(What the heck does a PalmPilot organizer have to do with any of this?) Well ... I remember back when they first got popular, my buddy was a software developer at the company I worked for. At lunch one day, he mentioned how he absolutely loved the Palm OS platform, simply because it had so many limitations. He said when writing for the Windows PCs, by contrast? You had so many system resources and so many options, you could pretty much code anything you could come up with. Sloppy code was a non-issue too, on modern systems. Only the coders reviewing the source would know any better. He liked the mental challenges involved in maximizing what you could get from a Palm device with a small monochrome screen and the whole bit.

I feel the same way with movies. All these mega-mergers may give a few big-name film-makers massive financial resources to create new movies. But most of it is unnecessary to make an amazing film. What you need is a great story, and good acting (which really isn't some monopoly held by the big Hollywood stars!). Less is very often more. (Consider how well the first Star Wars trilogy held up over time, using simple backgrounds like a mostly empty desert for Tatooine. I prefer that to the crazy "busy" AI generated scenes in the newer movies.)

I agree, sounds like they were short on money, and decided to take an axe to the IT department. Then the inevitable happened.

It is very true that best practices will not guarantee successfully keeping the bad guys out. But we hear so many stories about the keys to the pwned kingdom being accidentally left in plain view. A lot of low hanging fruit out there.

Of course, having the IT department as a cost center doesn't help either.

One good practice. In addition, remove internet in off hours.

Has the EU tried fining the threat actors?

I've done that, mostly during the time that Grandma had their machines loaded up with crap that they barely functioned. Thinking they needed to get a new machine. I loaded Linux Mint and they didn't look back.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

It is exactly Stockholm syndrome, with a sprinkle of not knowing just how stable other OS' are. The Linux classes I was teaching, after months of pickering around with Windows, ended early after all the students had things running problem free. Went through the syllabus at light speed, when the previous classes were a study in frustration, mostly figuring out what Windows update broke. They want to do more, so I have to figure out a new class.

If Microsoft can convince the users that their piece of guano OS and its poor performance is just a universal trait of OS', and that MacOS and Linux are even worse, the koolaid is easier to drink.

As long as you are in a situation that you can install and use it.

It shows how pathetic a product Windows is when you have to install outside applications to get raw basic functionality.

I feel badly for you. When people can only post with one angle, it usually involves deep seated trauma. Have you considered therapy?

And not even a good one. I have been struggling with W11's various issues, like reinstalling onedrive, placing programs on onedrive, which breaks them, it's abysmal audio issues, it's BOHICA updates, that destabilize the system even before installation, randomish program settings changes.

I even started to think "Maybe you're just getting old and losing your touch Olsoc you dotard old twatwaffle!" I mean, it's hard to imagine that Microsoft could put out this bad a product.

Then I tried an experiment. I dug out a W10 laptop that was sitting around, and installed the programs I was having problems with on W11.

And... they worked. Took 30 minutes to install and set up. Worked great - it wasn't me. And there is the undeniable fact that now that W10 isn't supported by Microsoft any more, that it is stable now.

Even in the darkest of times, humans can find humor no matter the source. You ave evolved into permanent desperate ennui. How's that workin' out for ya?

Perhaps the real problem is that there is simply no reliable way to tell a real human's post from a generative AI's post anymore, since by the AIs are trained on the posts of real humans and are asymptotically becoming indistinguishable from them. You certainly can't simply go by post-quality, since the some of the smarter bots are better posters than some of the, err, less-well-informed humans.

Because of that, it's hard to feel good about putting any real effort into a social media conversation, because in the back of your mind you're always wondering: am I engaged in any kind of constructive activity here, or am I just unknowingly humping a rubber doll that Zuckerberg (or somebody) has provided for my amusement?

Even there they improve automation if it makes sense. Its not always a cost of labour, but managing error rates,

There have been some calls for Intel to reorganise into separate chip development and chip fabrication divisions or businesses.

Note, Intel had previously designed StrongARM and XScale lines, but sold them off.

In all seriousness, though, if bankruptcy is a real possibility, the idea of a public buyout of some of these old companies isn't a terrible one. Maybe even have the government buy it and make it free for U.S. citizens, but continue to make money on the property abroad. :-)