It’s so jarring to me to hear a sentence structured like that, and I can put my finger on why. It sounds like it was written by Charlie Kelly.

Because I don’t understand correlation vs causation, I can only conclude that the monetization of X caused a steep decline in knife violence

This hits.

I stepped into a similar implementation. Took like 6 months and 10 people to support…

… changing the URL of the sftp server we connected to.

wget will give you a sniff of what the problem is. Microsoft Store will not.

I don’t NEED an application to necessarily pinpoint the error. Just even a rough direction. Any browser will explicitly tell you if there is a cert issue. That’s more than enough to go on.

I understand the mechanism, and why it is important.

I don’t understand why the error message from the store was nothing more than an error code, and why the MSKB for that code had absolutely no mention of a failed ssl negotiation as a possible cause.

Businesses in general bend over backwards to create an environment in which I will be comfortable. Music, decor, etc. I’m in the prime money-spending age bracket. It’s very comfortable to be prioritized. I think the vast majority just a accept it as the natural order of things to have the world revolving around your taste. The boomers got and extended run based on thier outsized share of wealth, but it’s over now.

I don’t think gen x even ever got that moment in history, which is so funny and sad at the same time… such a predictable curse…

I don’t think many people really get that it’s just a statistical thing. Nobody gives a shit about ME. I’m not special. I’m just currently in that demographic.

Assuming time is linear, this will change. Younger people will be in my position, and the environments will mould and shape to thier sensibilities, and I’ll be left in the dust.

I think if people are unaware of that reality… it’s probably really jarring to be pushed aside, even in really small ways. I expect it all adds up.

Couldn’t install iTunes because my clock was wrong. That certainly wasn’t the ERROR I was presented with, but was ultimately the root cause.

That, coincidentally, was the very same evening that I decided to and did uninstall windows on that machine.

Russia would hit the Baltics. Not necessarily a full commitment, just a little land grab. Just to prove to the world that the US will not defend NATO countries.

If it makes you feel any better, I always hear and appreciate the little countermelodies coming from the Euphs

Oh, don’t worry about that. The inflated egos are distributed across all the musicians too. It takes a special kind of personality to achieve that level of singular proficiency.

I think it’s one other reason to HAVE a conductor, is to have an ultimate authority on some matters where musicians egos get involved.

In many (most?) compositions, there are going to be some banger little licks in many different sections. It honestly kinda sucks sometimes when you’ve got one… but you gotta hold it back because it’s still just a supporting component. To you, as the musician… you might fall in love with it, wanna push it, take the opportunity to shine and generate some goosebumps. And, obviously, since you’re God’s gift to the world, you SHOULD. The composer was WRONG to hit you with a mp. Maybe the composer’s French Horns couldn’t lead with it, but they never envisioned your talent.

The trumpets shoot you a look to calm down? Fuck 'em. They always get the spotlight.

Having a structure with an ego to rule all egos helps (does NOT eliminate) these kinds of things.

At the highest levels of proficiency, knowing “when to play” doesn’t rreeaallyy require a conductor.

An orchestra of professionals mutates into this crazy combined organism. A hive mind, with thousands of signals being generated and consumed among the members. Negotiations all over the place.

The conductor stands in the front not just because it’s convenient, but because they’re in the best relative position to understand what the audience will ultimately hear. If I’m in percussion, positionally I’m getting a skewed take on the relative dynamics of the piccolos. As a professional, they’d have a good “gut feel”, but thier ears are simply not in the right spot to know for sure. The conductors are.

The acoustics of a performance space are drastically different when the seats are full of meat, too.

The conductor is acting as the source of truth and feedback for that hive mind, from a physical position which gives them the best understanding of the complete sound being produced. While professionals CAN do a very passable job of distributing that work, it’s an additional burden and with an imperfect set of inputs. Having one person set the tone and act as that authority frees up capacity on the individuals to do thier best work.

You don’t see the trend? You mean you haven’t seen the aggregate survey data showing the trend? Or are you saying in your personal encounters, you haven’t observed any change?

Alternative perspective, for what it’s worth:

50/50 is actually comparatively huge. Considering everything else has been 90/10.

The first departure from your god-king is always the hardest. I expect for many, this is the first break, and will make any subsequent break mentally easier.

Also keep in mind that people who identify/lean Republican has taken a little more than a 10% haircut since January 2025. Any “republicans say” is an increasingly smaller subset of the total voting population… getting more concentratedly nuts as they boil off the more rational ones. Even with this more concentrated version of Republicans, it’s STILL not popular.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not GREAT… but there is a trend line. It’s not moving as fast as it should, but it IS moving.

On the flip side, imo there are some brilliant people with good ideas, and thier persuasiveness is hamstrung because they just can’t stick to a word count that appeals to thier audience.

If you know that your audience has a 6th grade reading level… avoid a long form essay.

“When did neighborhoods become full of strangers?! We gotta get off our phones and get to know each other in our communities. We should be able to borrow a cup of sugar!”

Check it out, you can pitch socialism in a way that’ll amp people up in like 3 simple sentences.

If you can’t or won’t do it yourself, by all means ask AI to help you lower your barrier for entry.

Basically all left (or even neoliberal) discourse happens in such an echo chamber people have forgotten how to talk irl.

That’s an interesting take. I’ll guess we’ll see.

I’m curious as to what circumstances could unfold in which Canada would be asking to join the USA in the next 100 years, let alone in “a few” years.

You’re right. I edited my post to make the words more accurately capture my intention. Thanks for the vibe check. I was out of line.

If you don’t feel like you need to move your feet when you accidentally drop it (to avoid a toe smack) , it’s too small.

The fact that 3.5" floppies were self-sealing to make handling irrelevant (put your greasy fingers on any surface you fucking want) is another obvious advantage.

There are more. Before putting something on blast, really run it through forwards and backwards. You might be surprised at how many pros/cons fall out of a genuine consideration.

Sorry for the wording of my original post… it WAS needlessly adversarial.

Oh, I couldn’t tell you what the 2 things are. I don’t have a keen eye. I’m just waiting for someone who does.