Risk/Reward

Ukraine: what might have been.

This is, mostly, nonsense. It’s a fantasy. A Putin bootlicker fantasy at that.

Here’s why: Russia’s support of “peace” here was really their attempting to take a chance to regroup after it looked like they truly might lose, and even possibly be driven out of Crimea. It’s absolutely clownish anyone believes this. Of course, Russia’s plan was to use this pause to consolidate and resume a full invasion (most likely) the next year after building back their force projection capability.

People who believe this dumbass article are some naรฏve, naรฏve motherfuckers. Jesus fucking Christ I can’t even.

Therm

Using thermite against the enemy and enemy positions in war is legal and is neither a violation of the Geneva conventions or even of standard military conduct. It is illegal, however, when the Russians use thermite (as they have been) against civilians.

The Ukrainians have been using it exclusively against military targets, mostly for area denial. I would be doing the exact same thing in their place, as distateful as it is. I do not care about distasteful, however. As I would, the Ukrainians care about expelling the enemy from their home. Using thermite is the right thing to do to achieve that goal, and the correct way to use that tool.

l33t

I still fail to understand why I should have to experience a worse user interface for me because other people have low IQ.

Look, I really don’t care. Computers were better when they prevented dumbasses from using them. Yes, I am an elitist. Never denied it. I would, however, be ok with them having a click-and-drool interface while I was allowed an advanced one.

But instead, they took away the powerful UI, put in place the drool-ready interface, and forced me to also use that garbage. Which tells me it’s actually more about restraining me than helping the mentally challenged.

Support

Clients refusing to work with off shore teams.

That’s a bargain not to have to work with offshore teams. I’d do it, too. When VMWare switched from formerly-US-based support to offshore, the quality dropped drastically. When I was running their products at scale back in 2009-2018, until the switch their support was great. Knowledgeable, prompt, reliable and frequently knew more than I did.

In 2016 or so when VMWare began to transition to overseas support, I always knew far more than the person giving me support. In fact, I often had to help the support person do their job.

So I just stopped calling them even though the hosting provider I was working for was paying VMWare $200,000 per year for support alone. Support that was not happening.

In general, any experience I’ve had with an offshore team, no matter from what country (because some people accuse you of racism if you don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t know jack shit), has been terrible. Maybe there is a good one somewhere but I have yet to run across it.

Stok Up

There might never be a better time for China to attack Russia. With everyone in Ukraine, there are probably only two men and a dog guarding Vladivostok.

I had been thinking about that. Russia is basically already a client state of China, even if it does not realize it. I wouldn’t expect an invasion like this to happen — Russia probably would use nukes in that case. But it’s something I’m absolutely certain Chinese leadership has been considering.