You are correct, but that does not absolve the companies or the government of any responsibility. It should not be “anything goes” as far as intentionally addictive designs on anything with a screen for the same reason they can’t just put cocaine in Doritos. They still engineer in what they can, but with some guardrails. And even in that case the regulations here in the US leave a lot to be desired.

Oh boy, I get to do more Freedumsplaining!

The luxury sport sedan price is the fake sticker price they bill up front.

The sensible commuter sedan price is the secret agreed-upon price that the insurance actually pays out to them.

The out of pocket costs are a completely separate number, where the individual is responsible for all the costs until they hit their deductible (and sometimes pay a percentage for a while until they hit a second complete out of pocket limit).

For some of us, however, there is a silver lining to this shitcloud. Obviously when a 2-hour stint in a chair gets paid out actually for real at tens of thousands of dollars, that money is not going to the wonderful nurses poking my arm and checking on me. Therefore, it is very much in the best interests of the pharmaceutical shareholders that I do not stop my treatment just because I can’t afford it. So these companies have copay assistance programs that will pay your out of pocket costs, with no income threshold.

So the reward that I get for having a health condition is… I effectively get decent healthcare coverage as an American. For 11 months of the year. If something bad happens in early january it can cost a few grand in the blink of an eye.

You can’t be on government insurance and use those programs though. But Medicaid on its own is great coverage.

I have a “fun” american anecdote for you then! The office that gave me crap for being late a while back is also coincidentally the expensive one.

I’m on a biologic medication that I get every month via IV. I get the infusions at a cancer treatment center at the local hospital. The chairs are comfy and the nurses are amazing. They will actually give me free snacks and drinks too. I am typically there for about two hours.

The amount they charge my insurance company? About a new BMW.

What my insurance company actually pays them? Surprisingly, about a new Honda!

Is this an elaborate “yet you participate in society!” retort?

I am a regular consumer of our ridiculous inhuman healthcare system in the US. The people who are hands-on with patients are generally NOT the problem.

I’m sure my anecdote applies to people from all three, and even to some of the boomers that didn’t ingest as much lead and have kept their head on straight.

When I mentioned The Oregon Trail generation though, that’s usually an Xennial label.

I have been existing in a superposition of both of these states for a few years and really like it.

During the day I’m a senior engineer on embedded c/c++ stuff. During free time at home I dig in the dirt and build shit and do my “farm chores” like tending to my koi pond. Feels good man.

I think most people would agree that fresh air, exercise, hobbies, and personal goals are good for your body and mind. It’s still wild when I notice it actually working.

I’m not sure what your use cases and performance requirements are, but Windows works great in a VM.

I rarely use it, but I happened to fire it up today and after updating it I got a full screen ad to start backing up my computer to their shit.

I’m sober for Satan! How 'bout you?

Things are always calm and normal in the US while we’re at war with another country.

I think that’s why we’re always at war, and why the effects on oil prices get all the attention. That’s the biggest conceivable effect of the war on most americans in their minds.

It’s like Europe is the city where all the people have to live with one another, and the US is the mansion out in the boonies with almost no neighbors, and the inhabitants are dicks to the few neighbors they do have.

Living in the US as somebody who pays attention to the world and cares about people and stuff is absolutely surreal sometimes.

It’s especially so when you’re one of the last people to have had an analog childhood (The Oregon Trail generation represent) so all the adults you knew as a child grew up in the post-ww2 prosperity and genuinely believed all the American exceptionalism stuff.

The only thing it seems we are best at is striking the perfect evil balance where I can’t decide if it feels more Black Mirror or more Hunger Games.

Yes to all, especially the driver attention one.

I have two options when driving to work. One is shorter and takes straight level roads through the newest part of town.

The other way is slightly longer but it’s a twisty hilly road through the countryside.

I take the longer route every single day unless it is actively snowing or something. And now that hybrid WFH is a common thing, I don’t often drive in the snow.

Then there’s Pittsburgh. It’s like Boston but when you take a wrong turn you end up on the wrong side of a mighty river or two.

It’s well worth the minimum amount of extra typing and reading to say “installing from outside the Play Store” to push back against the idea of the locked down CorpoPhone being the default… or the norm… or the legal requirement.

It’s a small push back commensurate with the small amount of effort, but it’s a subject worthy of the attention.

I reckon that means it is not actually your own device.

And what you describe is probably the best case scenario, that the well meaning artist misses it in a rush.

In the real world much of the time I bet the artist is well aware and frustrated because the game already shipped (with no input from them or their boss) to make it by the end of the quarter and now the press assets all have some bland slop BS front and center instead of the real version staring back from their own monitor.

Yeah, but the countermeasures are client-side because that’s what you can control. And some kind FOSS devs out there make it easy to start somewhere decent.

• Sent from my LibreWolf

What about the slightly larger bonuses that quarter for the executives who had the outside-the-box and paradigm-shifting bright idea to eliminate the V&V department? HUH?

There’s probably a dusty old Ferrari buried in some retired rich guy’s 7th garage, and all the world had to suffer for it was a few fucked up networks here and there and losing the respect of IT people all over the place.

My everclear story is short, sweet, and typical, lol.

Friends and I were out of town a few states away for a big concert with limited locations. We randomly hung out with the guys in the hotel room next door who were drinking Everclear, among other things.

One friend had a capful and reacted harshly. Then while the other friend had their capful, I went for the bottle itself to save some time. I also made a show of not taking a sip but tipping back the bottle and taking a big full gulp. I’d also like to point out that I’ve never been a drinker, so I have no built up tolerance for any part of the experience including the burn.

It was decades ago and I vividly remember the experience as “my lungs instantly boiled off all moisture and my insides rapidly shrunk into a desiccated strand of human jerky and then exploded like that nazi in The Last Crusade.”

To these people, human joy is an indulgence for the weak.

You know how over-exaggerated cartoonish villains will talk about how love and caring make you weak? Basically that.

Maybe today, Satan? 😏