Well, there is a bit more to it than that it seems. For completely unknown reasons, macOS switched from sending an uncatchable SIGKILL instead of SIGBUS. Bug thread here. Fault lies completely on Apple for this one, and it seems like it affects more than just Java. I think this release is going to the history books as one of the worst releases from Apple; hopefully their QA team gets a serious wake up call from this.

The only problem with making it a college campus is that colleges don't pay much in the way of taxes to the municipality, apparently. I think it might be different if it is a public VS private operation, but the town would probably much prefer if it was kept as a corporation.

Now the question is, what corporation out there would have use for such a facility?

In the mid-1990s I sometimes went to a supermarket in Hamilton Ohio called Jungle Jim's. While they still exist today and were (at the time at least) an excellent place to get obscure food products, one of the things they are somewhat known for is their use of animatronics.

I remember that they had a whole bunch of ex-Chuck E. Cheese animatronics in the various sections, e.g. Pasquale was singing Toreador March in the Italian section amongst other similar pieces. While it was really cool to see those repurposed animatronics (since by 1995 CEC was well into obscurity and re-definition as the modern version we have no nostalgia for), it was a perfect example of what happened to those devices after years of neglect - pieces falling or hanging off, broken joints, rattling loose parts, etc.

Looking at the page I linked, it looks like they might still have one or two - but always wondered what happened to those things since I haven't lived around those parts in a very long time.

This is basically what I've seen come out of the tools. To be honest, I've only found it useful for simple boilerplate things like "open a CSV $f and create a list of the 2nd column entries", but in those cases a seasoned programmer would probably spit that out faster than the time that they write the comment to trigger the GenAI. However, you do have the bonus of that you are now producing commented code?

But anyone who thinks that the GenAI tools will generate good code architecture or even respond to the "create a clone of Microsoft Word in Python" directive, we are DEFINITELY not there yet.

At least from a personal observation of mine, I've known of one person who quickly went down the Alzheimer's path due to increased stress (loss of her husband and thus having to deal with all the paperwork he used to handle), but another due to getting a cochlear implant.

The cochlear implant is a hearing aid that is one part surgical procedure since they have to put something that attaches to the hearing nerve, and a second external hearing aid that has a magnetic disc that gets stuck on the wearer's head just behind their ear. They're expensive, but they work, but look a little odd to people who have no idea what they are (since you think it's drilled into their head or going through skin or something; no, it is just a magnet!)

So anyway, for another person I know, they got an implant to help fight Alzheimers to some degree since if you can't hear half of what is around you, it accelerates the decline. However, the surgery and having to manage the implant device could also increase stress which could lead to accelerated effects of the condition.

....at least, that is my personal observation. YMMV.

I have a vision of the scene at the end of War Games where the computer "Joshua" is going through an infinite number of WWIII scenarios before the screen finally blanks and admits the only way to win is not to play.

So now fast forward to a time when AI dis-information generators are fighting against AI counter-information generators are running. Perhaps it all boils down to a "uh-huh!" 'nah-ah!' "uh-huh!" 'nah-ah!' pissing battle before they shut down due to overload.

Well, that would be amusing at least...

Hopefully part of the major update is to make it work on the Mac again. I haven't played it in years since it is a 32-bit app and the last Mac OS to support it was Mojave (final update was July 2021).

Through the 1990s many people on Wall Street trading desks has Sun workstations running their business critical applications. Instead of Microsoft Office (i.e. Excel), they ran Applix.

Around 1997-2000, the migration to Windows NT happened. I think the reasons were mainly around that:

1. Windows NT 3.51+ was not as crash-prone as Windows 3.1/95/98 and therefore suitable for a mission-critical trader's desktop.
2. Intel's FPU performance was getting better. For a while, IIRC a SPARC was measurably faster than an x86 FPU. I think Intel eventually passed it around 2003 give-or-take.
3. Development of the firms' software was easier on Windows

Developers at those banks used to have two machines on their desk: Windows and Sun. However, that eventually died off especially when the UltraSPARC III was not all that impressive in comparison to the II of Sun's last "low cost" workstation offerings (Namely the Ultra 5 and 10). But that aside, now that traders would have Windows NT boxes on their desk, those took over and development was now on Microsoft.

I certainly hope they don't remove wired charging; various articles I've read that measure the power consumed found that wireless charging consumes roughly 40% more energy than straight wired charging.

I suppose you have to imagine the PR blowback to Apple on that one, especially when there are billions(?) of their devices out there. Yeah, we're not talking 1.21 gigawatts for a phone, but that 40% will start adding up.

No problem, I'm done with consoles. Steam for me.

I mostly agree with you, but my problem is that Portal 2 hasn't been ported to 64-bit, so some Steam platforms can't play the game anymore :-/

It was a little awkward getting used to. Definitely stopped me from banging on the keys as hard as I had in the past since the microscopic key-travel helps you realize that it doesn't take much effort. I ended up liking it as well.

HOWEVER, it just takes until one of those f'ers stops responding because it gets stuck. Guitar picks, fingernails, carefully with a knife - just try popping up the key a bit and hit-hit-hit-hit-hit usually gets it working again. Not always, but usually.

I, for one, will not be disappointed when I replace my 2019 MBP for something with a better keyboard.

OK, so maybe a stretch would be that (say) a school cafeteria could have a whole tray full of single-portion milk cartons and then use a smartphone or other device which can identify all the QR codes and flag which ones are past due? That would make sense.

But for the supermarket and putting a QR code on a pint/half/whole gallon? Absolutely ridiculous waste of time, ink, and energy.

You say a big problem is the constant re-skinning. I've heard many people say this. But to be honest, don't we see this with Chrome and Safari on a somewhat regular basis? Remember the Safari 15.0->15.1 rollback?

For a while it was modern, then it was viewed as obsolete, then it became retro.

I still use a 1st gen iPod Mini on a regular basis. 3rd or 4th battery at this point, replaced the click wheel from a cannibalized one, and swapped out the 4GB HDD to a 64GB SD card. Regardless of the modern/obsolete/retro argument, I've always felt that the size, aesthetics, UI, and sound quality has been ideal for me. Frankly, I think the interface of the iPhone's music player is terrible by comparison.

The trend seems to be that Apple (and others) want personal music collections to go away and to lock everyone in to subscription models. I've invested way too much in my library especially when not everything I listen to is on the streaming services. I just hope that with this announcement of the iPod becoming discontinued, it doesn't mean that I won't be able to sync my iPod to my Mac in the next few years - Apple will not find me signing up for their music service if that happens.

I don't know if it is so much "the tracks are old" since the lines that are in regular use are routinely maintained due to federal regulations. The places where you see wobbly uneven rails are short lines that do freight for a few warehouse businesses (at least around where I am).

But that being said, the "slow" part is simply because the freight companies own the tracks and passenger rail (read: Amtrak) effectively pays to run on those rails. The freight company is always going to prioritize their very profitable consists over an almost 'charitable' passenger one.

The only place where this is different is places like the Northeast Corridor (Boston-NYC-WashingtonDC) since those rails are owned by Amtrak and they get priority. Frankly, I hugely prefer to ride Amtrak when going between those three points than taking a plane. No TSA, more comfort, can get work done, and when you work out the flight and other security delays involved with flying, the train works out to be equivalent if not overall better. The overall service and coverage would vastly improve if more people "got on board" ;-)