This isn't terribly surprising, but it is disappointing. Only 4 students are there to actually learn? (cue old man rant) Kids, today, have an unimaginable advantage over us older folks. When we were kids, if it didn't exist in the school library, or the public library, it didn't exist at all. If you lived in a small town, with small libraries, your access to any given subject was pragmatically limited to superficial coverage, if covered at all. Even today, if I go to my public library, I can find a hundred books of fiction on all sorts of romantic relationships, but exactly 4 books on physics; maybe 2 on math. And I donated three of the physics books. This just reflects what customers want, and my small town doesn't really want math and science.

Now, we have a WWW that can teach you as much as you want to know on whatever topic. Even better, LLMs can spoon feed you knowledge in a way that, if a plain reading of a topic doesn't make sense, you can alter it and query it until it does. This is a paradise of learning, if you choose to actually learn. And the majority of kids, if you go by the numbers in this class, only use LLMs to get an assignment done, and then scurry off to whatever social engagement they have. What a waste.

On the other hand, would I have been any better? Yeah, hm, I dunno. I'd like to think so, since I do enjoy learning, but I can't say for sure.

I worked on a healthcare device that, early on, used floppies to save and retrieve information; not surprising. But the code for saving and reading the data was so fkn convoluted. Instead of something straightforward like

switch( media ) {
case floppy:
doFloppyStuff();
break;
case CD:
doCDStuff();
break;
}

(I can't get tabs in there, but you know what it's saying)
They had this one ginormous multi-paged function that interspersed floppy and CD support in the same function. I undertook the rewrite for it, and it took us multiple meetings, and then weeks of shakedown testing to make sure the changes didn't break anything, before the other team members were Ok with the changes.

If this is private funding, meh. Let them spend their money as they want.
If any public funds are used for this, then there should be a *lot* of pushback from society.

Gimme a sec while I ponder whether I feel bad about that.

This rickety ladder "is actually the best and cheapest solution at this time," so we shouldn't ask questions about it, or try to improve it! "Stop Bitching!"

That's fine and dandy, I guess, but the bigger issue is can we fundamentally trust this government, given the scallawags in charge, to report actual issues, address those issues; or would they capitalize on them for their own self-interests, for when they're no longer in power? My knee-jerk response to any and all of this is I don't trust 'em.

No Zune reference? Lame.

Yeah, I've tried it. Mainly, it consisted of altering my work schedule so I could be home shortly after my kid got out of school, and then we played outside - together - until it was dinner time. Not every day, but often enough that I was "one of the gang." I remember chasing him and his buddies down hallways in our apartment building, them laughing like little maniacs. Neighbors would pop their heads out to see what the ruckus was, see me chasing them, and then go back inside: "Oh, it's just those guys playing again."

The key point was involvement. I knew what he was up to, because I was usually right there. I wasn't smothering him; if anything, I was encouraging him ("go light this firecracker and toss it in the drain!"), but with the insight that comes from having made stupid mistakes, myself, and letting him avoid them.

By the time he got to browse the Internet, I let him surf wherever he wanted, because he was mature enough - mostly - to know what was acceptable, and what was not. Never had a problem with it, anyway. And, now that he's in his 40s, we're still best buds. I just can't catch him as easily, lately.

But I realize that this approach isn't for everyone: it takes a *lot* of energy. Kids are like little monkeys; if you can't keep up, you'll wreck the vibe, and they won't want to hang out with you. You have to be in shape, and you have to have a mind like a kid, yourself. Too many parents try to mail it in, and kids can't respect that.

No one is saying that Dems are squeaky clean; they're not. But an average "shit ratio" of, say, 4, to "this goes to 11" is not the same, as Cmdr said. I'd love a squeaky clean party in politics, but that isn't going to happen; it just goes against the nature of the beast.

Then it should be pretty easy to gather some proof and submit it to both the press and the DA. Whatcha waiting for, champ?

Truth has a well-known left bias.

"Less" doesn't mean none. Even the best designed and manufactured devices can have failures. Plus, particularly with cars, people get into accidents, or just do dumb things, and need repairs afterwards.

If it were *only* sales, yeah, this would be illogical. But if you factor in service and repairs, they could actually, in fact, make money, while losing money on initial sales.

Nah, that's not right. Conservative dogma is, "If I don't like it, it shouldn't be allowed." Throw something in there for, "Live by my rules, but I'm not bound by yours."

For background context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...