Which is something that I never said.

What I did say, however, is that governments like the tax revenue. That is a true statement. Additionally, in places where electric vehicle adoption has been high and gas tax revenues have fallen, there have been proposals for taxing electric vehicle owners to help make up for the shortfall. That is also a true statement.

The percentage of road maintenance which gas taxes pay for is independent of both things which I said.

Because, on the whole, people like cars and governments like (gas) tax revenue.

Public transit takes both of those things away. Electric cars help with the pollution, but costs government the gas tax revenues, hence the sometimes "innovative" proposals you are starting to hear about how to tax electric car owners for their utilization of road infrastructure.

Still, in practically every city, outside of the places where there is simply no possible way to increase road capacity, people will prefer increased road capacity to any public transport solution.

I am pretty sure that I have said this before, but for home users the issue is not that they like the abuse. At least, that seems to be the case with the family and other folks who I know who come to me for tech support. Rather, the situation exhibits the classic signs of co-dependency: the person remains in the abusive relationship because they fear that things will actually be worse if they leave the abusive the relationship.

In fact, I recall one friend, who had a history of tech support problems, who was considering getting a new system and who came to me for advice. About the only thing this person used the computer for was web, email, Facbook, and photos. I recommended a Mac for them instead of a Windows machine and the look on their face was practically terrified. As bad as the problems were they had experienced with Windows, they were yet more afraid of something different.

Of course, for businesses the situation is really all about institutional inertia.

Long ago I was advised that my email tone was typically...abrasive, let's say. Over the years as I have made an effort to work better with people, I have observed two fundamental rules that I think "simulate" the feature you describe:

1. As my hand hovers, ready to hit the "send" button, I stop myself and re-read the entire message start to finish, slowly.

2. If I am mad, upset, etc. I either delete the message or move it to drafts and return to it later (making sure to repeat the process starting with rule 1). If I am level-headed and the message has no errors (errors include things that will hurt someone's feelings unnecessarily, inflammatory words, etc.), and I am comfortable pressing send at that moment, then I press send.

I actually even apply that strategy here on Slashdot. I write more comments than what my comment history shows. Many times, I will write a scathing reply to someone here on Slashdot, just to get it out of my system, then close the tab without actually posting the message. Of course, sometimes I still can't help but post something that I know will be inflammatory; but that's why we all come to Slashdot. Right?

Writing messages that you never send is therapeutic without spreading negativity. It lets you get the emotions out of your system. For me it works well enough that sometimes I write one message saying exactly what I think with no regard for the impact of my words, instead focusing on getting my feelings out. Then when I delete it and start over I am much more moderate in what I write.

Everybody should try it.

I used to pride in speaking my mind without any output filter. I have grown up and realized that is not always the best or most productive approach.

I see stories like this and I have to ask myself, "Is Windows still viable as a development platform? Will it continue to be viable as a development platform in the future?"

I develop exclusively on Linux (some libraries in C/C++, some Python applications, Java server and desktop stuff, occasionally dabble in mobile, etc.). I have some colleagues who use Mac OS X as their platform and are happy with that. I do know a small number of developers working on Windows, but as far as I can tell they don't particularly like Windows as a development platform, especially those who have had to move to Windows 10 (precisely because they no longer control the updates and stuff can just randomly break).

I guess, all I can say is, "wow."

Hmm. Looks like someone accidentally hit the "Overrated" mod instead of the "Informative" mod that is customary when one brings facts to a Slashdot discussion. Perhaps it is that the particular facts I am bringing are inconvenient. Actually, it was probably just an honest mistake.

Here, I'll quote it again for your convenience:

Huh? How do account for the premium spikes that happened each of the 6 years from when the ACA went into effect until Trump was inaugurated?

I cannot tell if you are trolling or just willfully ignorant.

OK. Cool. Since it is going to be like that and since my other comment was down-modded "Overrated." I will go ahead and repeat my comment here. I guess we don't like facts that go against the narrative. But, oh well.

The Democrats have had no issue, however, using the courts to try to "sabotage" the Trump administration. So, I guess the takeaway is is perfectly OK for Democrats to do it when Republicans are in power, but when the roles are reversed it is an abuse of power.

Also, as it happens, the Republicans were not all that successful in the SCOTUS. The court upheld the ACA, using some rather tortured logic that boiled down to, "we get what Congress meant to say and even though the law doesn't say that, we are going to pretend that it does".

It was kind of unfair of Obama to rely on fake numbers and talking points and then insist that challengers use real numbers and no talking points. Seems like he did not really want anyone to challenge him.

Right. And Obamacare was billed as more better quality healthcare for more people that costs less. Anybody who has taken project management 101 knows you don't get all three sides of the triangle.

And he is only saying that because the Democrats said it first. In fact, he is probably annoyed it didn't occur to him to say it first.

