the_toast_is_gone

This is what I tell myself every time I find out the hard way what documented parts of Visual Basic didn't make it into VBScript.

To be fair, the sidebar says this is for open-ended and thought-provoking questions. But I can see this place becoming Debate Bro Central if the mods don't add a rule like "Don't ask a question if you just want to argue with people over it."

Capitalism isn't the problem. Any economy run by human beings is going to have cronyism.

My point is that the described scenario - "all money not absolutely required for existence is in the hands of the bourgeoisie" - hasn't happened under free market systems as often as it has in communist/"state capitalist" countries like the Soviet Union.

I'm sorry I got you mixed up with the other person. But I find it interesting they haven't answered that question yet.

That sounds an awful lot like an authoritarian state seizing control of the economy (for example, the Soviet Union). That most certainly didn't happen through free market forces.

And I notice you still haven't answered my question. Why is that? I think it would be pretty simple to answer, wouldn't it? (Edit: got the wrong username)

We're competing for people's cash. If we do a good job at getting it, we get more of it. But how do you define "win"?

Also, please answer my question. If there is no competition, then how do you have anything other than a monopoly?

Preface: If all you want is to get a simple script/program going that will more or less work for your purposes, then I understand using AI to make it. But doing much more than this with it will not help you.

If you want to actually learn to code, then using AI to write code for you is a crutch. It's like trying to learn how to write an essay by having ChatGPT write the essays for you. If you want to use an API in your code, then you're setting yourself up for greater failure the more you depend on AI.

Case in point: if you want to make a module or script for Foundry VTT, then they explicitly tell you not to use AI, partly because the models available online have outdated information. In fact, training AI on their documentation is explicitly against the terms of service.

Even if you do this and avoid losing your license, you run a significant risk of getting unusable code because the AI hallucinated a function or method that doesn't actually exist. You will likely wind up spending more time scouting the documents for what you actually want to do than if you'd just done it yourself to begin with.

And if the code works perfectly now, there's no guarantee that it will work forever, or even in the medium term. The software and API receive updates regularly. If you don't know how to read the docs and write the code you need, you're screwed when something inevitably gets deprecated and removed. The more you depend on AI to write it for you, the less capable you'll be of debugging it down the line.

This begs the question: why would you do any of this if you wanted to make something using an API?

If we don't have competition, how will that be anything other than monopoly?

The APRS website hasn't even started using HTTPS yet.

When I actually need to concentrate, I usually stop listening to music. When I want to get into a flow state and it isn't 100% critical I focus, it could be just about anything. This remix of the Call of Duty World at War Black Cats theme is awesome for that purpose.

Besides the fact that 3/4 of it is emotional pornography, it's a trigger for my PTSD.

I use Firefox because it has Unlock Origin.