I was part of a team that was trained in COBOL to help update code in time for Y2K. We’ve been headhunted by the same company several times in the last ten years to further update and maintain the same code, originally written in the mid-1970s. I’m now 56, and I suspect that code base will live at least as long as I do.

Getting married

I just thought it looked cool.

Octopi aren’t fish.

Do you mean collective nouns ?

Or just “generic groups”, as in animal, plant, rock, fungi, lichen ?

Maybe group words that aren’t as specific as collective nouns and not as generic as groups:

• canine
• marsupial
• mammal
• primates
• carnivores
• vertebrates
• reptiles
• birds

Does that help?

Depends on the number of kids and how old. I’ve never had a problem with it.

It might or might not:

• arrive
• work
• be genuine
• be fit for purpose

You Are a Tourist - Death Cab for Cutie

Yes

remote work involves a previously unthinkable change in the way productive activity is structured and organised. If workers can do without the physical presence of managers, perhaps they don’t need managers at all

There it is. They want workers back in the office so that managers have some way of justifying their existence.

Neil Diamond, of all people, has a version, which you might or might not like.

Like anything else, the more you practice, the better you get. I remember how much anxiety and stress I had when I was learning; now I don’t even think about it.

Could you get a friend or relative to take you out to a quiet area to get more practice away from traffic and other road users? Then slowly build up to more stressful situations. I was taking my kids a few times a week around the quieter back streets, round and round and round, until they got their confidence up, then we went out to small roads with traffic, and built up until they were driving on busy main roads and freeways.

Here in Australia, you can choose to get an automatic-only license and not have to learn manual. Is that an option where you are?

Do people still use Chrome ?

Mainframe computers

I recognise that reference!

Anything from the Grim Fandango soundtrack.

ls -al

The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth

!aneurysmposting@sopuli.xyz

I’d wear that just for the lolz. Where can I get one?

My disorganised thoughts in no particular order:

In Australia, donation of blood products is not paid. I think you get a cup of tea and a few biscuits (“cookies”).

I don’t have a problem with that, and I’m very grateful to those anonymous people who volunteered their time and blood so that I could have blood during my stem cell transplants.

I also don’t have a problem with people in other countries who are paid for their blood products; I understand what it’s like to be in dire straits, and blood is a renewable resource. However, I feel that if a company is making money from selling blood, they should be paying a fair price to donors.

Ethically, I feel that any donation of blood (or organs) should be completely anonymous, altruistic, and uncompensated in order to remove any hint of obligation between donor and donee. The idea of being paid for donations makes me personally uncomfortable, even though I just said that I don’t mind other people being compensated.

I’d like to contribute and save lives and whatever, but I have incurable blood cancer (multiple myeloma) and they won’t allow me to donate.