Crazy, given the company name!

One of the first things drilled into me in journalism was “Smith thinks” should be recast to “Smith said he thinks.”

The C-suite is likely well aware of limitations, but shareholders like to hear about the hot new thing.

The thing is, the idea isn’t wrong. Automating complex tasks is a bitch, but the repetitive tasks that turn any job into a grind are prime candidates. The larger issue is instead of letting employees spend more time doing fulfilling activities because of increased efficiency, companies tend to do layoffs.

I would counter that if it wasn’t groundbreaking, regardless of why, how is this something we still talk about?

Far be it for me to be an NSDAP apologist. However, the techniques she introduced to the world would go on to be both iconic and standard. Look, for example, at the camera-angle choices in Citizen Kane. That’s pure Riefenstahl. And not considered a terrible movie.

We can hate a person while appreciating their artistic output. This has been the case since Ugg made wheel.

This said, I don’t think she was a good person. But I’d honestly challenge you to find an effective artist who is also a good person. There are some actors, of course; I’m talking reporters and the production team.

We are effective because we’ve seen some shit. And when you’ve seen some shit, sometimes you don’t make the ethical choice. I’d not go so far as to vlog for the Fourth Reich, but she likely saw it as patriotic.

How many of your neighbours would do the same?

Your vehicle not being yet another surveillance vector can be a selling point.

I have full control over my feed here. That’s an important distinction. I’d imagine if I end up in someone else’s hometown off Beehaw, we’d end up getting a beer or lunch.

Saying Facebook is in the same area code is specious.

As a thought experiment, it’s somewhat fascinating to ask what “social media” has done. I don’t really consider anything past MySpace truly social. The term now means “let’s keep you addicted to posts from people you’ll never meet” – essentially, the modern form of checkstand tabloids.

I pulled a U-Haul trailer with my Civic from Virginia to Oregon. Only took 2½ days, though the final few hours were harrowing. Maps back then didn’t so much express topography, so the trailer was actually pushing me down … I likely went through a year of brake pads in six hours.

Those questions are answered here.

Growing up in Phoenix, the national ads in the '80s that breathlessly noted “comes with air conditioning” was like … how could you sell a car that doesn’t have that?

Larry David, that well-known Nazi apologist.

This isn’t fucking C.S. Lewis.

I sincerely question whether your standard ChatGPT user knows what a Domme actually is. You don’t get that from movie descriptions. You get something – but nothing approaching BDSM best practices.

I mean, that was my take. It was fine.

That’s a low bar for entertainment, though.

I have some experience making them feel better.

I think part of it is a lot of people age out of movies like Clerks rather young. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Kevin Smith movies, but am I going to sit down and watch Chasing Amy at 45?

Dogma, sure … And, incidentally, how much did Rocky Horror make in first run? Cult classics don’t tend to be beloved until well after release. If you’re looking to goose your Q2 figures, originals are not the way to do it. The payoff comes far later.

Bluntly, who has the money to go see a movie these days? Tickets can run north of $20, with popcorn and a soda adding another $15. So, two people seeing a movie is $70 … for two hours of entertainment. That’s fine if it’s Penn & Teller ($92 tickets in 2006) and you get to interact with them in the lobby afterward (Teller is actually a delightful guy to talk to), but not for a random movie.

I’m not a fan of reboots, prequels and sequels, but I’m absolutely not shelling out that sort of money unless a friend or acquaintance says something is must-see. The last movie I saw in a theatre was Dune 2 … and I only went because one of the guys on the local Discord had a membership allowing all of us to see it for $10.

People aren’t looking for less entertainment, just affordable shit. I grew up seeing random movies in second run at dollar theatres in the '80s, which was admittedly far more expensive after concessions, but still easily doable for under $8.

Quality is of little import when people can’t afford to go in the first place.

“I’ll take ‘shit we already knew for 800, Alex.’”

CRUSHER: If there’s nothing wrong with me, maybe there’s something wrong with the universe. Computer, what is beyond the mass energy field?

This is a great rundown. I’ve never been in the ecosystem and thus have zero exposure.

But part of me thinks, having done development in noncoding roles and getting zero further compensation for, say, something that could save a corporate giant $7 million a year if fully rolled out, this is just grooming kids for what they’ll be subjected to after going into massive debt for a degree.

I never had kids of my own, but seeing what my stepkids got up to from 2009-2016 (they were 6 and 7 to start), I became very worried about how things had shifted to online interaction. They wouldn’t have their own computers for another couple of years, but I gave them my netbook (remember those?) once I’d gotten a tower built (UPS drop-shipped my old one, and that’s not a euphemism … thank god I had the presence of mind to remove the hard drives).

It’s one thing to play SimCity for hours on end locally, which my parents allowed. It’s something entirely different to foist the whole of the internet on them without having concepts of online hygiene.