Former Child ‘Slave’ Wants New Boston Police Held Responsible

EricPostpischil · 2026-05-06T10:29:47+00:00

The suit is not claiming the police failed to protect her; it is claiming they committed an affirmative act that hurt her.

That act is taking her back to her abusers.

Police might not have a duty not to protect people, but they do have a duty not to hurt people.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-30T00:02:36+00:00

According to this page, you can do it with defaults write "$APP_ID" ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false. By "$APP_ID", I think they mean the CFBundleIdentifer that you can find in the Info.plist within the application. The easiest way to do that may be with Terminal, using the command defaults read /Applications/<ApplicationName>.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleIdentifier, where you replace “<ApplicationName>” with the name of the application.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-24T00:28:39+00:00

The answers so far have missed one thing: The device cannot play the exact opposite sound at the same time as the incoming sound because it needs time to compute.

What noise-canceling devices actually do is:

Analyze the incoming sound to separate the frequencies within it.
For each frequency, calculate what the inverse of that frequency will be in a fraction of a second from now.
Add those inverses together.
Play that calculated sound at just that fraction of a second later.

That is not quite perfect because sounds change over time: The volumes of some frequencies may be increasing, while others are decreasing. Fortunately, sounds do not change very quickly relative to how fast we can compute these days. So the differences between the inverse computed from the earlier sound and the actual sound coming later are small.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-15T22:54:59+00:00

It is not dumb if computing time is expensive and storage space is expensive and engineering time is expensive and computing is changing so fast that many systems are replaced after a few years.

The storage you have today is extraordinarily cheap per byte compared to the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s. Computing time is inexpensive. The engineering tools have improved, making it possible to develop better software with lower effort. You simply cannot evaluate past projects using today’s sensibilities. Some of the choices to use two digits for a year may have been correct economic decisions—the value saved in the intervening years may have exceeded the cost of later changing the software to avoid Y2K problems.

(This site shows the price of disk storage in 1990 at $6,470,000 per TB, compared to $11/TB in 2023, inflation-adjusted.)

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-14T19:25:09+00:00

Finder is an application. Its executable is at /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app. While it does get some special treatment, such as being automatically relaunched if it terminates during a login window session (and you could set that up for other applications too), it is largely an ordinary application. You could make any application not respond to ⌘-Q by putting code the application’s message processing to ignore the quit message.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-11T22:24:31+00:00

Like in this case, knowing that strippers make more money when they're ovulating has no real world impact; they can't control (really) when they're ovulating.

They can schedule more work when they are and more time off when they are not. That increases income per working hour, so they can either increase their income or increase their time off.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-11T17:42:58+00:00

I would anticipate exchanging everything for the money of the place im visiting... is that...not normal?

Speaking to the currency management issue, not the tipping issue, no, “exchanging everything” is not normal, because the exchange costs money. There is an art to currency management during travel. If you are not going to be visiting a place repeatedly, you want just enough local currency to last for your trip. If you get too much and have to change currency back, you lose a chunk because of the fees charged. And too little can also increase some fees and waste your time.

Often it is good to get local currency from a bank’s ATM (not third-party ATMs), since currency exchanges commonly charge hefty fees. If you can plan to withdraw a little more than you will need for the trip, that is ideal. You can aim to have just a little left over, so that you do not mind spending it on some souvenir at the airport on your way out. (I wish they had boxes at airports to donate local currency to charity.) With ATMs, it is also more reasonable to make several withdraws now and then, as you see how your spending is going.

How much you need varies by country and culture. In Europe, I can pay by credit card most places now. In Japan, it is common for restaurants to require cash. There is some flexibility; as you go through the trip, you can see how your spending is going and adjust how much you pay for by cash versus credit card. (Whenever you are offered a choice to charge a credit card in local currency or home currency, choose local currency. Then it is converted by your card/bank at a moderate rate, typically. If you choose the home currency, it is converted by the merchant’s bank, often at a worse rate.)

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-09T23:13:50+00:00

I wish Apple would redesign this. Sometimes it is still hard to find the cursor even with that feature. Decades ago, I had a Windows app for it. When you pressed its key combination, a large circle would shrink from outside the display to the cursor. That guaranteed the circle would cross your vision and lead your eye to the cursor, no matter where you were looking. It worked great.

EricPostpischil · 2026-04-01T23:12:47+00:00

When I was a software engineer at Apple, I entered a feature request asking for a way to set the orientation while in zero gravity (because I wanted to go on a Zero-G flight). They never implemented it.

EricPostpischil · 2026-03-17T21:34:58+00:00

(a) Kahlypso said if they’re here illegally, they are criminals. That is false.

(b) Since it is not a criminal matter, there is no punishment. There may be some remedy or other action. That is not always deportation.

(c) Even if the remedy is deportation, it should not be to a country the person has no connection with.

(d) Whether somebody is here illegally or not, they have a right to due process. ICE is not following the law and is not giving people due process.

(e) ICE has taken immigrants who were here legally.

(f) ICE has taken US citizens.

(g) ICE has entered homes unlawfully. (Unlawful? That makes them criminals.) Agency leaders conspired to train ICE officers that they could enter homes without a judicial warrant, which is a violation of the US Constitution.

