AI stole the em-dash from my toolkit.

I have memorized a group of useful Alt-codes for engineering documents. They include symbols for diameter, delta, degrees, dot product, and trademark among others. If you're of a certain age, you will remember how useful Alt+255 was for folder naming.

At the cusp of the 21st centuries, I added the Windows Alt-code for the em-dash. Compared to parentheses it is less jarring. Commas are dainty things. I use the em-dash, and I am human.*

* I confess that I also use semicolons; I still claim to be human.

Why would local governments annex property, upgrade utilities, and build new roads without moving that burden to the entities driving those things? They routinely do this for new residential developments in many jurisdictions, refusing to annex subdivisions until the residents have paid for the utilities and roads.

There seems to be no reason that the current residents of a region should consider paying for these things to benefit the owners of facilities that do not generate enough tax revenue to support the added costs. Hospitals, schools, water treatment facilities, roads for their own use may merit issuing bonds that can be paid off based on new or existing taxes. But asking folks making standard wages to pitch in over decades for a company which could pay for the needed upgrades with a few weeks of revenue makes little sense. It seems disingenuous on its face or downright negligent at worst.

Does anyone have a bead on resources that could help me learn more about how all this works [or doesn't]?

I meant to agree entirely with the parent comment by showing one specific way in which Win2K SP4 is far superior to Windows 11.

In Win2K, Task Manager takes less than a second to start on a 200 MHz, single core Pentium II with 64MB of RAM and a 5400 RPM IDE HDD.

First thing I noticed on reveal day: it looks like a star ship from the the 1985 game, Elite.[0] It's a 3D model of a space ship for a computer that could barely keep up.[1] This design was a great starting point for a child's imagination, but even as a kid it was always assumed that this was the best we can do for now. The future would be far less disappointing. Verdict: this design isn't futuristic; it's nostalgic.

Looking down, I saw that its beautiful, shining, crystalline, space-going shuttlecraft aesthetic sits on matte, round, rubber wheels tied to the ground. It wants to fly, but it can't, and that is sad.

A few months later, I saw the unfortunate resemblance to industrial garbage receptacles usually kept out of site behind decorative enclosures. I realized that while designing one of those enclosures. Then the memes came.

I actually prefer a version I saw that was mounted on tracks for arctic environments.[2] It says, "I am a raw shard of ice carved from a massive glacier," and it pulls it off quite well.

[0] https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:EliteShipIdentificationCh... [1] https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/File:Elite_Animation.gif [2] https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/gallery/world-s...

Meanwhile, in 2025, with 64GB RAM and solid state drives, we hear, "Windows 11 Task Manager really, really shouldn't be eating up 15% of my CPU and take multiple seconds to fire up."

That's an accurate and sad truth about humanity in general, isn't it? We all feel safer and saner if we avoid thinking about how things really are. It's doubly true if our hands are dirty to some extent.

At the same time, I submit that ignoring the effectiveness of very small contingents of highly motivated people is a common failure mode of humanity in general. Recall that "nearly nobody" also describes "people who are the President of the United States." Observe how that tiny rounding error of humanity is responsible for quite a bit of the way the world goes - for good or ill. Arguably, that level of effectiveness doesn't even require much intelligence.

> Why should they care about the same for AI which for most people is “out there online” somewhere?

Well, some will be smart enough to see the problem. Some portion thereof will be wise enough to see a solution. And a portion of those folks will be motivated enough to implement it. That's all that's required. Very simple even if it's not very easy or likely.