RSA was good enough for my grandfather, and it's good enough for me.

Almost every programming language and database I've ever used assumes 86400-second days, ignoring leap seconds. And one of the popular ways of applying leap seconds was a 'smear' [1] running every clock slightly fast for about 24 hours, rather than having a 61-second minute.

So instead of UTC we actually all use a slightly elastic timescale with the name of UTC, most of the time aligned with UTC, but with the linearity of TAI, and the desirable property that if I'm going to a concert at 19:00 in a year's time and a leapsecond is announced and implemented in the interim, the concert doesn't change to 18:59:59.

[1] https://developers.google.com/time/smear

If I open something like a stadium, and whenever there's a big game I need a load of security to deal with traffic, drunk fans, and fights - arguably most of the security should be paid for from ticket sales, rather than the taxpayer, although the taxpayer should be there as the final backstop.

Likewise, if I have a bank with a vault full of valuables and I think it needs 3 armed guards present 24/7 - probably that's going to be at my expense, not that of the taxpayer. Although any bank should get a police presence in a reasonably timely manner, once they raise the alarm about a robbery.

A person returns a $5000 RTX 5090? A manager will be paged, who will carry it over to the high value items cage, in full view of the CCTV.

A person who returns a $5 bike light? And that person has also spent $$$$ over the years with a 0.5% return rate? Straight on the pallet of mixed returns without even opening the package.

Medium-value returns and customers with an eyebrow-raising return rate get a medium amount of inspection.

> Beginning in January 2025, the company will stop stocking books regularly, and will instead sell them only during the holiday shopping period, from September through December. During the rest of the year, some books may be sold at Costco stores from time to time, but not in a consistent manner, according to the executives

You install an update. Oops, they added a sandbox that doesn't work inside a docker container, it's stopped working.

You install an update. Oops, you can't log in inside a docker container any more, it's stopped working.

You install an update. Oops, they started catching the copy+paste shortcut and replaced it with one that doesn't work.

You revert a broken update. Oops, the update changed the format of your login details, the old version can't read them, gotta log in again.

You install an update. Oops, can't scroll with the mouse wheel any more.

Not showstopping bugs (if you're used to persuading broken oauth logins to work) but it certainly makes updating an "ugh, what have they broken this time?" experience.

What could possibly go wrong?

It's true - a robot arm is not so different from a CNC machine.

But a 5-axis CNC is not so different from a 3-axis CNC, a 3-axis CNC is not so different from a laser cutter, a laser cutter is not so different from a vinyl cutter, a vinyl cutter is not so different from a large-format printer, and a large-format printer is no so different from an inkjet printer.

An industrial robot arm, out of the box, only has internal sensing (joint position, torque etc) and a start/stop button - can't sense the external environment at all.

But I've got a light on my porch that turns on when it gets dark.

By the 'react to the environment' definition the former is not a robot, and the latter is.

Instead, he argued the definition of a robot is "I know it when I see it"

Free speech advocates support the right of everyone to set up a stall in the marketplace of ideas, but don't have to support every idea that sets up a stall.

A publisher of gay erotica might support free speech, and find themselves alongside revolutionary communists, hitler-heiling nazis and radical islamists distributing bomb-making manuals - but the groups aren't allies or friends outside of that.

The menu: Rosemary and garlic roast lamb, Extra-crispy roast potatoes, Honey-roasted carrots and parsnips, broccoli.

The photo: [1] Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts. No lamb, no parsnips.

If you shoot for what's in the photo, you're going to have a bad time.

You're also going to have a bad time when you try to make an apple crumble with no flour, no sugar, and no butter, because they're not on the shopping list.

[1] https://images.openai.com/static-rsc-4/gyzrX8zp3O2KLEPm0FAqh...

That sounds great, regardless of the Google stuff.

To me that seems a exceedingly broad definition of fair use.

Wind tunnel time and aerodynamics simulator time are included in the cost cap, as are car parts and most staff (but not driver salaries, travel or marketing)

Drivers can spend all the time they want in standard consumer sim racing rigs, practising the tracks. But when it's the type of extra-high-fidelity simulator that lets you make the car better - that's subject to the cost cap.

It'd be pretty easy for the company to dispel those outlandish accusations - the PR department could just report the true numbers.

Instead, we'll see an IPv6 style transition, with some early adopters and others having no reason to change over.

Makers of short-life products like pre-packaged sushi will be at the front of the line as they get real benefits from tracking dates and batches throughout the supply chain. Retailers accidentally selling expired sushi does genuine reputational damage.

Makers of long-life products, though? That 24-pack of cans of diet coke has its barcode printed by the box factory, not the canning factory. Putting the expiry date in the barcode would be a total hassle, for very little benefit. If forced to, they'll just print the QR code next to the linear barcode, with exactly the same data.

And even if a retailer has the market power to bully their suppliers - there's no motivation to do so for non-fresh products. All commercial scanners that can read QR codes can also read linear barcodes. Wal-Mart doesn't lose anything if their bleach supplier keeps using a linear barcode.