Search is not an easy service. The non-AI search relied on server farms, indexing what is on the internet, and pointing you at what just likely is the answer. There was a sweet spot somewhere between maybe 2005 and 2015 when Google search was fantastic. With the data it knows about you it got you there maybe 19 out 20 searches.

And then things started happening. Google realised that they could sell more ads if their results were a little more shit and they required you to do more searches or click thru more results pages. At the same time, the content of stuff on the internet may have also reached a point where the idea of indexing everything started reaching its practical limits. And the longer time has elapsed since the graphical internet came about, the more deadwood has accumulated. Websites built in ancient days, now unmaintained, services that ended, expired licenses and certificates, etc. The answer you’re looking for may have been out there but for one reason or another can no longer be retrieved.

That’s all before the slop tsunami hit. And this food of content makes it harder still.

So-called AI is technology that’s being beta tested on everybody. I’m sure it’s getting better. At the same time there are plenty of valid reasons to look at it with suspicion. The bullshit it has made up, the additional environmental impact, the stealing of training data, etc. There is every chance that sAIrch will be better in the future than the sweet spot search of the recent past. But we’re not there yet in my opinion. We’re in the in-between time and we just have to muddle thru.

Google is betting big on this prospect. It’s self serving for them because they can downgrade their massive indexing operation and/or free up computing resources for other tasks. So I’m not sure if they’re more driven by financial motivations or conviction in the idea. Too early to tell. Nobody in the late 90s saw Google coming and eating everybody’s lunch in the search market. There is also a chance that a new company we haven’t heard from yet is waiting in the wings.

I think there are many sliding scales that apply simultaneously. One is age. I used to look forward to this sort of thing when I was a kid and the enthusiasm has decreased since then at the pace of a falling parabola. To a point where I moved far away. Number of certifiable assholes present is another one. If you can hide with the good guys, it’s okay. If there is no way to escape, it sucks. These days are held to please that part of the family which is closer to death of natural causes. So another sliding scale is how much do you want to please your elders. How is the food? That might be worth it alone. And as a last example, how much do you like your relatives? Configure these sliders and you get your opinion. Anything from absolutely hating it to loving every minute is possible and no opinion wrong.

Sloppy slop slop

Does he wear a watch now? Does he ever take it off? Snap a picture top down on its side and put a ruler in the picture for reference. Measure the watch circumference with a piece of string and then flatten it out on a ruler. Keep the string by the bed and wait for him to fall asleep and measure his wrist like that. Suggest using handcuffs in the bedroom and surreptitiously measure the wrist that way.

Somebody else suggested you measure everything about him. Waist, legs, cuffs, etc. That’s a good idea as well.

The flooding the zone strategy. Very good!

The simplest answer to this why question is that them’s the rules.

A tariff is also different from a sales tax. One doesn’t preclude the other. I’m sure there are places in the US where you would end up paying both. The tariffs are a federal instrument of regulating cross border trade. Sales tax or the lack thereof is a state decision.

From a sentimental point of view, why not both? However:

Define Nazism and how banning it might be alright with the 1st amendment.

There is already a law that compels the AG to release the files. The department is still under republican control. The only thing that will change is that the committees trying to shine some light on the matter have more teeth. Keep in mind though that there may be democrat corpses in Jeffrey’s cupboard and birds of a feather flock together, even among democrats.

They could get to work on stiffening penalties for sexual predators and their helpers. As well as going after those officials who in the past have turned blind eyes towards these cases in spite of evidence. A lot of that is on state level though.

Temper your expectations. This blue wave is great but anything they want to do runs into 47 breakwater until he’s out.

I think “believe” is maybe the wrong word. I’ve dealt with a few medical professionals and I’ve come to the conclusion that they are mostly just like you and me, unsure of what’s going on, but armed with more helpful niche knowledge and the pretense they know everything. They have come up through a process of learning that leans heavily on the scientific method. Shit needs to be verifiable. That is not to say that none of them act on hunches. But these are mostly hunches they have a body of experience for. Many psychological conditions are hard to diagnose. They can’t check the liver stats or x-ray the ankle as an indicator. They also know mental care is underfunded and understaffed in most places. So I don’t think it’s a question of believing these conditions exist, it’s more about weighing a lot of these factors in their heads and the result of that may be that fewer cases get recognised.

It can be a bit of both. Can’t speak to the UK but in Japan you’re constantly asked to become a prepper because we don’t need no stinking strait of Hormuz to threaten us, the earth we live on is doing that all by itself.

