I rented a Fiesta when I was there for work and I think I hit about 110mph, but I live in Detroit and our highways are nicknamed the Michigan Autobahn so 90+ is not unusual. What was unusual and required some attention were the cars coming up behind you at over 150mph. If you chose to pass you had to look a lot further back to see if anyone was coming or you’d cut some Porsche/Merc/Beemer off.
I had a lot more fun on the twisting back roads in Germany and Belgium

XP was kind of a F up for MS, they gave us a really decent OS that raised our expectations. People ran that for almost 2 decades because no one wanted the new OS’s MS was putting out like ME and Vista. Win 8 was out when XP support fully ended and many people chose to go with the older Win 7 because it was less intrusive and more like a PC OS instead of trying to become like a Apple/phone/tablet interface. XP>Win 7>Win 10>Win 11 imo and all the unmentioned weren’t worth upgrading for, but I don’t use my phone for the internet and I’ve been using a PC for over 40 years. We like what’s familiar and we can use without having to think too much about the tool used to achieve what we’re doing. I have Win 11 on a laptop and I have to jump through a lot more hoops to control my desktop, who can pull my info, what can install, what can run in the background. And every update I have to do it again because they add shit back in again along with new stuff I don’t want or need. Win 10 professional at least minimized how often they’d add new stuff or change my existing settings. Win 11 Pro doesn’t seem nearly as friendly.

I contracted to one of the big 3 for over 30 years. When we decided to quit making cars and focus on trucks, SUV’s, and crossovers it seemed like they were giving up future numbers for short term profit. It’s obvious small electric cars are the future but our big 3 want to ignore that. Blaming the lost market share on small cars from China disregards that they chose to leave that market. Of course Asia would step into that market and fill it

Those traits gave me two things in my IT contracting career, the ability to roll into a new position at the same contractor so I didn’t have to job hunt, and the contractor wanting nothing to do with bringing me in as a full time employee. I saw it as a win/win

I remember reading about a Pa Kua Chang master who could walk through a crowd with a full teacup and not spill any. For whatever reason I started to practice walking with a full to the brim teacup (with or without a handle) and now I can go up and down stairs with one or two and not spill anything. Usually

What’s the sound of one hand clapping? ;-p

Elon is the tech version of Murdoch and is more dangerous because of his worldwide access through Twitter. Unfortunately the extremists will have more of a voice and propaganda will overwhelm the media. Since the media is controlled by billionaires they have no interest in exposing them

I recently added a printer to my PC. Having to launch that antique spooler window from like Windows 3.1 to print is a bit hilarious

Getting T-Boned on my motorcycle when I was 62 made me real old, real fast because my mobility has been so reduced

The Dr said my foot was squished like stepping on a grape and you can’t put the grape back together again. But I’m so thankful to have a foot and leg at all after that so I appreciate what I have not what I don’t have, even though it does get burdensome when pain or lack of movement is high

I don’t post a lot but I have a lot of free time due to being T-boned on my motorcycle from someone running a red light. My mobility has been seriously restricted since. When I was working full time and posting a lot on Reddit I was training corporate engineering sw. When I wasn’t training I had a lot of time on my hands at work so I’d scroll reddit. I was also traveling a lot so I was away from home and reddit was sort of my travel family

Imagine pods dropped like old parachutes but they become embedded in the ground with a drone controller and all the drones needed for the job at hand. You could drop hundreds of those in an area and create fortifications and drone weapon bases in one swoop. I imagine drone bases would be heavily protected from EMI type attacks

But it’s enough of a game changer that large and emplaced targets will be overwhelmed. Watching those drone shows and their ability to communicate with each other like a hive mind blew my mind thinking about that from a military standpoint. I think it will be like stealth technology and radar. Most planes are not stealth so old radar is still effective. Some things will be able to protect themselves from drone attacks, but most will be vulnerable in one way or another. I’m just a military gamer and I can think of hundreds of types of drones I’d create if I was planning for a defense or attack, the experts have likely thought of those and thousands more; diggers, crawlers, flyers, dummies until signaled, attaching things coming in and out from ground, air, etc, and on and on.

I love India and the people from India. I worked in IT for Ford for over 30 years and had a lot of Indian coworkers and traveled to India a few times for work. Like others have said, all of them came over through technology jobs. Unfortunately many companies in the US play the green card game to keep your wages low. Finding a company that will help get your card is very tough. If you can handle the learning for controls engineering, a 2 year degree will get you a good paying job in a lot of the western world helping companies with their automation of production lines. One of my friends who had all the needed skills wanted to come to the US so much but his pronunciation of words was really bad and it was very hard to understand him so he could never get past an initial interview.
But I agree about the current state of India but nationalist leaders are gaining more power and Modi is an example of that. His playing the Hindu and nationalist card over and over again is an example of that. When I’d walk around it was always amazing to see stone and bronze workers doing work that’s been done for hundreds of years along side shops with ISO certification making advanced tooling and micro parts. India is where the Bronze age meets the digital age. I’ve never seen that anywhere else. China is probably the closest but I didn’t see as much technical incongruity on one street like I would in India.
As a worker and many agreed with this view, Indians and many Asians are great at following orders which is what they grew up with, but thinking out of the box was usually a challenge. I believe the freedoms of the west allow people more ability to see things differently and we feel like our view/idea/opinion has value and should be heard because of the differences in the individual. Because of that we’re more willing to contemplate other methods in our own heads about possibilities instead of just doing what rote learning taught and not go against the grain with teachers, bosses, etc. Like you’re finding, seeing what others choose not to see is a challenge. The young are the future and need to stand up for the view of the world they want. It has to start at the local level with enough force to be a regional power. Unfortunately the nationalist have a lot of thugs to do their work and wrack havoc on people trying to bring about change that would challenge those in power and bring more power to the individuals.

Drones are going to change future warfare so much. Big ships, fortifications, and slow planes/choppers are going to be very vulnerable imo

You said there was a vote though? It couldn’t get enough Dem’s to even bring it to a vote. And no I don’t think a majority of Dem’s would choose to allow non adults to vote and it would certainly be dead if it made it to the floor. There are significantly more examples of Repub’s trying to restrict voting since the 60’s than Dem’s trying to expand voting beyond groups of adults who were deprived from voting like women, African Americans, etc.

I didn’t realize Meng had tried to do this in 21 but it didn’t even get a vote as far as I can see which is why it was reintroduced again in 23 and it hasn’t moved. So they being a small group of Dems who can’t even get it to a vote doesn’t mean that much so I stand by not anyone with any power will do anything. It’s not like Dem’s have some Project 2025 with this in that goal book for the future.

No one is trying to get the voting age lowered. Could some people be talking about it and some media hacks focus on that talk? Sure, but not anyone with any power to do anything. It’s like those on the right who want to increase it again to 21. Are there some talking about it? Sure. Will anything be done about it? Not anymore chance than it would be lowered to under 18. It’s a BS media talking point click bait

Unfortunately most rails are owned by those moving freight and they have right of way on their rails over transit trains. Every auto factory has rails connecting it so it is feasible with a little change and many suppliers are near the factories so light rail and bus service could feed those locations.

I worked with a lot of people making close to 6 figures who only had a 2 year associates degree in controls traveling right along side of me. They made more than me with less education but more technical skill. It’s also a job market that is growing like crazy; automation.