AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)

That is both sad and likely accurate.

Maybe he’s a vibe journalist.

That quote really is the problematic part. The part about switches is fine - it’s an attempt to explain tech to a “normie.” But for a tech writer to ever say it’s not clear why they settled on 256 is worse than embarrassing. They had to be corrected by tweets.

Anyone whose ever had an intro to computers class has had a computing professional explain computers using simple language and analogies. That’s the way this kind of thing should work. It sounds like this author has no more clue about computing than the target audience, which isn’t going to work out well for the reader.

I was there during that time. Very nostalgic.

I can’t wait to pay for groceries with my free healthcare.

My wife and I are both computer geeks, and so our kids were exposed to computers and played computer games from a young age. One day I was playing with our daughter - playing with her dolls - and she said, “I’m going to exit this Barbie and select this one.” Cracked me up because it made perfect sense, but it’s not the way people talk about things IRL.

We had two dogs, a cat, and a bird, so the house was always full of animal silliness. My wife left me a couple months ago and took the dogs with her. I’ve become so thankful for the cat. She just wants to be where I am, constantly: on my lap if I’m sitting, or on my chest if I’m laying down. It’s made a very hard time just a little less hard.

I retired in January after 40 years (not counting jobs during college). Marriage collapsed not long after (unrelated). So now I live alone and have nothing on my calendar. It’s honestly so very strange not having to go to bed early on a weeknight. Also, for some reason, the hours and days go very slowly, but the weeks and months go very quickly. Time is fundamentally different than it was previously.

If all people did was simple equations like the one in the OP, you’d probably be right, but math syntax has to deal with all kinds of equations. Your way, I can’t write 3x^2–4x+5. Instead, I’d have to write ((((3x)^2)−4)x)+5. That’s WAY more obnoxious. It’s better to have an unambiguous syntax that covers all the cases and lets me write equations in an more simple form.

But that’s a bit like saying “If you’re going to talk to me, put the adjectives before the nouns,” even in Spanish where they come after. Mathematical notation is a language and it has a syntax. Sure, you can decide to ignore that syntax, or insist that people modify their use of it for you, but it’s not really a reasonable expectation.

Favorite “all time” would have me looking through a lot of titles, but I’ve really been enjoying Adrian Tchaikovsky lately, and some of his is hard SF. Probably Children of Time would be the one I’d start with.

If you like hard SF, you’ve probably read Weir (The Martian, Project Hail Mary, others), but he’s great.

I could go on a lot, but maybe I’ll keep it there unless you want more.

Hmm, yeah, that one’s maybe not as strong, though I kind of look at Network Effect and System Collapse as one story (confusing because there’s a book in between them, but that one chronologically comes before Network Effect). I liked it, but agree it’s not as strong.

For a variety of reasons (only some of which are related to a conscious choice to be healthier) I’ve lost 25 pounds. I was at the store the other day and the party sized peanut butter M&Ms were on sale. I thought “I’ve lost weight, and can afford to indulge a little,” so I bought one.

Omg, I can’t stop eating them! They’re so completely addictive.

I understand how you feel like that’s a satisfying portrayal, I’m just saying that’s not how it was portrayed in the books. And that’s okay, the director has to make decisions when a book is adapted to the screen. Stanley Kubrick decided that, with the state of the art of special effects at the time, the hedge maze in The Shining would have looked stupid, so he got rid of it for the movie. People were upset that it wasn’t there, but it was probably the right decision.

Well, yes, they’re following the storyline of the books, so the show is going to give away what happens in the books. The books are richer (as is typical), with more going on than they cover in the show, but the basic story is the same.

Which did you feel was the clunker?

In the books, Murderbot is aggressively no gendered. It gets upset at any suggestions that it has sex characteristics. That was enough for me to form a mental image of androgyny.

I mean, it’s fine. They had to go with someone, and that someone was going to have a body, it’s just different from what I pictured.

I’m enjoying it. Some of the decisions are a little odd. The thing that’s most distracting to me is that, in my head, Murderbot appears much more androgynous. That might have been hard to pull off, but Skarsgard is definitely male (even without genitalia). Some of the other characters are goofier than in the books, but I kind of understand the choice.

I hope the show gets people to read the books, but the show is entertaining.

The show is good, the books are fantastic!

I know it’s a month old, but I just saw this post and wanted to add some comments.

First of all, I agree with the recommendation on Leckie, especially the Imperial Radch series. It’s space opera - not funny like Murderbot - but it’s a pretty interesting take on an artificial consciousness.

Second, Wells has written other stuff besides Murderbot that’s good. I’m also more of a hard SF reader, but I did enjoy her Tales of the Raksura series, which is straight up fantasy, with people who can turn into dragon-like things.

Third, John Scalzi is also really good at clever/witty dialog. Some of his stuff is more serious, but he’s got a few that are both funny and moving. Maybe check out Redshirts, which is kind of the Star Trek situation, from the point of view of the away team members who tend to die while the main characters always survive. Very silly concept, done very well.

I read kind of a ridiculous amount of SF. If you want any recommendations for hard SF, or anything else in the genre, I’d be happy to give my thoughts.