It's not a contrived (that means "unlikely and made up for the purposes of the argument", BTW) example - it actually did happen, and happens more often than you might think. Just because a good portion of the ISS was built under ideal conditions doesn't mean that fasteners can't stick. There are parts that have been in space for more than 15 years, after all.

But to respond to your statement directly, no, a metal socket isn't going to help the first bit when the drive, ratchet, or handle is made of a flimsy plastic like ABS or PLA, even if it's injection molded. If the fastener is hard enough to turn that it breaks an ABS socket, then it's going to break the wrench instead when you use a steel socket on it.

If you attach a metal socket, it's probably quite capable.

I wouldn't expect a lot. I snapped the solid steel drive on a 1/2" ratchet right off the last time I did my brakes trying to get a frozen caliper bolt out . It took an 18" breaker bar with a 3/4" drive in combination with a floor jack to get enough torque on the breaker bar to finally get the bolt loose. I don't foresee an ABS tool handling that kind of stress.

Not even that, Visual C++ .NET is a broken aberration that I have not seen used anywhere ever

C++/CLI gets used plenty, but mostly in places where straight C++ has to interact with other managed code. It works, but C# is a *lot* easier to deal with if you're staying completely within the managed environment. If you don't have the need to mix them, you likely won't see it. In my case, I've had to use it both at my current job and the one previous when integrating legacy C++ code with newer .Net stuff.

Posted as AC because I don't feel like putting up with all the haters and doubters who will shitpost because they hate me for reminding them how much they're lacking, and the jerks who will call me a liar.

On the contrary, it's a good reminder that our bodies are really remarkable machines, and can often come back effectively from a lifetime of abuse if you make effort to do it.

A friend and I had some fun at the Jehovah's Witnesses' expense about 30 years ago. I was over at his place, and there was a knock at the door. He peeked outside and said "Dude, it's the Jehovah's Witnesses, come here!" He threw his arm around me and answered the door in a very lispy voice, and they were mostly speechless. He then looked at me and said, "Well hun, I don't guess they have anything to say, so let's go back to bed!" and shut the door on them. He never got another knock again.

Same here. Still have a bookshelf full of old Byte rags.

I mean, I didn't have to sign it but i'd not have got the job otherwise. Doesn't mean you agree with it. Hell, doesn't mean you're going to obey it, but all that comes later.

Then you weren't willing to walk away from it. Signing an agreement you have no intention of keeping can be a recipe for a lot of expense later on.

I've walked away from bad agreements, and I'm not shy about crossing stuff out that I don't find acceptable. So far I haven't had anyone refuse to hire me because of that. As Billoo said, you have to be assertive about your own best interests because you're the only one looking out for them.

In the U.S. there hasn't ever been an exploitation requirement per se. The only kind of IP that explicitly requires action by the holder is a trademark, which they're required to aggressively defend at the risk of losing it otherwise. However, it used to be that you could file an application and tie up the approval process for years without it actually being issued, which effectively let you secretly hold a patent as long as you wanted and have it formally issued only when it was to your advantage to do so. About 20 years ago the U.S. changed patent terms from "date of issuance" to "date of filing", so the clock now starts ticking when you first send in the application.

We don't know, because she never gets in a fight in the movie, or does anything at all where her physical abilities are tested.

Not per se, but she does make short work of Leon when it's obvious that he's going to kill Deckard.

How indignant is Peru when a wind storm comes through?

Not very, because there's practically no wind in the area. Additionally, the coated pebbles protect the ground even during those rare windy days.

Forcing ANYONE to play either E.T. or (even worse) Friday the 13th on an Atari console would probably be classified as both cruel AND unusual.

I didn't have Friday the 13th, but I still have my E.T. cart, and M*A*S*H and Porky's as well!

Binding arbitration clauses don't hold up in court.

The Supreme Court begs to differ.

That 90k job will have at least 10 hours of unpaid stress/OT vs a 65k/40hr week so the coefficients to compare are 1.625 govt vs1.8 private sector.

Except I already make more than that and do a 40-hour week, and I haven't been given any grief over my vacation schedule. In my situation, the pension would be the only notable benefit. And our department hasn't seen any layoffs in literally decades.

While many places will pass on the basis of a felony record, one of the best Java guys I ever worked with had a felony assault conviction from about five years prior after a guy started a bar fight. He was a contractor when we met, was hired by the company we were doing work for, and hasn't seemed to have too many problems finding work. He was also very up-front about the conviction during the HR process.