I get all my news by reading: NYT, WSJ, BBC, AP, and a few Substacks.
NYT has gotten so bloated both in actual content (long meandering interviews) as well as the encapsulating junk. I started to put it into Gemini to summarize. During this process I found, the two hour interview transcript was 50% actual words and 50% junk (probably formatting, tracking, adware, surveillance?).
I'm an existence proof of this. I learned SQL following my previous employer dying a slow death > layoffs. Having worked in a narrow field, there weren't options to continue working in it. That was 25 years ago.
SQL was the foundation of a second career in business data analytics. Moderately interesting and paid the bills.
I must say, it's not just select *, joins and so forth. The human side was important. Always being on the lookout in Big Corp for people hungry for data (lots of them), and working to find quick solutions.
I've read NYT regularly over the past 30+ years, and roughly fit in this boat. They have become monetizing addicts like everyone else. They keep showing pop-ups about "family subscriptions". I've written about their desperate seeming practices in comments on appropriate articles.
On their reporting, they want to appear to be objective but their biases are clear. For example, their campaign against Mamdani at all stages (it continues). They always have a couple of crazy "conservative" columnists. And so on.
I send all their emails to spam, and X out of the pop-ups. For now.
I've read through many comments. Like true HN-ers, they are trying to understand this change in terms of logic, reasoning, cost / benefit, and so on.
This is missing the point. The arbitrariness, cruelty, racism, xenophobia, etc. is A DESIGN FEATURE, NOT A BUG.
I hope this may help youngsters in this terrible situation understand what is happening. Since at least the 1980's, if not earlier, one American political party has been using racism as a part of their platform. They used to do this in coded "dog whistles" before. The earlier targets were mostly Black Americans (they still are, if you look at what the Supreme Court just did with their voting rights).
Now it is all out in the open. The racist beast needs to be fed continually with fresh targets. Gay Americans were another target group. More recently it is undocumented South Americans. The most recent target is .. foreigners (especially non-white non- Christian).
Don't look for logic and reasoning in all this, in the abominations. Take a deep breath, and a long walk. Evaluate if it is worth dedicating your life and career contributing to the beast, and living in constant uncertainty of your legal status, unable to travel, and so on. You are worth way way more than that.
Why is this administration, which is all for coal, oil, and against environmental policies pursuing THIS?
This DOJ is all about pursuing cases for retribution. It could be, they already know someone they want to punish, and already found they're using the device. Or, use it as a source for finding people they want to punish.
Scary stuff .. I have seen up close family members undergoing treatment for a different cancer. Believe me, it is harsh, changes the rest of your life for the worse.
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Consider living in a townhouse and never having to handle these toxic chemicals ever. And saving oodles of your time for more fun stuff.
Why didn't NASA or the news agencies rotate the image so North is up? and slightly to the right. That would make Africa instantly recognizable as that's how maps are imprinted in our brains.
There is no "up" in space, so that wouldn't be editing the image I feel. The camera just happened to be oriented "upside down".
Everything MS does can be summed up in one word: "Clippy"
I've been using their data reporting product for ever. It's not fancy but you'll be amazed at how many data people use it. Back then it used to be called "SQL Server Reporting Services" or "SSRS". It is now called Power BI Paginated Reports. Over the years, the product has gradually become worse. Publishing, subscriptions, several features are now hard to use. All in the service of Clippy and the Cloud.
Hmmm .. where have we heard this story before? Tech bro tries alternative treatments for cancer .. somebody at Apple?
I wish him all the best and good luck. Maybe in 50, 100 years we'll have more definitive cures for cancer. Till then it's mostly slash, burn and poison, unfortunately.
I love Practical Engineering. Grady Hillhouse's enthusiasm for engineering shows through brilliantly. Being a graduate engineer, I've learned a lot from his videos and transcriptions. Well worth browsing practical.engineering.
I am a paid subscriber to NYT and have been reading it paper / internet for 30+ years. It is an Enshittification winner in terms tracking and click bait. It doesn't feel like a serious news outlet anymore, feels like Huff Post or similar.
https://youtu.be/uVeVZ-Iugkg