My first government IT job (networking, database development) was at a state agency in the late '80s. We had Peat-Marwick and another consultancy developing a system for us, and it was an absolute clusterfuck. Any time any spec or little detail was changed, they reset the entire project to step zero, they were milking us and the project would never see completion (I wasn't involved in the project and don't know a thing about it). Finally the agency demoted the IT director, the woman promoted in his place fired both consultancies and our in-house developers brought up the entire project in about two years.

I remember because I got the task of copying like 150 Mac floppies - on a Mac with no external floppy drive! Insert diskette, drag to desktop, eject disk, insert new disk, format, drag image to new disk, eject, label, rinse, repeat. Took a few days. No idea why they wouldn't spring for a second disk drive.

I read that URL as "Mean Du". I've had one experience with a QR code menu in Salt Lake City, I don't have the best eyesight after cataract surgery (I'm now in my 60s), I use an iPhone 13 Mini because I like the form factor, and the restaurant was on the dim side. Not a good experience. Food was good, but I'm not likely to return there, and quite likely in the future to walk out of restaurants using QR code menus.

Kinda makes me glad I got a 14" M2 MBP earlier this year. I'm extremely happy with the performance, not that I expect to max it. I'm ecstatic about the form factor: much smaller and lighter than my 15" that it replaces and easier to grip as my hands get older. Even though the 16" is the same size as my 15" 2015 MBP, I find the 14" screen to be extremely comfortable along with the slightly smaller keyboard.

That thing has sucked since day one.

True story. I've lived my entire life (6 decades) about a hundred miles from our border in Mexico, I'm currently a hundred or so miles north of El Paso.

A decade ago or so, we had a cold snap settle over the area, covering Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and El Paso. I'm not sure how far north or east it went. The temperature dropped to -19F. Fortunately there was no other weather associated with it: no wind, no snow. Just damn cold. Up here in Cloudcroft, we're used to it usually dropping below zero in the winter, so we're kind of prepared. It killed palm trees, burst broilers at the university because the gas utility didn't notify the uni so they could drain the broilers, etc. In El Paso, a lot of people froze to death and they learned that their water system had a lot of problems.

Mexico came to the rescue and began providing electricity to the border region as they were having power problems down there. But when that cold system started moving south into Mexico, they had no problem saying 'Sorry, muchachos' and stopping that aid to help their own people. I think in this case, the mayor of Buckeye is chasing a little fantasy for PR's sake, there's no way Mexico is going to jeopardize their water supply and aquifers to supply a little podunk town like that.

But... but... no one has posted about low user IDs yet! (not claiming that mine is low)

Well, maybe someone has below and I haven't gotten there yet.

DINSDALE!

Probably close to a decade ago, it might have been a Canon, I don't remember. It was definitely not HP or Epson. I went out and bought a flat bed Epson scanner and a laser printer and will never be an inkjet owner again. And I rail against inkjets whenever someone asks for a recommendation. The personal use cases for owning one are pretty much zero, so much cheaper owning a laser and sending your color print jobs to a shop or doing them at work.

This is what I recommend to everyone. Unless you have a very serious need to print color, get an inexpensive B&W laser and do your color printing at work or at a print shop and print your photos via Walgreens or whatever.

I haven't trusted HP for three decades. In the '90s I worked for a law enforcement agency in IT. We sent our techs to HP to get certified to repair scanners and inkjets. Then HP decided they weren't selling parts kits.

I would consider their lasers, except all the crap they're doing with DRM for their inkjets I think is likely to creep. Right now I have a Samsung B&W laser (pre-HP buyout) that suits my needs quite fine. Cost about $100, finally replaced the starter toner after having bought it some four years ago or so.

About the only thing that I've found Siri useful for is occasionally making phone calls while I'm driving. We don't have any home assistant devices at home, so that's not an issue. But yeah, the slow and loud and clear mode of talking to her does seem to get the best result.

As a certain TV show postulated, "Siwi sucks."

and break up market capture of newspapers and televisions. It's killed far too many local newspapers and degraded quality of journalism through directed viewpoints from management.

Here's a more accessible version: https://appleinsider.com/artic...

I got mine mainly for the easy high(er) interest that was easily available. I had a large sum of money coming in and wanted it earning some funds while it was parked until I could arrange to invest it. It was useful to buy my new MacBook, and I love the actual titanium card! But honestly, I don't plan on using it for much aside as a savings account that actually earns interest.

I have much higher limits on other cards, I suppose this card will go up in time. I'm curious what their international behavior is as we're planning on going to Europe in '25, I have another card that doesn't charge foreign interchange or conversion fees if this one does.

Unrelated to the discussion, but thank you for having a slightly obscure Monty Python reference as your sig! I've been rather sick for a few days and it brought a smile to my face! (followed by a cough)

I also agree with your comment.