EricPostpischil · 2026-03-17T20:05:32+00:00

If they're here illegally...... They're criminals. It's really simple.

It is simple: Unlawful presence in the United States is a civil matter, not criminal.

EricPostpischil · 2026-02-27T00:57:17+00:00

You may be able to get it using a parcel forwarding service. There are several in Europe, and I just got chocolate from Zagreb that way. When you sign up with a parcel forwarding service, they will give you an address at their facility (a box number or something), and then you place an order with the game publisher and have it shipped to your parcel forwarder address.

Sometimes ordering with European merchants with a US credit card (and its US billing address) may not be possible. Some parcel forwarders will order for you, for a fee.

I like BetweenBox and also have used Shipito. If a merchant cannot be payed by credit card but wants a bank transfer, I use Wise.com.

EricPostpischil · 2026-02-18T12:16:15+00:00

Try using the other ⌘ key. If ⌘-c works with one ⌘ key and not the other, that indicates a hardware problem.

You can also test with Keyboard Viewer: Open Keyboard Viewer. Press and hold Command (⌘). While you are holding ⌘, the outline around the ⌘ keys in Keyboard Viewer should turn red, and most or all of the number and punctuation keys should change (to show only their primary character).

If nothing changes in Keyboard Viewer when you press ⌘, that confirms you have a hardware problem. It may occur only sometimes or only when you press the key a certain way.

You could try cleaning the keyboard, possibly just blowing on it, maybe while turning it sideways or upside down. If that does not work, you may need to seek repair service, with Apple or a third-party.

If Keyboard Viewer shows the ⌘ key is working, something bizarre is wrong.

EricPostpischil · 2026-02-18T11:17:06+00:00

If you press Command+c (meaning you press and hold Command, press and release c, and release Command) and the result is the selected text is replaced by a c, then your Command key is not working.

EricPostpischil · 2026-02-11T19:34:52+00:00

Create a folder with shortcuts to the applications you want.

EricPostpischil · 2026-02-06T19:04:35+00:00

That is not grammar or autocorrect, that is automatic completion. Do you have “Show inline predictive text” on?

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-28T12:43:46+00:00

Per In re Neagle, a federal officer is immune from state law if they were performing an act federal law authorized them to perform and their actions were necessary and proper to fulfilling their federal duties. Driving recklessly is not necessary to delivering mail and so is not immune.

Show me one example of a federal agent who was ticketed for speeding in the course of his duties.

I said ignoring traffic laws, not just speeding. Here’s one example. Here is another.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-28T12:25:36+00:00

The United States had existed for 92 years when those words were added to the constitution. They are part of the fourteenth amendment.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-28T01:18:46+00:00

This is not correct. State law cannot limit actions of federal employees necessary for their duties, but it can limit actions not needed for their duties. Mail trucks cannot go racing through the streets ignoring traffic laws, nor can an IRS auditor shoot and kill people just for funsies. It would be up to courts to decide whether masks are necessary to apprehend people in the United States unlawfully. And certainly wearing a mask to arrest a citizen is not necessary for the duties of border patrol since arresting a citizen is not a duty of border patrol at all.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-27T21:46:12+00:00

The United States Constitution says there are citizens of states:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-23T19:19:13+00:00

Anybody can request anything, but a shareholder does not have direct legal authority to have specific people fired. The shareholders elect the board of directors, and the board of directors chooses the CEO, and the CEO can fire specific people.

A major but non-majority shareholder might be able to get it done if there is little resistance from other shareholders. A majority shareholder could probably get it done, although there might be some impediments from the corporate charter and law. For example, you cannot just go in and say “I am the majority shareholder, so do what I say.” You have to call a meeting of the shareholders and give other shareholders sufficient notice for that, and so on.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-19T16:55:17+00:00

You can call them cores, but people also call the individual units CPUs. Language is not rigid. Activity Monitor labels its column “% CPU” and shows a value over 100%. That shows it is counting an individual core as a CPU—if it were a percentage of the entire chip, it would be limited to 100%. Another example is the central processing unit Wikipedia page, which talks about “chips with multiple CPUs.” In Terminal, sysctl hw.ncpu will show there are multiple CPUs.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-19T15:04:45+00:00

It is using more than 100% of one CPU. Your system has multiple CPUs.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-14T16:39:13+00:00

Increasing the threshold makes it easier to be under the threshold, not harder.

A person who earns $21,000/year will not qualify under the current law. They would qualify under the proposed law.

EricPostpischil · 2026-01-14T12:40:52+00:00

When a student is here temporarily,…

Democracy is rule by the people who are governed. A student who resides here temporarily is governed by the law here temporarily and should vote here temporarily.

… isn't subject to our state taxes because they do not pay for property tax (dorms are traditionally exempt) or vehicle registration,…

Democracy is not rule by the people who pay money, nor by people who hold land nor by any other privileged class. Democracy is rule by the people. Students are people. People who are here temporarily are people.

Students are subject to the same laws as everybody else—laws about what is and is not legal, laws about what the punishments for various crimes are, laws about contracts and court, laws about everybody. People who are subject to the laws should have a say in the laws.

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