The interesting thing about this is that people are now stuck with whatever PC they had when the prices suddenly shot up. In the past there was always a hardware adoption curve, where some people had the newest stuff, other people waited for it to get cheaper before they bought it.

In the past, if a game company was developing a game that was scheduled to be released in 2 years, they could look at what hardware people were using now, and estimate what people would be using in 2 years. Graphics and gameplay that was possible on game studio machines running the latest hardware would be too much for home PCs when development at the studio started. But, by the time the game was ready, home machines would have caught up and people could experience these amazing graphics at home. Now, I assume game studios are going to have to re-think things and assume that most people at home will still be playing on the old gaming PC they built before the AI price apocalypse.

Technofeudalism

When those immigrants were coming to the US, they were not considered “white”. Sometimes the discrimination was because of skin colour, sometimes it was religion. But, they weren’t considered to have the morals and work ethic of the English-descended protestants that dominated the USA.

They still have to file income taxes. But, most places have higher taxes than the USA. Most places also have reciprocal tax agreements with the US. There’s also a deduction of something like $100k, so the first $100k (or local equivalent) you earn in another country isn’t taxed. As a result, unless you’re making high six figures, you don’t actually owe any American taxes.

OTOH, just filing US taxes is a real pain in the ass. In the US it’s made very slightly easier by your employer, bank, etc. all supplying you with the tax forms you need. If you’re overseas, you need to figure out the info you’d need to supply on that form yourself.

Exactly, and it’s a cycle. They buy things on credit, carry a balance on their credit cards, owe a lot of money, and the stress gets to them. Eventually they buy things as a way to feel better and relieve the stress.

Trying to “not look poor” or “keep up with the Joneses” can lead to real misery. But, if instead you make a budget and save just a little bit every month it can be liberating.

Fundamentally, the problem is unequal wealth distribution. But, we should also try to help people live within their means while we attempt to fix that societal issue.

The reason they don’t admit that they got a head start is that they actually don’t believe it.

The daughter of a family friend of mine grew up middle class. Her mom was a social worker, her did had an office job. She managed to marry a man who’s the son that’s inheriting his dad’s oil business, worth tens of millions. She is now a housewife / stay at home mom. She now has a city home, a cottage (which is fully a house, just in a more rural location) and a summer home. One of her daughters competes in sailing races (and anybody who knows sailing knows just how expensive that hobby can be), the other is into horse riding.

I’ve asked her what it’s like for her kids to grow up rich, and she doesn’t get it. She doesn’t think she’s rich. She says that there are houses around where she lives that are even bigger than hers, and that her husband works hard. I’m sure that’s true, but she’s still in the top 0.1%. And this is someone who grew up middle class, and should remember what it was like.

I guarantee that most of the kids that come from rich families have no idea what it’s like not to be rich. As a result, they don’t ever consider that it might not be normal to be able to have your dad’s lawyer look over the contracts for your new company free of charge. They never think of how easy they had it to find investors for their company, and how forgiving those investors were. It never occurred to them that during those lean months at the beginning when their company hadn’t yet started generating real revenue, that it was unusual to be able to live in their parents’ spare apartment in the city, and to have dad pay off their credit card.

The worst is when you can smell people walking past you when you’re outside… before they pass you.

This is why I like taste tests.

They routinely prove that even experts can’t distinguish between $20 wine and $200 wine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias ?

IMO they’re just being lazy. If you just reboot you don’t have to worry about resolving the dependencies for things you upgraded.

Fuck that reboot. It’s almost never necessary under Linux. Unnecessary, forced reboots in Windows are one of the last straws that made me fully switch my last remaining Windows system over to Linux.

Meanwhile, the ad companies do not care.

The right wants to claim these companies are on their side. The companies aren’t on their side, they’re not on anybody’s side. If they think they can generate more sales with a fat, black model in a bikini, they’ll do it. If it’s a thin trans model, they’ll do that. If it’s a slim blonde with big tits and a swastika tattoo, they’ll do that instead. Whatever moves product.

I think I’ve had it happen once over something like a decade of using them. From what I remember it was because I was running something in the terminal that ignored the signals it was sent, so the laptop didn’t properly go to sleep. Of course, the program ended up failing because a lot of the things it depended on did suspend themselves and that caused major breakage.

Luckily I noticed a whining sound (fans at maximum speed) from my backpack before anything too bad happened.

go to Scotland and there it is masculine.

I wouldn’t say that. In Scotland wearing a skirt is still seen as feminine. Wearing a very special kind of skirt is seen as masculine in certain contexts. If you’re wearing a kilt, a sporran (the purse thing), knee length socks, the right kind of shoes, etc. it’s definitely a masculine style of dress. But, without all the accessories it’s more ambiguous whether it’s male or female. And if it’s not a tartan at all – say a miniskirt, that’s definitely still feminine in Scotland.

Right, that’s my point. Since we don’t know anything about the thoughts of seahorses or about seahorse society, we can’t apply labels like “trans” to seahorses, the only thing we know about is their biology, so sex, not gender.

Not if you go to a church where they still do the Latin Mass.

Isn’t this confusing sex and gender?

Shouldn’t it be:

My plathtic vampire fangth thtay ON during thekth.

Whoosh.

If there’s more than one, is the plural Dollars General?