Talking to Ground Control is supposed to prevent exactly this sort of thing. Somebody messed up.

Tourism feeds into so many other businesses in California. The wine industry is also getting impacted.

Just started “The Ottomans” by Baer: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/22/the-ottomans-by-marc-david-baer-review-when-east-mixed-with-west

At least it’s not “Weekend At Bernie’s.”

It’s not exactly 30%. For sales below $1M, it’s 15%: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/

In Europe, where this was established last year, they started charging a Core Technology Fee to cover the cost of hosting and data transfer: https://developer.apple.com/support/core-technology-fee/

And if you switch payment providers, you have to pay at least 2.5% plus transaction and any intermediary fees.

It’s nice that Proton is offering a discount, but for everyone else there may be additional ongoing costs.

Thinkpads have always had the reputation for being solid machines, even after IBM spun them out to Lenovo. But there are so many variations of components I imagine it’s hard to keep drivers uptodate for the odd peripherals, especially the entry and mid-range ones.

FWIW, Dell also sells laptops with Linux pre-installed, so likely to have working drivers for all peripherals. HP used to have a “HP DevOne” which got good reviews, but they’re discontinued. If looking for a refurb, that might not be a bad option. System76 and Framework also get decent reviews.

The hardest part about getting Linux installed on a Lenovo was getting rid of Windows and its death-grip on the bootloader and the TPM.

Also, a few things, like drivers for keyboard backlight and fingerprint scanner never got working. If you just want to experiment and play, could always try Linux under VMWare Workstation (free for personal use) or boot off a thumbdrive.

Once you get there, though…

Here’s a fun thing. Using the latest AI to code backend and front-end code. Every couple of weeks, have to stop, go through every line and module, and throw out pretty much 90% of the code, manually refactor, and rewrite it.

It offers a good starting point, but the minute things get slightly complicated, you have to step in. I feel bad for people who think this will make it so they don’t need experienced developers and architects. They’re in for a rough ride.

I am aware. K-pop, however has a much larger global footprint. Could use mixing it up a bit.

• Lasagna
• Breaded fish (or tofu slices) - dipped in flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs
• Big wok of stirfry

One of the best mashups. K-pop could open entire new horizons if they did this.

A friend has a long red shoelace she pulls behind her as she slowly walks around the house. The cat hides behind furniture and doorways, then pounces on the end of it. Runs ahead and hides again. Can go on for a long time. It’s pretty cute.

Nothing I linked to or said cast a political angle to any of this. It’s just demographics and maths.

One solution is for a society to 100% defray the cost of raising children and take away the economic sting. South Korea and Japan are getting close, but it’s not clear even that would work. Young people are waiting longer to get married, to start families, or to have more than two children (replacement ratio is 2.1).

Better healthcare in developed societies is also letting the elderly live longer. The flip side is that it also puts strains on national resources because it requires higher draws on pensions, use of socialized medicine, and limits real-estate turnover.

If you can’t raise local birth rates, we’re on a slow moving train crash to societal collapse. It’s just a question of velocity. Once societies try all the soft incentives, they’re left with hard choices:

• Forced childbirth
• Senecide (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senicide)
• Warfare (worsens problem–kills off predominantly young soldiers)
• Cloning
• Immigration

They all have their issues. Time will tell which will work out.

The trunk also doubles as a turn indicator.

They can save a lot of money by consolidating several launches into a single delivery day.

I’ve had friends tell me: we have no choice over where we were born and our blood relations. But we do have a choice of what family we create, what friends we keep, and where we live.

Rudolf Von Flugel would not have allowed this to happen.