Nice part about learning a new skill, no matter how hard it is you only need to learn it once.

How steep the learning curve is depends on what OS and Desktop Environment you choose. Pick a DE that is close to the look and feel of the DE your using now and the the learning curve is shallower than going between some Windwos versions. Pick one radically different and the curve is much steeper, like going from a Win 7 system to a Mac.

For Corporate users it would be almost a no brainer. If the IT department picks a DE with a similar look and feel to their current version of Windwos and makes sure that the apps are in the obvious places that Users would expect them to be, spreadsheet app under "Office", browser under "Internet", etc. I would be that the transistion between OSs would co mostly without complaint. Although there will always be the PHB who calls IT in a panic because their old wallpaper of a cute puppy not already set.

I've been using Linux with the Trinity Desktop for over 14 years, was using Linux/KDE before that. Going from Windows 7 to TDE was simple and clean, TDE is so similar to Win 7 in look and feel that everything was where I expected it in the "Start" menu, hardest thing I've had to figure out in all this time in TDE has been how to change the DPI scaling when I upgraded my monitor to a higher resolution. The important thing is I did find it where I expected it to be, in a sub menu of the system configuration menu.

For me the cost of switching between Windows and Linux was effectively zero. Going from Win 7 to TDE was easier than trying to go from Win 7 to Win 8.

It became their responsibility when they acted on the data.

Yes. you are 100% correct.

Try and find a copy of "The Emperor Wears No Cloths" by Jack Herrer. It has the full timeline and loads of informative tid bits about the efforts to keep Hemp Illegal in the USA and abroad and what people are doing to get those laws over turned.

That one book completely changed my views about Hemp. Well worth the effort to find and read.

Fun Trivia:
One acre of Hemp can produce the same amount of usable cellulose in one year as an acre of Trees every 10 years.

Paper can be made from hemp using Hydrogen Peroxide as a bleaching agent. Environmentally friendly and the paper will last literally Millennia. (oldest paper 450BCE, hemp based)

Du Pont was granted a patent in 1936 to make paper using Sulfuric acid. They signed a deal with Hearst to provide cheap paper for Hearst's news papers. Just as a Hemp based paper was about to become practical due to a new way of processing Hemp stalks.

Hearst did a media blitz against Hemp, only the papers called it by it's Spanish name "Marijuana" and claimed it made Mexican immigrants violent, Blacks disrespectful (they would look a White man in the eye!!), and made White Women want to have sex with Blacks. Hearst newspapers described it as "a devil weed" the Mexican immigrants were bringing into the country.

The word "Marijuana" wasn't part of general English before 1936. But everyone knew about Hemp and that it was harmless and incredibly useful.

In 1936 Popular Mechanics described Hemp as a "Billion Dollar Crop", in 1936 dollars, due to how useful hemp was in just about everything, textiles, food, medicine, and general industries.

The original Levis pants were made from canvas made from, you guessed it, Cannabis. They were so durable the would sometimes be passed from Father to Son.

I don't think they are underestimating things. They are however understating things to cover their asses.

Some simulations are showing exactly what we are now seeing but they are not the ones getting published. What does get published are the more conservative results that will ensure the groups don't get called out for being "fear mongers" or "Doomsayers" and risk their credibility and funding.

Mess with people's oil most people will just go "meh". grumble a bit about paying more for Petrol but still pay. For the most part it doesn't have any noticeable impact on people's lives beyond fsck'g their monthly budget a bit. It only impacts those who pay the bills.

Mess with their Internet, cut off their Facebook, Twitter, etc. and you impact everyone who uses the Internet. Businesses, banks, all genders, old and young . That will piss off more people because it will impact everyone who uses the Internet in some way in an immediate and personal way. Enemies and Allies alike. Granted for the overwheling majority of Internet users it won't even be noticed. For those in the area served by the cables it will only add a couple of extra microseconds to their connection latency at worst in most cases as their traffic gets routed around the damage. But everyone will know that Iran is directly threatening something they care about and relies on.

Iran just made a direct threat to the Internet. All the other cable damage so far have been "Ooops, so sorry, we didn't intend to damage that cable by dragging our anchor across 100 miles of sea floor in an area we knew there was a cable". This is Iran declaring intent to damage those cables. I'm kind of reminded of that scene in Blazing Saddles where the new Sheriff points his gun at his head and warns that if anyone tries anything he'll shoot himself.

