Well, English isn’t a prescriptive language, so if we just start saying “dongus” they’ll put it in the dictionary.

Anyone got a recommendation for a good bluetooth dongus?

I get that all the time, too.

My father, an IT professional since before there was IT, once said to me “One of the reasons why I like Norton is it will check if there’s updates to my software for me.”

Oh you bitter winter child.

I dumpster dived a Nokia Lumia tablet that had RT on it. It got used as a kitchen Youtube viewer for a couple months before I gave it away.

7 was about the last time that it felt like Microsoft was trying to make a good product that was useful for its customers. They’ve always been anticompetitive sniveling greedy little shits that would buy out or otherwise kill competition, but used to be they’d try to sell new versions of Windows or Office on features they could reasonably expect customers to want. “It does spell check in real time now! We’ve included USB plug-and-play! Your PC with a modem is also a fax machine now! We made a 3D graphics library for gaming enthusiasts! We ship or OS with a media player that can play DVDs and MP3s out of the box! Here’s a free video editor!”

I…don’t remember that happening after Windows 7. Windows 8 was an attempt to cash in on the mobile craze, they’re gonna make Windows a tablet product now! Except a lot of computers didn’t have tablet controls, and a lot of desktop PC software doesn’t work with tablet controls. They made a confusing annoying buggy hell mess. Win 10…I remember people hating it when it came out, they REALLY preferred 7, I was on Linux by that time and didn’t care that much, and Win 10 was almost a rolling release; it changed a lot over its lifetime. They’d go all in on something, pack Win 10 full of features, and then the fad would fade and they’d pull it back out. 3D, AR, a couple other things. And now we’ve got the openly user hostile Windows 11. “It Harms Your Family!^®”

Was that Windows 8.1, or Windows RT?

There’s a circle in hell for game publishers that only wrote “disc 1” on a CD or DVD (or floppy, back in the day) and not “disc 1 of 3”. I think it’s the one where they have to wade forever in shit.

It is my understanding that’s how all speculation bubbles work. Same thing happened to beanie babies. “People are buying these because they’re going to be worth something someday…somehow; we better buy some too.”

Microsoft is basically saying that Windows should not be used anymore in those.

I would agree with them.

and/or gambling that was shaped in such a way as to be difficult to prosecute.

NFTs just slide out of my brain.

I remember someone bought a piece of art, like actual bespoke art, that was NFT’d, for some millions of dollars. This created the dumbest speculative bubble I’m aware of when people were paying actual money for ugly randomized monkey pictures they could prove ownership of on the blockchain.

It’s my understanding that NFT technology could be used for things like proving copyright ownership; a creator creates an NFT of his work as published, and then anyone attempting to plagiarize it can’t provide the NFT, kind of like PGP signatures. But it didn’t get used for that and that dumbass monkey bubble probably poisoned that use case for a generation at least.

For me the algorithm is “if(wearing_glasses == True and is_brightly_lit == True): stand; else: sit”.

I’m a bachelor. I live alone. My toilet gets configured exactly as I say it does.

When not in use or being cleaned, the seat and lid are closed. Because I’d expect Izzy to fall into the toilet then go scampering around getting toilet water on literally everything, only to go to the litter box, get shit grit stuck to her wet fur and track THAT all over the house…

Cat proof toilet: close lid. That is an order.

i just forget to peel the labels sometimes.

You know what I hate? The soggy remains of a peanut butter jar label in the dishwasher’s filter. My medical team allege I’m capable of learning but I have on occasion found evidence to the contrary.

“custom themed Gnome” is enough to scare me off. Theming is one of the many GUI fundamentals that the Martian cock smokers over at Gnome hate with every fiber of their alien ganglia.

I’m drunk and belligerent to not give a shit about pointless pedentry, but to finally assert that…it doesn’t fucking matter. Back when actual humans still liked Google, back before we forgot they technically changed their name to Alphabet, back when their motto was “do no harm,” they started interviewing engineers with clever brain teaser puzzles. Because at the time, Google was out “Think Differentlying” Apple. Web 2.0 was all the rage, connecting shit together in ways we didn’t know we shouldn’t was in vogue, so it made sense for them to ask software engineers about the traveling salesman dilemma and shit like that. Because they were designing things like Google Maps, and they needed people who could solve “find a route from all addresses in the United States to all other addresses in the United States on consumer-grade hardware.”

But “Someone who needs an ordinary LAMP stack for their completely unoriginal eCommerce website” Inc. decided to start interviewing IT guys the same way because it made them look hip, and as a result Elon Musk spent a quarter term as Chief Superpower Fucker Upper.

The FAA had to alter IACRA because of me. Well, to be honest it was their own damn fault.

IACRA is the system where you apply online for pilot’s licenses and such; instead of filling out an 8710-11 form and mailing it to the local FSDO or whatever, you do that on the internet.

I was applying for my light sport instructor license. One of the prerequisites to become any kind of aviation instructor is to demonstrate knowledge of the Fundamentals of Instruction. They accept four things:

• Scoring a 70 or above on the FAA’s FoI knowledge test within the last 24 calendar months
• Proof of employment at an accredited college or university as a professor
• A state-issued teaching certificate for grade 7 or higher
• Any other FAA issued instructor certificate, logic being is, if you’re already an instructor, you’ve presented evidence of one of the previous three.

I took and aced the FoI test fairly early in my CFI training…so early that the test result was threatening to expire. So rather than take it again, I decided to take the test for Basic Ground Instructor, which essentially made the test score permanent.

The day finally came for my CFI-SP checkride, I start filling out the IACRA form…and the website will only accept a knowledge test score. I call the examiner, she pulls it up, goes “Huh. Well, looks like you get to fill out a paper 8710 and I get to call Washington.”

So if you’re the web developer the government hired to make and/or fix that form, I was that guy! And since it’s a US Government website, I bet you did it in the most bullshit unusable way possible.

That’s kind of my point. Google started that nonsense of making job interviews into lateral thinking puzzles, then all managers latched onto that to make themselves look hip.

I want to see competence and practical problem solving skills.

So, the oldest cordless drill I have is this old Black & Decker 12v thing, my dad bought it in like, 2002. It has a quick detaching chuck, and under the chuck is a 1/4" hex collet. So you can load a phillips or torx driver bit in that, then mount the chuck over it and chuck in a drill bit, then you can drill your pilot holes, pop the chuck off and drive screws.

And other than that minor innovative feature it’s crap. The build quality on even consumer-grade power tools has increased a lot since I was in high school; I’ve got some of the new SB&D Craftsman tools that are a lot nicer to handle; that old B&D creaks and squeaks as it flexes in your hand, it’s not overmolded and the bare ABS slips around in your grip, the controls feel like you’re twisting lego bricks, the batteries are long out of production and it’s the only tool I have that takes that standard, and it’s a 20 year old brushed motor 12 volt tool; it’s the size of my 20v drills but less powerful than my little 12v mini Bosch drill.