JohnFen

It's absolutely annoying and makes me think less of businesses that ask. However, I just say "no" and they drop the issue. It's not that big of a deal, it's just another in the growing list of annoying things about restaurants.

If that's the price of a crime-free society, then I don't want a crime-free society.

Although I don't think that's the choice anyway. A crime-free society will simply not happen.

I never give donations at checkout. I do my charitable giving directly, I don't want a middleman.

What makes me less likely to return is the number of questions I get when I'm just trying to engage in a simple exchange for goods or services. More than one, and I definitely think less of the business. No questions definitely makes me think more positively of the business.

I rather thought I was the only one (within a rounding error), but perhaps not.

Since "justice" doesn't appear to be the priority anymore and Trump loves to rename stuff, he should rename it to the "Department of Retribution".

Saying that people who don't share your opinion are "selfish" is a personal attack. You're attacking the person's character rather than their position. You aren't even actually making a case (or bothering to explain) why you think they're selfish. You're simply asserting it as if it were fact.

> You have presented no real counterargument. You have not presented an alternate future.

Counterargument to what? A future that is an alternate to what? None of these things have anything to do with the point I'm making here.

You seem to be wanting to engage in a discussion about something other than what I brought up, and accuse me not engaging in that discussion. I confess, I am not. It's not relevant to my point.

How many of those postings are real, though?

Wool is indispensable, in my opinion, but you still want some sort of shell to maximize water shedding.

What I've settled on after years of experimentation (not saying it's the best, but the best for me so far) is wool clothing with a light, breathable water-resistant shirt and overpants, covered with a water-impervious poncho. I don't care about the breathability of the poncho. I gave up on pack covers long ago and switched to pack liners. In my case, I just use a large contractor's garbage bag for that. It's heavier, but the ruggedness is worth the weight for me and what's inside will stay dry even if I fall into a lake or something.

Usually, my feet get the wettest in rain, and is the most miserable body part to be wet, so wool socks (with sock liners to prevent blisters) and waterproofed boots are mandatory. Wool socks dry very quickly. I haven't got a great solution to keep the insides of the footwear dry (shoes/boots don't dry quickly without a boot drier and you have to be shoeless while drying them), but gaiters really help a lot.

I didn't start, and wasn't, debating the future of the tech at all.

My point is simple: nobody can know with certainty what the future of the tech will look like or how it will end up being used. Everybody is speculating. That some speculate differently than others doesn't imply any sort of personality defect with them.

I'd take it further and assert that when a person must resort to personal attacks rather than debating the point (whatever that point may be), the implication is that the attacker's position weak.

Different level of "liable".

Yes, you are, in the end, responsible for your own taxes the filings. If a mistake was made and you owe additional taxes, you have to pay them as well as any penalties, etc. But if you used a CPA, you have the option to sue to recover any loss they caused you through negligence.

Huh? Who said anything about LLMs going away?

The habit in my social circle is to preclear phone calls. Usually, a call comes out of a text exchange because the text exchange is becoming an impediment, but if that's not the case, then a phone call happens after the text "Can I call?" is answered.

I think that's a great compromise.

The actual reason for this is because a phone call out of the blue is interpreted as an emergency in progress, so the "preclear" is just letting people know it's not.