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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • I just saw a headline that he’s going to work for Microsoft now.

    My employer heavily uses Microsoft, and I’m in IT.

    Since June, Microsoft eliminated all their training staff - the folks who show others how to use their software, reclassified their customer experience staff to eliminate the role - these folks met with customers to solicit product feedback and find out what people actually want, made unilateral and poorly communicated changes to security policies that impact hundreds of our users, turned on beta (preview) features for end users without testing - in some cases rendering software inoperable in our environment, and is disabling or limiting features that work(ed) in software covered under our enterprise license end is encouraging people to purchase entirely new software systems from Microsoft to regain the lost functionality.

    Honestly, if he was fired for pursuing profits over quality, then he’ll fit right in.


  • I’m almost purely digital for pretty much all of notifications that come my way - even my doctor.

    I don’t live in the area code where my phone number is from, and haven’t in so long that there’s only a few people that would call me from that area code.

    And - well spotted - The 38 call salvo from the day prior was actually a contractor trying to get ahold of me. Because it was a number from my current area code, I went ahead and called them back. The person who called me only tried to dial once, and the redials were all the computer automatically retrying.
    Admittedly, it is less than optimal, but in the 5ish years I’ve gone without a voicemail, it’s the second time I haven’t picked up for a desired call.

    Usually when I know I’m going to be receiving calls from new folks, I’ll first try to call their number or text them - even if the number isn’t in my contacts, if I’ve interacted with it in some fashion, it will ring through. Or I’ll disable the ‘straight to voicemail’ for a time.

    It’s not too onerous, and I really hate spam calls, so the effort of remembering to enable/disable it a few times a year is worth it to me.
    And, for what it’s worth, I do think it has an effect. Earlier this year I let calls through and forgot to block them again, and it was 3 weeks before I got a spam call. Before taking such extreme measures, I was getting about 5 a week.



  • Not just land and water use, but there may be market reasons, as well as reasons relating to consistency and application specific variations, too.

    A bad grow season means lowered supply, higher global cotton prices, etc. Natural farming means lots of supply at harvest, money spent on storage and dwindling supply during the off seasons. There’s often transport costs (usually), and there’s always cleaning and deseeding, too.

    On the environment front, while polyester and other plastic-based fibers have their uses, they are often used instead of cotton due to cost. Consumers are becoming more aware of micro plastics, and may start changing buying habits as a result. It’s also possible that governments may start to regulate artificial fibers, too.

    Technology-wise, it may be possible to tweak the fibers for specific use cases. It may even be possible to grow colored fibers, or fibers with enhanced strength.

    A lab-grown option, especially if at scale, can mean a constant supply of fibers near looms that are customizable, need less post-processing, and are more appealing to consumers.