I don’t think they ever stop giving the side eye.

It’s a white faced whistling duck, Dendrocygna viduata. Technically I believe these are closer to geese or swans than true ducks. But they sure look like ducks, so that’s good enough for me.

Full size here, by the way.

I presume you all are already familiar with this age old debate, i.e. as it was depicted in the musical documentary, 1776:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4dv4IS0PM

Mine too:

FYI, you don’t have to use any third party tools and I didn’t, either. Step 1 is to run the Enterprise LTSC IoT version of Windows (either 10 or 11). The consumer versions of Windows are extra bullshit, as we all know by now.

Remove the Windows Store via Powershell (you probably have to run as an administrator):

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *WindowsStore* | Remove-Appxpackage

That removes the store suggestions. It also removes the store entirely, as well as the ability to install store apps. Obviously don’t do this if you are one of the 0.1% of users who actually use the Windows Store for some twisted reason.

Then in gpedit.msc / Group Policy Editor:

Local Computer Policy \ Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Search

• Allow Cloud Search → Disabled
• Allow Cortana → Disalbed
• Allow Search Highlights → Disabled
• Do Not Allow Web Search → Enabled (gets rid of the internet search)
• Don’t search the web or display web results in search → Enabled (probably overridden by the above, I set it anyway)

Local Computer Policy \ User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu And Taskbar

• Remove Personalized Website Recommendations From The Start Menu → Enabled
• Do Not Search Internet → Enabled

There are settings for other nags and irritations in here that you may also want to configure to your tastes as well.

Also:

Local Computer Policy \ User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Copilot

• Turn off Windows Copilot → Enabled

At present it takes considerable effort or lack of skill for someone to crash their car through the roof of your house. Once morons can fly, all bets are off.

I’m happy with those broadly staying science fiction. People already can’t drive in two dimensions. It’s worrying to think how awful it’ll be if they’re ever given a third.

I’m still not convinced that the Apple Watch is even technically a good product considering the price vs. features vs. durability vs. etc. comparison with all of its competitors. It’s a successful fashion accessory.

It seems a frequent reminder is required that Apple is not a tech company. They’re a marketing company, and a very successful one. Whatever it is they actually make is a side project compared to trying to convert it into a status symbol that’ll replicate the popularity of the iPod and iPhone.

Likewise with Kiki’s Delivery Service for me, although probably because Disney felt the need to fuck with the music as well as the dialogue in their dub.

How this did not result in Miyazaki, Hisaishi, and Sugimura going on a rampage in Disney’s offices with their katana, Walther P-38, and magnum is beyond me.

Including ones with no chain and where the front fork isn’t attached to the handlebars?

Debatable. Marjorie currently disagrees with the regime, for instance, but I don’t think that’s quite enough to tip the balance in favor of becoming a sterling endorsement of the rest of her character.

I think there’s more than one. Here are my predictions of the points on the AI spikeball:

1. The obvious fascination with dreaming about replacing their entire workforce with AI, so they don’t have to pay anybody.
2. Making the tools to generate bullshit images and video mature enough that bad actors (i.e. themselves) can use them produce endless deepfake political propaganda. This last election cycle we had Trump howling lies about, “They’re eating the cats and dogs.” Next cycle, they’ll be pushing actual videos of it as “proof.” Mark my words.
3. Making said tools so widespread and prevalent that any actual evidence presented against big businesses, politicians, billionaires, and other big ticket criminals can automatically be waved away with, “That’s just AI.”
4. Developing the neural net/pattern recognition part of machine learning to the point that it will be used as a nationwide/worldwide spy network that automatically flags political undesirables (i.e. sane people, or anyone who disagrees with the regime) for harassment or arrest.

Now that is a Very Specific Object. Well done.

Definitely not here in the US. In elementary and middle school the standard was the old #2 pencil, and teachers were already ranting at us on a regular basis for using gel pens in strange colors. By high school, I was literally the only person in the building who owned one and I used it to deliberately annoy one specific teacher. (A fountain pen, that is, not a gel pen.)

Even so, I’ll bet you your fountain pen was a cartridge filler and didn’t have a lever. Right?

If I may present a counterpoint to you, it’s Daniel Rutter’s Enough Already With the Megapixels.

(This was published in 2005. Cut Dan some slack over it.)

Calvin used a fountain pen to do this which is Watterson showing his age. Even by the time I was in school fountain pens were long since out of regular use. I knew how this worked because I watched Tom and Jerry cartoons as a kid, and this very strip may have been some contributor to my developing an interest in fountain pens early in life.

It’ll work.

I just installed plain old boring Debian on three (3) random decommissioned office PCs the other day and every single piece of hardware in them worked out of the box including the Wi-Fi cards.

It links to this image:

@[email protected] could have just inserted it inline.

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to jump at the chance to display some nerd cred, but this is an illustration from James Thurber’s autobiography, My Life And Hard Times. It accompanies a story about an elderly aunt or similar who is not quite up to speed on how electricity works and goes around tightening all of the light bulbs because she’s afraid it’s going to “leak.”

During the initial electrification of the world, a lot of people apparently didn’t understand electricity. Instead they stuck to paradigms that they already knew, which at the time would have been gas or kerosene lamps which can indeed leak — with results that may or may not end in a fireball chasing someone down a hallway. It makes sense in a strange sort of way, but it’s also a fascinating case study on just how bad people have been at grasping abstract concepts for centuries and that’s not just a recent dumbing down of the populace.

We already have local governments, too. What a reductive take.