But, ignore the AC/rsilvergun ... they troll everything, just to push their 10000% Democrat views without backing anything up with a shred of proof (if someone has a good argument and good proof, I'd love to read it, and if you can convince me, I'll vote Dem (I'm still waiting for that... I keep asking)).

So, you claim Fark is a good news service because you always include it in your sig? Any decent internet denizen knows not to refer to one single news service only... let's say an article about Artemis II... a couple articles from both sides and one from the middle-ish ground (if you can find one), and you average between them all and "kinda, sorta" end up with something closer to the truth (than either the strictly leftist or rightist one is gonna feed you).

I question what they'll do when Trump isn't in office? Is a future president's "oops" his fault? I predict they'll be going nuts on here.

So do I. I used to work in upright freezer manufacturing (machine operator on third shift) (somehow, I installed myself as the indirect lead person and department manager... my machine determined if everything ran, and repairs take precedence over everything)... miss those days!
Now, the place is a 1.3 million sq.ft. empty building with a rail line going into it for chemical delivery.

When you could work all month on a regular schedule and afford rent and still have a good chunk left? Yeah, the good days... now, if you're lucky enough to have an office job, it's 50-70+ a week on a salary, and the weekend is basically spent in a coma (if you have a weekend).
Office jobs existed before, but they weren't like they are now... now, you're competing against others _and_ an AI (of some degree) to hang onto your job.
For someone who doesn't have a fancy piece of $200k paper that says 'I know what I'm doing', we're screwed.
And, no... going back to school would cost me that much and more, and loans won't work (no car, no house... biggest thing is the tower or record collection), and scholarships are crap (not a good student in school)... and there's tons of people like me out there now days.

That's because the US has "standards of living" which requires minimum wages and such.
Trust me, if the companies could, they'd still be giving you $1 a day and a couple cans of tuna and half a loaf of bread (if you're lucky, it's the bigger, non-moldy half). But, we have to care of employees for some odd reason... just wait until the humanoid robots, then we can all lounge back and live 'high on the hog' off _something that we won't earn_.

If people hadn't whined about "minimum wage of $8 isn't enough" and caused it to increase, that wouldn't have increased the cost of living and the prices on literally everything, which wouldn't have landed us with stuff like BK (the lobby cashier is also the burger assembler and flipper, and the drive-thru attendant, and the custodian).

And, now that LLM-AI is getting incorporated into everything, even those jobs might be history. It'll just be nothing but robots with machine vision and LLM-AI controlling it, and half a dozen people with laptops (or towers on carts) to troubleshoot.

We'd complain to the company, if the company gave a flying fornication and would listen.

When you have a few spare compute cycles to spare... install a decent web server on your computer, add PHP (just for the database)... how much resources does that cost you? What's GTAV's footprint? 50gigs?
Somehow, I bet they have that much just sitting around in a drawer or on a shelf.

Would it be better if you were completely unable to get online at all (in any manner, from any device) unless you have today's update to your network adapter?
Maybe your 5 year old iPad (which works fine) should self-destruct because it's 2.5ms beyond it's 5 year lifespan.
Warcraft II, you could host your own server, and as long as your computer could handle it, your whole school could connect (or however many players as the game supports)... what's so complicated about that?

And, for Talchas (under this post), it wouldn't be an extra cost... packing the server program and its files into a .ZIP file doesn't take more than a little time and someplace to post it online.
That should be required... "Upon discontinuing multiplayer access, the server source code must be released, to be done with as pleased by whoever acquires it, with no blowback" should be in the license.

The CD/DVD key should only be tied to the disc _alone_... if it can't access the Blizzard server, the disc should validate the key and work.
Maybe you'd rather your entire collection of Soprano's (store-bought discs) just stopped working because the server to authorize me watching it is now gone... that cost a chunk of money, and I'd be upset. A physical copy that still reads (no scratches and stuff to make it not work) should still work.

So... 5% globally using Linux, 5% of them have installed Steam On Linux... I think you're a bit optimistic there, nomadic.

If you don't like the way New Windows (TM) looks, don't install it and keep using Win10 or whatever... if your computer is secured, you're not gonna get malware/viruses.
If you could just install a game you physically bought in Linux and it worked natively, that percentage would go up lots (and, if Linux had much more support for everything out there... I shouldn't have to try and look up some odd error and have to do some arcane blood sacrifice along with a ten-finger key combo in the 5ms window before it crashes, just so I can type in a command that could be mistaken for a CRC Checksum).
Making a Windows .EXE work natively in Linux shouldn't be that difficult... it's all code, and Linux speaks all (and then some) code.

I was wondering the same thing.
They (rsilvergun also known as AC) were probably referring to Russia and how the conflicts there will impede Russia's food shipments... though, I'm pretty sure the People will still get their allotment based on how much they contribute to Mother Russia as a whole.

