partial_accumen

Sue for defamation that Youtube are alleging he is promoting criminal activity of piracy.

Every couple weeks or so I seem to find myself behind someone that’s always either accelerating, or braking, with the brake lights repeatedly flashing on momentarily for no apparent reason.

In many EVs and Hybrids the “letting off the accelerator” engages the regeneration drag which slows the car. A number of vehicle makers with particularly aggressive drag (which gets higher regen rates) automatically illuminate the brake lights. So if you’re behind one of these it will look like they are braking when they may have no foot on any pedal (brake or accelerator).

In 2016, I canvassed for Bernie Sanders. I spent my first day in Nevada walking door-to-door in the desert heat with a dying phone battery and a stack of printed papers delineating potential voters,

…and…

and advance the policies of my [trump] Administration.

Translation: “In 2016 I was doing the hard work of trying to advance progressive politics. In 2025 I decided to do the exact opposite and support oligarchy and kleptocracy.”

Unlike private industry layoffs that target middle management bloat and low performers, the government cuts its newest people first, regardless of performance. Anyone promoted within the last two years was also considered probationary—first in line to go.

Translation: “I was surprised to learn that government employee, which earn substantially less as a tradeoff, have more guarantees that their work long tenure and lack of job-hopping will be rewarded with more job security. This prevented us from cutting people who we felt earned too much because of how long they’ve been with the organization even though they carry institutional knowledge or those we feel we could replace with cheaper juniors we could churn through via burnout like we do in private industry. This also prevents us from implementing ‘stack ranking’ which we could use to pit each worker against each other making each fear daily for their jobs as a method of extracting more value from them.”

I couldn’t install Git, Python, or use tools like Cursor, due to government security policies. Fixing the root of the problem–making it easier for employees to execute–would require congressional intervention, and it was more practical to continue spending lots of money outsourcing the software development to contractors.

…and…

I also learned that my frustrations with the government laptopwere solvable; Charles Worthington, VA’s CTO, recommended getting a software engineering-grade MacBook.

Translation: “What I had confidently concluded on DAY 2 of my employment to be concrete evidence of the endemic corruption, waste and inefficiency of government was actually just me not aware of organizational policies I learned on DAY 5 of my employment.”

Meanwhile, the public was seeing news reports of mass firings that seemed cruel and heartless, many assuming DOGE was directly responsible. In reality, DOGE had no direct authority. The real decisions came from the agency heads appointed by President Trump, who were wise to let DOGE act as the ‘fall guy’ for unpopular decisions.

Translation: “Trump’s DOGE foot soldiers were being painted as the bad guy when it was really Trump’s agency heads commanders that were ordering the actions. Trump’s poor volunteer DOGE foot soldiers were blameless. The only thing Trump’s DOGE foot soldiers did was go through all the people, determine a methodology to fire people, then put the names on a list. It was those evil commanders that fired as many people as possible from all the names we gave them.”

I attended my first and last DOGE all-hands. It felt like a candid Q&A with Elon rather than a structured meeting. When he asked the room about improving DOGE’s public perception, I asked if I could open-source the code I’d been writing.

Translation: “I finally had an opportunity to raise my concerns to Elon Musk directly about the negative impacts our DOGE work was having on workers, services, most importantly the veterans we were supposedly there to serve. I could, at long last, employ my humanity to call out what I saw was how our work was being used destructively. Instead, I asked if I could open source my code so that I could legally access it later after I was done working at DOGE.”

Unless they’re doing app signing or binary examination, some of the methods to “log every app” literally look for an executable name. Renaming “firefox.exe” to “explorer.exe” (an obviously allowed executable name) and then executing it will still run Firefox.

I’d be very tempted to install Firefox in my local appdata folders (which doesn’t require admin rights to install), then install a theme to make FF look like Edge with something like this..

Still use real Edge browser for work stuff, but FF for less-than-work stuff.

I was thinking it was large blue shell strategically covered in frosting to look like a cake.

