbarred.

So what good is the bar doing, again?

VC's will seed it and buy the politicians and thus government contracts will fund it. The direct gains will be privatized and direct losses will be socialized.

Same way SpaceX spanked NASA and ULA. Just competent management and the drive to build rather than punch a clock.

As much as I dislike this form of National Socialism on principle, the best case a State can make is that it needs the capacity for sovereign production of defensive weaponry.

A State is sovereign to the degree that it is not reliant on other States for defense against aggressors.

So let's wait to cancel these contracts after most of the others are already off the books.

Without disagreeing on your principles, you could do this with a $3 numeric .xyz domain and the free DNS tier at Namecheap.

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

There's probably noone building a prototype network app who can't swing $3 and run the ACME client.

The people who make money on certs really hate distributed ideas like DNSSEC and DANE and its successors.

There are Ethereum domains too now but Ether gas is way more than $3.

Same. I made the bonehead move of upgrading the firmware on a large TrippLite UPS which forced Java applets instead of HTTP and of course Eaton abandoned it with haste so now I have like a Fedora 14 VM just to change its settings. Which is such a pyramid of stupid decisions.

Yet it keeps on trucking on a lonely VLAN and replacement batteries every several years are quite cheap.

The anti-global-warming whackos don't give a shit about Bill Gates and haven't for some time, if that's some comfort.

Here's the funniest part: we don't need 'famous person affirmation'.
I've been calling global warming complete bullshit all on my own for years, baby.

It's funny how the left instantly accuses anyone they disagree with of selling out, without the slightest self-reflection that - if selling out for convenience/advantage is so effortless - that was going on 2021-2024 as well.

Not really - John Bolton just got indicted for sending Top Secret NOFOR documents to his AOL address. The report says Iran hacked his computers but without further detail.

Betcha several other Boomers in this category still use it for similar scenarios.

Probably a good investment by foreign intel with a recurring dividend in Metamucil ads.

Histrionics don't convince anyone anymore.
Screaming that the sky is falling for 30y when it patently isn't just means people stop listening.

You can't insist people are "having trouble getting by" when they're cheerfully paying a 25% upcharge for food.

(Formerly this was "paying $5 for a 35 cent cup of coffee")

Conservative, religious people are generally happier than liberals and atheists in every study.

I was at a local Indian place the other day for some lunch off-hours.

In the 20 minutes I was there they had three tables going and four takeout orders.

The idea that they are losing money on every order is silly. They wouldn't participate.

Even if they're breaking even (doubtful at $4 per samosa and $16 for chickpeas and rice) they can get better pricing on their inputs in larger volumes.

If they do better as a business by catering to an affluent crowd that doesn't want to go out then that's good for me because they'll stay in business.

I would probably need to be laid up in a full body cast to order delivery for myself, but whatever.

I have a Honda with an obsolete "infotainment" system, but at least it has an Aux In next to a USB port that provides power, so I can plug in an $11 UGreen dongle and listen to whatever I feel like. If I cared there are some nice 7" 1080p screens for cheap in the Raspberry Pi space that could be shoehorned in and run at 12V. But I'd rather have no screen at all.

Funny thing is that UGreen pairs faster than any other bluetooth device I have and never doesn't work. For eleven bucks.

With the fickleness of Google and Apple there's no chance they'll even support the current CarPlay and Android Auto in 20 years. I like to keep my vehicles 15-30 years, depending on how well they handle rust.

Maybe Crutchfield will make bypass harnesses for these systems in ten years when absolutely nothing works but the screen and speakers are still useful.

We really should be looking for standards at that level, so the compute modules could be upgraded after the manufacturer abandons their platforms.

As Louis says, you shouldn't be a felon for disabling ads on your refrigerator that you never agreed to.