akhosravian

Actually some say “modern C++” dates to 19th century Europe. Ada Lovelace provided some of the earliest examples of undefined behavior that C++ programmers still love talking about to this day.

Steam predates all those platforms by years. The only platforms that I can think of predating it are long dead and didn’t have the same concept of ownership (gamespy, gamestorm, AOL, heat.net, etc). Indeed, part of why those platforms struggle or failed is exactly steams early mover advantage.

Eight years before Origin. Six years for Ubisoft’s. Fifteen for Epic Games Store. Ten years for itch.io. Five years for GOG. Seven years for humble bundle (though their early offerings were literally steam keys).

Why would you allow notifications from most apps? What could the McDonald’s app possibly offer to warrant allowing it to dictate your attention for even a fraction of a second?

That’s a cool historical fact but the modern colloquial usage is synonymous with poor (financially) countries.

And when you work on a really big codebase you start having multiple files and have to learn tools more advanced than ctrl-f!!

The comment you are replying to was replying to a comment that was more akin to “the ceramic bits on the floor were caused by your parents meeting” though

These dosages are off the charts for what most people ever do.

A typical estimate is 15 mg psilocybin per gram of dried mushroom so for a 200 pound person that’s 90 grams of mushrooms. 5 grams is the classic heroic dose.

People like free and the “greedy corporations” found a way to give them what they want.

Google search is trash now (for reasons that aren’t entirely in Google’s control), but for the first decade it was magical how well it could one shot finding relevant data on the web.

Funny you mention Seattle’s light rail. The first part of New York’s subway system was built in 4 years and had more stops than Seattle’s light rail does after 15 years.

We (Americans) absolutely built big public projects in reasonable timeframes a century ago, and we don’t now. Attributing it to the form of government seems to miss the mark.

The idea that it costs nothing somehow is bizarre.

If you divide the NHS budget for 2024 (192 billion) by the UK population (67 million) you’ll find it works out to just under 3000 pounds per person just for 2024.

Assuming your wife’s visit was this year your family paid about 3x what the poster you are responding to did.

I’m also working from the assumption most posters here are in high tax brackets; I understand tech jobs in Europe pay much worse than the US so that may not be true.

Plea bargains account for over 90% of convictions in the US. Part of the cause is prosecutors can and do offer deals that rational actors would have a hard time refusing.

As a trivial example: imagine you are charged with a misdemeanor you absolutely didn’t do. Assuming you have no previous criminal record the state offers you a civil penalty (ie an expensive speeding ticket).

Are you going to go to trial knowing you could be sentenced to a year in prison? Keep in mind just paying an attorney to represent you through the trial will cost several times the civil penalty.

I’m not a CS academic or a mathematician, but don’t Godel’s incompleteness theorems preclude a formal proof of correctness?

Surely you can’t believe the outer space treaty will be followed once interplanetary travel is actually possible.

If someone like Elon Musk were to liquidate all their earth assets to lead a mission to mars to start a permanent colony there what actions do you think would happen to stop him? What consequences would he face once he staked out “muskland” with some other settlers?

While the world’s resources are finite I think it is excessively pessimistic to suggest we’re consuming anywhere near all that is available to us.

It’s possible to call out externalized costs (eg greenhouse emissions, many plastics) and be optimistic about our ability, as a species, to produce more.

My recollection is in Europe (or at least Spain circa 2016) Mountain Dew was much less intensely colored than in the US, and the neon tint was mainly from the bottle.