(From Google)
"Iran exports a wide range of food products, including saffron, pistachios, nuts, rice, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and seafood, with saffron and pistachios being globally renowned."

The sane solution is (for the protecting the children side of it)... better parenting! Maybe the 'screen' shouldn't be used as a babysitter. As for the adults in the classroom, there are other ways to get news... I seem to remember these big things that put news on pieces of paper, and a radio with a big enough antenna can receive radio from across the world if you know where to look.

It'll be fun watching society grind to a halt when the Internet completely goes down... literally nothing will work!

But, according to AC/rsilvergun up there, everything wrong in the world is Trump's fault. I'm sure they'll find a way to blame Trump for Russia taking Crimea, too... just a normal day around here.

In other news, Russia going after VPNs isn't really surprising... gotta use the sanitized Russian internet.
If they 'restrict' access to VPNs, wonder how they'll restrict Tor.

It's both the same person... look at the signature line.

If he wants to take the company public, good luck! That also makes it easier to lose the whole thing and to lose total control over it.
If his gambles with SpaceX work (Starship, and more crewed missions), it could be a good choice... but, if it's more failures, the company won't be worth the paper it's printed on.

I wouldn't have taken it public, though... too much risk of someone getting their foot in the door (operations-wise) and mucking up the whole works.

Remember the days when a parent could help their kid with a math problem without the parent having to go back to school? --> https://athomaspointofview.com...

I think part of the computers for every kid is to "get them ready for their future working in an office" because that's the goal that the administrators of the district expect of every kid.
I only learned math the old way, I still handwrite my grocery list, I still pay rent with a paper check.

It would just take a quick search to find instructions about bypassing the education-only locking software, unless it's some never-before heard of locking system.

I get modded down all the time by the political trolls, because I don't agree with their arguments.

Digital (a tablet or phone or something, because everyone buys their kids the newest stuff) is a backup to paper and pen/pencil, actually.

Don't the "fill the bubbles" cards still work? Can't the teachers read some student's essay?
How's digital everything going to work when the network goes down for some reason?
I grew up in the days of a backpack full of books, and several notebooks of notes and stuff, and it was amazing tech when my elementary school got a CD-ROM (the old cartridge ones).
Us kids from back then knew about reading a dozen books to find enough info for that 1-page essay about Australia... now, if the network is down, "I can't do my homework".
Politics didn't really figure into our reports back then (aside from like the big wars, and then it was based on the books and whatever your dial-up internet showed you).

Really, no school should have gone away from books... while either can be biased as hell, if everyone has a textbook that says "last admin was bad", it's easier to judge the essay... if the content of the article changes 5 times a day, that becomes a little more difficult (especially once the teacher gets the papers back and spends the next two days reviewing each one).
Although, it seems to be assumed that all kids in school these days will be sitting in a cushy chair at some big outfit, and not having to 'make do' with less than whatever the standard is.

Say I buy a game... Diablo II or GTAV or whatever... first place, it should have a physical disc (there are Blu-Rays now, so the game can fit on a couple discs, not a big deal) or SD card, or whatever, end of story, and the CD Key slapped on the case should work with that disc, regardless of whether I'm online or not or the disc is 10 years old or whatever... I should be able to play the game.
Should my computer just self-destruct because it's guts are two years old? A ten-year old game should run awesome on a two-year old computer (assuming drivers work right)!

Are the production margins that razor-thin that leaving the server (whether it's for authentication or for multiplayer) running costs too much?
Imagine if they did that with CoD4 or something really popular... just totally nuke your copy of whatever forever (after paying whatever) because it's 5 years old.

(Your computer downloads a new BIOS as part of regular system updates... the new BIOS shorts a few pins in the CPU and GPU and RAM, destroying all. It's covered in the "license", didn't you read it?)

Running a server for Diablo II or whatever should be part of the game, hands down. Warcraft II had that baked in.

I believe that's called a "figure of speech"... most people would understand... "sailed" works the same way when a _cruise ship_ sets sail from harbor or you 'set sail' on your yacht.
Well, we wouldn't have to worry about LLM-AI if we didn't build the dumb thing, would we?
What ancient technology are you referring to? Did the Mayans find a way to visit the moon?

Once we get the technology down to repeatable (where the SRBs and mainstage engine can be caught or recovered), and everything is reusable, it's not gonna cost billions... it'll cost ten million and maybe less, and the turnaround will be faster, too.

Or... didja think we were just going to kick around this rock forever? I can see Star Trek happening (once the tech gets there... not sure how we're gonna do Replicators), and it's gonna need to be assembled in space... it'll be more like the Nostromo with hypersleep and stuff... and, warp drive (or even close to it) is probably a century or more out.

No... a thing made entirely in the US of entirely US components... is it that hard to make a suspension spring? Or, recycle beer cans? Make a transistor?
Make it all in the US, maybe even create some jobs for people (y'know, people adding a switch to a door or something)... that'd be great!