Years ago it came to light that NTP (and OpenSSL if I remember right) were being run by like… one dude (4 staff for OpenSSL?) on the tiniest trickle of donations, despite how vital the service was. It’s a long time since I became aware so I may have misremembered.

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency

Aw. Shit.

I have never been close to rich, but never truly poor either. 20 years ago my friend was in a credit card debt spiral of fees. I didn’t get it so she explained how the fees for not paying back the credit card prevented her from paying back her credit card and she never had money because it cost money to not have money.

“So like… what kind of figure are we talking about? What would you need to not have to pay one month’s fees? And if I loan you this amount you’ll be out of the debt spiral? It will fix this being charged fees so you keep having to pay fees bullshit?”

If you know the Terry Pratchett’s Boots thing it was like loaning her enough for one good pair of boots and solving so many financial problems. Even something like that I would never have understood without it being explained.

Oh shit. Why did I immediately think of the NTP guy. Should we check in on him, is he OK?

I snort laughed at “People”, but I have this feeling I read a medical professional complain about an unplanned unskippable 3 hour Windows Update cycle in Vista days at a critical moment in health care and… yeah…