The academics I know are all pretty miserable these days. They can see that it’s a corrupt, exploitative system and they feel powerless to change it. They spend their time writing grant applications and chasing money, then pumping out papers they know are fairly trivial, but they have to write them to keep the funding coming in. Some of the scientific disciplines are in a slow state of crisis due to a serious loss of confidence in the credibility or value of much of the research. And the younger ones know they’ll never get tenure and are on a shit career track potentially forever. But even the ones with tenure seem pretty unhappy, working for these organizations that relentlessly seek money and superficial prestige.
This is so far from what academia ought to be about, and from the enthusiasms that brought these people into it in the first place. I got out 20 years ago because I found this stuff repellent then. It’s worse now. it’s sad that our society can’t provide a place for smart and enthusiastic people to do honest research without all this corrupting quasi-commercial (or sometimes simply commercial) influence.
I bought Windows 95 on floppy disks when it first came out. I think it was 13 disks.
Microsoft used a special format for these floppies, called Distribution Media Format (DMF). It allowed them to fit 1.68MB onto each disk instead of the standard 1.44MB. I just went looking for information about that and found a web page that has not been changed since 1997:
I think at least some editions of Windows 98 couldn’t boot from the CD-ROM either but had a boot floppy with the drivers. I hit this problem recently when trying to set up a Windows 98 machine.
Funny how people who think they’re chosen by God so often believe God wants them to kill the people who are inconvenient to them. Funny how God always strongly resembles the believer and shares their views and prejudices.
Hindus believe in one God, who is known variously as Paramatman, Parameshwar, Parabrahman, Purushottam and so on. Even though God is one, He manifests in infinite forms, but this should not to be confused with the belief that there are multiple Gods.
I’m not sure the choice between Bing or Google, two search engines controlled by giant corporations who make money from advertising, is enough of a choice for a truly free Internet. And as the Bing outage last week showed us, most other search engines are just Bing repackaged.
It’s not brain damage. That’s another form of the perennial “it’ll be fine once the oldies are dead” fantasy. It’s just regular not-too-smartness plus selfishness and the fear and personality issues you identify. If nothing changes there will be plenty of people like this in the lead-free generations too.
It’s only a mistaken understanding if it was accidental. For a long time all the signs are that the focus was deliberately taken off Saudi Arabia despite the known complicity of its officials, and Iraq was deliberately targeted despite the US knowing it had nothing to do with 9-11. Lies were deliberately spread to manufacture the consent of the American (and British) people for what its advocates knew to be an unjustified war.
Temperatures in Pakistan cross 52 degrees Celsius — that’s more than 125°F (edition.cnn.com)
Trump told donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests, deport demonstrators - The Washington Post (Gifted article, no paywall) (wapo.st)
I run a university – people like me should be backing students' right to protest over Gaza | Patrizia Nanz (www.theguardian.com)
Humanity’s survival is still within our grasp – just. But only if we take these radical steps | David King (www.theguardian.com)
Netanyahu admits ‘tragic mistake’ after Israeli strike on Rafah camp kills dozens (www.smh.com.au)
Sealed Windows 2000 Advanced Server floppy disks (lemmy.world)
Light (mander.xyz)
If Windows XP was released in 2024 (lemmy.world)
Credit: grimgreenfo.rest/notes/9tn7wtthrdb5013t
India elections: PM Narendra Modi claims he has been chosen by God (www.theguardian.com)
Indian leader tells interviewer God ‘just keeps making me do things’ but that he ‘cannot dial him directly’...
Italian teenager nicknamed ‘God’s influencer’ set to become Catholic Church’s first millennial saint (edition.cnn.com)
These Women Came to Antarctica for Science. Then the Predators Emerged (www.wired.com)
Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same (www.bbc.com)
Arizona Senate Republicans Pass Bill to Prevent Climate Action (climate.law.columbia.edu)
Conservatives plan to bring back mandatory National Service (www.bbc.com)
Imperceptible sensors made from 'electronic spider silk' can be printed directly on human skin (techxplore.com)
‘A deranged fringe movement’: what is Maga communism, the online ideology platformed by Tucker Carlson? (www.theguardian.com)
New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity (www.theatlantic.com)
Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day. archive