I'm aware of multilib (mostly because I wanted to compile VirtualBox OSE). I did compile wine from sources and without much hassle, though I did not bother much to track down optional dependencies. I never tried Steam.

So ... are you using pre-built packages for wine? Steam seems to suggest installing a .deb file. Did that give you any troubles?

Usenet evolved from uucp (user to user copy protocol)

Nitpick: Unix-to-Unix-Copy

I was always wondering, what do you people forward over SSH? xterms? Firefoxes? Matlab? Quake?

I don't see anyone giving specific answer, so here is mine: thunderbird, keepassxc and even eclipse. Yes, it is dog slow and PITA when the bottleneck on the network connection has speed of about 3MB/s. But in emergency it can be used.

What is it you can forward over SSH that will not VNC will not forward well?

Yes, VNC would probably be more responsive solution. It was just not worth the effort in my case.

I'm way dumber than you, but ... perhaps I have better memory?

According to isolated reports, Windows 10 KB4532693 update is said to be 'deleting' files and users are unable to find their data in the temporary profile folder. In worst cases, users have lost all their personal data and they are unable to recover it even after uninstalling the patch. 1 2

So 8 words landed me 6 months in jail with no trial or even indictment, a $50,000 bond, and a possibility of 2-10 years in state jail

As someone coming from EU and lacking all the great freedoms granted in USA, I don't understand that. Can you explain a bit more? One day a pair of LEOs shows up at your door and says: "You are going to jail." And you say: "Do you have an arrest warrant?" and they go: "No, but you come with us anyway". Is that how it works?

People that used to do menial manual work in past are nowadays becoming TikTok "stars". Over here it is a serious problem if you need a someone qualified to fix your plumbing, roof, floor, electric outlet, lock, heating, paint the walls, mount a kitchen unit ... On the other hand we have overflow of social workers, psychologists, political science experts, financial advisors, etc. working as cashiers or stocking the shelves. Because they can't get a job and make a living in the fields they studied.

If that is your idea, how "people will just do something else", then it isn't working.

That one guy is not the problem. The distro maintainers, accepting that piece of garbage, are.

And presumably they do it to please big customers or unwashed masses.

I've long held that the use of biometrics to replace passwords is a mistake.

That would be because biometrics is "identification" and that alone is not not enough for "authorization/authentification".

It's not the gun that is guilty, but the guy that pulls the trigger. (Non-USA) approach to solving that (read: reduce the problem) is: a) gun control and possibly b) make the society feel safe enough that it does not feel the need for guns. And the perpetrator goes to prison.

It's not the knife that is guilty, but the guy that runs around stabbing people. And if he does, he goes to prison.

I don't see how AI can be "made safe". a) the geenie is out of the bottle. The principles are known and nobody can prevent the bad guy from developing nefarious AI of his own. This is another "declare encryption to be a weapon" story that we had with PGP and Phill Zimmerman three decades ago. b) of course politicians are trying to win points by stating the goal. But as an IT guy I cannot imagine writing an if() statement that determines whether the AI output is safe or not. So I tried to educate myself. And it seems that the only "solution" is restricting the training dataset, respectively assigning different weight to different parts of the dataset. For Christ's sake, we have trouble determining what is liberal and what is conservative. What is left wing and what is right wing in politics. What is freedom fight and what is terrorism. Even without computers involved. How can we reliably determine what should be in the training set and what weight it should have? Politicians do not care. They say "we set the rules, you implement them". Except it is not clear if the implementation is possible at all. They can as well demand FTL. So in my opinion, it is not AI that is the danger. It is those that use it and cause harm.