I expect many VMware customers are already deep in the eval process of other technologies, and will be jumping ship as they are able. If they were smart they started this about the same time broadcom got involved.

I'm getting a real mid-2000's Novell vibe off of VMware right now.

No, he's right. Digital pictures, particularly with all the various enhancements they go through today...they aren't in the same class as film pictures of old, and can be said to be "not real". Sure, they're based on real light data, but that's been modified before you get the final product.

Which is not to say there isn't a gradient of "fake"; obviously some are more manipulated ( or fabricated ) than others. Doesn't change the underlying point, however.

...the first few times you got burned by an HP printer, ok...annoying, stupid company. Right? The next couple dozen times, that's on you.

Why do people keep giving them money for their printers?

The biggest misunderstanding most people have about non-profits is that they don't exist to make money. They absolutely do. Just because you're a 501(c) it doesn't mean there aren't hundreds of ways to get paid exorbitant amounts. The most common form of this is hiring "consultants" ( who do little but cash the check ).

The problem with hospitals/prisons isn't that they're "for profit", it's that there's a ton of money to be "filtered" ( laundered, tomato tomato ) through them. At the end of the day you need people with integrity and fiscal sense running them to be efficient.

We've lost that first qualification a long while ago; finding someone of integrity ( enough to resist the corruption ) is a lost art, if anyone even wanted to find them. I'm not convinced they even exist anymore.

Once you learn the idiosyncrasies of the self checkout lanes, they're invariably faster than staffed lanes, for a few reasons:

1) The queuing is often more intelligent. For normal lanes, you pick a lane and you're stuck there, whereas self checkouts are usually 1 queue per 4 ( or more! ) registers. It's the difference between serial vs parallel. Which is compounded by...

2) Those that prefer the staff registers are invariably slower and unable to handle such new technology as credit cards. When forced to use self checkouts they end up clogging up a register for far longer than they should.

3) Finally; I'm far faster checking myself out than any clerk has ever been.

Meanwhile, all you really need to be aware of while using the self checkout is to START with the bag, and place your items directly in the bag on the scale while scanning. Do not remove any items until you're at the payment screen. That's it.

I far prefer self checkouts, to the extent that it influences which stores I shop at.

We discovered 856 new genders this last year, as well as dozens of new tools of oppression being used by the colonizers.

Remember when the industry was trying to force that down our throats?

In retrospect, I'd rather have the option of 3D tech and dumb screens than the "smart" crap everywhere today.

When I visited Georgia I was amazed at how nice their Walmarts were. The cheap hotels were far superior to anything I've stayed at in CA as well.

In fact the entire experience was eye opening to me; a Central Valley native, all the dirt, trash and homelessness I just kind of assumed was "normal" ( even though I knew it wasn't ).

Seeing a clean city first hand was eye opening. Even the dirt cheap seedy motels on the side of the freeway were waaay better.

Chatbot or live human, there is no way I'd participate in such a process if my employer paid for it. That concern aside, as they touched on, they have no idea if this even works, yet they're already pushing out to folks; who's to say your goals are the same as those that are writing the chatbot?

Finally; is the chatbot subject to the same regulations that real therapists are? The details on the website are a bit thin in this regard, which immediately makes me highly suspicious.

It's...a bit more complex than that, wouldn't you say?

First of all, some comics were like that certainly. So the target audience derived from those comics would be nostalgia for adults.

Other comics were decidedly less so; Demon in a Bottle?

My point is; there's no reason why the super hero genre should be considered dead or played out; merely that hollywood's inability to tell a decent story is limiting it's evolution.

Uh...ok.

Perhaps up your meds a bit, then go watch Farscape. They really nailed a great "good" vs "evil" dynamic there, both with Crais and then 100% with Scorpious.

Just phenomenal work.

I don't know that people are tired of it, but they are tired of the lazy writing and being proselytize at.

What Marvel should be doing is really leaning into their villains, instead of killing them off every movie. Make them compelling, interesting. Make them the heroes of their own stories ( killmonger and thanos jump to mind ). Give the protagonists something meaningful to strive against.

They should also be more excited about a hero's limitations rather than what they can do. What can't their powers do is at least as interesting as what they can do. Play that angle up, show them failing, so when they succeed it actually means something...instead of the usual "plot armor" of the more recent flicks.

Personally, I'd love to see an inversion of the good vs evil formula; start it out with the hero taking what they think is the moral stance, only for them to grow and see how wrong they were over the course of the movie, until you see that the villain was right the entire time ( think: ala Farscape ).

You know, instead of relying on pretty faces, CGI and political messages, have they thought about...perhaps...you know...telling a good story well?

Crazy, I know, but they should give it a shot and see what happens.

One of the perks about living in CA is that we only have earthquakes.

I know, I know, "only". But if you're far enough away from tall buildings and common episcenters, they're hardly more than an inconvenience. I'll take that over literal hell fire ( or Fingers of God like they get elsewhere ).

...is trump in the room with us right now?