I definitely get that. The big thing for me is music, and I routinely buy physical and digital copies of albums to add to my collection. I don’t mind sending some money to help my favorite artists keep producing content that I enjoy. With video, though, it’s just so much harder. I’d be happy to pay $50 or more per month for what Netflix used to be, or even buy downloadable copies of a TV series that I like. That’s just not possible these days. I’d be subscribing to Netflix, Discovery, Paramount, Apple TV, probably a few more. It’s ridiculous. Forget buying and downloading TV shows; there’s no option for that at all. I’d rather just not watch TV or find an “alternate” means of getting the media I want.

I canceled Netflix several years ago after having used it as my primary source of media almost since they first started their streaming service.

The problem I had is that the quality of their content decreased so dramatically that even though it worked fine from a technical perspective, there was nothing I wanted to watch. They used to have extensive back-catelogues of shows from all sorts of different national cable networks, tons of interesting foreign shows, documentaries, obscure indie films, etc.

Slowly but surely this all disappeared. Networks stopped licensing content to Netflix. As soon as they realized that streaming was the way of the future, they wanted to capitalize on it with their own streaming services. In a way, Netflix was a victim of their own success.

Now they’re essentially just a TV network of their own and not the aggregator of media that they used it me. The few decent originals that they have were just not justification enough for me to pay for a service I might use a few times a year.

C++ compiler errors still won’t fit on either screen.

It’s amazing how much emotion we invest in our cars. I had a not very expensive but fairly unique car in my late teens. Eventually, I joined the adult world, moved away, and it sat in storage for years before being given away.

Now I’m much older, in a vastly different place in life, and generally successful and happy. I’d still sell my left testicle to get that car back, though. Not so much because of the car itself, but because of the memories. It feels like a lost photo album or that one song that just sounded perfect but you can’t remember the artist or the lyrics.

I’m very far away from “young,” but I was once. Even in my early 20s, this would have seemed terrible. Sure, you have access to an interesting city, but you have no space for anything you can call your own. Even a rented studio anywhere else gives you somewhere to have a home you can call yours.

If you’re living in a place where renting a pod with less space than a prison cell costs nearly as much as a studio somewhere else… move.

Plenty of “normal” people (maybe all of them) still struggle with their own issues. I’m well-regarded as an expert in my field, I’d be considered successful by most standards, and I don’t outwardly show any red flags around my colleagues. They probably assume I don’t take any medication, because I don’t exactly wear a list of my prescriptions printed on my shirt. They probably don’t assume I work out, because they’re not blind, but whatever. Little do they know that the only thing keeping me sane are a few tiny pills and probably way too much beer.

My point is, it’s normal to be flawed. Everyone is flawed, and it’s part of being a human. By comparing yourself to others, you’re comparing yourself to the image that others portray, not to other people as they truly are. Compare yourself to version of yourself that’s happy, and strive to become that person.

Meanwhile, “~x” is drooling on itself over in the corner.

Aren’t there a few VPN providers that don’t even install writable storage in their servers? I can’t remember which, but I’m sure there’s at least one that boots their machines off of read-only media and only installation hard drives in the servers used for storing login credentials.

Is it just me, or do these two people look like they could be siblings?

Isn’t it wonderful when your VPN client refuses to connect repeatedly until you realize you need to reboot your PC or restart the VPN service… and then go change your underwear.

I’m curious, why does this require OpenSSL in order to compile? I’m not aware of any audio formats that use encryption, but I could be wrong.

My first thought was for connecting to https streams, but I don’t remember Winamp having this capability. “Back in the day,” I used Winamp for playing local audio and RealPlayer for what little streaming was available.

I appreciate the suggestion, but that looks like a Java library. Interpreted languages make me feel dirty. Java makes me feel even dirtier. If it’s not C, C++, or ASM, is it really worth using?

I’m okay with the “human-readability,” but I’ve never been happy with the “machine-readibility” of XML. Usually I just want to pull a few values from an API return, yet every XML library assumes I want the entire file in a data structure that I can iterate through. It’s a waste of resources and a pain in the ass.

Even though it’s not the “right” way, most of the time I just use regex to grab whatever exists between an opening and closing tag. If I’m saving/loading data from my own software, I just use a serialization library.

Leader of a terrorist organization endorses another terrorist organization. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Everybody who keeps saying “just go” seems to be assuming that OP works in an office job where you can just come back and finish your work after your appointment.

What if they’re an air traffic controller, they’re operating factory equipment, monitoring a nuclear reactor, etc. Some jobs require a person to be present and attentive. Now they have to talk to their manager, find someone to cover for them, etc. Mental health treatment should be easily available without having to jump through hoops. I understand their frustration.

We had laundry, but nobody really used it except for the officers. They got their uniforms nicely washed and pressed. Enlisted got their uniforms balled up with the rest of the laundry from their berthing and shoved into an industrial washer. If you were lucky, your stuff was on the outside of the laundry ball; most of the time it barely got wet.

Most people used the self-serve laundry. We had something like 8 or 10 washers you could use on a first-come-first-serve basis. Usually half were broken.

This was on a small boy, early 2000s.

It’s been a while, but I think they changed the coveralls, too.

It all just seems like such a waste. I get that the old NWUs could be worn anywhere. Underway, in-port, out in town, etc. Would have been a lot more cost-effective for the powers-that-be to just say “you know what, just wear coveralls everywhere, as long as they’re not covered in paint.”

I have a stack of ancient uniforms that replaced a stack of even more ancient uniforms. The Navy changes their uniforms faster than the ship’s laundry can pretend to wash the last set.

I’ve seen the dungarees, the utility uniform, the blue camo pattern, and now whatever this is. I just don’t see what the point is in changing it over and over again.

Go into any surplus shop and you’ll see at least 4 different “every day wear” uniforms from the 90s to now.

I’m okay with (and generally supportive of) my taxes going toward military spending. Requiring servicemembers to wear a different style of clothing every 10 years or so is just a waste, though. Changing the uniform because some crusty old fuck decides they want to does not help the country win wars at sea.