Allow me to explain with a practical example: you have a camera on the network, and you want to automate taking snapshots in response to some arbitrary trigger (e.g. every minute, or whenever a separate motion sensor is activated). There are standards and conventions for type of integration, but military grade hardware often wants you to do things from first principles.

Typical consumer/IP camera: the camera has a REST API for its command set, so you can formulate a HTTP request like GET http://my-camera-ip/command/snap?stream=0 and the server will respond with image data. You can knock this out in maybe < 30 mins and < 100 lines of code. If you're a bit crafty, you can add support for multiple different camera models, which may vary in URI formation and authentication.

On the other hand, trying to do this with a military grade camera, the experience is usually something like this: The camera comes with proprietary client software that is closed source. In UI you can click a 'snap' button to take an image, but no viable route for automation. You try to reverse engineer it with WireShark, but it appears to be a WebSocket connection with constant data transfer, which makes dissecting the 'snap' command difficult.

You check the manual, and the only mention of how to directly command the camera is via a serial line. That's the first problem: you don't want to run a long cable from the server running your automation, to the camera itself. So you buy a small serial device server, and run a serial cable between it and the camera. It will forward any byte sequence that is sent to it over your LAN, to the camera's serial input.

The manual references a separate document that explains the communication protocol, which should explain what byte sequence to send to 'snap' an image. You hunt down this document, and. Uh-oh. It's 344 pages long. Ctrl+F, you look for "snap" and find it's in section 17. It references some earlier sections about sync bytes, message headers, and checksums. You finally work out that the full byte sequence you need to send to trigger a snapshot is00 7E 11 3D 01 00 0E 0D 0A. You write code that sends that sequence over TCP to the serial device server. But there's a problem: you're not receiving any bytes back. Where is the resultant image?

You go back to the manual and it mentions that "snapshots and recordings are stored on the internal SD card" and "SD card contents are available via FTP". It doesn't give a spec, or even a filesystem, for the SD card. After trying a bunch of different ones, the camera finally detects your SDXC card formatted as exFAT: the magic combo.

There is no explanation of the FTP functionality in the manual, so you try the default FTP port, and make some educated guesses for the right username/password combo. None of them work, so you contact the manufacturers for help. 2 weeks later, they respond with the credentials. Finally, you're in, and you're seeing new image files showing up whenever you send the byte sequence. Success! Now, your code does something like this:

1. Send 00 7E 11 3D 01 00 0E 0D 0A via TCP to serial device server
2. Wait a moment
3. Connect to camera FTP server and download image file from SD card

A week later, your boss walks in and says that a new competitor, manufacturer B, has cameras with much more impressive IR sensors for nighttime surveillance. The existing cameras will be replaced starting next week. None of what you have built is reusable for manufacturer B cameras; it's time for a new adventure.

It's mind-boggling. It's like the manufacturers' engineers have not spoken to anyone who has written any software in the last 20 years.

He is being childish, but if I am completely honest, it sounds like you are a little too. Not in how bothered you are by the situation (understandable), but more how you perceive it.

I totally understand wanting to just do the work and cut the meaningless chatter, but the reality is a job usually has more abstract requirements outside of specific job tasks. One of these is getting your manager to like you. Social cohesion is one of the things workplaces tend to look for.

Not every manager cares about small talk perhaps as much as yours does, but that’s the situation you are in.

My advice would be to decide on one of the following 1) work elsewhere where you can thrive without this obstacle, 2) develop the skill of faking being interested, or 3) do nothing but get frustrated and possibly miss out on promotions or similar.

Wishing you the best, from a socially inept person with autism who relates to that dread, haha.

"centred around" is a subjective projection rather than statement of a fact in cases where gamete production genuinely does not occur. For this person, her gonads never developed into either testes or ovaries, so by this definition she would be of neither sex. I'm OK with that, but it does undermine your point about the strict binary.

My question to you is why does this matter, in the context of accessing bathrooms and changing rooms? Do you think inspecting reproductive anatomy is a proportionate measure?

More broadly speaking, what is the point of recording the 'biological sex' of a person who, through transition, has changed their physiology and endocrine profile to that associated with the opposite, and no longer has their natal reproductive anatomy? Who would this benefit?

...nope. Her body can't produce either. And she has a uterus and fallopian tubes.

I’m not the person you asked, but ‘assigned sex’ is fine. The common one is ‘assigned gender at birth’.

I’m not entirely sure what point you’re making, when sex reassignment surgery exists.

Not all trans people get it, sure, but many trans men have dicks and many trans women have vaginas. These usually align cosmetically but will have functional differences to their cis counterparts. Where would you crudely sort such people?

There’s also genital nullification surgery (think Barbie doll - nothing at all).

I’m done living in this shithole.

Not that I ever would, but if I went into the women’s they’d (rightly) tell me to fuck off or report me to staff.

Struggled to read this - lots of words and not enough Subway Surfers.

Ah, that is indeed what they wrote but that interpretation didn't even cross my mind! That is hilariously bad lmao. Thanks

Behind every decision to replace staff with yet another LLM is endless frustration for customers and clients.

I had an urgent leak to deal with earlier this week, and when I called my rental agency they told me they couldn't do anything until I'd logged it in their online system. I logged it in detail with photos, then it took me to an LLM. When I told the LLM I wasn't interested in further chatter and just needed a plumber sent over ASAP, I got a text saying my request wouldn't be dealt with because I "did not complete the conversation with [their] agent." All the while my light bulbs were dripping... I felt like I was taking crazy pills.

Imagine coming up with policies that actually help people rather than punish them. This is weird and sets such a dangerous precedent.

Just putting it out there, because I have been silenced every time I have tried to talk about my negative experiences with minoxidil:

I was on a 10% topical formulation (so 2x the strength of regular Regaine/Rogaine) and the stuff destroyed my skin on a permanent basis. About a month or 2 in I started noticing lines and wrinkles where I previously had none, my eyes were really puffy, and I started to look like the 'after' photo in those PSAs about doing drugs. I had to come off the stuff and take collagen supplements daily to even slightly reverse that. I'm not back to baseline and likely never will be; that shit aged me by about 8 years in the span of 6 months. It was honestly much worse than hair loss itself.

Before I came off it, when I told the ""clinic"" that prescribed me what I was experiencing, they said it was placebo. Meanwhile, other hair loss sufferers online told me that I was making it up because I was jealous of other men's gains (???)

I am by no means saying this will necessarily happen if you take minox, but it wasn't even a reported side effect on the leaflet (where it lists common/uncommon/rare/very rare side effects), and I was genuinely trying to get it on there so people could be aware that this is a risk.

I would be super cautious of oral administration. When I was on the topical, it was only in contact with my scalp and any part of my body that would touch my pillow while sleeping I guess. Can't imagine what it would have done going through the digestive system instead.

Sincerely, fuck the hair restoration industry and the way it preys on desperate people.

Sorry that this isn't necessarily super on-topic (or uplifting), but seeing/hearing about minoxidil brings up a really bad experience.