The cool result here would be if it turned out Apple was telling the truth. I'm guessing they aren't...

It isn't necessarily panicked buying of any kind to buy more than two bottles of liquor. They might just be making their every six month trip to the liquor store. I certainly buy "months" worth of some items (although not liquor) in order to cut down on the number of trips to the store...

I do use the same password across some websites, but they are all sites which they are simply "registrations" and the only thing of value is their tracking info on me.

...showrunner David S. Goyer recently said that he’s plotted out eight seasons already.

Ambitious. If the show is any good I hope he manages to pull it off.

The last couple of years of work we didn't have surveillance per se, but tracking was on the uptick. There was a ticketing system for all the work we did. There were daily morning meetings to discuss open tickets. If a ticket assigned to you had not been updated in the last X business days (2 or 3, can't remember now) you had to attend the meeting and explain what was going on with the ticket. It was incredibly stupid and time consuming. The usual reason any ticket went that long without an update is we were waiting on a response from the requestor. So, I got in the habit of making a "Waiting for customer response", comment on all my tickets as needed -- repeatedly when necessary. Made my life a lot easier, and if anyone ever noticed what I was doing they didn't say anything.

Employers not trusting their employees is nothing new. While their concern is not completely unwarranted, it often seems their ability to address the issues without seeming like Orwellian overloads are limited.

What is the status of Huawei products in the US and Canada? I have a vague memory of threats of banning their products but don't recall what if anything happened.

Nice word, pedantic. I was vaguely familiar with it and got the gist from the context but had to look it up for the specific definition. I guess you are smarter than me, you win.

Beamer wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 18:26:

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 18:08:
To be accurate I should correct my statement to say "exactly 50% is below the mean", not the average. But it seems so few people understand the mathematic usage of mean, I tend to substitute average on a regular basis...

Mean is average. You mean median, haha

Derp! Guess I should have check the dictionary before posting. Oh well...

To be accurate I should correct my statement to say "exactly 50% is below the mean", not the average. But it seems so few people understand the mathematic usage of mean, I tend to substitute average on a regular basis...

Cutter wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 16:05:

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 15:32:
Remember -- half the population is below average intelligence.

Easily half. Probably more like 80%.

Actually, exactly half is below average. It is just that average is a LOT lower than you would hope it would be.

Remember -- half the population is below average intelligence.

Razumen wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 15:12:
It's not confusing, it was always called TCP/IP, and is a commonly used term. And there is multiplayer without it, because Battle.net is not the same thing, it is distinct in both name and function.

Yes, your terminology usage is confusing to anyone who is knowledgeable in network protocols. And yes, it was called that and TCP/IP is a common term. However, you are using it incorrectly. Battle.net is using TCP/IP, in the modern world everything uses TCP/IP. Now, in the old days you might use something like NetBEUI (an IBM/Mircosoft network protocol) but in the last 20 years, it was all TCP/IP. Don't feel bad though, 99% of the population has no idea about this stuff, just nerds like me who ended up working in IT.

Razumen wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 12:30:
I mean TCP/IP, it's not for offline but for P2P connections. Blizzard wants to force everyone to use Battle.net.

Thanks for the clarification. Your word choice is slightly confusing because obviously it is using TCP/IP, otherwise there would be no on-line play.

I never watched any of it, but from what I read afterward I never felt like I missed anything.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 12:20:
Watched the first two episodes of "Foundation" last night. I would sum it up as pretty but dull.

Sounds like it follows the novels! It isn't a swashbuckling story for the most part and even saying that you could still add it starts off slowly.

Unfortunately, the government has gotten very sloppy around asset confiscation. There are plenty of stories of it. The story in this case was the FBI, but I suspect the more problematic issue is local authorities who are basically incentivized to seize anything and everything they can because they get to keep a cut under a Federal program. You shouldn't expect the problem to be resolved any time soon...

Razumen wrote on Sep 24, 2021, 09:16:
Doubt I'll pick this up until someone figures out how to get TCP/IP back after Blizzard took it out after saying everything from the old game would be there.

I assume you mean off-line LAN multi-player?

Yes, obviously -- I admit it was not a good example by me. That said, I was in no way surprised at the lack of basic understanding of computers by some young people. Despite all the blah blah blah, about them knowing so much about computers, how they lived their entire lives on computers -- knowledge of applications does not necessarily translate to knowledge of the technology behind the applications. That will always be the case.

But wait, kids know everything about computers! More than people working on computers right now!

Yeah. No. They might be able to run circles around me on Instagram, which I have never logged into, but I have yet to meet anyone under 30 who wasn't a computer science student who knew as much about computers as I do. And I don't even feel like I know THAT much about computers despite working in the IT field for almost 30 years and owning one for almost as long. There is SO much to know, I mean is there anyone here who would claim they could configure BGP for their company's router? Do you even know what BGP is?

I'm sure there are plenty of smart computer people under 30, tons of them. But you can't paint the generation as being that way.

This comment was edited on Sep 23, 2021, 22:35.

I was just watching the trailers again and unless they are completely misleading, I think it's clear the series will be significantly different from the novels. There is just too much action. Which when you pause to think about it, this is not particularly surprising. As I said, the novels are really mostly personal interactions which in today's world tend not to make successful shows....