Coming from DOS -> Win3.1 -> 95, I hated having stuff sent to the recycle bin, since whenever I saw the icon with papers in it, I had to obsessively follow up with the command to empty it. Every. Single. Time. The instant I realized Shift bypassed the recycle bin, I immediately started using it. Thanks, Windows 95. Can you believe that was nearly 30 years ago already?

I've used ECHO OFF in many a batch file during my DOS days. Not only that, @ECHO OFF would also suppress the ECHO OFF command itself. It kept the output very clean...but ultimately (and this is probably what you're getting at) it doesn't belong in environments where you're debugging and want to see the output of everything. But once I got my batch files going, they would *all* start that way. I don't know why I was so obsessed with keeping the output to a minimum. Probably because I wrote batch files to automate things for non-technical people, and seeing *anything* at all would cause panic among them. I don't miss batch files. Despite its idiocratic syntax sins, I still like PowerShell.

Well, if the site has gathered enough of a following in Dutch only, I'm thinking word of mouth might be enough to increase his viewership, even if it happens more slowly than if he were to burn a big pile of money to advertise himself. I mean, developers network together. You just need a few people to mention they got their job through that site to their English-speaking friends, and it ought to snowball from there. Maybe I'm naive. I'm not a marketing guy.

I probably learned those combos before Ctrl-X/C/V and forgot all about them. One habit I can't break out of (and should) is that I hold down the Shift key when deleting files from Explorer so they immediately get deleted, as opposed to being sent to the recycle bin. And I regret the habit. It's extremely rare, but there have been a few occasions where I wished I could've just gone to the recycle bin to undo the delete. And no, Ctrl-Z can't undo a permanent file delete that was done with Shift-Del. Fortunately I tend to have backups.

OMG, I seriously thought I was the only one who took the habit of hitting Ctrl-C twice because every once in a while my first attempt seemed to get dropped...

That's a brilliant idea.

Sander Rossel wrote:

I think it's currently (one of) the biggest job board for .NET developers in the Netherlands.

And if only he spent a bit of money for a translator's services, it probably would only get much bigger still.

What, seeing people agree on the internet makes you uncomfortable? :-)

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

For the short term at least, blue collar skills are making a resurgence since for the past couple decades nobody taught their kids how to fix a tire while watching cat videos online. I mean robots will eventually replace that too, but for the next 10-20 years at least you can do pretty well being a plumber, for instance. AI can't do that... yet.

My dad retired as an auto mechanic after 41 years (same dealership during all that time), and every once in a while he makes a point of dropping by to visit some of the guys he worked with. Out of 60+ employees, there's only 2 left he still knows - everybody else left, quit, or retired. Since before my dad left 18 years ago, the owner has been running ads to find replacement mechanics, and they're still looking for people. Nobody shows up - ever. In those 18 years, the mechanics got decent raises, making roughly 2/3 more than what my dad was making on the day he left. Still it's not enough to entice anyone. And the job isn't what it used to be. Now everybody uses a laptop hooked up to the car, it runs the diagnostics and tells you what to replace. The job as a mechanic is now just to replace the parts the computer tells you. Clearly the writing's on the wall.

:-)

^ This. It's always been my belief an "influencer"'s 50,000 online friends would probably think they're a jerk IRL.

raddevus wrote:

The difference between what an employee is paid and how much value she produces leads to profit. If the worker captures all the value in her salary, there’s no profit.

That's a pretty good quote, and accurately reflects the real-world situation. It didn't take me long for me as a kid to realize that you're rarely paid what you think you're worth--your pay is the intersection point where you're willing to accept the minimum your employer offers. The delusion of what some people think they're worth explains why so many people hate their jobs. Or they simply don't have the job they want (and think they can do).

Ah yes, that one's a classic. Thanks for reminding me this exists. :-)

honey the codewitch wrote:

the first thing I always did was job shadow the person doing the job my software was either going to streamline or replace. I didn't write a line of code until I could do the job as well, if not as fast, as the operator doing the tasks my software targeted.

