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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: January 16th, 2024

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  • I think the problem is, if Dems do it first, they’re not better than the Republicans.

    Unilateral dictatorships are unilateral dictatorships no matter who does it.

    You can’t win in a game where one side insists on cheating and one side insists on following the rules. Our system of governance wasn’t designed for this level of factionhood. It should and could’ve been stopped the right way maybe 20 or 30 years ago. At the least, 8 years ago. And the very last chance was when Trump’s second impeachment made it to the Senate.

    But now, there’s no chance.

    It’s not even really “cheating” that the Republicans are doing. Most everything is getting a “legal” stamp of approval. Just in a shady way that clearly and defiantly goes against everything this country has ever been about.

    Hey I know another politician who was pretty popular for his time that did the same thing. Bright young man with a funny mustache.







  • Not like they used to, mostly. They just replaced “contract” with “equipment payment plan”. Because $50/mo for 24 months is easier for a consumer to swallow than a lump payment of $1200, especially when the carrier is giving you a $10 or $20 (or more) “discount” on the phone.

    But as long as the EPP is active, the phone is locked to that carrier. And I think that’s fair. No different than the bank holding the title while you finance a car.

    The thing is that the plans that have these equipment deals are significantly more expensive than others. Namely big name plans like TMo or Verizon, compared to MVNO plans like Mint or Visible. So you end up paying more for the plan because you get “a deal” on your phone (but still end up ultimately paying more).








  • This is bad practice.

    More accurately it should look something like this:

    # Load sys library for exiting with status code
    import sys
    
    def sayHelloWorld(outPhrase: str="Hello World"):
        # Main function, print a phrase and return NoneType
        print(outPhrase)
        return None
    
    if __name__=="__main__":
        # Provide output and exit cleanly when run from shell
        sayHelloWorld()
        sys.exit(0)
    else:
        # Exit with rc!=0 when not run from shell
        sys.exit(1)
    





  • Consider the difference between “would do” and “could do” to be the same as “will do” and “can do”, respectively.

    One implies action, the other implies capability.

    There’s also “should”, which implies permission.

    Consider, also, the progress of learning Python (programming language):

    1. Could I do this in Python?
    2. I would do this in Python.
    3. I shouldn’t do this in Python.

    Edit to add: Would, could, and should are usually considered future-tense. But add “have” and it’s past-tense…“I would have done that”