I just got back from taking one of my kids trick or treating with his friends. It was great. My wife and I got to walk and chat with the other parents while all of our kids knocked on doors and shouted “trick or treat!”. Lots of friendly, generous, nice people. And lots of shouted reminders from us for the kids to not walk on people’s front lawns, to say thank you, to be careful crossing the quiet roads. There were so many other kids out too. It was pretty crazy, but in a good way. About half of the houses were giving out candy in some way or other, with only about a quarter having an un-monitored bowl.

Then on the way home we drove past a church that was having a ‘trunk or treat’ in their parking lot. That just looked sad. There was no excitement for going up to the really cool houses that were decked out in amazing props and decorations. There was no need to hone analytical skills to determine which houses were giving out candy and which ones probably weren’t. Just going very short distances from one car to the next getting candy. My kid asked why they do that. I said it’s probably because they are a closed community who don’t really want to associate with ‘outsiders’. Give me the conventional experience over that all day every day!

I’ve already resigned myself to the fact that a) my candidates of choice likely won’t win, and b) the results will be contested with complaints, nit-picking, tantrums, and probably violence across at least several states, and a final decision won’t be known for a few weeks.

I’m trying to avoid political topics and articles a bit more than usual. I also have a lot of things going on in my personal life (not necessarily bad things, but lots of responsibilities) that are keeping me busy right now.

I had also saved up a couple of TV shows that I’ve been wanting to watch, to fill in some of the little free time I have right now.

Edit: fixed a word.

I think I know where you’re coming from on this. Linux is very cool in a lot of ways, and it is very flexible and fun to play with. But it does require an investment of learning and time to get more familiar with it. And that can be frustrating/overwhelming to face. And like you, I find the whole cult-like vibe around it annoying.

I first got familiar with Linux many years ago, mostly out of curiosity. But also because I liked the ideas of using it and the idea of having another OS option other than Windows/MacOS. While I am still not a Linux expert, I feel like I can get around the OS competently. And in hindsight I think it was worth the time I spent getting familiar with it.

Also, like you in not a pursuit when it comes to terminal use in Linux. Give me a nice UI option any day if the week. And to be fair, many Linux distro have come a long way with their UIs in the last 20 of so years.

If you just want to tinker with a solid distro that has a decent UI, I recommend either Ubuntu or Zorin. Also, I recommend trying to pace yourself with learning it. Only pick the parts that interest you, and take your time learning about them. There’s no rush. Good luck.

ETA: Also, if you want to play with a couple of different Linux distros, I recommend using a virtualization app like VirtualBox. You can just spin up virtual machines and install a distro on them. And if they don’t work out or you don’t like them you can just delete the VMs. And virtualization is a fun little rabbit hole in and of itself.

Here are some of the common complaints about Jill Stein:

As the Green Party candidate she will pull in more third party votes than most (if not all) of the other parties. While those views are usually trivial in number in the grand scheme of things, they can have a big impact in let seeing states.

She has not gone out of her way to criticize Trump, and has instead treated both Trump and Harris as being equally bad, even though Trump is arguably much more anti-environmental than Harris.

This isn’t her first time coming in as what’s seen as a Democrat vote-spoiler candidate.

From the perspective of some, she pops up every four years to try to take votes off the Democrat candidate and then seemingly disappears for another four years.

She has a bit of a cult of personality thing going on - arguably moreso than either Harris or Biden.

She’s in her mid-70s, and so no spring chicken. This has become more of a concern this cycle because a) she’s for years older than she was in 2020 (obviously), b) age has become more of a point of concern given how both Biden and Trump have apparently seen marked cognitive decline at less than 10 years her seniors.

There’s some evidence to suggest she is cozy with Putin, who is clearly does not have America’s best interests in mind. For example, she was photographed at a fancy dinner sitting at the same table as him and several of his ‘crew’ (among others). The common excuse for this is “she didn’t choose her seating!” But equally there’s no reason she couldn’t have got up and moved or left the event.

Photo of the dinner in question, with labels:

I’m sure there are other points I’m missing. But those are the ones that spring to mind.

I actually had an argument with a former employer quite a few years ago about that ‘computer operator’ / ~36k limit thing.

My scummy boss at that time was telling me that because of those stipulations I wasn’t eligible for any overtime and they could demand I work as many hours as they want - even though I was hourly. When I said that didn’t sound right he dared me to look up our state’s employment laws.

So I did (side note: I’m in one of the most employee-friendly states), and it very clearly said that my boss was profoundly wrong. So I sent him the URL to that page. And he and the piece of shit HR person shut right up about it. Me and all of my colleague never heard that ridiculous argument again.

My last couple of jobs, including my current one, have been much more reasonable and accommodating. Even though I’m now salary, they aren’t exploitative of me or my colleagues.

So my advice to other IT folk is: take the time to check up on your state’s employment laws. If you are being exploited by your employer they may be totally in the wrong.

Isn’t she Tim Apple’s niece?

Ahh yes, the famous 23rd century boy band “NCC-1701-SYNC”

…And a large and expensive gun collection, and tons of NASCAR paraphernalia.

You might find that name hilarious (as do I), but Devan Nunes would seething with anger at that. Especially since he just lost his job at Trump’s money laund- err, ‘social media’ company.

To expand on what others here have said: no they can’t, and there was a recent article here on Lenny taking about how AI (which I know is different from average bots) has figured out most of the visual captcha types.

But what about the third option??? You know, the circus carnie who pops up every four years, who says she is against both the surgeon and the clown, and who tries to lure people into voting for her because she’s got sass and moxie.

Okay, I like this lore.

If he’s the one fixing all the destruction wrought by Kool-Aid Man, isn’t he the good twin? Which would of course make Kool-Aid Man… the evil twin!

What do I want to do when I retire? Pretty much nothing! I want to watch TV shows and soccer games, play video games, sleep in, take naps during the day as I see fit, hang out with my wife, and shit-post online.

But I know that hobbies, side-projects, and socializing are important for delaying cognitive decline and staying active. So I’ll probably, begrudgingly, do some of that shit too.

Still a decade or two before I can even think about retiring though. And things can change. So who knows.

The Prestige. There are so many layers to that movie. I’ve watched it 4 or 5 times, and each time I notice new details.

Ahh okay. That would explain it. Yeah, it’s disappointing that DDG is selectively selling out. I get that they need to make money. But the content in that screenshot you shared is just ridiculous.

Wow. Yeah that sucks!

Not doubting you here, but I just tried searching for two very different terms on DDG on two different devices (Windows laptop and Android phone) and two different browsers (Firefox and Brave), and I didn’t really see any ads or dodgy stuff.

The mobile Firefox version had a couple of main links at the top (they don’t look like ads), and some news cards under that. But the links were all relevant. The desktop DDG was super clean, again no ads.

This was without ad blockers enabled too. I also tried it in private mode, and still clean.

What am I missing? Why is my DDG experience so clean compared to yours?

Miller was so far out of his depth there. It was like a mini replay of the main event.

Cool. As a parent, I’m happy for you.