There was a variation of this rule at Willy Wonka's factory. You could eat whatever you wanted, but then you had to eat as much as Willy wanted you to eat.

Item #1 was enough to break any deal on its own, but then the list just kept going.

I remember them wanting me to pay for that, but I also remember getting a cable that allowed me to connect my PC to my phone and do whatever I wanted with the filesystem. The ringtones were in a different format but I got a converter and had the FF7 battle music for a ring tone.

I also recall some phones supporting MP3s for listening to music (though storage space was tiny) but not supporting them as a ringtone once connecting to PCs to share files was more common.

They also sold wallpapers, emoticon packs, and themes.

Iirc, things are looking better today than the ST timeline had. They predicted water riots and a breakdown of society in the 2020s and 2030s, leading to a devestating nuclear exchange in the 2050s. Though while we aren't seeing water riots, it doesn't sound that far off.

Buuuuut, ST also predicted that we'd have already seen Kahn take over and the eugenic wars, and that's something that is worse than anything we've actually seen. I think they overestimated how much we could do after the progress seen in sequencing genomes when the original series was being made. They originally put Kahn in the 1990s/2000s.

So one could argue that we're currently in a better timeline than Star Trek.

Wait, what if we have the "cat brings you kills because it doesn't respect you as a hunter and thinks you need help and I'm doing it because I love you" backwards and it's actually a "hey, look, I know you put remains of previous kills you do while you're out of the house in my bowl, but here's some proof that I'm competent enough to join you if you need me, so please don't kick me out?"

Or maybe a "hey, I just did the killing part, can you show me how to do the make it delicious part like you do to your kills? I tried dropping it in my water but that just made my water gross (replace it at your earliest convenience or now, whichever is sooner). Or just do it for me and stick it in my bowl when it's ready. If you do, I'll let you gaze at my glorious belly and touch it but only for two seconds."

Yeah, I could be wrong, but I think any improvement after a stroke is a sign that the brain can still rewire itself to improve at that age. And I don't just mean "recovers to normal" but any functional loss that is subsequently compensated for is the brain adapting to its new reality.

IMO the biggest barrier to development isn't age but a stubborn desire to not learn, which can happen at any age and can vary in a single individual per topic.

Though I do wonder how a brain can end up wiring itself to not want to continue improving. Lack of nutrients such that continued attempts at development could result in the whole thing falling apart?

But while windows has that grip, more malware and scams will target windows users. I'm getting tired of seeing good things ruined by their own success.

What is the benefit of attracting more regular users to an OS?

Archeology in the distant future will be metal. Literally and figuratively.

One might find a mechanical clock, gears seized but maybe still coherent enough to reverse engineer it (though the precise timing we set up might not make much sense to them because the days could be longer, depending on how much time has passed), while another needs to spend great effort to break into a metal tomb only to find it doesn't contain artifacts from one of our deaths but just causes it to anyone that enters it quickly or anyone who spends time close to artifacts taken from it more slowly.

And anyone that finds computer parts will probably have no idea what's going on with them.

It's just the latest version of "hot singles are waiting in your area!" They are going for the whales like p2w games do.

Not sure if this is still the case, but I see some do the reverse to get around the "no extra fees for using a CC" rule: instead of adding fees when using a CC, they set the prices higher by that fee all the time but then offer a discount for cash or debit payments.

Yeah, that and I was already wary of Google by the time using your phone to pay was a thing and it was an even bigger "fuck no" than when they and MS wanted me to hand over my files for them to store instead of using the perfectly good storage I have at home.

I miss my cat. I'm a side sleeper and she would (eventually, after doing her night cat stuff) sleep right on whichever butt cheek was facing up. I'd need to roll over, first few times I'd just wait longer in that position but eventually I'd just slowly start changing position and she'd wake up and hop over to the side to let me roll over then settle back on her spot once I had settled.

Mine has a little change pouch so I have coins for parking.

Edit: replied to wrong comment

What about playing them on the original consoles? I've got a Game Cube and PS3 I still use occasionally, and a PS2 that I haven't tried in a long time but would give it 50/50 for just booting up if I hooked it up, plus some portion of the failure 50% includes the possibility of repairing it.

That 25 number is just the age they stopped that study at, not some magical number where everyone is now officially mature. The human brain continues developing through your life.

Pulls off Disney live action remake's mask More CGI, just tuned for photorealism instead of cartoony.

It's like worrying about a leaky faucet when the building is engulfed in flames.