If I have a choice between buying a table and chairs from IKEA, or buying a table and chairs from my neighbour who loves making them bespoke in his woodshop, I’ll take the second option every time. As a society we need more of this…supporting our own labour efforts over mass corporate manufacturing.

Most food has a Julien Code to tell you when it was manufactured/packaged.

In my experience owning old pieces of crap, you start a manual transmission by pushing it until it’s rolling down an incline, and then jump in and quickly pop the clutch.

Seriously though, if you’re just learning how to drive a stick, do NOT take it to test for your license.

This could also be in a thread titled “Tell me you’re Canadian without telling me you’re Canadian”.

Yep. Welcome to the hell that is corporate capitalism.

British English - lieutenant is pronounced “Lef-tennant”

In a word. Lobbyists.

The full saying is “Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer”

Basically the “Free” in free means that it’s free to do with as you please, modify, etc… But not free as in “here’s a free product…like getting a free beer”

Ha ha. No no. I’m pretty good. No problems with the old downstairs plumbing. But it’s not just for toilets. It’s for bathtub sinks clogged with hair. Kitchen sinks, etc… It’s just handy to have around the house. I even used it once to blow the dust out of my dryer vent.

I’m not really talking about development as simply programming. There are a lot of aspects that go into development, yes…programming is a big aspect.

But there’s also bug reporting (every user should know how to report bugs because it’s contributes to making the program better).

Heck, you can even download the documentation and give it a proof-read if you’re good with grammar and spot some errors if you don’t want to commit to helping to write it.

I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in the various subs for the software, taking care to answer questions from other users who need help doing this or that. That again, is contributing.

Then there’s simply what we’re doing right now. Bringing attention to the projects online getting them more visibility.

Development of a successful FOSS app isn’t just about programming. And even small contributions count. If you can donate some coin, great! If you can’t, or don’t want to, there are a thousand other things that you can do to contribute to that apps community.

I emphasized the word community because that is exactly what it is. The ethos of Open Source; what makes it different than Propietary software, is that the users are an inherent part of the development process in ways both big and small. In propietary software, there is a distinct line between the developers and the users. Developers have multiple stakeholders of which the user base is certainly one, but also include advertisers, software makers, hardware makers, etc…

FOSS software, in contrast, is much more a communitee effort with the involvement of the community in the way of bug reports, literature, education and even simply championing the project because they don’t have millions of dollars in advertising budgets.

Sorry, I get a little passionate, so this is longer than I intended it to be.

But tl;dr, contributing isn’t just about money or just about programming. There’s a thousand ways big and small, and my issue isn’t with people not “paying” necessarily. But people who use it for free and don’t bother filing bug reports, don’t join the community online to help answer user questions, etc…

A good FOSS citizen should be an active part of the community. Or donate money to the project if they’d rather not.

The issue as I see it is that knowledge in any subject is protean. It changes. So if you wait to long to go back, what you learned before would be completely useless and you’d effectively have to start from the beginning.

Heck, the things I was taught in my Archaeology Degree from 2001 are at best, incomplete, and in some cases, now completely refuted. If I had left and decided to go back even ten years later, the technology that was suddenly in use alone would force me to start all over again.

It’s essentially a handheld air cannon. The kit comes with a handle and a suction that covers the toilet hole or whatever. You press down and yeah…it’s basically a air-gun shot to the clog.

And yeah. It works great. Not always on the first blast. But I’ve never had it fail me.

This little bad boy here has changed my life.

https://www.isicanadainc.com/product/one-second-plumber/

This software is extensively free (as in beer)

No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.

That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.

There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.

Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.

I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.

It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.

Subnautica - I would be dead in minutes since I can’t actually swim all that well in real life.

An A.I taking a job doesn’t automatically create a new one in some kind of 1:1 ratio. That’s the entire point of A.I.

You’re (incredibly naive) example of the crane is frankly stupid because a Crane still needs to be operated. Cranes didn’t replace jobs any more than hammers did. Cranes were just a new tool to use in an existing job, Hence Crane Operators.

Now let’s turn your stupid example into a good example. Let’s say autonomous A.I. controlled cranes become a thing, and 100 crane operators lose their jobs. Now (in your brain) a new job has been created “monitoring” the A.I output (whatever you seem to think that means) but because of the efficiency of A.I. it only takes a team of three to monitor all 100 cranes.

What are the other 97 going to do…in your “simple example”?

Maybe put more than two seconds of thought into an analogy before opening your mouth.

The first four letters.

God how badly do I want to see a remaster/remake. So under rated. With a bit more fleshing out (It’s a pretty short, pretty linear experience) it could easily compete with the mechanics in Homeworld.

Sadly yes. That’s the drawback. But its balanced by the fact that its pretty easy to find good custom ROMs after it ends its software lifespan