I don't mind Ubuntu -- I use it on a couple laptops -- but damn, I really hate snaps.
I hate that I can see every snap I have installed when I run a mount command. I hate that I can't do rootless installs.I hate that the distro is forcing some poorly engineered software on me. I have enough of that with Internet Explorer and Edge.

Again, I like Ubuntu but it's a reason I would find another non-Ubuntu distribution.

I was an architect in my company's data team in a previous role and experimented with both R and Julia. My "home" language is Python and I always end up comparing each language to it, especially since pandas/numpy and graphic libraries are so mature. I can do R and Matlab (and Octave) easily enough, but there were some adoption issues in my group (primarily Python/Java folks).

Julia is pretty nice. It's trivially easy to get graphs going (https://www.digitalhermit.com/mathematics/learning-julia). There were some pain points though, including the really long compile startup times (order of minutes) and somewhat incomplete IDE integration. The package system was also getting to be a problem. I have not looked at it in a few months and no doubt many issues are probably addressed... But that's part of the issue when adopting a (newish) language.

It's not so much that I don't like it. To me, I shouldn't be aware of it. I should never have to Google how to do normal things. When I have to do that, I start noticing the UI and that's a failure.

Eftsoons! Know they not what they do?
I'm writing this from the middle of a wedding reception, so bear with me. From the story, there's water, water everywhere. Heed the Hermit.

Many APIs have demo code in curl or Java with the express warning that it's demo code and not to be used in production. But it shows up anyway.

I worked on a project last year where some offshore developers were tasked with writing an integration to a RESTful API for Nexpose. As far as "web programming" goes, talking to a REST API is pretty much a sine qua non for being called a "web developer". They didn't know how to do so. I understand that members of this same team have worked on other corporate sites.

Combine CTRL-C/CTRL-V with inexperience and you have the source of your mistakes.

These products are patented. If you so wanted, you could look up the patents and provided the ~20 years are up start up a factory and start producing them. The trick isn't the IP, it's the fact that no one in their right mind would build an entire factory to produce a product with such a limited market.

It's not an IP issue, it's a tooling issue.

A recessed bulb in the ceiling can cover a wide area of a room with direct LOS. It doesn't necessarily have to be a desk lamp as the light source.

Space opera = future fantasy. Space magic.

There is no reason someone can't enjoy futuristic fantasy stories.

See you space cowboy.

(If being a simpleton gets me more space cowboy, I'm all for it)

I agree, I was puzzling for a bit trying to figure out if it were some local acronym. Seattle's Agriculture Task Force or something which would be justified in trying to catch grease dumpers. Knowing it was the federal Bureau is important.

Technically you can't know if that's what the magician did. You can only rule out what he could not have done.

I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with a precision modernization program for a nuclear arsenal. For better or worse, our MAD deterrent seems to have worked. No country has used nuclear weapons since WWII. They are doomsday weapons and any use of them would escalate a conflict well into a total-warfare situation regardless of their precision. A nuclear weapon applied even on the most restricted and limited of targets is the most destabilizing thing you can probably do. Worse yet, it encourages other countries to consider 'usable' nuclear weapons of their own. As much as I hate our current situation I would hope we would work towards disarmament rather than finding more palatable means to deploy nuclear weapons.

Honestly? End the drug war on all drugs and repurpose that money into non-discriminatory mental health services. Currently our civilians are being consumed in a proxy war between the police and the cartels.

After that? I'd start with a massive effort to reform our police forces. Currently there is a massive divide (real or perceived) between our police and the people. We have given a great deal of discretion to police officers but the oversight that should accompany that discretion is practically non-existent. Until we can get our urban areas behaving more like communities rather than a bunch of people living in close proximity I don't see us making any headway. Eliminate the profit motives from our governments who use the police forces as a tax collection service and revenue generation tool (fines, asset forfeiture, etc create perverse incentives)

So in short: End the drug war, reform our police force into a community force.

You forgot the most important part: Putting a battery into a gun. The magnetic one might get around this, but the RFID and Fingerprint options would have you relying on a small battery. Even if you don't need to shoot, how many of you have opened up a battery case to discover that one has corroded and damaged your device? How great would that be to discover that your firearm now has a corrosive item included in it?