I remember the very first time I saw that was a thing and wondering why the fuck would anyone ever want that? Can’t remember if that was before or after I started the habit of disabling autorun on any inserted media, too, though I do know that that was my reaction to learning about Sony’s rootkit.

Though I might be one of the few that didn’t like UAC because it wasn’t strict enough instead of because it was annoying. I wish it had a setting where every action required permission and the dialog included the specific thing it was currently tying to do instead of the vague “it wants to change things on your computer”.

An installer is likely going to trigger that prompt whether it’s legit or not, I’d like to know if it’s triggered because it’s trying to associate its filetype with its application or trying to overwrite a dll in an unrelated program’s files.

Which is kinda funny because I’ve recently started getting my old files off of burnt CDs older than that and was surprised to find that (so far) there haven’t been any noticeable degradation issues.

The pressed discs are supposed to be longer lasting than burned discs but evidently WB just went really cheap with their discs. Kinda makes me wonder if they didn’t just cheap out but deliberately did this to fuel a future format upgrade cycle or drive people to streaming even after purchasing their movies legally.

Though at least they didn’t make them install rootkits to try to prevent any disc ripping, whether it was related to piracy or not.

Tbf that could have been done by tenants who figured the landlord would use that damage to argue they should lose their entire deposit despite not costing nearly that much to repair properly.

Not that it wouldn’t be plausible that the landlord did it themselves or hired someone who didn’t know what they were doing but were willing to do it cheap, like Ricky.

I’ve been coming to the understanding that “bourbon” is like champagne in that it doesn’t describe a type of alcohol so much as alcohol of that type produced in a specific region (though with the caveat that there might be factors about that region that also means boubon is a distinct type of alcohol due to those factors). If that’s accurate, wouldn’t it mean that “the American bourbon industry” is redundant like “the French champagne industry” would be? All Bourbon is American.

It helps you become more innately aware of your speed. Gear (which you know either by remembering which one you last shifted to or by touching your shifter) and rpm (which you know by ear and responsiveness) are enough (once you become familiar enough with the vehicle) to have a good idea of how fast you’re going without even glancing at the speedometer.

Also engine braking gives more control over speed and I’m used to doing it, so can add the action to emergency situations without having to think about it so much.

Though the comparison is different when the paddle shifters are involved. I still prefer stick shift over that semi-auto style, but see that as more of a personal preference than technically superior. If anything, semi-auto is probably the superior one.

Though I’d also add the caveat of the technical differences between all three not being significant overall in practical terms. The biggest difference is probably just that driving MT takes additional skill that not everyone has or is comfortable learning/using. Which is nice as an anti theft feature but can be annoying if you want to trade off driving but the other drivers can’t drive your vehicle.

It’s not like you can use that time freed by automating gear shifting for something else.

It’s a tool, yes, but personally, I like having more control over tools I use. I’d choose a cordless drill that I can set the torque control myself over one that doesn’t have that option.

Glass would also be better for heating it to melt crystals.

Do we really need to define things in terms of what the average person is capable of? Especially when the biggest barrier seems to be “willingness to put a small amount of effort into learning a simple process”?

A surprising number of big names on there.

And the major action item is to do some internet videos with whatever video games are popular with those millennial kids these days playing in the background. Shot in Nancy Pelosi’s beautiful home–oh nm, she doesn’t want any dirty YouTube filmographers in her home but W is willing to let them use his ranch and his copy of EA Football Game 202425. See if we can get Joe Rogan to make a guest appearance, and we’re sure to recapture the millennial under 30 crowd!

Oh good, the corporate sponsorship money arrived, let’s split that up and go home. Don’t forget to set aside the King’s fifth!

All that energy has to come from somewhere. That particular spell just used up all of the energy contained in each flower in a 100m radius. And the spell that gathered that energy merely required all of the energy contained in every worm in a 30m radius. And the spell that gathered that energy required a granola bar.

It sounds like you might have some network places set up for windows to use but that are no longer reachable (or something along those lines) because that shouldn’t be taking so long so you might have things timing out in the background.

Or your internet is slow and it’s taking a long time to communicate with one drive or send its screenshots of your document to their creep department.

Or maybe a print driver that no longer exists still has an orphaned entry in the registry and it spends some time trying to locate it.

Or malware has set up hooks for any new window that pops up but the print to pdf dialog is set up in such a way that it churns very inefficiently on that window specifically.

I joke but any one of those might actually be what’s going on.

They said that in the broader context of saying they don’t think American cheese deserves the hate it gets. It was qualifying their defense of American cheese by saying they aren’t just blindly defending any criticism of America but honestly like the cheese.

As much as I understand not wanting to talk on the phone, I don’t get this mindset. Why not just answer it to find out who they are and what they want so you can make a more informed decision about whether you care what they want? You can always just hang up if you decide you want to be doing something else. Or “something just came up, gotta go” and hang up. Why does it need to be such an ordeal in the first place?

This is different from the old man angry at change meme. The change isn’t the problem; personally I like change and seeing evolutionary and revolutionary improvements.

The problem is that so many of these changes are for the benefit of the corporations involved in the product at the expense of anyone who ends up using it or is near enough to be affected collaterally.

The idea of a smart TV is nice. Except they put the underpowered hardware in it that struggles to display a menu. Maybe because of all the data it is gathering and sending home or the time it spends making sure the latest ads are downloaded.

Smart appliances are also a nice idea. Except most just want to connect to some proprietary web service so they can middle man every interaction to sell your data or a subscription.

A smart car also sounds cool. Except they are also designed to just make more money either via more expensive repairs, possibly even forced to go through a manufacturer approved mechanic because they use security features to protect them from competition, or by the usual selling your data and ads. Oh and also they can save money by sticking a bunch of controls into the software and not needing to make physical buttons. Also they save even more by also using underpowered hardware and probably not even bothering with UX design. Maybe even deliberately because bad experiences can be upsellers. Oh they also want to sell subscriptions to whatever they can, including to things that don’t even benefit from going through their services.

It’s all just rent seeking.

I wonder how they handle people signing up to prime for a shipping discount and then immediately cancelling it, only to do so again for their next order…

Maybe some self-building ones that also act as a carbon sink.