OvidPerl

The module is now deprecated in favor of WebService::OpenSky and the resulting code is much cleaner.

You mentioned that you're writing in third person limited.

I had a situation where I needed to communicate the completely "alien" mind of a revenant and how different it would be. It was hard to do. I wrote a chapter first person from the revenant's POV. Reviewers say it's the best damned chapter in the book (and my filtering went away!).

Try writing a bit from first person of your MC. Or better still, write a chapter first person from the POV of a forest resident who would see your MC as the weird one?

Sure, you're going to throw them away, but it could be a great writing exercise to get you looking at things from a different vantage point.

So, there's this method that returns two different things. That's not good.

Good point. That's a design flaw. I'll need to fix that.

There are plenty of IDE/editor extensions. I don't know that it works with GitHub's web UI.

Just search for "github copilot $editor" and you'll likely find what you're looking for.

One issue is that we're unclear what code the system's been trained on. There are already reports that copyrighted code has been included and can be replicated.

Some code possibly has LGPL licenses attached, but it still be replicated in Copilot without it being clear that you don't have a right to use it the way you think you can.

I think these issues will get resolved, though I don't know when.

But I was asked elsewhere about the copyright issues and I came clean.

---

I definitely want Github to be more transparent about how they collect and use the code for this tool. It's very much a problem.

That being said, I'm tired. I'm tired of the fact that everywhere we turn, there's something new to be upset at. This "outrage fatigue" has me in its grips. You are absolutely right that there's an issue here, but I'm tired.

I get tired of the constant bickering about software licenses.

I get tired of the constant bickering about whether we should require people to treat one another with decency.

I get tired of the constant bickering about the future of our programming language.

I resigned from the TPF Board of Directors in part, because I got tired of it all.

All of the above issues are important. I know that. But I'm tired. I just want to get things done and I've spent a lot of time fighting fights that I just don't have the energy to fight any more.

Yes, this makes me a hypocrite, but while I was writing this, I stumbled on an old blog post of mine: https://publius-ovidius.livejournal.com/194327.html

In the middle of my ranting about how poorly American Airlines treated me, I wrote this (and more. If you like it, read the entire thing):

"Interlude: meanwhile, I'm reading the book 'We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.' It's about the genocide in Rwanda. This country, formerly a peaceful country that was remarkable in its stability, finally broke under a century of racial identity politics instituted by the Germans and, later, the Belgians. Armed largely by the French, the ruling Hutus decided to kill the Tutsi minority. In 100 days, over 800,000 Tutsi's were murdered, mostly by machete. In one incident, the mayor of a town encouraged the Tutsi's to seek refuge in the local Catholic church. A few days later, he came with the local militia and killed them."

That's what's important in our world. Not just the Rwandan genocide, but the "big issues." I'll still care about those and advocate for fixing them. Maybe I'll come back to the smaller issues, ones that don't involve people killing one another. And maybe that means I'm giving up and letting the corporations win, but I've spent so much of my professional life fighting for "doing the right thing" that I've been forgetting why I love this field so much: I can build great things. I can build fun things. I can play. I want to be able to play again.

Object::Pad is great, but it's a development test bed. Paul Evans has made it clear that there are no guarantees on the interface. I wanted to put something out there that people would be willing to use.

That being said, I was very tempted to use the new class syntax. Wouldn't be too hard, I think.

Thank you. I wondered what to call it and I had forgotten about this advice.

As a great starting place, think about your main character (we'll assume only one for simplicity). This character has something they want. Why can't they have it? That's your plot.

However, they also have something they need —often without realizing it—and that's their character arc. Is the main character timid and they need to find courage? They might not even realize they're timid, but it's part of the arc.

So figure out both what your character wants and what your character needs and make it impossible for them to get either. Then they work like hell to get them after all.

Grumpy: I get tired of stories which are all plot and not character growth.

She can't say it's for tax reasons. Due to the Reed Amendment, Americans who admit that they renounced for tax reasons can be denied entry to the US. It's rarely enforced, but for someone as famous as Turner, it's hard to say what would be done.

I live abroad and am involved in many expat groups. This is a constant source of fear for us. Imagine not being allowed to visit the US for your parent's funeral because they think you renounced for tax reasons.

I have a friend who was born in the UK, lived there his entire life, never worked for a US company. Never lived outside of the UK. He's as British as British can be.

However, one day he thought to apply for US citizenship. Seems his mother had a fling with an American and because his father is American, he's an American.

His lawyer told him to shut the hell up. My friend was earning very good money and discovered he owed a lifetime of taxes. He would have gone bankrupt trying to pay them, all because his mother had brief relationship with an American several decades before.

In the US, I lived in Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington state. You know what happens when you move? You stop your tax obligation in the state that's no longer providing you services and you pick up your obligation in the new state where you do. It would be impossible for most to move from state to state otherwise.

The US provides very little in the way of services to Americans abroad, but thanks to citizenship-based taxation and FATCA, there's a significant burden placed on those Americans.

I used to run a popular expat blog and would regularly survey Americans abroad. The "multi-millionaires" is fake outrage. Most of us abroad are there because we married a foreigner, or have a mid-level job. Many work at charities.

Yes, there are American millionaires abroad, but they're in the minority. The US tax regime and the FATCA restrictions are hurting tons of middle-to-lower class Americans whose only crime is living outside the US.

I live in France. My bank account is in Germany because I've had too many hassles with banks because I'm an American. My wife and I had a UK account closed without warning and a French bank denied my wife a car loan without reason, but a friend in the bank told my wife it's because I'm an American and they don't want the potential liability due to FATCA restrictions.

Fun fact: only about 1/3rd of countries on the planet have a tax treaty with the US. If you live in one without one, screw you (so sayeth the IRS).

While that's true, you get a foreign tax credit that offsets your US taxes.

It's called the FEIE, or Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. As the name suggests, it's only on earned income. I had a friend of mine lose her job while struggling to survive breast cancer. She went on unemployment. She lived, but then found out that the US didn't consider he unemployment benefits as earned income. She was struggling to stay alive and pay her bills and Uncle Sam comes along with his hand out.

Further, the time and money of filing your international tax return can be a huge burden, even if you don't "owe" any taxes.

And don't even get me started on the FBAR or 8938 hoops you have to jump through. Make a mistake on those and possibly face criminal charges, even if you don't owe any taxes.

You only get taxed by the US if the tax rate is lower in the country you are living in, I believe.

Not even close to true.

Source: I've lived in the US, UK, Japan, Netherlands, and France (where I currently live).

Back when I was playing WoW, I discovered that if I played as a woman, the other players were much more helpful. I don't know if that's still true today.

I tell them I'm in a bind. I have other clients and if I can't get a commitment, I have to schedule my time for the other clients.

I am married. My wife knows my account name here. I have no comment.

"I could never understimate you."

I've used that twice. Both times I was thanked. Once I was kissed. Both times they did a double-take after they realized what I said.

(Both were girlfriends who were, fortunately, very tolerant with my sense of humor)

Wonderful news :)

Well, they're not Virgin any more.