I was referring to app reviews and rundowns, which are plentiful. I don't do reviews, so asking me won't get you anywhere.

I increase my chances of that by having an Android or iOS device. It's a safer bet.

Google, or Bing for that matter, is your friend. Many, many people out there go through the hard work of evaluating apps - both on IOS and Android.

"It's easier to shop in a Soviet store" is not an advantage.

The difference is that air transportation is the most practical (and often cheapest) way to reach many places. Cable is pure luxury. If the "base service" sucks, I just won't buy it. I don't have cable now - we instead watch the Netflix and Amazon stuff. Without commercials you don't even know what you are supposed to feel like you are "missing". People tell me about a good show and I'll get around to watching it eventually.

Sports is another matter. I'm not a huge sports fiend, but it would be nice to catch a game now and then. As it is, I can only watch the broadcast games. I would probably pay them if they would take my money, but they won't.

Those old fixed-bandwidth 128kb files can be pretty crappy with high frequencies starting to sound "swimmy". Anything with a lot of cymbal in it will go nuts. Of course if you grew up with cassettes and LPs, then distortion, "noise reduction", hiss, and pops are all old friends and yet we still listened to music. If you are old enough, you will remember how blown away you were by hearing a CD for the first time.

I pity you folks with golden ears. I can't hear any artifacts in MP3s (*) when I use Lame's extreme preset.

* OK, so one time there was this post on hydrogen audio where someone posted an artifact that I could actually hear. It has not come up in my own collection of mostly crap rock 'n roll.

My soldering skills are not... great. I gave a tech at work a case of beer to redo the cracked solder on my windshield wiper control board in my Chevy. It was all easy through-hole stuff, but I don't trust myself for something that controls the wipers and has to be out in the elements! :)

Exactly. The $10 Samsung that I got as a temporary phone at Best Buy has a built in browser and runs the old Java apps. Whoopdeedoo, welcome to 2004. The extra $19 does appear to buy you a crappy camera and external storage - so I guess there is that.

While that sounds like fun, I frankly have too much on my plate already. I probably would have hard-wired the motor and called it a day if the warranty was up. If I felt like a run to the store I might put a switch on it :)

That is exactly what would have happened if the thing was not under warranty. I may have even tried to put a switch in somewhere. :)

The bag is an actual bag, but I spent the first 35 years of my life without an indicator. It's pretty easy to tell when it isn't picking up anymore. The sensor is just a differential pressure gauge - same thing as "stuff not going up the tube anymore".

Yup. Our vacuum cleaner went on the fritz. I thought, vacuum cleaners are very simple - I can handle this. Cracked it open and... big fancy circuit board! This model had a "bag full" sensor and two speeds, so I guess they put it on a board. At this point I Googled and found that the problem is common and that the board is essentially toast. Fortunately the same Google search showed that Hoover still does a 7 year warranty so I slapped it back together and got it fixed.

But yeah, a simple vacuum is now complicated. Next time I'll buy something with only an off-on switch.

The high cost of repairs on those things is exactly why I specifically bought a Speed Queen with a mechanical timer. So some of us still pay a little more for repair-ability :)

Well, you are buying a €150 blender, which I don't doubt is probably made of some replaceable parts, and in any case might be worth spending money on the repair. Most people are getting something for €20. At that price point, even your €10 repair is arguably foolish.

An officer armed with a deadly weapon should be used to enforce a very narrow set of laws. People make terrible generalists - we are best when we specialize. We let the IRS handle tax problems, health inspectors handle food laws, and fire inspectors handle code violations. Your average local beat cop should not be expected to enforce every law - and yes, their mandate should be primarily focused on keeping the locals happy. Everyone needs to feel comfortable relying on the local cops or they fail to do their primary job. As an example, an illegal immigrant should be able to go to the cops if they are the victim of a violent crime. If they know that they will be thrown out of the country if they report a mugging, they will not report the mugging and we all suffer.

In this particular case, let the state/local tax board send over an investigator when someone calls in to complain that someone is selling cigarettes without paying their taxes.

And we're the only country with organized crime?

No, we'd probably look a lot like other countries which have many long guns but highly restricted pistols. Australia and Canada, for instance.