... but I wouldn't call it important.

Programming involves way more pausing and thinking then typing.

Meh.

Most of the web runs on php, and there are reasons for that. Chesterton's fence and all that.

Well said.

A centralized package repository has always been a good idea.

Having it owned and run by the guy who profits off the wordpress.org/.com confusion wasn't (for the users, anyway).

sinij adds: "Downloading patches for your seat belts from China. What could possibly go wrong?"

Of course he does, because it's not /. without morons saying bigoted things.

And the "meritocracy" people claim this is in pursuit of more educational opportunities for American students without a molecule of irony.

So what do you get from using a credit card if you always pay it off? Are you magically always one month behind being able to afford anything?

I'm guessing it's not that. Do you get points? Services? Goodies? I wonder how credit card companies pay for those? Oh yeah, you pay for them - and that's even if you use the stuff that comes "with" credit cards. Truly the ultimate middleman/redistribution scheme.

I don't see the complete eliminated of the need for human input to go away any time soon, so the best way to do that is to spread what labor is still needed amongst a larger pool.

Eventually work weeks may drop from 40 hours to 20 hours. Instead of working 40 years before retirement you might only need to work for 15 or 20 years.

Eventually if enough of it is automated it might be like the mandatory military service everyone puts in in some countries - after high school you have to put in your required 4 years of work and then you're done.

The alternative if you get too many people unemployed with no source of income and no job prospects is that they eventually get fed up, burn it all down, and go back to a system where they can participate in the economy again (ie, if they can't work because its automated, then they eliminate the automation).

That's what I assumed as well. Buy Now Pay Later loans like this have a long history of being predatory. So I took a look at what it would cost to accept Klarna (as an example) as a merchant. The reality is that they have transaction fees that are very similar to credit cards. In other words, these companies do not need to rely on missed payments to make a profit.

These companies are apparently setting themselves up to replace traditional credit card payment systems, which suits me right down to the ground.

The difference is that it is much easier to get a Klarna account, and it isn't (yet) as widely available.

I felt the same way at first. Traditional BNPL schemes were very predatory. However, Klarna (and others) appear to be playing approximately the same game as the traditional credit card processors. They charge transaction fees that are roughly the same as credit card processors, and like credit cards their customers don't pay extra if they pay their bill on time. Klarna, in particular actually appears to give customers interest free time.

The difference, for consumers, is primarily that a Klarna account is much easier to get, and it isn't universally accepted. From a merchant perspective, depending on your payment provider, you might already be able to accept Klarna, and it appears that it mostly works like a credit card. It's even possible that charge backs are less of an issue, although it does appear that transaction fees are not given back in the case of a refund.

Personally, I am all for competition when it comes to payment networks. Visa and Mastercard are both devils. More competition for them is good for all of us.

"...and does not want people to own their own cars."

False. Youtube cannot exist without content creators. That is how YouTube is differentiated over networks.

Cars serve many purposes, what many purposes do the equipment promoted on sites like Geerling's serve?

I've asked quite a few people on occasion what purpose a home NAS serves today, I do not get good answers. Jeff Geerling wouldn't provide an answer for that either. In an age where people don't even have use for computers in the home anymore, why do people have need for hundreds of terabytes of local storage not direct attached to a computer? Unless you are using massive amounts of data, you do not need that. What as home uses for massive amounts of data?

It is absolutely fair to judge equipment by what it is useful for.

Exactly. Youtube exists to exploit grifters like Jeff Geerling, not be threatened by them. Youtube doesn't give a shit about breaking a few eggs.

I thought that was called California and "good weather".

Does "dark pattern" mean "effective, time-honored advertising strategy" or something?

I don't like them either, but calling them "dark patterns" doesn't magically change them into ebola.