It turns out, that Obama (you know, the guy after whom "Obamacare" was named), gave an Address on Health Care at George Mason University on March 19, 2010, where he said this:

Maybe I am misreading, but it sure seems like President Obama is saying there that everybody's costs (premiums for families) were going to go down. While I know of plenty of people getting raises after the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts helped boost the economy, I have never heard of a single person getting a raise from their employer because of all the money Obamacare saved them.

Care to comment?

Yes, this was at a public state university. The scope of my change was confined entirely to a single course, so it is a bit different from the more holistic changes you describe. I suppose if I were a tenured professor, I might be more involved to where I would try to make some of those more impactful changes.

I think you might be painting too bleak a picture. Yes, curriculum changes can take time. No, they don't take 6+ years all the time. I have successfully reworked an entire course in one year. I did it as an adjunct, meaning I was not part of the normal school process because adjuncts don't do things like curriculum updates. Please see my other comment below with some useful advice to the OP. You may find some of it illuminating.

I am not a student, but an adjunct faculty member. That said, as an adjunct I have very little official authority when it comes to curriculum matters, but I have managed to find success in updating woefully outdated curriculum. I will share some things based on my experience.

First, I recommend you start by talking with the instructor(s) of the class(es) in question. Request a copy of the master syllabus. This is not the master copy of the syllabus handed out each term, but is actually a specially formatted and fairly detailed documented that describes precisely how the course will meet all of the educational objectives required by the school (and/or any accrediting body). Also get a copy of the course catalog description (you can probably get this yourself from your school catalog online). Also ask the instructor if they are willing to support your effort and advocate for the change before any school personnel or committees involved in the process (as a student you may not be permitted to appear before those personnel or committees to request a curriculum change). Find out if there are minor changes that you can make that satisfy your objective for updating the course without triggering a full academic revision of the course. There may processes in place for smaller changes that require lesser review and approval.

Then, get to work. Update the master syllabus to reflect what you think would be a better course composition, sequence of topics, etc. Ensure that all required school objectives are still being met or exceeded. Provide supporting documentation. That might include attachments that describe academic developments in the field, analyses about emerging new topics that are shaping the field, etc. Throughout the process work closely with the instructor involved. If you are fortunate enough to be able to interact directly with the course director, then you will have fewer layers to go through. If not, the instructor you are working with will need to make a proposal to the course director, probably the department, and either an undergraduate or graduate committee that reviews and approves curriculum changes.

You will need to ensure to get buy in from the instructor involved and/or the course director as appropriate before the matter will come before the right committee. Offer to be a TA for the updated course to help get things off to a good start. Offer to write up lecture notes and slides for the new material, offer to write sample homeworks, projects, quizzes, exams, etc., as appropriate for the subject matter.

You will also need to patient. Keep in mind that for traditional semester schools, Spring registration is already underway (meaning your change would almost certainly not be considered for Spring) and Fall registration will probably open sometime in February or March. That means that if you want to get a course updated for the Fall of next year (which would be the earliest possible update if you started working on it today), you probably only have something like a month to get it all in order. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year's break, and Spring semester start up, you really don't have a big time window to get the job done, so you would have to hustle to have a chance.

That said, be prepared to wait as well. The committees probably only meet every few months, so you may have to request a special review for something to make it in time for next Fall. That may or may not be feasible depending on your institution and its policies.

I hear plenty of students complain about stuff like this, but I have not yet seen one actually try to tackle the problem rather than just complain about it. Best of luck.

Not only that. I worked with a guy whose father immigrated to the US from Mexico in the 1950s or 1960s. He went into the Army and after he was dinged on a fitrep for his thick accent being a barrier to effective communication with other soldiers, he decided that his kids weren't going to go through that. He instituted a strict English-only policy at home and as a consequence, my co-worker (who had a very Latino name) speaks only English (and that with a Texas accent).

Not every immigrant family has an English-only policy at home, but I have interacted with enough people who grew up with that to conclude that it is not all that uncommon. Even the homes where there is not an explicit English-only policy, the kids frequently don't master their parents' native language, perhaps gaining only limited conversational ability. Face it, with television, radio, other media, their friends at school, etc. all speaking English there is usually only a very weak incentive (from the point of a child) to learn another language. Their kids, in turn, will almost certainly not speak the grandparents' native language.

What I find really interesting is the places like New York, San Antonio, Miami, etc., where there are significant ethnic populations and neighborhoods. You can typically walk around and see signage and hear people speaking where words of the immigrant community's language are interspersed among English. From what I have observed children who grow up in those sorts of neighborhoods, whether their parents are immigrants or natives, tend to develop a sort of pidgin that mixes English with the popular ethnic words used in shops, restaurants, etc.

I suspect that if I had not ended up in IT I would have become a linguist or etymologist.