Robotaxis are so 2023. Haven't you heard, all the in the know fascists are betting robots are going to fix everything.

Or was it rooftop solar, I forget.

I always love it when a game exec tries to gaslight their own customers.

It is usually execu-newbies who react like this, but this guy looks like he's been in the business for a while, so I'm guessing he's out over his skis on this title.

The big audit companies have been pushing companies to do a lot more surveying - they're really harping on NPS for whatever reason.

That's why you can't ask to use a restroom without getting a survey about your experience.

I used to sometimes fill them out - they are actually useful to companies, and if I didn't hate them, that's OK with me.

But they're over-fishing. It is constant now. So fuck it, I refuse.

As far as the state, well, you don't tell the truth to fascists unless you're a suicidal moron. 'Nuff said.

We gotta talk.

See, you do this thing.

Sometimes you stop looking at your phone. I know, food, peeing, mouth noises at other people who aren't looking at their phones, either.

That's why we need you to put this on your face.

And here I thought non-consensual anime nudes and imaginary friends that gaslight their insecure users were our primary productivity-drivers.

I did some work not too different than this when I was working for myself. That was early aughts, so instead of vibe coders we had small business owners trying to do things beyond their competence in Excel and Access and such.

I far preferred other clients - almost by definition, these people are cheap, and the sorts of asks they could come up with could be utterly absurd. ("No, I cannot build you an eBay replacement with built-in voice calling for $500.") But sometimes you can't be picky.

And lack of access to imported things.

Magats - Are you tired of winning yet? This is not a rhetorical question.

Given where we are - the Brownshirts are murdering each others' leaders in a power struggle while Pee Wee Goebbels was working up to a Reichstag fire false flag - this doesn't seem like the most important detail to me, my rather bad addiction to coffee aside. But as a nation of consumers, maybe it will get someone's attention.

Italians were subject to racism when they began immigrating to the US in large numbers. (For that matter, so were Irish.)

They were not initially allowed in to the White People Club, and got the Other treatment for quite a while.

As is normal for this sort of thing, it still hasn't entirely faded. I lived in NYC not too far back and heard Italian slurs quite a bit.

More an invitation to slag Zazlov, one of the most destructively useless media execs in a very long time (which is quite a feat).

I'll always remember him as the man who tried to kill Big Bird because he didn't want to pay residuals.

You have access to the googles, do you not? And you are physically and mentally capable of formulating and submitting trial query, such as "trump death speculation", correct? You are obviously capable of operating the forms here.

Just in case I'm wrong about one of those, here is a link to get you started. If you look at it, you will find it is reporting on said speculation and contains several links to same across multiple services.

and possibly some other old person stuff going on.

Wait, is that.... online speculation about Stumpy's health?

You'll eventually become aware of a third category - the one in which you're out of date.

There are several technical topics on which I have varying expertise with the state of the art at the time I was working with them, but have a very shallow understanding of newer developments.

It pays to notice this as it is happening to you, because you'll *feel* like you should know what you're talking about, but quickly find out you don't.

When Stumpy went silent for close to a week there was widespread speculation that he was dead. This was after the Couchfucker was quoted talking about being ready to step up.

There is still wide discussion about the IV's he's obviously getting in the bruised hand.

Add in the recent photos of him looking like a corpse, and yeah, anyone who is paying attention knows he's in bad shape.

I'm still half-convinced this is a psyop targeting President Stumpy. They know he's dying as well as anyone else.

That's a terrible thing to say.

No, really.

First, a breach of your email address is normally going to be far less damaging than, say, medical records showing failure to comply with Texan birthing-vessel policy. You really want to look at the magnitude of the breach before comparing.

Second, no, if you're soliciting PII from people, you have a duty to protect it. "Only" failing once in a while is not acceptable.

Third, soliciting PII from users of home theater software serves no functional purpose. Demanding to hold data they're clearly incompetent to secure to take payment is irresponsible, and makes me wonder where else they're failing to be competent. Seems like a great reason to use software that won't make you risk fraud and harrassment to me.

Startup execs are not so clueless. In public they might act like idealist, eager builders who just haven't gotten around to thinking about the money thing yet - that works on a surprising number of people still. But that pose doesn't work with VCs. For startups in these markets now the rug-pull is going to be Plan B (where Plan A is being acquired).