I think that’s a clever idea. I’m inclined to agree with the majority that it probably isn’t something I would want, but I would be interested in trying it out before I passed judgment. The Trackpoint would be the main competition, and it would be hard to beat.

I would not want a printer built in. It would add size, weight, and cost for something I do not need. I’ve pretty well stopped using paper, both at home and at work. I print something maybe once every couple of months.

Experiments with a basic living stipend, and other similar ideas, have almost always found that the vast majority of people prefer to support themselves if they are given the opportunity. It has also been repeatedly shown that providing people with reliable housing and food makes them far more likely to get to a point where they no longer require it. The numbers indicate the helping the poor more than pays for itself in the long run.

The real problem is the people would rather let some die of exposure and starvation than support some who don’t really need it. Everyone resents being taken advantage of, but that’s only one side of the issue. Why is eliminating cheaters more important than saving lives? Particularly since all indications are that there aren’t nearly enough cheaters to be a significant drag on the system.

There is also a myth that undeserving poor people keep the rest of us from getting as much as we should. Businesses get vastly more aid from the government than poor people. People who are wealthy enough to make their income from investments pay far less in taxes than those of us who work for a living. And the really wealthy are able to game the system so they pay little or nothing in taxes. If we started collecting a fair portion from them, we could easily afford food, housing, and medical care for everyone. Anyone who want to stop the undeserving from getting things they don’t deserve needs to start there.

It is mostly semantics. I answered the way I did primarily because I was responding to “There are already self-driving cars, aren’t there?”. That seemed to be asking about functionality, not naming conventions.

I understand your point, but I disagree. There are currently no cars that are considered fully self-driving as defined by the people who created them. Except for the ones that are really just remotely driven, they all come with warnings that a human the driver must be at the controls and paying attention.

Current self-driving cars are like a printer that works most of the time, but requires a human to read everything it produces and to occasionally write in a few things that it missed or got wrong.

No, there really aren’t yet. Driverless taxis and delivery vehicles are all “monitored” remotely by people who effectively drive them when they get into situations the automation can’t handle. Individual self-driving cars all come with a lot of warnings (which many drivers ignore) that they require an active and aware driver for similar reasons.

And Tesla, who have been lying about their self-driving capabilities from day one, continue to run people down and smash into other vehicles on a regular basis.

The systems are good enough to handle 99% of the driving situations they encounter. That remaining 1% is still a long way from being solved. And “pretty good” is not acceptable when failures kill people.

I don’t have a general answer for you, but I did want to say that you should not rule out depression as a major component of what’s going on with you. I have a genetically-based cyclic depression that’s been with me more than four decades. Despite that, I have managed to remain employed. It has sometimes been very difficult, but it is possible to remain somewhat functional even when severely depressed. I have had to change jobs a few times because of it, but I’ve been able to make a steady living.

Depression can leave you with very little energy or volition, but very little is different from none. The worse it gets, the more you have to focus on your most critical necessities, which is not pleasant, but it can keep you going. Small victories like that can actually help counteract it. I think a lot of depression is “living to fight another day”.

If you do have depression, there are many things you can try. Therapy, medication, exercise, meditation, mindfullness, support groups, volunteering, hobbies, etc. Start by talking with a doctor.

I wish you the best!

I don’t think we’re going to gain any traction until we override Citizens United and make bribing public officials illegal again. That would allow us to take back the legislative process and begin passing bills that the super rich are not going to like.

It’s simple. You re-evaluate your priorities.

I like you.

Rarely have I seen anyone who is so legitimately entitled to be smug.

I wish him a speedy recovery. May he ticket again soon.

Becoming cat furniture is a noble calling.

Yes. I, my wife, and several friends have had intermittent problems with long-delays in message delivery. In some of those cases, neither of the phones involved moved, which rules out most of the common explanations. I’ve considered disabling RCS entirely, but a recent move to Signal has made this less of an issue.

Any cat takes a lot of patience. A cat that’s been living wild is going to be scared at being trapped and will be harder to befriend. Give it some space and some time to adjust. Move slowly and speak gently. Offer food and treats on a regular basis. The cat will eventually decide you’re okay.

If you haven’t already, I recommend you talk with a vet and with your local SPCA or Humane Society. They can give you a lot of useful advice about the details.

You’re a good person. Don’t get discouraged. It will get better.

“Religion” is too broad a term. Conservatives like to call what they practice Christianity, although it would have appalled Christ. They also like to represent themselves as the mainstream of Christianity, but they are very much in the minority. They just get on the news more often.

I don’t think it is generally considered a good book, but I’m sure it depends on who you ask. I thought it had some interesting ideas, but was pretty weak overall.

That makes perfect sense. :-)

Language is just a consensus. If enough people agree about how it works, then that’s how it works.

Absolutely. It isn’t true. It just should be.

I’m running a media server with 90 TB of storage across a bunch of drives. Having a case that can handle 16 full-sized drives, plus 4 SSDs is a game changer.