Eons ago, I had a guy bring me a non functioning Compaq desktop and say, “Wull the fan was makin’ a lotta racket so I greased it.”

What he actually meant was, “I sprayed the entire motherboard with WD-40 because I don’t know shit about computers OR lubricants.”

I gave it a bath in electronics cleaner and it actually fired right up after that.

You forgot the incredibly expensive scam that is American “healthcare”.

Back in the days before cell phones, when landlines were ubiquitous, people in more rural areas had what they called “party lines.” It was a single telephone line shared between multiple houses. You knew which house an incoming call was for based on the ring pattern. Your neighbors could also pick up the receiver, very quietly, and listen in on your phone calls if they wanted too.

Party lines are long gone but Internet communications have their own ways of being “listened in on.” A lot of traffic transmitted over the Internet is encrypted; with TLS for instance. But, some of it isn’t. If you use traditional DNS – UDP over port 53 – everyone in between you and the DNS server can see which websites you’re visiting.

I’m not concerned about my privacy because I have something to hide. I’m concerned about it because my personal business is my business. Not anyone else’s.

You’re not still living high on the hog with your stimulus funds?

/s

When it’s the right tool, it’s incredibly useful. When it’s the wrong tool, and it often is, it racks up tech debt at an incredible rate.

Don’t even need to spend that much. Trump accepts fake peace prizes.

Understood. My experience deepthroating N64 controllers is …uh… limited.

Better have a long tongue to reach the “Z” button with.

“Well God can use ‘imperfect people’. Just look at King David.”

How that story actually went…

David: Has an affair with Bathsheba and has her husband assassinated.

God: “Listen here you little shit. I gave you everything you could ever want and you decided that wasn’t enough. I’m feeling merciful so I won’t kill you like you killed Uriah. Instead, you can spend the rest of your miserable life suffering the consequences of your evil deeds.”

I’ve been seriously thinking I need to go back to therapy. Thanks for the motivation!

Not every old design was better but some were.

My wife absolutely refuses to give up her early 1970’s GE range. It’s impossible to get parts for it so eventually it’s going to have to be replaced. One of the actually nice features it has is is that all the push button controls are on the range hood. Don’t have to worry about them getting greasy while cooking or little kids turning the burners on.

The stove is hot so the fan is just trying to cool itself down. Duh.

Honestly? The last few years have been like a slow motion Trainwreck. My wife developed serious chronic health issues a few years ago and I’ve been unemployed for almost a year and a half. We’ve gone from being in a very good financial position to being virtually bankrupt. It has not been a good time.

The problem is that it’s not just software. Shareholders and corporate “leadership” have collectively decided that they are willing to sacrifice any and all future success in order to make stock prices go up today. They don’t know where the business will be in five years and frankly, they don’t care. Virtually all of the big names have completely stopped innovating. Cramming “AI” into their shitty products and trying really hard to pretend that’s it’s something different or “new” when it’s just the same shit but with more bloatware.

Manufacturing isn’t much different. I worked at a specialized industrial tool manufacturer for a few years. They were trying to add a new “smart tool” line and demoed it at an international trade show only to get completely excoriated by their customers who were all like, “Don’t even talk to me about ‘smart’ tools when the [very expensive] tools you already produce don’t fucking work.” But that’s how it goes when your business is built on acquisitions and the way you make your stock price go up is by coasting on your brand portfolios past success while simultaneously eliminating the people who made that success possible.

Oh, they’re pissed. But they would still vote for him again. Because at least he’s not a DuMbOcRaT.

Back when I went to an office every day, I usually wore loafers. Easy to slip off and on under your desk without drawing lots of attention.

Unfortunately, the responses to these kinds of incidents have often been assinine. If a 10 year old manages to “hack into” your system, either they are really smart or your organization is incredibly incompetent.

I once worked with an SVP at a huge corporation that liked to engage in “bike shedding”. This guy is like seven rungs above me on the ladder and is trying to tell me what fields each SQL table should have.

Then we got a new department director who was very good at keeping upper management distracted and off our backs. Lots of people in middle management don’t justify their own salaries but I would argue that he sure did.

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Only if it can also be a microservice.