i did not know what all those bins of tiny electronic hobby parts were for, but I desperately wanted to learn.
From what I understand, prior to the personal computer boom of the 1980’s, HAM radio was kind of a big deal with nerds. The parts were there for all manner of electronics tinkering, but a big mainstay was building and modifying radios. Yeah, you had people tinkering with computers in the 1970’s too, but it was more niche (until it wasn’t).
I agree. The environment in which this must function is corrosive to the very idea, hence why I’m asking it openly here. It’s a pretty dense minefield.
I’m no lawyer, but I’ve mused a lot about some kind of legal “dead man switch” that somehow renders the company value-less if it deviated from the intended path. Something built into the company’s charter and founding documents, not unlike some kind of constitution.
Real question here: is it possible to walk all this back from the edge with more ethical companies? I’m thinking co-ops, Mondragon corps, union shops, etc. Basically build businesses that have motivations other than deepening the pockets of VC’s and the like, yet have some kind of growth trajectory (or federate with other corps) to gradually subsume the market.
I get that massive funding makes certain things possible, like disrupting the market, or aggressively buying your competitors. And yes, the company charter would have to be bulletproof against hostile takeover, buyouts, and enshitification, in order to go the distance. But is that really all it takes, or am I missing something huge here?
Yup. Consider the role of NORAD and the missile defense shield. USA is not only a poorly run meth lab, but it also provides armed security for the whole building.
sue the government?
About that. One frequently looks to the Executive branch to enforce laws, rulings, and other things of legal import. Exactly how does this work if that arm of the government is found guilty of a crime?
How? Asynchronous communication is better for a lot of people. And now that we have really good choices for that, it’s hard to ignore.
A phone call demands that you drop everything in that moment and pay close attention to the person on the other end. If they ramble, deviate, breathe heavily, have a lot of background noise, etc, you’re stuck with that experience for the duration. Also, recording without consent is illegal in a lot of places, so you have to be able to write things down in order to refer back to the conversation if it contains any important information.
In contrast, everything else is self-documenting, can be read through multiple times, and can be handled when there is time to focus on that task. As a bonus: most people can read and understand text faster than they can listen. So it’s just more efficient.
What troubles me the most is that sounds like a very deeply abused person. It’s a kind of person that has problems introspecting and managing their emotions. Is that what we’re really up against? Is it all just mental illness?
When I mentioned that all this went down for a mere fraction of what everyone else paid, her immediate reaction was: “Well, isn’t that what China does with just about everything?”
It’s an interesting assertion, which caused me to ask a question here: How are we defining “independent”, exactly?
Because if it’s merely “not a member of a major political party”, it pretty much explains everything.
As someone who just picked through the Zig docs (take this with a mountain of salt), Zig has a few things going for it:
Go foists co-routines on you and the runtime, and Rust has the borrow checker. Both of these things deeply impact language design, standard libraries, and the overall developer experience. So Zig might actually be a “more modern C” in many ways which makes it a contender. That said, it’s not a 1:1 comparsion since it lacks everything else that C++ does: you’d have to re-envision your software designs as something other than OOP if that’s what you’re used to.
I’m gonna be “that guy” and say they’re pulses.
I still don’t get how they can live with such a retarded measurement system.
We can’t.
Scientists do everything in metric, but that’s where it stops.
Food industry tries to label everything both ways, so we all get some minimal exposure; but this is like expecting to learn French in Canada just by hanging around. Machinists cope by using thousandths (of an inch), but still have to translate to work with standard screw dimensions. Bakers do everything at multiples of cups or pounds, so fractions don’t really come up. Housing framers use, maybe, down to the half or quarter inch and have easier to read tape measures for this; story-boards and tick-sticks are used to avoid measuring entirely.
If it wasn’t for raw materials (across the board) being sold in nominal empirical sizes, I would sooner just use the metric system.
Meanwhile, the home kitchen is at war. Recipe books have everyone else dicking around with all the crazy fractional volume and weight measures. Either you’re a virtuoso with these, or you’re terrible at it and burn every meal - there is no middle ground. This might explain our relationship with restaurant food.
work drug
free place
As a cis male, I’ve found the opposite to be true. I do go to the Dr. for all kinds of stuff. I also tend to tell it like it is when in a consult/visit. That’s where I noticed that things are backwards for me. I’m taken too seriously, as though I’m under-playing my symptoms. Like I’m a guy who decided to actually come in to the doctor’s office, so it must be really bad. It’s actually led to a few cases of being over-prescribed on things.
Good grief - that’s amazing. Either you’re exceptionally tough1, or that was one incredibly atypical case. Either way, glad you survived all that.
See, this is why I can’t watch shows like The Office. My sense of empathy and justice kick in hard and I just can’t laugh at what’s going on. Instead I’m just cringing and dying of sympathetic embarrassment, non-stop, the entire time.
Oh, are we posting beans now? Again?
Here’s my contribution:
This is the part about harm reduction that I wish more people understood. Either you do it the right way - set up a clinic - or pay for it later in terms of security systems/service, insurance rates, theft, property damage, and the occasional violent encounter (e.g. during theft). This guy did the math and realized that a $20 bill is WAY cheaper than the alternative(s).
I’ve been thinking about this all week. I have no idea if that exists or not. A few things sprang to mind though:
It might be possible to have lightweight companies that all adopt the same incorporation boilerplate, not unlike a computer operating system. That, in turn, would be developed by a distinct entity and would publish updates to improve said OS over time. So, open-source but for legal docs that matter. This would make companies unified in principle, but ultimately, distinct.
It’s possible for companies to operate “at arm’s length” but still share useful information or coordinate towards similar goals. One must be well-versed in anti-trust law to do this though.
A franchise is the only existing model I can think of that comes even close. But that’s still centralized. I suppose a non-profit parent company and for/non-profit franchise operations might come closer.