A pair of off-the-shelf reading glasses will make everything other than what’s right in front of your face blurry. But please don’t use them to blur distant things you actually will be looking at for long stretches. Your eyes will still try to focus on those blurry distant objects, and that will cause ocular muscle strain. If you did it for a few years, you could cause permanent changes to the shape of your eyeball. Then you will really need glasses.

Biden needs to start putting up billboards with these Trump quotes, referring folks to his “trumpsucks.com” website, which now simply redirects to the “joebiden.com” website.

Perhaps the voltage regulator in your alternator is throwing a big voltage spike on the 12V supply, killing your adapters. There are large capacitors made for car audio that will stop spikes. Try one of those.

You would have been covered in ketchup.

Soon to be Former Millionaire Investment Banker Jonathan Kaye…FTFY

Yes, AI contribution is an area that needs legal clarification. I know you brought the question up for graphic arts, but the same thing is happening with music. I can use an AI tool to generate tracks, tweak them to my taste, then supply lyrics that are also at least partially generated by AI. But if I never admit that I used AI, it’s probably impossible to detect.

What makes this really interesting is that entertainment industry workers went on strike partly because of AI fears, yet would the resulting productions be copyrightable?

I’m a bit confused. If I use AI to generate an image, then modify it, can I claim copyright? And how would anyone know if I used an AI? I know there are telltale signs that computer algorithms were involved, so I guess the question is how much does the artist have to contribute before it’s no longer considered non-human art? Or does any use of AI tools invalidate the copyright?

I don’t know how much your electric rate is, but a router or server that sucks down a hundred watts 24 hours a day may be a concern. An arcade machine would be my choice.

Home and garden center, hardware store, or Amazon.

Use bug bomb(s) first to kill the existing spiders. Then apply permethrin diluted with water to a 0.5% solution, spraying at all entry paths to the garage, edges, and dark areas.

The idea is to not just prevent spiders from returning. It’s also to deprive them of a reason to return by removing their food supply. Permethrin is a wide-spectrum insecticide and repellant. It has very low toxicity to humans, most mammals, and birds. Not good around cats or fish. It has good persistence (6-8 weeks).

You may get your wish sooner than later. He’s still under the gag order, and he’s violating it again.

Trump’s conviction isn’t going to be the big turning point of this election. What happens after his conviction will. If he continues to spew vitriol about the judge, prosecution, and jury, eventually one of his followers will commit an act of retribution. That puts Trump in a difficult spot, because his core likes this kind of stuff. He will want to show his support, but if he does, it will again show he encourages domestic terrorism. If he does anything other than condemn the attack, his support among moderates will fall away, just like it did after Jan. 6th. If he does condemn the attack, his core may protest, like they did when he changed his opinion on the COVID vaccines.

Best outcome would be if Merchan gives him 4 years of probation, just in case he wins the election. That turns into prison time if he commits another crime.

Plenty of people make a decent living writing. They’re technical writers who create documentation. My friend makes over $140k/yr writing for an Internet security company.

Creative writing, on the other hand, is an overcrowded field.

The problem is not that Trump is under felony indictment. It’s not that he’s a liar, a cheater, a misogynist, narcissist, and elitist. It’s that, knowing this, a lot of people STILL support him for our nation’s top office. That’s how screwed up our populace has become. That’s the problem.

I wonder if Khamenei senses the end is near and is clearing the path for succession of his son, Mojtaba. Raisi was the other likely candidate to become Supreme Leader.

Give it to a retirement home. Seriously. Us old farts still like playing those old games. I was not happy when my granddaughter used my Mario Cart disk for a teething ring.

Looks like Iran’s Supreme Leader, Khamenei, wants to make sure only his son, Mojtaba, will succeed him. Raisi was the other likely candidate. Took a page out of Putin’s playbook.

I understand there’s a lot of abuse, but for some specialties there just aren’t enough trained workers. This change is going to make employers think hard about things like diesel mechanic certifications and IT certifications. And like my friend, they’ll turn to making workplace loans for the cost.

No gold. It’s what they charge us privileged Californians.