neogodless

My point is, though, it occurred to me why he's excited about it. He has no ability whatsoever to write music in notes, or song lyrics. But with his tool, he's able to make music that he finds decent enough to feel excited about helping to shape it.

No criticism to those who can't do a thing on their own, but are excited to be able to do it with a tool. And yes, you can certainly elaborate on and debate craftsmanship, and the benchmarks and measures of quality of an end result when made through expert skill and care, or by amateurs with a powerful (and perhaps imperfect or imprecise) tool.

So personal anecdote, using generative code has not interested me personally, because I love writing code, and I'm very good at it, and I'm very fast. Of course machines can do things faster than me (once I learn the different skill of prompting), but speed hasn't really been a massively limiting factor for me when trying to build things. (There are lots of other things that can get in my way!)

I'm reminded of the oft used quote, "He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches" - George Bernard Shaw. (Just, now the teaching is that of a machine, who then does.)

For what it's worth, this puts Hyundai around "industry average", above Acura, Audi, BMW, Subaru, Mazda, Nissan.

Below Chevrolet, Honda, Porsche, Toyota.

Lincoln started doing this about 20 years ago. You can buy Chevrolet pickup trucks with this feature. Of course my Polestar 2 (Swedish but made in China) has ventilation.

Now some might do true AC, while many just do ventilation, but either way it adds a lot of comfort if you're in a very warm cabin (or, say, have a huge panoramic sunroof.)

Flux and bZ!

The reasons people vote a certain way or can't be bothered to show up at the polls are going to vary significantly across the nearly quarter billion humans making those choices.

So any attempt to "single issue" explain election results are going to be wrong, particularly in a close election like this one. (49.8% vs 48.3%, and Electoral Votes in battleground states often in the tens of thousands of voters, out of tens of millions.

But many of the issues certainly contribute to flipping voters between one candidate, another, or staying home.

So sure, totally, gender and race played a role.

The economy (and steep inflation) played a role.

Biden being an increasingly disliked incumbent, staying in the race too long, and Harris being too conservative to distance herself from him played a role.

News and propaganda played a role (and I suspect this is a big one. Remember when Trump was all like Deep State, Democrats and Epstein, let's get those files released! And then it came time to do it, and for some reason he was like... oh that's a bad idea?)

No doubt individual state politics play a role, too - an unpopular governor might give the opposing party a boost.

But yeah, if the Democratic nominee was a) nominated, and b) a white male, the odds probably would've shifted in their favor enough to flip those few battleground states.

My car's first set of tires were very bald at 25,000 miles. That's not unusual on new cars in general as they seem to come from the factory with low longevity tires, but it's still quite a short tire life.

Yes anything in a gasoline engine is gone, and brakes get less use.

But there are still maintenance items.

But I think it's more so that he does absolutely have certain skills such as persuasion or, some argue, charisma. He just doesn't have any of that pesky morality or sense of responsibility to the greater good, the entire citizenship, etc. that often gets in the way of such ambitions.

So we're left with a master manipulator who will hurt a great number of people, maybe benefit a few if necessary, but ultimately a subset of people think he's genius and a net positive. And I can't help but think that the only ones who think he's a "net positive" are either personally benefiting, or have been persuaded to believe it, despite reality painting a different picture.

Still even half-height cubicle desks tended to give you a good sense of "your space" relative to the open concept rows of tables/flat desks.

Currently I go to the office once a week, where I sit at a tiny mobile desk pressed against the side of someone else's cubicle. I'm almost "in" a walkway. Can't imagine how that interferes with focus!

Bought a $67K Polestar 2 with 20K miles on it for $29K.

So yeah, depreciation keeps me from buying $67K new cars (regardless of their powertrain.)

I've admittedly only used public fast charging twice in my year of EV ownership, and both times, I used a credit card at the machine. No app.

