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Comment Re:Transitions (Score 2) 241

Yup. And I've got my USB (A) to DB9 serial adapter handy.

Which is unreliable in many situations. I worked on several projects that had issues involving intermittent data loss on a DB9 port, and every time the culprit turned out to be a USB/DB9 adapter. When we'd install dedicated RS232 cards, the problem went away.

For laptops, the answer to this kind of thing should be a standard space where a customer can specify what ports he wants... you get X number of standard ports, and then you can choose what goes into one or two available spaces. But you're just not going to see that happen with manufacturers, even if the customer is willing to pay a greater cost.

Comment Re:Reminds me of a meme (Score 1) 67

It asks the question why don't kids play outside anymore and then in the next frame there's a picture of a pretty typical American city with absolutely no sidewalks let alone Parks or anything and the subtitle "the outside".
  You give up a portion of your life in exchange for cars and a car centric civilization. And I guess for most people they think it's worth it.

Except that I spent some years growing up in dense, street-centric areas, and kids simply played in the streets. Every day. Our substitute for baseball (so as not to damage cars or windows) was "whiffle ball", with hollow plastic balls and bats. In the summers especially, we spent literally all day outside. In the streets. For kids who did this too much, the criticism was literally that "you let your kids run the streets".

Being car-centric has nothing to do with kids activity. The spread of video games and Internet connected culture had everything to do with the modern dearth of outdoor activity by kids. All of my youngest's friends are online in distant places. There are other kids in the neighborhood, but very few of them play outside that I can see. Online is where all the action is. Maybe the answer is for parents to literally kick kids out of the house, they way they used to do ("out, and I don't want to see you back inside until lunch" was a common summer refrain from parents). Maybe if all the kids are turned out, they'll start doing the natural thing, and make their own fun, which is all "outside" is.

Comment User Problem (Score 5, Funny) 241

I have a gaming laptop with two USB-A and USB-C ports, and it's a constant struggle to connect all my devices simultaneously without needing a hub. I use the two USB-A ports for my mouse and wireless headset dongles, while a phone charging cable and portable monitor take up the USB-Cs. This setup stresses me out because there's no extra space to connect anything else without losing functionality.

That's entirely why they inventing docking stations.

Comment Re:I predict everyone will want tips now (Score 1) 61

Tipping culture is absurd top to bottom, people should be paid a decent wage.

Tipping is great in good service jobs. You tend to make good money in mid-to-nicer restaurants as a waiter or waitress. Where tipping sucks is when you work in cheap joints with cheap customers. Or delivering pizza, like you did in college, where your customers tend to be either poor or cheapskates. Poor people can't afford to tip, and cheapskates simply won't. And then there are the groups that simply refuse to tip because they don't see labor or service as a value at all. "If I can't hold it in my hand, I ain't payin' for it".

Comment Re:Not a pejorative (Score 1) 105

Calling someone a "dickhead" is merely pointing out that you find someone's behaviour disagreeable.

Is it bad language? Sure, but that is acceptable in some environments more than others.

Calling your superiors in the workplace a vulgar name is a fire-able offense pretty much any place else. It's not just the word, but also the fact that using it is a type of insubordination. If your boss is a jerk, then you need to find work elsewhere. But every workplace has discipline and conduct standards. You simply can't let subordinates openly insult their chain of command or you won't have much command.

Comment Re:Unintended consequences (Score 1) 105

There is freedom of expression in the UK.

It's a right under the European Convention on Human Rights, of which the UK is a signatory.

You've just charged a comedian with a criminal offense because his Tweet might hurt feelings. Any freedom of expression Brits had is meaningless empty symbolism at this point.

Comment Re:Smashing the biomedical research industry (Score 1) 321

Listen, this is barely even on topic. We should be talking about how bad tariffs are, and if the supreme court will allow the tariffs to continue and force Trump and Republicans to eat their shit sandwich. Etc.

But what he's done to medicine and research? Not really pertinent. Besides, the point I was going to make, is how can the modern medicine complex even continue? You routinely here about how people and their insurance isn't able to pay the exorbitant prices they want to charge for the output of said advances. It's so unrealistic. Can the upper 20% of consumers in America prop this up? That's probably not even accurate, I would bet it's less than 5%, so just high net worth households, that stand a chance at paying for this research. This industry is delusional and has to extend the timelines of paying back themselves for their costs. The current path for health insurance in America that we were already on was going to threaten our "world-leading biomedical research industry."

My favorite story ever I got via an anti-vaccer family member. In the process of sharing a story about vaccine safety the story led with how it was Reagan who indemnified the industry from lawsuits relating to how unsafe vaccines were. Pure political disillusion. MAGA is indeed a cult.

Comment Re:"If plaintiff didn't read her contract ..." (Score 1) 77

I'd be fine with this. Recently Audible removed a book from my library and essentially told me to kick rocks. I'd listened to it when I first got it, and although I wanted to go back and check something in one of the chapters (which is how I found the book was no longer available), it's not the end of the world: it's just $15 they stole from me.

Comment Re:I'd be interested to know... (Score 1) 97

>... what he thinks of modern C++ where the learning curve for newbies is now getting close to vertical. Speaking as a C++ dev of 25 years I wouldn't go near the language now if I was starting out, the number of paradigms and syntactic complexity has become ridiculous. And yes, if you're going to work on code written by others you do need to know and understand all these paradigms.

C++ is the easiest to learn now in, like, ever.

It's a mistake you have to know all the ins and outs of the language. The minimal set you need to do interesting things is quite small and it is much more usable than ever. I haven't had a memory leak or other memory issue since I switched over to modern C++ 10+ years ago.

Well, I had one once, but I did it deliberately to see if my tools (ASAN) would detect it. It did.

Comment Congratulations (Score 1) 6

I'm glad you got to have kids and watch them grow from birth. I never got to do that; I married a gal and the boys were already ten and eleven years old when I entered their life.

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