The jokes on you if you think the written piece of paper means anything.

I think the joke might be on you if you end up in court arguing over whether that piece of paper means anything.

Cheaper than building them behind concrete or brick.

I think the question is: why are they behind anything to begin with?

Conduit all the things and paint to match?

People prefer how it looks and it's also more convenient to have a square room and no irregular protrusions stopping you pushing furniture up against the wall.

In the UK it used to be common for pipework to be exposed and painted. Electrical conduit is pretty common in "industrial" places like garages but the number of sockets people expect now would mean you'd barely have a flat wall anywhere.

The current preference is definitely for clean looking, square rooms. When pipes don't fit in the walls themselves, like soil pipes or around boilers, they are boxed in or hidden away in a cupboard.

This is essentially what some industrial-style lofts do.

Probably not legal.

Generally things that are illegal are illegal because enough people have maimed or killed themselves with it in ways that are not “common sense”. For example, you can’t simply have electrical wire stapled to the bottom of the joists in the basement because people might try to hang clothes off of them.

You don’t need to explain that to me.

It's legal and done quite often in industrial installations - look around the next time the lights are up at your favorite restaurant, for example.

It is more expensive, by more than you'd think, and so it's rarely done.

It also allows all of the trades save the drywaller/painter to be rough and tumble with what they're doing; it doesn't have to look nice behind the walls.

It’s so they can begin selling you a subscription to allow you to hang a picture.

What’s the saying… if your only tool is a collider?

The best version - thank you.

Colour me a curmudgeon too but a screen doesn’t need to be in front of a student all hours of the day to learn.

I’ve made this point before, because plenty of people are too narrow minded in how they view the internet.

We don’t dislike roads(real internet/pipes & routers) because asshole drivers(social media) are out there.

Try a different road :)

On every road

Mad max is a documentary, don't believe their lies

There’s probably too much nuance in your answer for most, but thank you for taking the time to write it down.

It’s always interesting to read some thoughtful opinions, especially as an outsider(Australian) looking in.

The problem with non-compulsory voting is that only highly motivated actually vote.

In this case the highly motivated are becoming lunatics.

Steve Yegge used to have interesting, albeit long winded, things to say re software.