Japan is in a bit of a pickle because it relies on the US for defense to quite a high degree. Nobody here thinks the orange’s adventure in Persia is a good idea. But since he reacts like a toddler nobody really dares speak out in public. So the only thing the government can do is ask companies to find ways around the closed off strait. And then the PHP thing happened. And a big data breach. Our ongoing cost of living crisis is amplified by a weak currency. The crises are piling up over here as well. Naturally, the government issues guidance. They can’t do much else.

There have been weird developments in IT thanks to so-called AI. Along with a limited number of advantages at current, it presents a major threat. It provides a Google translate tool for normal speak to code with a reliability of Google translate from 15 years ago. The North Koreans who hacked Sony had to know what they’re doing. We’re now in a place where you can just ask your tailored LLM agent to hack a company and you don’t have to know how to do that. The agent will come up with ways nobody thought of. Offence in IT tends to be faster than defence. So the heightened threat level is not a farce. The impotent government response can be though.

Space is very cold. It’s -270something C. The temperature on Earth is much higher. The rays that make it through to our atmosphere bounce off the ground, warming it up from the bottom up. That’s why you need a jacket when you climb up a mountain because it’s getting colder the higher you go. Imagine a mountain higher than anything we have. Eventually, you’ll get to -50 C.

You are straining the credo of this community. Gauging general trust in engineers based on where the most popular PC operating system comes from is simply too simplistic.

Very few people use Microsoft products because they actually like them. They are just the market leader in desktop OSs and do their darnedest to keep people trapped in Office. Their market dominance is no reflection on trust.

None of this applies to all places necessarily:

Large distances in rural areas.

Stranger danger.

Everything is car focused in the US. The famous sentence “It’s 5 minutes on foot, let’s walk there.” has never been uttered.

Public transport may be shit or not suitably safe/reliable to get kids to school.

Big yellow buses have become a default, a cultural cornerstone, and many people rely on it and expect it.

Long traffic jams at schools are the sign of a more affluent population in the district.

I offered an argument

That’s debatable. Thank you for rage baiting with us today.

Stickers can be forged. Checking your papers against a database is a lot more certain. The sticker is just there (or out of date) to justify pulling you over.

EU countries try really hard to register all births with the proper documents that then lead you to get an ID or passport later on in life. Everybody is used to needing an ID, being able to show it upon request, and using it to vote as well. Most people are just fine with all of that.

The US doesn’t follow this logic. For example, a person born earlier the last century in the deep south may not have received a birth certificate. The birth could have just been written into the household bible. So when you require a voter ID and to get that you need a birth certificate, you have eliminated a possible voter. And what if I added this bible practice was done predominantly in African-American communities. There will be other loopholes where people will be required to produce paperwork they can only acquire after a Kafkaesque tour through various administrations. Funny enough a lot of them affecting minority communities first and foremost.

If you want to do a proper voter ID, you need to first convince the people this isn’t government overreach (good luck). And then make sure everybody has an equal chance to get this ID, e.g. by issuing missing birth certificates. The laws that generally want to introduce this do not care about equal chances. They tend to target voters who vote for the other side.

Your post is in danger of being deleted because there isn’t an open-ended question in there.

You maybe had better address this question to developers or in communities dealing with building out the fediverse in particular.

To be fair, the courts didn’t order a transition. Nor could you say the poor man had much of a choice in the matter. Nor was he a Hannibal Lector type violent criminal, as far as I know.

What happened to Turing was reprehensible and wrong. His case is a good example to point at when decisions like this are forced upon unwilling people. OP doesn’t want to force this on anyone.

With these things, you cannot deal in certainties. So the best answer is probably there is a high likelihood that a theoretical, voluntary transition like that would lower aggressiveness. However, and I assume the down votes are a reflection of that, there probably is a way to achieve that outcome, including medical procedures, that doesn’t require a transition. And since that’s unfortunately a hot button issue, linking a gender transition to a form of criminal punishment is not a good look.

Physical integrity is a highly valued right even in countries that still do capital punishment. So few people would put your theoretical plan here into a therapy plan or the law. A transition should be a personal decision based on an inherent need of the self and not an item on a menu of therapies that might get you out of the institution faster.

There are no stupid questions (well, hardly any) here but there are ones worded off the cuff that may lead to a pile on. I’m afraid yours here falls into the latter category.

Touchscreens can serve a function. And that’s predominantly when you have your laptop atop your lap. In a cafe or on a plane where even operating your touchpad may be hard for a lack of space (or for me size of gut). On the couch is another scenario like that. If you don’t encounter those situations a lot, don’t get it, especially if it’s more expensive. If you hate fingerprints on any screen, don’t get it. If you’re not sure and money isn’t an issue, take the extra feature.

And none of that applies to what I wrote. Hence my confusion. Could this be hyperbole on your part?