I mean, he has been writing sci-fi since the '80s. But if you go back and read some of his earlier stuff, he really hasn’t grown much as a writer. In fact, I think he kind of peaked in the '90s

…but enough about Orson Scott Card. We’re talking about Zahn here. /s

And that’s the point where I threw the book down. And realized I’m probably done with yet another author teen me loved who adult me just sees more clearly.

You outgrew this author. There’s all kinds of books I read as a kid, then when I go back an re-read with the eyes (and mind) of an adult they’re no longer worth the re-read. Keep the fond memories of what you read in your youth, but just put a mental warning note on there that they may not hold up today.

Some authors are also products of their time. I was reading some Heinlein a little while ago, and it was far more incredibly misogynistic than I remember reading of him decades ago. Was it this particular work or was it through everything he wrote that I just didn’t pick up on before?

Heinlein, at least, has the defense of writing over 60 years ago. Zahn has no defense as a modern author.

You can pay for ubi by taxing the robots, both physical and digital.

This suggestion is raised frequently, and quickly falls apart under scrutiny.

Give you me your definition of a “digital robot”.

This may be your lucky day then! You can likely use that lifetime sub now!

I did the Sirius lifetime deal a few years offered before the one you did (in 2003 I think?). At the time they called it the “Friends and Family” promotion. It was only $300 at the time for lifetime sub, and they gave you the hardware for free. I’m still using that same lifetime sub today.

I was told that was the last time I would be able to do that and in the future I’d be paying a $75 transfer fee and be forced into a monthly subscription.

This was absolutely true this was the rules at one point. However there was a rule change (via lawsuit maybe?) that allows UNLIMITED TRANSFERS and the fee is only $35/transfer. Its even on the SiriusXM website FAQ:

“Please note: You may transfer an active Lifetime Subscription to another radio an unlimited number of times. For each permitted transfer of a Lifetime Subscription, you will be charged a $35 transfer fee, and the transfer must be effectuated through your Online Account.” source

Your account is likely still alive with your name on it! Contact them and get back into it!

Further, back when you and I bought our lifetime subs the SiriusXM streaming service didn’t exist. It is actually pretty robust now. With your lifetime sub (even without it being on a vehicle), you have full access to unlimited commercial free streaming in their best quality bitrate (there was a time that they offered reduced bitrates for lifetime users but that’s gone now too).

For me, because of a further discount I only paid $230 for my lifetime sub because I got a credit for my previous monthly service and I’ve now had it for over 22 years. So if you do the math, I’m paying 87 cents per month for full in-car and streaming SiriusXM. Lifetime deal was SO worth it!

The USA was actually on a survivable path with our low domestic birth rate because of the large immigration was compensating. Well, now we’ve fucked that up royally by kicking out our immigrants, and also made ourselves a pariah on the global stage so no new immigrants will want to come here.

Either there would be some sort of UBI program in place for workers that get replaced by robots

UBI wouldn’t be just for workers that get replace by robots. The “U” in “UBI” is Universal, meaning everyone gets the Basic Income. From the guy with untreated mental illness that hangs out in the park to the richest billionaire.

Here’s Mario at nearly 30 years ago (29 years):

Mario 64

This is what happens when parents don’t vaccine. When you are very young, you can get vaccinated with computer gaming. You can absolutely still enjoy consoles and the great games that come out on them, but you have a certain protection against obsessing over a specific console.

For me it was Commodore 64 I was vaccinated with. This also let me enjoy a future of DOS gaming right along side NES and Genesis gaming.

I have a competing technology that is nearly as accurate. For only $50 I’ll send you this device that you will have unlimited license usage rights to. While not 53% accurate like my competitor, its proven by scientific studies to be 50% accurate. I also offer volume discounts if you buy 10 the price drops to only $45 per device. Sign up now!

Mr. Farmer, when trump talks about finding fraud in government, he’s referring to USAID paying you for your farm products. You are the waste he is referring to.