A few things:

• It’s baked into everything whether we like it or not. I’m so tired of that damn star emoji everywhere, especially when it replaces basic search functionality we already had (looking at you, Amazon)

• It’s dependent on other people’s work (LOTS of it) which is usually acquired through sketchy means - all that to compete with those original creators

• The slop. Oh, the slop. Slop that’s often used as SEO fluff. So you have one bot working to please another. Humans are an afterthought

• I’m legitimately afraid that it’ll take away from our understanding of things and critical thinking by relying on it too much. On that same token, once we rely on it and it gets manipulated, so do we.

• It uses a ton of energy to make it happen

Those are just the things I could think of offhand before going to bed. I’m sure there’s more.

But every job I’ve ever had, there’s at least one maverick who knows git way better than anybody else and is super advanced

Pretty sure that’s me at my job, but I take your approach too.

I just have lousy coworkers who keep a bunch of stale branches open with no real maintenance plan. Thankfully I kind of work in my own bubble and generally avoid that jungle

Ehhhh. There is a little more nuance to “thing that caused harm to you” - if my grocery store decides to stop selling some company’s granola bar due to poor sales, they’re probably not obligated to continue stocking it even if discontinuing it would cause harm to the granola bar producer. I would imagine there’s something in Valve’s terms that doesn’t obligate them to be a dev’s retailer any more than that developer is required to let Valve sell their product. And there is probably some clause in the contract between Valve and the payment processors.

As for the devs going against the payment processors… I have a hard time seeing a legal avenue there. It’s harder when there’s no direct relationship between the devs and payment processors and each party was likely exercising their rights under their individual agreements.

My bigger point is that suing for going against the desires of the users isn’t really a thing while trying not to get too deep into the weeds.

maybe [sue] for abusing their power as an oligopoly or going against the desire of their users?

You can’t just sue for [bad thing], at least not successfully. You can sue for [illegal* thing] or [thing that caused harm to you]. Lawsuits are designed to make you “whole” after suffering “damages” - sometimes you have to work really hard to prove the value of your damages if it’s not directly money-related (for example, emotional distress or pain and suffering)

The things you mention are also quite vague. What exactly constitutes an oligopoly? Laws have to give some definition to that when making something illegal or whatever, otherwise a court can essentially throw the whole law out for being so vague it can’t really be followed.

What’s more, when you talk about censorship or going against the desire of their users - what about the freedom for a business (any business) to conduct themselves as they want? If my customers all want chocolate cake, but one day I decide I can’t support my cocoa suppliers anymore and can’t afford ones that operate more ethically, should they be able to sue me for taking that off my menu?

* even illegal is kind of split into different areas, civil and criminal. You can sue if your landlord withheld your security deposit without giving an itemized list, because the law requires it in some states. You can’t sue someone for using a fake ID to buy a beer, because that’s not a civil matter and as a regular person you have no skin in the game

BREAKING

Would it have killed them to (for example) just call it I-22 from Dallas to Texarkana, then continue I-49 from there? I think the main point of controversy is that this is a very short interstate given a number that would normally be used for a much longer one within the system - for no real reason.

I mean, there is an organization to it. Odd numbers go north-south, evens go east-west, numbers go higher as you go north and east, and major ones are numbers divisible by 5. The system is honestly pretty good at keeping with that ovrall, and I could think of a few better ideas than that

For context, this is also a company with unlimited PTO that you’re actually allowed to use, and people mostly work remotely. Which I figured meant things weren’t entirely predetermined, and that I had a lot to lose going elsewhere with time off for appointments, being around to help with baby stuff, and insurance coverage with a lot of specialists for the baby.

I was on a PIP. Often that means firing is inevitable, but my company has generally had a pretty good culture and I (perhaps foolishly) thought I had a chance of surviving it. While I had a pretty good history of kicking ass at work and have a borderline celebrity reputation with our customer, I was put on a new project that had been going poorly plus I had a newborn with lots of additional needs (born super early - doing fine now) so I wasn’t as focused as I had been before. But it did blindside me - I checked in with my direct (and relatively new) manager weekly and she never mentioned any issues.

I was able to show my bosses that the old me was still there. It was 2 months of hell and stress, and even after I was released from the PIP I questioned if I should still be there. Then that manager left not-so-voluntarily (so I’ve been told) and I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders.

That was almost 2 years ago, 6 years total. Still at that company and stronger than ever with them!

How do you figure?

Vacuum tubes are called triodes, pentobes, etc depending on how many whatevers it has, do those count?

I read this as alligator washers and was very confused

That can also have its own dependencies. I tried to update some relatively simple apps that ran on Java 8 with some Spring libraries (not Boot) and had to deal with the Jakarta stuff to handle it… Only to discover that the Weblogic Application Server we use doesn’t support Jakarta just yet (or probably more accurately, STILL doesn’t!)

Texastan

The lack of anything listed? I was talking about the link above with official state foods, not the OP. Love green chili as an (but who calls it chili verde?)

Having lived here for over a decade, and 2 states prior, I think the breakfast burrito deserves some recognition as an official food though. With green chili, of course.

Ooh, let me see what the state food is where I live! Let’s see, Colorado…

…

☹️

Holy crap, all these answers and hardly anything about how health insurance is supposed to work.

Basically, most people have health insurance. With the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) from years ago, it’s basically required but getting care is simpler (you can’t be denied a plan for a preexisting condition, for example. But it’s hella expensive. It’s also typically tied to your employer as part of your compensation package like retirement contributions, which means if you change employers there’s a good chance you need to change insurance and even doctors.

ANYWAY, say you have procedures done. Insurance companies typically have contracted amounts for stuff with each provider (a “discount” from insane prices nobody actually pays). You typically pay the first however many dollars, depending on what you’re having done and how your plan works. Eventually, you’ll reach a dollar amount that’s your maximum for the year, and from there insurance generally covers everything they normally would

Some people also have Medicare (ages 65+) and/or Medicaid (based on income or disability). Some people have private insurance on top of it. My daughter was born extremely early and stayed in the hospital for months. Her very low birth weight was a qualifying disability for Medicaid, and she was on my work health insurance. Claims would go through work insurance first, and any remaining costs (deductible) would be passed to Medicaid. If there was anything left, I’d be responsible for that. But I don’t think that ever happened

Obviously, coverage is different for different people - different employers have different plans that cover different things differently. But in theory, that’s how it should work.

It’s so perfectly terrible 🥹

I was looking for “buzzword soup website doesn’t say what the product fucking does”

Maybe that wouldn’t fit in a square

I am instead charming as fuck in person. Which was my other advantage. It doesn’t show online

Honestly? I totally saw it

If you wanted to do pineapple and soy sauce together, I bet that marinating the pineapple in some soy sauce (probably the low sodium kind for this one) would work great!