Incredible quote.

"Spending more time on X than development" is a problem no matter what X is.

I agree that an objective and open mindset is critical for a productive discourse. But I think your view of what's currently happening is too fatalistic. There's a ton of discourse going on and some of it *is* productive. The Russians are trying to reduce that and fan the flames when they appear. Its simple and cheap and I don't see why it wouldnt have noticeable effect over time.

So you're saying that if all the data you saw through google was subtly minipulated, you don't think that would change your opinions at all? And fuethermore, that you're saying youd be ok with the attempt?

That was true years ago, and it might still be true today but they're getting better rapidly. You can Now print reliable glock and ar15 lowers. There are projects in the works to create the uppers and rifled gun barrels as well (using 3d printed jigs and ecm machining). I give it about 6 months before its possible to build a smg style semi auto 9mm using no large tools, and no gun parts. Google the FGC9.

Sure the start was a bit rocky, but they're getting way better. I found the trick with the old ones was to do everything deliberately and with small pauses for the machine to catch up. And don't let your wife fiddle with the bags on the scale while you're scanning. The new ones seem to be a lot more lenient and I have almost 0 problems with them.

Also its helpful when you know the unwritten rules of how the scale works (employees told me). For example it used to be that you could take stuff off the scale if there isn't any more room, but you had to take everything off at once, otherwise it breaks.

And you think while they're actively approving all content they're not going to favor their business interests over freedom of expression? I think cable TV is an apt analogy, just look at the direction YouTube is going.

This exactly. (I would upvote you, but I literally never get mod points for some reason).

Hypothetically yes. But as a person who's written several computer vision applications in the last few years I can say from experience that if you pay no attention to speed and simply write "pythonic" code, it will often run slow as hell. The issue is that the same statement written in multiple ways can easily change the speed by 10x, which breaks the fundamental rule: "let the compiler worry about optimization, just make your code easy to read".

On my latest project I got fed up tracking down these performance killing issues, and switched to pure c++, I'm much happier now. It may take longer to write, but it's much more wysiwyg in terms of performance.

This has been my experience exactly.

Many US payment card and banking services work on the model where they're free, unless you screw up somehow, in which case you get slammed with horrendous fees. Most people don't want overdraft, but they make it tricky to disable, because they make so much money on it.

Not necissarily. These kinds of schemes are often created by marketing departments with little forethought. This might just be a regular firmware update that turns off all functionality. Seems similar to no-ship returns where they force you to send a pic of the device with its cord cut. Its not like you couldnt repair the cord or Photoshop it, but just that small obstacle prevents most abuse. I think this is messed up though, turning perfectly functional gear into trash just to make some extra bucks.

My wife's family does the thing you describe of talking over movies / generally not paying full attention. I hate it too, but that's just how they watch things :/. Its created a funny situation where I often ask my wife "have you seen this" and she'll say yes, so I ask "what's one plot point that occurred during the entire movie" and she'll have nothing, lol. I just treat that as a round about way of saying "no I haven't seen that", and we can watch it again.

The fact that someone got paid to do this makes me question my career choices.

I agree. While the Russian interference is certainly a problem, I can't imagine a scenario where the government could stop it without creating a system that is *extremely* tempting to abuse.