We have one little theater in town, 6 or 8 screens? Got to see Blade Runner 2049 with my ex-wife, just us. Saw IT by myself and only 3 other people in the house.
I’d kill for a cinema where you can order real food and drink beer on the cheap. There’s one in the “big” town, too lazy to go that far.
You get to keep anything mailed to you, in America at least. A century ago, scammers would mail goods and then invoice the target. Congress said fuck all that noise, if a business ships you a thing, it’s yours, no questions asked.
Nah, the billionaires didn’t want this fucking American anarchy. Business depends on stability and predictability. The current admin is the opposite of what they wanted. Witness the oligarchs kissing Trump’s ass at his inauguration. They thought they could control a narcissistic toddler falling down a dementia cliff.
That’s when I started my career, '98 for me. I was installing cable internet and DSL when those were new. Everyone just jacked straight into the internet, straight into the wall, butt naked! I was telling all my customers to download ZoneAlarm. :)
Depends. Saw my dad die of mesothelioma (asbestos from being a Torpedoman 3rd class, WWII). Remember Dr. Dyson dying in T2? Like that but a bit worse. Stood by as a family friend had the plug pulled, nothing but a flatline.
My family is hillbilly going back a gen or three, Appalachia to the Ozarks. Can’t claim any foreign blood. :(
Yeah, but isn’t Japan about the toughest country on Earth to emigrate to? I’d have a nervous breakdown going through all that. I have a special hatred for rules and forms and legal doings.
My small children are in Arkansas and I’m in Florida. I cannot leave. My wife and I are thinking of moving her home to the Philippines when we retire, but my kids will only be young adults.
Some y’all don’t understand American law. Without a warrant, or an active situation of some sort, they cannot come in your home.
Saw a video the other day of a guy talking to the cops on his porch and the second his hand seemingly passed the doorframe they snatched him. The case revolved around whether the man’s hand was outside or not. He won.
Don’t allow them in, nor go out.
In the 90s and early 2000s I had to reboot my PC multiple times a day and reinstall the OS at least once a month. I remember freaking out when Windows 2000 went 30 days without a reboot. Computer’s been a bit slow and wonky lately. Realized I had no idea how long it’s been up, rebooted, fixed. No idea when I last rebooted my network stack.
Dead and dying hard drives were a constant hassle. My SSD has been through three PCs, without even reinstalling Windows. I just moved it, and it just worked. No idea how long I’ve been on this install, 8 years at least. I’ve got external USB drives in a faux-RAID array that have been cooking for 5 years, no problem. Everything burned electricity, got stupid hot, burned everything else out.
I was one of the original installers of cable internet. Couple of years later found me doing tech support. People were mystified at the concept of a website being down, yet their internet worked. Sites went down daily, even major ones.
We were constantly bombarded with viruses and malware. It was a nonstop fight to keep your machine clean. Now, I’ve only installed AV on company computers as a CYA thing since Windows Defender works great. (Also, as another security layer.)
I can pick up my phone and call anywhere in the US, free. Ever heard the words interlec or intralec? You needed a math degree to calculate long distance charges, so you’d just dial and pray it wasn’t too bad. And pray the call went through. “We got a bad line! Call me back!”
A car with 100,000 miles was considered garbage. Power train warranties were 36K and that was astounding. Now they’re 100K and more. My wife’s car is a 2014 and my truck is a 2004. No one had 10-20 year old vehicles unless they were collectors or gear heads.
Shall I go on? :)
When I first did tech support 30 years ago, I could nail what state an American was calling from, but not the Midwest, all same same.
COVID taught me that all the knowledge in the world cannot overcome a certain mindset, and an alarming percentage of people are of that group. You can provide all the evidence and education in the world, and some people just can’t be helped.
Hate not so much for AI in and of itself, my ire is the resource use for one. We were already draining aquifers that took thousands of years to fill and now we’re burning even more for datacenters (DCs).
To top it off, America’s western deserts are the best place for DCs. No natural disasters, stable and predictable weather, tectonically inactive. Every time I’ve had to pick a primary or backup DC, I’d hit one in Las Vegas or somewhere out west. (This experience was pre-AI.)
These DCs are burning power and causing higher bills to consumers, which is just fucking obscene. States should legislate that DCs have to bring at least some of their own, dedicated renewables, and pay a premium to the power company for the extra stress and maintenance on the grid. These costs should not touch customers, residential or business.
Maybe even worse is the economic aspect. Have a look at the current Buffett Index, the ratio of the total United States stock market to GDP. We topped 200% for the first time, ever. For comparison, the Great Depression and Great Recession were around 120-130%. This “extra” stock market valuation is all due to AI speculation.
So for all the other whining lemmy does about AI, it’s the ecosystem and economic disasters it’s creating that we’ll all remember when the bubble pops.
Some stuff is more, most is less, at least in my town.
Same! I also reuse bread bags and the like. Plastic grocery bags work for most things.
No idea when I last bought kitchen bags, but it’s been at least a decade.
I haven’t seen a proper cucumber in so long that this pic is making me sad. I had completely forgotten that cucumbers aren’t supposed to have white flesh with a green tinge.
Also, I’m extra sad because I tried to eat one for lunch and they’ve both gone bad, fed to the pig.
And you would be morally bankrupt were you rich. I forget the psychological term, but the idea is well documented. When people attain wealth and power, they don’t feel the rules apply to them. And it happens to all of us. “I would be better!”, you scream. Nah, probably not so much. No one is immune.
Saw a great case of this with Hillary Clinton, though I forget the particulars. She’s stumping for some law or policy that she blatantly violated and a journalist (we used to have those) called her on the hypocrisy. “But… that doesn’t apply to me.”
Not like she started out rich and powerful. Sure, she had some privilege, but not First Lady of the United Fucking States and Secretary of State kinda privilege.
The whole concept is kinda horrifying. When I hit the “middle-aged white-guy with a decent income” zone, I started not giving a fuck about breaking simple laws. Fuck they gonna do? I’m driving without a legal license ATM. When I was young and broke, jail. Now? They won’t pull me over in the first place, slap on the wrist, at worst. See how that psychology builds with real wealth and power?
Now think on that kinda thought process as one get’s truly rich and powerful. Morals, out the window. You still think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re badly misaligned with the lowly common people.
No? I just hate legal and governmental obligations. Day-to-day life is fine. I can hate work if it’s a “lawful” kinda place, but I don’t last in those places anyway.
For jobs I have my “Hawkeye Pierce Theory of Work”. Be so damned good they can’t get rid of you and have to let your fuckups slide. Been working great for me!