u/mobileagnes

This includes everything from operating systems to Google Play Services, Apple stuff, Nintendo/Sony/etc, expensive academic or industrial software, hardware drivers even for niche devices dating back to the 1970s/80s that are not supported but used every day, etc.

My prediction is software companies will outright panic and we will immediately have a very sharp recession, but ultimately society will suddenly be far better off as all of humanity can finally work together as a team to solve the problems of our time with no restrictions. Are there really any downsides to open sourcing everything?

I would love to hear from people who really work in software professionally or are retired from the industry. I use Linux and Android every day, love to tinker with things, and wish our phones, 'smart' appliances, and smartwatches were all open source.

This is a silly one: Tomorrow (2026-10-02) you and everyone else in the US wakes up and first notices their phones and TV stations are showing the weather in °C with wind speeds in km/h, with no Imperial equivalent. All newscasters speak in the 'new units' as if they were always what were used. Just that it's currently 18 °C and the forecast calls for a high of 26 °C.

Next, around lunch time, everyone notices their phones don't say 1:00 p.m. but 13:00, and the firmware is locked to not even show 12h time or Imperial units anymore. Times are still spoken in 12h format and analogue clocks still exist, but all digitally written times are displayed in 24h everywhere. The six o'clock evening news still runs at the same time, but the clock in the corner says 18:00 now, with no explanation, as if that is always how it was. Since it's summer here, I toss in another thing: Daylight Saving Time was also scrapped overnight (not in early November), with everyone inadvertently 'falling back' an hour for the last time ever. They feeling abnormally refreshed in the morning from their phones still playing the alarm at the correct new non-DST time.

All numeric dates are now only in yyyy-mm-dd and that is now the only format used and overnight all computers across the US were also switched to this format for all written dates where applicable. You are no longer born on, say 9/17/85, but 1985-09-17. Same date but written that way. All medical and other forms specify exclusively yyyy-mm-dd and your height and weight will be reported and expected to be only in metres or cm, and kg (or g). You jump into your car and the speedometer is only in km/h, and all signs on the roads were switched overnight to km/h. Clearance signs also now report only in metres, like 3.9 m. Distances of course are all in only km. All planes now use metres, not feet, for altitude, and KPa or HPa for pressure, not inches of mercury.

All food containers are now also using only metric units: grams and kg only, or for liquids litres or ml. All produce and deli meats are sold by the kg only. You can buy in increments of 100 g, 200 g, 500 g, and 1 kg (and continuing onwards in this 1-2-5 pattern).

While we're on shopping, the penny and nickel were scrapped overnight due to them costing way too much to keep making, and the $1 and $2 bills were scrapped with only coins for those are still allowed, for those who still use cash. The quarter is also swapped for a new 20-cent coin like they have in the Euro zone.

What will happen next? I think the public will go crazy and try to protest, only to be met with more confusion as all officials claim metric, 24h, and yyyy-mm-dd are the only logical ways to express these quantities with the concepts we use. The officials just say we all have to learn and adjust and that this is for the best for all the kids growing up now, who will need to communicate effectively with the other 96% of the world.

Was this too weird?

So I am doing one of those weird transit trips involving connecting a bunch of networks together from Philadelphia starting on Thursday, and it seems the farthest north I can get via local public transit as of Friday 18 Sep will be the Springfield, MA region - specifically Turners Falls & Greenfield. Do any of these places lend themselves to decent photography? I generally like snapping skylines, wide shots of interesting local streets, parks, any interesting architecture that catches my eye, beaches/rivers/other water bodies, rush hour/other daily stuff.

How safe is Springfield overnight if I need to wait for the next bus/train/etc to go back home? From my understanding, a number of bus & train stations close overnight, which could mean a lot of walking around unfamiliar places until it opens if one doesn't have a hotel or AIRBNB.

If I arrive in Springfield, MA on Friday morning, that is as far as I can go northwards in MA by transit, right? Also there are no safe walkable roads leading to towards Vermont beyond Greenfield/Turners Falls, right?

VPN/non-USA working or doing students' mathematics for them every time they get stuck?

I ask because I think I may not be cut out for TDC even though I've been working for them over a year now. At my previous workplace, a local community college where I tutored from algebra up to calculus 2, the staff there didn't care as much how we tutored as long as there was no obvious cheating going on like doing a test for someone - that is definitely a no-go. Online sessions were never tracked and in-person sessions were not often watched. So I thought that because I worked there for 8.5 years and got raises regularly that I was a good tutor. I would probably still be working there if I didn't get laid off as soon as I got a Master's degree.

How do those of you here who tutor mathematics actually ensure you are not doing any work for the student?

I've noticed on the Worldometer website that the median age of the population is continuing to rise, with no end in sight as of yet. It's rising at a rate of 1 year per 5 years elapsed, since the previous minimum of 20.3 in 1970. The global median age has crossed 30 in 2025 and the TFR is approx 2.1, the lowest value allowing 'replacement'. I expect the impacts of this to be felt more strongly very soon especially in developed nations as the Boomers continue to retire yet much fewer kids being born vs in their heyday.

Meaning, devices that look like today's tablets but don't run a mobile OS Like Android but a full PC OS like Windows (or Linux)? For that matter, why hasn't the concept of running a full OS on a modern tablet been tried again, now that we have faster hardware than in the 2000s/2010s?

I tutor mathematics and basic SQL database stuff online and I have noticed that recently a number of my students have been needing help in using a particular non-free product called Codio, which I never was required to use in my database classes at the colleges I attended over the years. We used MariaDB in the 1st one I took, and at SNHU in my MS programme in 2024/5 my professors allowed us to use whatever tools we were most comfortable using, as long as they got the job done. So in my case I used MariaDB again, though MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server were also common in the class.

Is Codio a good SQL product and does it have any features I should be on the lookout for? The students are claiming the software does not save their work despite an auto-save feature that is on, and the most I can see is their screen share. There should be a way to export the code they have when done for the day, and import when ready to resume, right? Why are so many students having to use this now?