I worked on some software that was used by telcos around that time - you were probably hacking our dongles :)

Even more amazingly - that software I worked in is still being used and sold. Probably still has some of my ropey old code on it…

There was also STAC for the Atari ST - absolutely loved it. Unfortunately my artistic skills were not up to making anything good.

https://www.ifwiki.org/STAC

I would also point out that a lot of real world problems don’t need a complex architecture. They just need to follow some well established patterns.

It is a pattern matching problem and that seems to me to be something AI is/will be particularly good at.

Maybe it won’t be the perfect architecture, or the most efficient implementation. But that doesn’t seem to have stopped many companies before.

I think this is sadly going to be the case.

I also used to get great pleasure from the banging head and then the sudden revelation.

But that takes time. I was valuable when there was no other option. Now? Why would someone wait when an answer is just a prompt away.

Worst case - you could at some point rip out the brains and replace them.

CNC machines are somewhat basic machines really.

Creating PCBs is surprisingly straightforward and there are a ton of good resources available.

It’s probably one of the few area of YouTube that is actually still useful. Probably a high enough barrier to entry to stop most slop.

Much of the western (at least in the UK/US) way of life is/was predicated on being able to have some trust in the government and officials.

Politicians have always been seen as venal and corrupt. But the institutions have always been trusted. This is being rapidly eroded.

Why does one person become addicted to gambling while another can visit a casino, try it once and then just walk away?

I would say if the companies providing the service do so knowing it is harmful and cover that up then yes they can sue.

Must be a quiet night - 9 points to get on the front page is pretty unusual.