Smartest thing I've read in a long time. And it should be obvious, but unfortunately some people need to be reminded of that.

I think the parallel lies in the fact that switchboard operators were only employed until their jobs could be automated. That was just a matter of time and, I think, inevitable. Some people are definitely in positions where their day-to-day tasks can be automated. It won't be pleasant for them, and probably not pleasant either for the people who would've used their services. Maybe that's the real impediment preventing it from having taken place already on a large scale. But then there's also a whole category of people who could be replaced by machinery, where cost is the only thing getting in the way. I remember reading an article some years ago, I think involving McDonald's CEO, saying if he could replace people in their kitchens with a $30,000 machine, he'd do it in an instant. The fact that he came to an exact figure means he's already done the calculation and he's just waiting for it to become cheap enough. Some people's days are numbered for sure. I wouldn't want to be an unskilled kid quitting school today at the age of 18.

charlieg wrote:

Anyone else seeing the AI "revolution" just automating shoveling BS?

Nothing can generate more BS per unit of time than a computer. But as people in that field have already realized (and voiced their concerns about), when it starts feeding itself it dilutes its own value. There are some useful applications, but generally speaking I think it'll just implode upon itself and it'll be good riddance.

Jeremy Falcon wrote:

I'd bet the next wave of tech will be the opposite of what we've seen and more of a shift towards getting back what we've lost

That day can't come fast enough, bro. Tech today is making me hate people. It makes me want to dissociate from tech, as I'm deep into it, have made a career out of it, but what people do with it nowadays is NOT what I signed up for. People who know me are surprised and sometimes don't believe me when I say (for one thing) I'm very much against social media in all its forms, thinking I'd be all in, while in reality nothing could be further from the truth. It's not a case of cognitive dissonance, I don't sing its praises. I don't think Mark Zuckerberg is our lord and savior, I view him more like the anti-Christ. Seriously. It used to be only nerds "got" tech. Then "the rest" got involved, and now it's all about me, me, me, my number of subscribers, my views, and smashing the Like button. The one word that always makes me roll my eyes nowadays is "influencer". FOAD already, you're not exerting any sort power over me, in fact the more involved you get into your own sh*t the more pathetic I think you are. In a group at a table in a restaurant, I'm the one guy left who isn't glued to his phone and would rather have a face-to-face conversation. People sitting at the same table texting each other make me want to take their phone out of their hand and place it in their drink. I'm just hoping that this next wave of tech you're forecasting has nothing to do with people and anticipating their every want and need. That's profiling, we're already there and it's the nastiest thing that's happened to civilization. So IMO if the next wave of tech is the opposite of what we've seen, then it has to be something that leaves people out of it and does NOT make the individual the center of the world. I don't know what it'll be, and I don't how we get there. But I think the solution has to be less tech, and less trying to "connect people", not more. And that doesn't make one a luddite.

Nothing more entertaining than raging nerds. But again, maybe not. Nobody wants to watch a series involving the likes of a Richard Stallman.

Maximilien wrote:

I wish it was better presented.

Same. The scale between the smallest and the largest is so big, trying to find anything is a complete waste of time. This is why the logarithmic scale was invented, but that would still be hard to follow.

Thanks. I remember PowerISO from many, many years ago, but didn't realize it could rip commercial discs. Or maybe it wasn't a feature at the time. I'll add it to the list to try - thanks :-)

AnyBurn looks pretty good. Linux shouldn't be an impediment - even though I have it running primarily in VMs, I have some spare laptops where I can just blow away the OS at a moment's notice, and my reader is external/USB so I can connect it to anything. I'm already in the process of ripping my discs with the one I had linked to, but I'll retry later with AnyBurn so I have an alternative, should this one not work, or also disappear eventually. Thanks for that.