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Comment Re:Reading (Score 1) 133

What we need is more social programs. We need more anti whatever training because kids are disproportionally affected by something or another. The overweight kids need more food because obviously they are starving or something. And also, more after school programs and later start times for schools because reasons. For all this, we need more administration and testing for our students so that we can know more about what they aren't learning in pretty reports and stuff. And tech, we need more distracting tech because they don't get enough with their phones.

And taxes, we need to pay more because all these programs aren't free.

Maybe THEN we'll tackle illiteracy.

*I'm in IT for Education. Schools aren't teaching kids because the schools are distracted by everything but educating kids. Oh, they'll claim they are "trying". My dad used to say "Trying is a noisy way of doing nothing".

Comment You will own nothing! (Score 1) 13

The system will be dead in less than 5 years. Samsung will change the terms of service and you will be left holding an empty bag having bought a pig in a poke. Not even a pig one can put lipstick on.

And Louis Rossmann will have to make yet another video about how wrong it all is.

It is almost like nobody pays attention.

Boomer here, get off my lawn. Yes, I've become the greybeard I used to make fun of 40 years ago.

Comment Re:not the tariffs honest (Score 4, Insightful) 74

It was meddling by both D and R in our economy, both were scared of invisible boogiemen of "something bad might happen".

Fear is a great motivator. Courage is standing in the face of danger understanding the risks might be worse doing nothing than doing something. This is a calculated risk and ought to be rewarded in the marketplace if it is correct.

Conglomerates are neither good nor bad in and of themselves. The good is they offer efficiencies in the marketplace. The bad is they take advantage of those efficiencies and often get "too big to fail" (a lie).

People guessing who have no stake in the market are making bad choices, because of other reasons. Both D and R do this. I call it the "There ought to be a law" reactions. Nobody stops long enough to say "no there shouldn't be".

Comment Re:FOMO (Score 2) 39

Do Two parent families vs single parent families.

Making it in this world is about making good choices consistently. Constantly telling people the world is stacked against them (it's true, but for almost everyone) and that trying is a waste (it isn't) is a huge mistake. Citing your skin color for success or failure is simply a crutch.

Do 4 things, consistently leads to above average outcomes, on average because most people can't do those four things. Life does not have guarantees but it does reward good choices over time.

See Poker (and not sports betting) for example. Also, Poker doesn't care what color your skin is.

Comment Re:Now that's a plan. (Score 1) 39

You'd be amazed at how little effect firing execs actually has over the option of firing a bunch of low level worker bees .

Fire 1 exec for 12 Million salary
OR
Layoff 250 worker bees and save 25 million in salary expenses .

Nobody cares about workers at the level where these decisions are made.

Filed Under: "One is a tragedy, a million is a statistic" - Stalin (allegedly)

Comment Re:"Microsoft said it's working to resolve the iss (Score 1) 73

"even one time"

Unless you never use a password, in which case, you log in via all the other available options BUT password. You don't notice it missing. Passwords are so 1980s, get with the program.

I don't use biometrics because .. lets just say they are their own version of compromised. You cannot be compelled to give up your Password (legally) (hammer method is still valid) but a fingerprint, face ID etc that doesn't require you to speak can be compelled. I have no idea why people think it is "more secure" to use biometrics.

Comment Re:Secular (Score 1) 133

How does one discern the difference between someone hurling an epithet randomly based on topical knowledge versus someone wanting to discuss actual Nazi doctrine from 1930s?

How much influence do you think FDR had on Nazi politics before the bad stuff started? Most Americans have no clue how closely FDR aligned with Adolf before it went sideways.

Comment Re:Universe 25 (Score 1) 176

You are correct. In your uninformed opinion those are reasonable assumptions. You don't know, you assume. What is clear or obvious from someone who has NEVER met me, isn't so clear if you have.

I've been addicted to drugs, had to dumpster dive, even sleeping in a park.

Meanwhile, the poor today have all their needs met, if they can manage a few simple steps. They can even have servants bring them food at all hours from a cornucopia of cuisines from around the world. In minutes.

Let me put it to you this way, why do people go to the gym? Because their life is easy, they have to "work out". Working out is "struggle" so you don't end up weak.

I have more scars (real and mental) than you can even imagine. What you think you know, is your own problem, not mine. I don't judge you, except for your stated biases. You're a bigot, you just don't know it.

Comment Universe 25 (Score 4, Interesting) 176

"Universe 25 was a 1960s-70s experiment by John B. Calhoun that created a "mouse utopia" with ample food, water, and nesting sites, but no predators or disease. The experiment demonstrated how an overpopulation of mice, despite a lack of material scarcity, led to a social breakdown known as the "behavioral sink". This collapse included social withdrawal, aggression, a breakdown of parental care, and a cessation of reproduction, ultimately leading to the colony's extinction." -GoogleAI created summary.

We don't want to admit it, but we're so successful and wealthy that we cannot see the value of struggle.

Or, if you want the Space version, WALL-E fat lazy human civilization.

The problem is, removing resistance makes us weaker not stronger.

Comment Re: Frightening because (Score 1) 35

We do have limits to speech. Already.

Limits to causal reactions and effects. You can scream fire all you want, even in a crowded theater. The moment it causes panic and an event that causes death or injury, that no longer is free speech.

Threatening people's life and limb is banned.

Slander and Libel

Some of these limits are criminal (causing actual harm) while others require civil court actions (Libel). And even there, there are limits in favor of Liberty.

In your example, we have additional protections for children/minors who are unable to discern ill intents of adults taking advantage.

If someone is willfully and willingly lying to deceive that can be both criminal or civil (or both) in nature. We already have laws in place for that. But the ultimate issue here is that you cannot distinguish between the speech "there is a puppy lost" and the kidnapping that follows.

Freedom to express yourself is utmost sacred in our tradition of liberty. BUT you are not free from the consequences, real or imagined. It also means that government controls on speech are few and far between, and are usually tied to courts for adjudication. We still have Time Place and Manner restrictions as much as I think even THOSE are abused at times (e.g. can't play loudspeakers at 3AM)

Comment Re: Frightening because (Score 0) 35

As a free speech absolutist myself, I don't care if people are so stupid that they believe everything they're being told. The only problem I have is there are people believe the lies and vote.

See my signature for more info. Democracy is the collective stupidity of all of us, telling the rest of us how we ought to be ruled. -

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 99

COBOL is easy.

Easy to learn
Easy to program with
Easy to read.

It is very simple. Which is both a strength and its biggest weakness.

The problem is that programs written are NOT structured except the way the guy who wrote the code thought it should be ... if he even thought about it at all.

I was once upon a time hired to convert a COBOL programmed system into an SQL database. The example I use is there was this one proceedure done in COBOL ( take data, modify it this way, output accordingly), literally the same process, but it wasn't a procedure it was coded three different ways. The inputs and outputs should have been the same, they were .... most of the time. And that is why there was this other bit of code checking outputs over there ---->

Also written different ways.

Diarrhea code. They never did get it migrated. The guys who wrote it died and the system died with him. The real fix would have been to have a clean room implementation with three teams, the COBOL team, the API team and the SQL team. But it was a mom and pop shop, and didn't have the funds available which is why the system died when the last of the COBOL coders died.

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