If you spend your mod points on me you can't spend them on someone who gets less karma than I do.

I've been working with Linux for many years and Windows even longer ofc, and Windows is a massive PITA all day every day.

Which is also (generally) true for an exponential curve (omitting noise).

That atmospheric CO2 is increasing exponentially should certainly not be comforting.

I'm not familiar with HomeAssistant.. I have all of 3 Sonos ZP90s, S5, purchased about 15 years ago, and using a Local NAS for music library storage. Couldn't you just stop upgrading the Sonos software and use the HomeAssistant with the old version?

Sonos stopped releasing updates for old hardware anyway, and even put the Sonos S1 software under an Older App that doesn't get updates.

The development of new features is Nil, they're completely in stasis, But the features are Also complete and 100% adequate.

My Only major complaint is Sonos ruined the CR200 Touch screen system Controller. I used to be able to manage every function of the system, without anyone even needing to use a Cell phone,, But at some point they rolled out an update which Nerfed the controller so it Can't manage important functions anymore And you have to use the Desktop App or mobile app.

It is a bad thing, for certain. To me, the big question is "why". An AI "doll" that you not only interact with but also have sex with is a phenomenon worth investigating.

And we're scary close. Boston Dynamics already has mobile robots, Realdoll has some really lifelike silicon dolls, and some interactive AI can make a pretty good approximation of a human female, and it's only getting better. Combine all of them eventually, and what you end up with is scary good.

You can spend a lot of money for the present offerings, but here's where the "why" comes in.

While there is nothing compared to the embrace of a loving woman (assuming CIS maledom) you can spend 30K on a robot and you will save money. The robot will not file for divorce, and take your children, you will not end up living in your car when the real ex gets the house on top of the 50/50 split. And you don't have alimony, or have to liquidate your retirement plan, pay half of it to her, and all you have left is the other half, plus whatever penalty you lose on killing the retirement plan.

Some women have even tried to ban such "sex dolls", but just for males who want female dolls. There are dolls for women that are met with enthusiasm, as well as minimalist versions. And there are quite a few ladies who are in the age range when reproductive urge hits hard, but they are in the geriatric pregnancy stage, and they are freaking out.

No, this is not a good social trend, but it is what we have. Many men have simply checked out of relationships. People can call them whatever names they like, it won't bring them back.

As opposed to this one: https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...

but I suspect many folks who normally would VPN in public spaces like coffee shops or hotels will now be thinking twice

What I say is plug a hardware mini-router GL-MT300N-V2 in to your laptops instead of connecting the laptop directly to the Public WiFi.

The mini-router serves the DHCP to your laptop, and you choose which WiFi network to connect to.

Basically, a Mini-router acts as a Condom shielding the laptop from the rest of the Local network, which a VPN alone does not entirely do.

Thus at no point can servers on the Insecure network send broadcast packets of any kind to your PC - not just DHCP, but many other protocols which could contain security vulnerabilities.

You can set firewall rules on your mini-router to block outgoing packets and allow traffic to your VPN providers, DNS servers,
and Any IPs of the Public WiFi's Captive portal if you need that to reach to connect to that Wifi network.

In any case, THEN you launch the VPN software on your PC.

Popular until they only get half the pay.

I find it incredibly disrespectful.

Then don't do it. Problem solved. You're welcome.

The USA is like any other country. Some people are motivated, some are only averagely motivated, and some are lazy.

As a driven person, I work because I desire to do value added work - not necessarily for the money, but the monetary rewards have been quite good.

There could be issues with the concept that a subset of people are considered full time at 32 hours, but others are not.

Another issue is that say in a career such as the one I retired from, there will be people who demand a 32 hour workweek, even though there are multiple days and efforts that do not fit into that. Already, there were people who refused to do more than 40 hours a week. If there was a big meeting coming up that required coming in early and working later, that task was on me, because there was a litany of excuses, from car pooling, to making their husband breakfast, to just don't wanna.

The great irony is that yes, when there is a downturn, their great wish is granted - they get all the hours off. Who are you going to retain - the person who puts in only average effort, or the one who practices value added?

Now granted, I do not have the standard outlook that the key to happiness is to work as few hours as possible, because work is evil. I never understood that. In the cases early on in my life, when I had a not very good employer, I left. But I figured that since I spend a lot of time there, I might as well enjoy myself.

Some people question whether interacting with AI replicas of the dead is actually a healthy way to process grief

How about these assholes process their grief their way, and the rest of us will choose our own paths without them pretending to be our parents or guardians?

If your life consists of trying to figure out how to restrict the ways other people relate to their losses, your life is a net loss to society. Or, more succinctly, you're a shithead.

It doesn't.

Also, there are already quite a few good open source AI models.

They'd be better off lowering enforcement. It's a potential disaster to officially allow this bc of US politics and the religious right.

As a matter of fact, the Very first issue about the Internet that Congress wanted to regulate was Obscenity. Remember the CDA Section 230 ?

It's by Sheer accident that the CDA protects a lot of speech online and shields providers for what they chose to allow. It was originally written with the Goal of strongly Incentivizing service providers to ban Obscenity and the like off their servers. The Liability shield was created to protect Providers from Liability due to Acting against Objectionable materials entirely.

Anyway, I predict if they move forward with this- OpenAI's going to end up getting religious evangelists going to their website and trying to exploit it as badly as possible, And then submit so many complaints to Visa, Mastercard, and the legislators about the filth they were able to generate. They'll be Looking at a Whole slew of new compliance Issues before too long - in terms of Payment processor demands, and new Government regulations.

When you're a perl programmer you've just gotta make the string yourself.

Here in PA, the last time I voted, there were a lot of young women voting. They made up the majority of the voters where I am. Had no problems, and the polling place even smelled better. 8^)

Gee, I wonder what the reason was for that? Them voting en masse, not how pleasant they smelled.

That there are voter suppression tactics going on is undeniable. Ya just have to fight it. What is more, "Voter fraud" has always been a touchstone of the far right, I wonder if they learned anything from the repeal of Roe v Wade that was an earlier touchstone.

Because it is turning out that so much of the fraud was on their part.

I take it that was sarcasm?

However, there are a lot of young people who believe that work is not a necessary evil but intrinsically evil, so maybe not sarcasm? I've seen some of the TikTok rants.

Until we have AI robots attending to our every need, and the depopulation that will follow because about 95 percent of humanity is surplus to needs, work will be a fact of life, and there is a certain pecuniary enhancement attached to that work.