If Iran goes "Pay us or we will cut these cables!". The rest of world should just cross their arms, give Iran a look of pity at their stupidity and say "Go ahead". Then if Iran does intentionally cut a cable the response should be to completely cut Iran off from the Internet. And I mean COMPLETELY, as in any traffic to or from Iran gets redirected to /dev/null, air strikes on their satellite up links and overland relays so they can't even route their traffic through a sympathetic neighbor. Let their business and banks suffer, let their people be deprived of their social media. Sit back and see how long the current government stays in power.

They want to threaten the Internet, fine. But they can't complain then Internet says "No packets for you!".

Probably completely impracticable for various financial, legal, moral. and social reasons but interesting to think about.

What about their families, friends, etc.?

Devuan: https://www.devuan.org/ . Debian without systemd

This is just the latest attempt to distract California citizens from something else that is going wrong in California.

As I've pointed out in other threads there are no laws in the USA that prevent someone from making a gun from scratch. If you can legally own a gun, i.e. your not a convicted felon, underage, etc. you can build on for yourself. It has to be within the existing law regarding barrel length, over all length, can't be full auto, and you can't sell or otherwise transfer it to another.

A trip to the hardware store and about US$25 is all someone needs to build a functional gun out of pipe fittings and a spring. No 3D printer needed. I'm actually surprised no one has made a hybrid pipe fitting firearm with 3D printed parts. It would be much safer than the current 3D printed plastic toys they are trying to ban.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://www.criminaldefenselaw....

And an interesting bit of trivia;
In the USA the cities with the most restrictive gun laws also have the highest incidences of gun violence.

Sweden has almost he same per capita gun ownership as the USA but only a fraction of the gun violence, or even just violence in general.

America is violent at a cultural level, if you want to reduce gun violence then you need to focus on reducing violence as a whole.

Ban guns, people will use knifes (remember the UK trying to ban steak knives?), take away the knives they will use cricket bats, skillets, pipes, tree branches, etc.

The core issue with gun related violence is not the guns, they are just inanimate tools, but the culture that considers the use of deadly force to be an acceptable first response instead of something to be avoided at all costs. Fix the cultures and the violence goes away.

IIRCC California is a two party consent state. That means to record what is expected to be a private conversation you MUST have explicit consent from both parties or your in violation of the law.

If your in public it is considered that there is no expectation of privacy so your OK filming/recording LEOs and such. But in a doctor's office the would be a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Unless those laws were amended or struck down then if the patients were not clearly informed that they were being recorded and they clearly consented to being recorded then someone is going to be in big trouble with the courts.

There is legal wiggle room for things like support calls where the intro message of the automated switchboard informs you that the call "may be recorded for ... " the courts will accept that if you stay on the line after hearing that you are explicitly consenting to being recorded.

If anyone is more familiar with CA wiretap laws please chime in on this because my last dealing with it was a couple decades ago.

I stopped updating at 1.8.9

I have not felt any desire or even vague interest to update since. The newer version don't add anything I'm interested in and mostly just breaks my favorite mods.

So if Microsoft wants to break the newest Minecraft versions that is their call. They paid for it, it is theirs to FUBAR as they choose.

Last I heard, about a month and a half ago actually, it is COMPLETELY LEGAL in the USA* to make your own gun. You just can't sell it, transfer it, and it has to be within Federal law in regards to barrel and overall length and a few other features. Oh, and it can't be an automatic unless you get a permit first.

(* last I heard CA was still part of the USA. did they secede while I was getting dinner or something?)

Not to mention anyone with more brain cells than the Cali politicians seem to have can walk into a hardware store, buy some pipe fittings and build what was commonly called a "zip gun" in a few hours. And it would be much easier, faster, and lets face it safer than a 3D printed gun. The BOM and instructions are all over the Internet already.

This whole thing is just California's political critters trying to look like they are doing something while they ignore or can't fix whatever real problems the state has.

"Pay no attention to the issues behind the curtain."

I'm not up to speed on what is California's current list of issues so I'm not going to try and comment on them.

Any better informed CA residents want to chime in with what is really going on?

For the the species "Homo Sapiens".

How much Human DNA can we change before we are a different species?

wouldn't have mattered if they did.

The USA doesn't recognize the ICC's jurisdiction with regards to US citizens.

Dick Cheney was one of the few people I was actually looking forward to their death. Sadly that list has gotten longer in the last decade rather than shorter.

I'm not cheering like I did when Scalia died, but I'm going to raise a glass later and toast "Good riddance, Mr.Cheney, may the Yama give you everything you deserve."

One of the things about making something with a larger volume is that you will also decrease the amount of heat it can get rid of.

How are they going to cool these new 3D chips?