How about the water waste animals are responsible for? Would you have dated him if the first thing you learned was that he chops up dead animals for a living? AI is unethical, but killing animals, with all the ecological damage done is a thing you can put aside?

And this guy is thoughtless for using AI? I have a project for you. Walk down the street and ask random strangers what they know about AI. No leading questions, only this open question. (This is my prime annoyance with lemmy. Everyone here assumes the wider world knows what they know, and if they don’t act in accordance with what we know, they’re morons. FFS, most Americans can barely read.)

She rejected him without question, but YOU know all the context here. And this is why memes manipulate our opinions. There are no real facts here, only her word and your assumptions. But this whole thread has spun a story!

My wife’s heart medication, which is not a daily thing, only on demand, is staggering without insurance. Her kids in the Philippines send it to her for $10.

Since the Big Beautiful Bill killed my Obamacare, I stopped going to the doctor. Starting to build up some problems but my wife just got “promoted” off the temp company and the insurance isn’t much more for both of us than only her.

Go sell that where you work! You and I are not the customer, business is the customer, and catering to enterprise is a whole 'nother ball game.

Yeah but try fucking around with Excel like that! Killed, golden goose, all that.

Bingo! But MS has managed all that brilliantly with Excel, mainly by NOT fucking with it.

My last job used Google for email, auth across multiple apps and office productivity. Worked fairly well, but HR and Accounting still needed Office.

I argued Active Directory would be as cheap or cheaper and far easier to manage, AND give us options we didn’t have. For some reason that whole place hated AD.The misconceptions were staggering, as if all they knew was from Windows Server 2003.

No one said Apple was a good company, just better for privacy.

Cook was giving a toddler a shiny for favoritism. That’s pathetic on Trump, not Tim.

Until I read the last sentence, I had no idea what you were talking about. You sound like you could whip up a media center PC easy enough. The machine I’m typing this on doubles as our media center. I have to take the mouse to the coffee table for a movie remote, but that’s the only hassle, and it isn’t a hassle for me.

I feel like the tech is already in place. What do you want that isn’t out there?

Been shouting at clouds forever. Capitalism ain’t the problem, it’s the unfettered mergers and near monopolies. When I was a kid, the FCC/FTC would have laughed. “No, you can’t control that much media.”

Now? Exactly as you said.

Both our TVs are Rokus, internet connected and I’ve been too lazy to configure the firewall. Only ads I see are on the home menu screen, and those are slightly annoying but unobtrusive.

Wife’s TV in the bedroom is only used for YT. (I think, that’s her thing.) Mine’s a second monitor for my PC to watched pirated content.

Where and how are people seeing ads?

Win11 has been fine for me at home and for the laptops I managed at my last job. Start your machine, skip through the install questions, reboot to USB with a MS ISO, install, done without all the factory bullshit.

Yes, that’s a minor pain, but it’s a tradeoff against post-install configuration with Linux. Either way, it’s hella better than the old days of struggling with pre and post install.

"Here we have yet another case of a person dangerously confusing “how he thinks things ought to be” with “how things actually are.” Couple of quotes down: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41156208-deadly-force---understanding-your-right-to-self-defense Off topic, but interesting in itself.

No other options, must pay. :( The old timers had a word for how to fight such bullshit. Sounded like “shrike”? Something like that? Perhaps, “Buoy snot”? Anyway, they had some sort of spell by which they refused to give evil corporations their money. No idea how that worked, lost knowledge. (Queue 100 comments about Game Pass being a requirement for modern life, like electricity and water.)

Basic economics? Drop your low-value customers for high-value customers, make more money for less support and infrastructure (and accounting and HR and payroll and…) This is Business 101. Two things kick my ass: 1) No one seems to get this thing. 2) Everyone acts like these leaching services are a necessity.

Drop them and move on! Choose an entertainment ecosystem that fucked you? Lesson learned. Move on. Still want it? Steal what you can. I have no idea what’s on broadcast, cable or subscription TV. My home-rolled VPN is $6/mo., done.

Well aware! I was dating hot and heavy at 49-52, been there, done that. But we should be aware that our aging assumptions and baggage can hold us back. Take a chance or die alone, whatever floats one’s boat, that’s their call.

From an earlier comment: She owes him nothing. She owes it to herself to take a chance. If she proudly draws the line in the sand over such a petty thing? What next? And next? NEXT? JFC, before a first date, draw the line at MAGA or racist or whatever. This could have been a beautiful relationship, but one snotty assumption derailed any chance. I’ve dodged that particular bullet a few times, including with my wife. Hell, she could have wrote a resume about her beliefs and experiences and I would have certainly refused that first date. And I have never been so in love.

Nah, look, you gotta understand, we have a one-sided story here with no chance for the man to defend his actions, and we’re taking her word at face value. Nothing else needed to tell us all about what a wise woman she is for dodging this bullet and what a moron he is. (This whole thread is reminding why I left lemmy. Insular, snotty, know-it-all, snobby, tribal, autistic… “You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful.” BAM! Good luck brucethemoose, I’m out again.)

Maybe? Never done such a thing on a date? Invited randomness to see how you both navigate? I never have a plan after the initial meeting. Just meet up and roll, open plans, no obligations. Much as I loathe AI, a ChatGPT suggestion might be amusing. Either party can kick it back, but it might give me a new idea. (Which is about all AI is worth in my life, prodding a thought I hadn’t had.)

EVERYTHING is open to misinterpretation when you meet online, especially before the first date, and even more so the older we get, what with baggage and such. The hard line in the sand looks like: MAGA, racism, stupid, etc.

The judging in this thread has me wondering if any of you have dated more than a person or three. Perhaps all humans should be on the same page regarding AI? Be nice, but it’s anything but real. If you reject me for this one minor item, what’s next? And what’s next? Next?