As a recent divorcee: fuck this hurts.

More comedic than dramatic, and more “highly unlikely” than “dumb luck”, but this one time I fell while skiing. It happens, I was a reckless kid as many are.

But this? This was on a flat, broad, almost level stretch connecting two pistes, and me and my dad were basically just cruising along. I don’t know what, but something happened and I face planted, stopping instantly.

One ski out to the side, the other… vertical? Stuck into the piste at a right angle, all the way from the tip to the binding… without becoming detached from my boot. The mechanism worked fine, mind you, it just hadn’t disengaged. There was no gash in the snow, no entry mark, just hard packed piste with half a ski sticking out of it like so much sword in a stone.

Michael Crichton’s “Timeline” (1999) says hello.

Keep digging, you’ll find eyeglasses and Jeep tracks, I’m sure.

Ohh, Rankine, thank you! I only remembered Rheamur - there you go. 😊

She got eaten by a grue.

I did not think Adam Savage had that kind of money to throw around, to be honest…

(that’s a joke; the article does not state the identity of the buyer)

Thank you for this (repeated) question! I will try some of these and collate my experiences.

• SwiftKey

Long-time fan, in spite of privacy concerns. My bar for comparing everything below.

• FUTO

First install, looks promising.

Indeed very customisable. What I don’t like is the (imho) far inferior swipe typing and the need to explicitly switch languages for the keyboard to use the appropriate dictionary. Also, I miss directional buttons for those single-character position adjustments (Futo only offers space-key swiping). Voice typing seems highlighted but I find it to be unbearably slow.

Verdict: will most likely uninstall again.

• OpenBoard

Installation somehow defaulted to “English (Australia)”, but no biggie.

Seems very customisable also, but lacks swipe typing (a deal beaker for me). Relies on the OS language (actually, keyboard) switcher and curiously lacks a shortcut to its settings (requiring the user to go so the rest through the Settings app (which, best-case, is a whopping 5 taps).

Verdict: privacy aside, cannot compete with SwiftKey for features and usability.

• Florisboard

Strainghtforward installation. Seems extremely customisable. No swiping nor autocomplete but both festures are clearly promised for a future release.

Verdict: apart from features promised in the future, thus seems an excellent keyboard.

• Heliboard

Straightforward installation. Language selection included a github redirect to manually download dictionary, which was semi nice.

Proper big-keyed numerical keyboard. Also extremely customisable. Space-key swiping even supports vertical movement.

Verdict: apart from lack of swipe typing, probably the best contender!

• Graffiti

Included because I friggin’ loved it back in the day. The (to my knowledge) only app offering graffiti input is badly broken and crashes immediately on modern Android versions. I remember it working quite well on earlier versions, but that was years ago.

I’m just sad and it’s nobody’s responsibility but my own to cheer me up.

As a twin, some of our best stories are when these things happen unintentionally. Like, we’re just acting perfectly normal and other people get their neurons in a twist over it because to them it’s like some Matrix deja vu shit. 🤷😁

In my late teens, a dear friend of mine died suddenly (in a traffic accident, I seem to recall). We all went to the funeral, dealt with the grief, everything. Then one day I woke up suspecting that the past (weeks? months?) were but a bad dream. I was so distraught that I had to (wait until sunrise and then) call my friends’ parents to verify.

She’s alive and well. But that night was by far my worst nightmare.

I’ll follow your link, and also comment to say that what OP mentions sounds like the possible future of Doctorow’s Makers.

Link (nicely obfuscated so as to not spoil the surprise)

ℹ️ “exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical”

ℹ️ “lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy”

ℹ️ “bitter and abusive”, as in a comment or other way of communicating

“optimal frustration” (one single word in several languages that aren’t English)

Something is too easy? Easily bored.

Something is altogether too difficult? Feels hopeless.

Optimal frustration is where the magic happens, be it in education or a computer game.

ℹ️ “looking or sounding sad or dismal”

Difficult, how?

Migrate to Mattermost, done.

Oh certainly. Or window shopping, lounging in a café, flying a kite, … why limit yourself? 😁🎀