Biggles @Biggles@qoto.org

@GabeMoralesVR @upmultimedia

Just because it wasn't visible to you doesn't mean it wasn't heavily used. I worked for Quarterdeck, supporting DesqView, for years. It was used in industrial process and business backend until amusingly recently. It was the Jack-in-the-Box order system for years past when it should have been obsolete, because it worked and was super-reliable. It was used in a ton of point-of-sale software as well. And it was used because the PC had an extensible bus you could add all sorts of hardware to - that never materialized for the Amiga.

I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't still industrial processes that run under it today, despite being horribly outdated, because it just worked, and replacing custom industrial hardware is expensive.

@GabeMoralesVR @upmultimedia

1985 saw both the Amiga and the 80386 PC, which with DesqView had fully preemptive multitasking, but wasn't a proprietary platform. The Amiga admittedly had superior graphics - but the PC was more "future proof" because of that openness.

@SwiftOnSecurity

Choosing to delay or just not do maintenance is a still a choice.

The outage and expense will still happen, eventually. You just no longer get to choose when or how. The money and time saved will c0me due, with interest.

@darkuncle

Teeth! If you do nothing else at all, take care of your teeth.

@stavvers

Actually, it was a Merlin handheld video game back in '79, assuming "mobile" means "you can play it in the back seat of the car" as opposed to "it's a phone, too!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(console)

@simon

Until I meet a LLM that is capable of responding "I don't know" when asked about something missing in its training instead of "hallucinating". The word "intelligence" has certain foundational implications that are missing here. This isn't to say it can't be made into a useful tool, just that it looks so much like intelligence that *calling* it intelligence seems intentionally misleading.

I dip my foot back in every time a new model comes along - basic factual questions - and have yet to see an "I don't know".

@tinker @darkuncle

The Thousand Oaks Library has an *impressive* collection of DVD and Blu-Ray videos; I frequently go there and check out entire seasons of shows that are either expensive or simply unavailable for streaming. I've been slowly churning thru old stand up comedy, that was simply unavailable elsewhere. Fir oldsters like me, it nicely fills the old video rental brain hole.

@SwiftOnSecurity

About the most I can do is boost and favorite and think grimly "I'm glad I'm not the only one..."

@cstross @jasongorman

For extra points, guess the novel. Because I have no clue, so - wrong answers only, please.

@georgetakei

I almost can't blame the entertainers - a gig's a gig, and none of them likely have people beating down the door, gotta make that rent. Next week, same exact show at a 8 year old's birthday party.

Almost.

@georgetakei

College isn't a scam - but it's also no guarantee of a high-paying career either. For some professions like doctor/lawyer it's a mandatory thing - but for others, sadly including "marketing" anything, it may provide zero value. Most of the folks in my College Theater classes thought they were headed for the big time; reality was less kind. Go to college because passion drives you to - not because you think it's a gateway to big bucks.