The two were EVGo and ElectrifyAmerica. I don't know if the other ten brands require an app ;)

Let's say that opposition to... Trump's unilateral rule, disregard for the constitution, interference with free and fair elections, building a private army and using it increasingly against immigrants and citizens alike, as long as they are "opposition" to Trump, etc... decides to get as organized and impactful as possible? What does that look like?

Some kind of public, open communication portal? A closed sign-up portal where you have to put in your information?

Some kind of plan to put a lot of bodies in one place? Peaceful protest? Armed and violent protest? (Literally insurrection against the authoritarian regime.)

Even the peaceful protest option which is scattered across 50 states, hundreds of cities, has resulted in some violent reaction by Trump's army, National Guard, even local law enforcement.

What are next steps for the American people?

I think those that are protesting by trying to keep it peaceful are holding onto hope that power is still somewhat distributed, and that elections still function enough to displace Trump loyalists (MAGA / Republicans) with Democrats that have at least paid lip service to being opposed to Trump. And maybe given a majority in Congress, they could at least enact impeachment.

But what else are the American people meant to do?

This is some of what I wrote in July 2013 as suggestions for how Windows 8 should change behavior when mouse and keyboard is present:

• By default, boot to the desktop. (This is a new individually available option in Windows 8.1.)

• By default, return to previous applications. Similar to Windows Phone and Windows 7, when you close an application, you should return to where you were before. If you are in any kind of desktop experience when launching an application, whether it's for the desktop or in the Modern interface, you should return to that desktop environment upon closing the application.

• By default, open media files and documents in desktop applications. Fortunately, when you select these as your defaults, you are properly returned to the desktop when you close the application. Unfortunately, any Modern applications return you to the Start Screen when you close them.

• By default, if there is no touch screen, disable hot corners and edges. Provide an option to enable them within your mouse-driven experience.

• By default, if there is no touch screen, provide a classic Start Menu in addition to the Start Screen. Mice are well-suited to smaller menus that pop out and allow you to remain largely in the desktop experience while you select new files and applications to open. Provide an option to disable the Start Menu and jump to the Start Screen if desired.

• Upon first run and selection of the mouse-driven experience, run a video demonstration introducing users to the Modern interface, Start Screen, hot corners, gestures, charms, Windows Store and Modern applications, focused on how to access these items with a mouse and keyboard.

• By default, provide a Search experience tailored to the desktop environment.

"Most of the above options already exist in Windows 8, but it takes some information, time and effort for users to change the settings and get the experience you expect when using a system without a touch screen, largely driven by mouse control. It is in these conditions that users are frustrated by Windows 8, as they find themselves faced with interfaces that are much friendlier to touch screens, and are unexpectedly removed from the desktop experience and placed into the Modern interface and Start Screen, disrupting their workflow and adding extra steps to return to the windows, applications and tasks they were working in. An overall one-click default upon first usage of Windows would allow users to select the mouse-driven experience they prefer on systems that are not primarily driven by touch."

And now video made by the person firing the weapon has been released.

Make up your own mind.

They are representatives of the U.S. government. Not secret service or undercover agents...

Also aren't they proud of the service they are providing to their country? Wouldn't they want everyone to know the fine job they are doing?

2 is also "debatable" because we were told it by Noem/Trump, not by anyone at the scene, or shown in any video

One time I got a free Harman Kardon bluetooth speaker from Microsoft (the Invoke from 2017). They were $100* but went on sale for $50 and I snagged one.

Then Microsoft discontinued Cortana for it, but they didn't kill the speaker. They released firmware that turned it into a perfectly good bluetooth speaker (which I still use today.) And they sent me a $50 gift card* to buy something else from Microsoft. Good will! I was a big fan of Microsoft hardware. Shame about the software...

* Apparently $200 initially but they had some steep sales because Cortana as a voice assistant wasn't reviewing well. Reviews are a bit negative on the sound quality. Probably true enough at $200, but for $0-50, I think it's actually really good sound quality.

