There's a parallel worldline out there where the PDP-11 made the transition into a desktop PC[0] and the IBM PC didn't take over the world. In that worldline our servers are from the PDP-11 lineage, and not the IBM PC.
I've got a DEC Pro 380 myself ( https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2025/03/more-pro-for-dec-profess... ). It's a heck of a desktop computer, and you can run some early Unices on them. The Pro and the DECmate II are some of the best built systems of the era despite their idiosyncrasies, IMHO.
I've noticed people's "computer literacy" varies dramatically based on the applicability of whatever they're trying to accomplish to their personal desires versus work.
Being a bit hyperbolic: An update moves one pixel out of place in a line-of-business application and helldesk calls roll in from core-dumping end users who simply can't fathom how to use the software anymore. OTOH, big streaming video or shopping service revamps their UI and the end users seem to have no trouble continuing to use company resources to play videos, shop, etc.
Edit: I have no doubt many large websites have better UX resources, as compared to LoB apps, but user motivation plays a big part.
Streaming sites and shopping carts are used by millions of people, but casually after work, maybe twice a day.
LoBs are used intensively for hours on end in a busy work day, and most people's livelihoods depend on them either directly or indirectly. You grow into them. Muscle memory used to be an actual UI design goal, back when TUI's were the most common LoB interface. Not so much anymore when everything is web app and you click through the horrid UI slowly with your mouse pointer, and repeat this identical task 200 times in a day.
edit: We naturally develop a muscle memory even for the worst LoB. But they are not designed with this in mind. If they were, they wouldn't move that one critical pixel around in a mouse driven app.
Not building NTVDM for 64-bit Windows was a major departure from previous strategy and marks a clear regression in Microsoft's attitudes toward backwards compatibility.
> and marks a clear regression in Microsoft's attitudes toward backwards compatibility.
Yeah... but for what purpose should it have been kept? Anyone with a legitimate need to run 16 bit software on a modern Windows machine can always go for virtualization or emulation. The effort required in supporting that technology is far from zero, and old code to work with legacy stuff - no matter in which project - is always a fruitful source of security exploits.
My observation is the "old Microsoft" would have kept it in and supported it because that's how they rolled. The lack of NTVDM in x64 Windows signaled a change that the commitment to compatibility is now on shaky ground.
Whether it should have been kept for a technical reason is secondary, in my mind, to eroding the confidence their Customers had that old software would continue to work.
The market doesn't seem to give a damn so I guess they made the right call.
> I think everyone does see that there is good government and bad government.
I only know the time and place I've lived in (United States, born in 1977), but I feel like the trope of "all government is bad" has been the rallying cry of conservatives since the Reagan era.
I'm convinced enough people have grown up hearing that trope that your assumption is incorrect. I think a ton of people believe there can only be bad government because they've never had to think about it-- they've been told that from birth.
I'm not a student of history. Maybe this isn't a new thing and this "all government bad" trope has been a consistent feature of US politics. It doesn't feel like it, though.
Australia has a good government. It's extremely middle of the road due to Mandatory voting attendance and preferential voting. It's very much wisdom of the crowd. It's a good system and the results across the board from wealth inequality, GDP per capita, human development pretty much speak for themselves. it basically forces a really centrist approach because everyone preferences all of the candidates you never want to use outrage politics or it will backfire. It also has an independent body that defines where the electorate borders are so gerrymandering is not really a thing.
The Australian government enforced assimilation policies that systematically removed Aboriginal children from their families. The Australian Human Rights Commission concluded that this state-sanctioned policy constituted an act of genocide. During early colonization, government troops and police forces were directly involved in the planned and calculated mass slaughter of Indigenous communities. Archival records frequently referred to these indiscriminate killings using the codeword "dispersal". In Afghanistan, Australian special forces were involved in the unlawful killing of Afghan prisoners and civilians. In 2025, laws were passed allowing bans on protests for up to three months, and activists face arrest and imprisonment for demonstrations relating to climate change and the Gaza conflict.
If any group other than the state did any of these things they would be rightfully disbanded, instead people praise mandatory voting???
Mandatory voting is worthy of praise, some of the stuff you mentioned proves my point. Aboriginals are now part of that mandatory voting and as such the government bends over backwards to try and meet their needs while balancing them with the needs of others.
You are moving the goalposts, you asked to name a good government and I gave you one. On a spectrum from good to bad Australia is good.
If you ask to see a good horse and I show you one that can run at 30kmph, you can't in good faith complain that it requires oxygen and sometimes poops. It's not a bad horse because it can't fly.
I think it's fair to say plenty of people have been satisfied, and even pleased, with the policies and actions of their government. There isn't one objective measure.
Assuming your movements are tracked by other methods (surveillance cameras and facial recognition, purchase records, etc) the absence of your phone when you would otherwise normally have it is a data point, too.
There is no time that I would normally have my phone other than when I am at home; the data point that I provide would be the rare times I take my phone out of the house and most of that time it is off, I only turn it on if I actually need it. My phone is turned off a fair amount which also means I do not have internet since I get my internet through my phone's hotspot, it is nice to be able to disconnect from the world so simply, just turn off my phone. If this was the norm, location data would have far less value and possibly not be worth the expense. Phone addiction seems the real issue here.
My purchasing data is not much better, two purchases so far this year other than my three monthly bills and groceries once or twice a week where I also get cash for my other expenses. I don't do this out of concern about being tracked, just how I live my life. Sometimes I leave my phone off for a week, nothing bad happens, at least nothing that having my phone on would have prevented.
My stock CD32 doesn't have any connectivity that would support a browser. Adding an SX-1 module would make the unit a lot like an Amiga 1200 in a silly case w/ a CD-ROM drive, but you'd be limited to serial connectivity and SLIP/PPP (since there's no PCMCIA slot-- the typical method of adding Ethernet connectivity to an A1200).
I didn't have a CDTV so I can't comment on the hardware specifics. If I remember right it's an Amiga 500 (or 500+?) in a funny case w/ a CD-ROM and would suffer from the same lack of connectivity as the CD32.
I grew up seeing these signs all over and never gave them a thought. I love articles that bring something to my attention that I never thought to think about.
I had an ACA "marketplace" plan back for my family back in 2017 when I was self-employed. My premiums were >$15K / year for a >$10K deductible and no tax credits (because of my income).
This can't be stated enough. I should have my comment w/ citations on standby, but I don't.
The AMA was concerned in the 90s re: "oversupply" of doctors and the impact on doctor salaries, lobbied the Republicans (around the "Contract with America" timeframe) and got language limiting NIH-funded residency slots codified.
The AMA is backpedaling on that stance now but the damage is already done.
A reasonable compromise would be a scheduled increase in the number of slots until it is eventually uncapped. Yes, this will reduce doctors salaries in the long-term. You know what else reduces doctor salaries? Importing medical doctors from foreign countries with worse wages and working conditions, and then grinding these individuals to the ground under the threat of immigration. The market finds a way, whether the AMA wants it or not. As Americans get richer, many are even just going to foreign countries to get treatment. I know several 'third world' countries have fairly good medical care available for very cheap.
Doctors salaries should be reduced, as should nurses and dentists. We pay them nearly twice as much in the US as in countries with socialized medicine.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_Professional_(computer)
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