I've heard of those famed supernovae that were visible with the naked eye in the middle ages, and I've always wished I could see one too in my lifetime.

I might just be lucky before I go nova myself.

>"Eat shit and pay up motherfucker.
>"Love, Microsoft

https://linuxmint.com/

>"petitioning Microsoft to reconsider pulling support for Windows 10 in 2025, since "as many as 400 million perfectly good computers that can't upgrade to Windows 11"

Most of the machine *can* upgrade to Windows 11, Microsoft has just chosen to artificially block them as part of their "security" (yeah right) stance.

My advice is to move to Linux, if you can, where your privacy and humanity is respected, where you can fully control your own computer and without "cloud" invasion, where updates/upgrades are quick, easy, and free, where security and performance is great, where your machine can live on for many more years.

I have lots of machines that are 10 to 13 years old running Linux and perform very well, and expect will still do so for many more. As long as it has an SSD and enough RAM (I recommend 6+GB but have many with just 4GB), use for browsing, graphics manipulation, playing/recording audio, playing most video, simple/casual gaming, and office-apps are just fine.

Ish.

I would not trust C++ for safety-critical work as MISRA can only limit features, it can't add support for contracts.

There have been other dialects of C++ - Aspect-Oriented C++ and Feature-Oriented C++ being the two that I monitored closely. You can't really do either by using subsetting, regardless of mechanism.

IMHO, it might be easier to reverse the problem. Instead of having specific subsets for specific tasks, where you drill down to the subset you want, have specific subsets for specific mechanisms where you build up to the feature set you need.

Reform copyright, allow derivative works, abolish moral rights. What's the worst that could happen? Solves the problem of AI being "inspired" by existing works. Well, perhaps someone will write a crappy HP-inspired story about Tanya Grotter, a machine-gun wielding lady wizard who goes after bad Chechens (that is a real book, BTW). So what? The goal of copyright is cultural abundance, and that will (eventually) include AI generated works.

Look at Nosferatu, considered to be one of the great vampire movies. The movie was called that because they did not secure the copyright to the Dracula story, and after a lost lawsuit they had to destroy all copies and negatives. Luckily a few survived, and we can still enjoy it.

Oh, absolutely. These days, I spend so much time checking the output from computers, it would normally have been quicker to do searches by hand. This is... not useful.

I can fully understand that.

Exactly what background and/or career does prepare one well for the presidency? A law degree? Founding a successful business? A career in politics? An MBA? Perhaps being a comedian. Or perhaps the job (like many high level managerial jobs) is such a complex multi-faceted one that no career is going to prepare you for it, and no background is a great predictor for success. Perhaps it is more about personality than experience, but even that is not a great predictor. I've seen plenty of politicians who looked great for the job, only to turn out complete rubbish, or the other way around. Or a brilliant mayor who turned out to be a shit minister. And it depends on circumstances as well... one of our MPs is remembered as lackluster and ineffectual, but I think he would have been great if times had been different. Likewise I think that Zelensky would have been a so-so president in peacetime conditions... but he stepped up brilliantly after his country got invaded. Kind of how people look back on Churchill... before the war, people didn't think he was all that either.

Third options never go anywhere in a de facto two party system. You need 2 stage voting: "I want to vote for [independent candidate] but if he doesn't make the cut, I want my vote to go to [rep / dem]"

I don't know what to think about this. Does it indicate less monopolistic behavior from Amazon or more? Is this better or worse for the Walmart? For the consumer? Does this mean Walmart is faltering in this space?

I have ordered a lot from Amazon and some from Walmart and really haven't had a problem with either. But there really aren't other solid choices in this now narrow space. Target as a very distant third? I would hate to see it just be one.

>"If I see a Black pilot, Iâ(TM)m going to be like, boy, I hope heâ(TM)s qualified. â" The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024"

Nice try, picking something out of context, which seems really, really popular now. His discussion was about DEI/Affirmative Action, specifically about airline pilot racial hiring quotas, and how quotas end up lowering excellence by displacing otherwise more qualified candidates. And what effect that can have on people's thinking by casting shadows of doubt. He said, as part of a conversation:

"I mean, like, if you want to go thought crime... I'm sorry if I see a black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified. You wouldn't have done that, that's not who I am. That's not what I believe."

I grew up under the (basically) Soviet education system. I can tell that it's waaaaay better than the average K-12.

One easy fix? Have a high stakes gaokao-style exam for the US students. SAT/ACT are about as tough as a wad of toilet paper.

The K-12 system in the US has failed. The conservative fix here is absolutely right: institute a voucher system, with the Federally guaranteed funding level, and let parents choose schools. With obvious allowances for students with special needs, rural areas, etc.

It's quite clear that regulation is getting nowhere fast. Even the milquetoast Common Core requirements resulted in a revolt from schools not able to teach even basic literacy.

>"The reason most fruit and vegetable harvesting is not automated is that the technology doesn't yet exist.Maybe in a few years or decades, we'll have machines or robots that can pick fruits and vegetables, but likely not anytime soon."

The market will create demand for such technologies, if/when they become necessary. If there is no demand because it can be filled with cheap human labor, then that is what is used. If that supply dries up, labor prices will rise, and companies will be madly developing and competing for creating effective automation. Absolutely guaranteed. And the pricing of that automation will drop rapidly over time as supply increases. And, eventually, it will probably be cheaper and better than the cheap labor it replaced.

We have seen this happen many times, it isn't magic or mystery, it is the free market in action.

Thankfully, I am in the around 50% of people whose homes are not in a HOA. (And I think of the 50% of those that are in HOA are in condos/townhouses, so that is pretty normal/expected/necessary).

An HOA can be a good thing, a bad thing or just neutral. Just depends on the HOA and your needs/expectations. About 60% report positive experiences, 26% neutral, and 14% negative.

In almost all cases, it is voluntary (and hardly a valid comparison to China)- you know what you are getting into when you buy. Of course what you are getting into CAN CHANGE, which is the scary part.