* https://news.harman.com/releases/releases-20200730

I love and prefer buttons. (I also demand Android Auto, though my car didn't have it initially - it was later added through a major software update.)

We all love screens but in a car, I think that buttons are better for the interface for climate, wipers, signaling, drive modes, cruise control, headlights, 4WD selection, volume, radio stations... while Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are excellent for navigation and other entertainment.

Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in 5 years (pcgamer.com) 79 comments

Approaching someone in a car with a mask on and a gun out is not a good reason to shoot at them. That would terrify just about any citizen, and their reaction to flee would be expected.

Also Everyone: I will never buy a car without CarPlay / Android Auto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarPlay (March 10, 2014)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Auto (March 19, 2015)

* Tesla infotainment is fast, responsive, good software

* Other OEMs struggle to compete in this space

* Other OEMs have software updates that require dealer visits

So the OEMs tried to emulate having a big screen UI and shoving more functionality into software, so they can update it.

Not to say Tesla gets all the credit, or that OEMs didn't start leaning on screens more and more before then. As screens got cheaper, customers demanded bigger screens, and OEMs felt like getting rid of buttons and shoving the functionality in the screen UI was the best way to appease their customers.

And in reviews, complaints were made that the lens (and view finder) being centered in the XT means you squish your nose against the screen in the back.

But... I just liked the look and dials of the XT-5 so much more than the barebones boxy look of the α6700.

(Sony has meaningfully better autofocus too, I'll be sad, but I wanted the nice looking body...)

And yes my nose squishes against that back screen.

After one such "non-payment" incident, the next time they needed something they basically offered xx hours of payment for 15 minutes of work to get back on my good side. In general they'd end up "overpaying" for each project to make up for their tardiness in paying.

I was told flat out by freelance clients I was (too) cheap. But one time I quoted a much larger project than I was used to, and the client (who was also a relative of someone close to me) insisted on a higher number.

It ended up roughly being the down payment on my first house.

https://www.retorch.com/blog/linux-mint.htm

If I remember, Linux Mint was on kernel 5.15 at the time.

The TL;DR is that fractional scaling was broken under Cinnamon, and Brightness controls were broken under KDE.

Most gaming was good, but a brand new game (Hogwart's Legacy) had major issues, including crashing and vastly worse performance compared to Windows. Another game wouldn't work with multiplayer (Anno 1800) which meant I couldn't play it with my spouse.

So I'm tempted to go back, give Linux 6.8 or 6.11 a try, and see if those issues are fixed. (I sold that laptop to a family member, so I'd probably try it on a newer Legion 5 Pro, but still with Nvidia graphics.)

For my primary machine though... what I would miss most is DxO PhotoLab. I love my Fujifilm XT-5 and mirrorless photography, and I love editing with DxO. I tried Lightroom, darktable, and a few other pieces of software, but I kept going back to PhotoLab. It's not objective - it's very subjective but I get the most joy out of using PhotoLab for editing.

I really hope (like throw a wish in a bottle) that companies like DxO consider supporting Linux[0] but I doubt it's even on their radar. Software like this uses hardware in demanding ways, and it isn't trivial to support it.

Now, this is one person's anecdote, but I do think it's a factor in overall mainstream acceptance. For Linux users, after years or decades of use, they've embraced the software available to them, but for Windows / macOS users, they will often have to consider what compromises they'll have to make. (I know Adobe is thrown around a lot, and it's a fine example, but I don't like Adobe's subscription model... I still gave it a fair shake but enjoyed PhotoLab much more!) But I think my point will still be that there's a chicken-and-egg scenario, and it's taking a very long time to get Linux to the kind of market share it needs to start forcing the hands of the thousands of companies that don't currently support Linux.

[0] https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406558299537-Syst...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Subsystem_for_Linux Note that it's coming up on 10 years.

I think I am hard-pressed to think of a more recent example...