Notices by Stevens R Miller (stevensrmiller@mastodon.sdf.org)

@joeo10

That obit reiterates the first inside-joke I learned in the computer business: Europeans generally pronounce his name the right way ('Nick-louse Veert'), Americans invariably mangle it into 'Nickel's Worth.' This is to say that Europeans call him by name, but Americans call him by value.

If you count assembler, Pascal was Language #4 for me, preceded by BASIC and FORTRAN. He created it to show the advantage of simplicity, and It changed my life.

Thank you, Dr. Wirth.

Rest in Proof.

@aral

Oh, they could have forged ahead. The actual impact of what they planned on 98% of the outraged community would have been utterly nothing. People forget quickly.

But, you are quite right: the public insisted on a reversal, and got it.

I can tell you it was a panicky few days on my campus. I had students coming to me to ask if their careers had already been ruined before they started. Today, it's as though the whole thing was just a bad dream.

@aral

Oh, my goodness. If I dropped a product whenever its maker blundered that badly, I'd be down to nothing but Tinker Toys.

Fact is, the reports of their errors were far beyond the actual mistakes they made. Nonetheless, they rewound the entire thing in response to public backlash. They even stated, for all to read, that they had erred.

All corporations make mistakes. Not all undo them. Even fewer admit they made them.

With prudent caution, I forgive them.

@aral

Which news? The aborted royalty scheme?

@aral

Or create a Unity app that tries to access the Webcam.

Or just try to install Unity.

Honestly, what kind of personal computer still tells the user to contact someone called an "administrator" in 2024?

@derek

So not an industrial-level farm, then?

I know they can be scary as all hell, but I've actually had nothing but success with Temu. I do recommend using a burner debit card, just in case. But maybe they have some of what you want and, if they do, it's probably cheap.

https://www.temu.com/search_result.html?search_key=hydroponics

@derek

What are you looking for in particular?

@aral

Schrödinger's switches.

@aral

Tough call. Some folks do deserve the award, while others deserve it with oak-leaf clusters.

In this man's instance, I'll stick with lower case. He just seems like a lower-case kind of asshole, to me.

Note: His net worth is listed as $700,000,000. How does that happen?

@aral

Heard about this. Hard to believe, but there it is.

What an asshole.

@aral

I'm done arguing with people's reasons for still being on Musk's Nazi server. I no longer ask them why they haven't left. What I ask them now is, "What's your plan for leaving?"

"Merck... calling plan to negotiate Medicare drug prices extortion"

Extortion? Let's see, would that be anything like holding an exclusive patent on a drug someone will die if they do not get, then setting a price for that drug they have to pay no matter what? Even if that means selling their home, going into debt, or begging strangers for money? Something like that?

https://apnews.com/article/merck-lawsuit-medicare-drug-prices-179cca2e1b9319782683909ccca5d24a