I have to use Windows and Teams for work and I’m starting to feel like a computer historian or an operating system archeologist every time I use my work PC.

Someone called me directly on Teams the other day and the old Skype ringtone played; now I already knew that MS absorbed Skype but it was weird because the actual ringtone is sort of low-fi, like it’s probably the same 20 year old .wav file.

I’m pretty sure the new W11 file explorer is just Edge which is just Chrome.

I feel like I’m looking at geological layers whenever I dive into OS settings.

Some window skins are clearly from Vista.

Aesthetically it is a nightmare, but it also clearly demonstrates that W11 is six operating systems in a trenchcoat.

Just remember that you must say these words exactly when removing the book from its cradle: Klaatu barada nikto.

Moore told NPR in an interview released Tuesday that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

“What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”

If they think Christ is too weak and his words outdated, then maybe they should stop calling themselves Christians?

Baudrillard’s notion of hyperreality comes to mind.

Hyperreality is the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.

However, after thinking up some doom and gloom shit about the future, I reversed course: Why speculate about future kids when most of us grew up with a manipulative media diet? Saturday morning cartoons were wildly manipulative, the emergence of social media damaged a lot of people’s expectation of reality, and the last three election cycles in the US were heavily impacted by the ability of certain populists to generate memes.

AI will speed up the content generation process and introduce some absurd elements like six-fingered watch models, but I don’t think it will be more manipulative than media already is, just weirder and faster.

My ultimately positive forecast: the kids of the future will create their own networked spaces outside of the mainstream internet and just continue on with their lives ignoring what doesn’t interest them and seeking out what does. Regardless, we’ll never understand it anyway.

Wow, what a terrible design. My experience with QMK- powered keyboards didn’t let my mind entertain the thought of that being controlled externally from the board. I knew people shit on Razer and other “gamer” products but I always chalked it up to aesthetics and advertising gimmicks.

True, but I’d take a bluish/purplish white over ever having to desolder a through-switch led ever again.

Even a RGB board should have controls for color, brightness, and pattern. Shouldn’t be too difficult to turn it off or adjust the color to something more natural.

That said, none of the keyboards I currently own and use have anything more than an indicator LED.

The movie juxtaposes the ideal against the dysfunctional and highlights pressures of playing a social and familial role through comedy.

The main character is inherently flawed and is trying to give his family an ideal Christmas. He’s caught up in petty neighborly disputes, things go awry, and he’s an asshole. He wants to provide and be a good father and husband but his expectations are set too high and naturally he fails. He is morally weak and is easily distracted by lust or rivalry.

He just wants things to go as planned for once and not to be burdened by unwanted and embarrassing family members. He just wants things to be “normal” and for people to recognize his hard work and dedication.

People in this thread have pointed out that it’s difficult to empathize with the character because of his perceived wealth and the plot point of needing the Christmas bonus to cover money he over spent on a down payment for a pool.

However, for all of his toxic behaviors, his disproportionate reactions, his un-relatable lifestyle, his pettiness, his stress, his inability to let things go, he is familiar; he’s us. He wants to be happy but has no idea how to make that happen for himself. His heart is in the right place but that’s not enough.

There’s catharsis in watching him experience exaggerated depictions of what a lot of people experience around the holidays: you can’t choose your family and the world is typically against you. His final stress-fueled blowup and monologue at the end is a summary of the dumb shit the audience has always wanted to say but never been able to.

At least, that’s what I think the post is about.

And the ‘it’s just a flu!’ people pissed me the fuck off.

I think many people haven’t actually had the flu or have had it after a vaccination or a during mild year.

That shit is awful, and it can and has killed. Hell, 100 years before COVID there was the 1918 Flu Epidemic which killed nearly three times as many people as COVID. So when some chucklefuck prattles on about “it’s just the flu,” my response is always, “that doesn’t make it safer.”

Frazetta art on a book is almost false advertising at this point. But, hear me out, Frazetta-style buff Jesus with a Valkyrie Mary Magdalene riding the seven-headed beast of the apocalypse…. Slap that cover on the Bible and we’ll be making money in no time!

This take is infuriating because it completely ignores the unobvious homeless (or unhoused). If homeless equates to “drug zombie,” then you can say shit like “this person chose to be homeless so they could do drugs” or “they deserve what they get because of drugs” or some other awful sentiment I can’t articulate. It completely erases homelessness because of bigotry, domestic abuse, low wages, lack of opportunity, etc.

And to top it off, Musk can literally afford to never go to the places where you’d most likely see his version of the homeless.

I’ve experienced the language skills of Nederlanders first hand! What I found to be most striking was hearing people having trilingual conversations especially in restaurants where the waitstaff were actively communicating individually with dozens of people in two to three languages.

I’ve tried to keep up with language skills but starting a language in high school or college just didn’t work for me. Especially since the application of those skills prioritizes written communication. I always end up with an understanding of pronunciation, some grammar, and a handful of vocabulary that I can’t actively use.

I don’t think any Americans are judging you too harshly for UK spellings. I think keeping track of all the slang and colloquialisms would be the greater challenge. I was taught “grey” and “colour” as a kid and the only problem I have is with spellcheck. 😂

That’s one way to do it!

I had problems with TSA before because my real ID confused them and they didn’t believe it was a valid US ID. Granted, this was at a regional airport, but it’s literally the ID that complies with requirements set by Homeland Security for the specific purpose of use in airports by TSA.

Edit: and my ID isn’t even from New Mexico!

Your English is also better than people in my family whose ancestors were 18th-century British colonists.

I once had a heated argument with a coworker about where the capital of the US is located. He was of the opinion that Washington state was the capital and Washington, DC was a US city located in Colombia (he also had difficulty understanding that Colombia and Columbia were spelled differently). He wasn’t trolling; when I finally got to a map (pre-smart phone days) and showed him where DC is located, he got really mad.

Interesting take. I’ve always interpreted this phrase as a folksy way of saying a cascade of causality or a progression of responsibilities.

I think this phrase also has origins in extreme poverty, not from extreme wealth. Greed has a lot to do with why the world is shitty but I don’t think that’s the “wisdom” this phrase is trying to express.

Except that black and tan entered American and British English usage in the 1890s as a name for the drink before it became associated with the Black and Tans in the 1920s.

Granted, I wouldn’t use it in reference to the drink in Ireland and there may be some argument against its usage in the modern UK. But this is a rare case where we Americans haven’t coined an offensive phrase for something (Irish Car Bomb cancels out this small victory).

I’d make my 9/11 as a smoked double Manhattan in a chilled collins glass made with Russell’s Single Reserve 110-proof Bourbon with a twist of lemon.

This can even be checked at https://tools.usps.com. Try to track the number or use one of the drop downs to see what different USPS service tracking numbers look like.

I have received a legit “undeliverable package” status before but it will never be sent in a text like that. It will only display on the tracking history/status on the USPS tracking website for a given parcel.

Nah, it’s just gangs of representatives from all the other groups.

Good luck!

Everything about this is cool (except QAZ, LOL).