Those modifications were my doing.

Use one of the stabilizer plugs on the lower barrel (gray, plugs in one of the barrels). It'll work just fine.

One of the stabilizer wires will attach to the M13 spacebar and the keyboard itself.

That's also my doing. Unlike the M, changing keys requires less toolwork; you only need a flat-tip screwdriver, pliers, and careful attention as the plate cover slides right out.

The only word of caution that I have is that fixing broken traces is a PITA.

Not going to happen as long as there's an effort to oppose US citizens. No sense in taking envious jabs out at the modern-day Roman Empire just because you live on the wrong side of it.

The US has a higher degree of personal freedom not present in nearly all the offshoring destinations. In every sense of the word, businesses in this environment hate freedom.

Guest workers are not immigrants. Before you ask, mine came to live long, prosperous lives as citizens.

The vast body of evidence would point to a large wealth transfer that penalizes freedom.

Given that the American has more freedom than the typical guest worker (or their home country), that alone is enough justification.

There was even better talent that was right in the US. Unfortunately, you weren't willing enough to work with US citizens in good faith.

Then stop with the unrealistic requirements that are designed solely to disqualify US citizens. The citizens are qualified, especially those that are asked to train guest worker replacement, you just have an anti-citizen bias. Your best bet would be to prepare to accept the idea that US citizens are qualified.

The guest worker program has never been about freedom; it has been about making an end-run around the Constitution's provisions prohibiting slavery and indentured servitude.

If you actually controlled for admissions criteria, which no current ranking system (especially PISA), the US would be much higher.

Economics does not work that way.

A decrease in the labor supply (a supply curve shift to the left) will cause a shortage, with an increase in required wages to meet equilibrium. If what you and the guest workers said was correct about shortages, then wages would go up - not down.

An increase in the labor supply (a supply curve shift to the right) will cause a surplus, with a decrease in required wages to meet equilibrium. This is what really is happening, since there is an increase in the labor supply beyond what the equilibrium will support.

Geopolitical interference with developed nations like the United States, such that citizens are purposefully and systematically excluded from selection, is a valid explanation.

N/T

They are crazy with the amount they charge bars and restaurants, and they are losing out to other services deservedly based on that.

If they can get increased sales, so much the better.

Then I believe Topre makes a keyboard that would be more to your liking.

That's a model M buckling spring, not a model F capacitive buckling spring. The main difference is that the latter sounds much more like a typewriter - the Model F uses a curved circuit board + thick metal plate versus the Model M's plastic membranes + thin metal plate. Other minor differences are that that my conversion has M13 black keys, trackpoint, and a ANSI-like layout - things that are not present on any Unicomp terminal board.

With that aside, I have that one you just linked as well (the "Affirmative Computing") version. It may be a Unicomp model M, but it still holds up to the same mechanical standards.

(btw, yes, I'm on Geekhack and Deskthority)

Find a largish Terminal F board, sacrifice a black M13 for its labeled black keycaps, get a unicomp trackstick controller, and then you have this.

Yes, but in a small town you can do something about it. Big City, state-wide, or national corruption can become systemic and entrenched. Seems like pretty much every Big City and state in the country is beholden to one party machine or the other. Where local elections and issues are more grassroots, personal and non-partisan.

I don't partake. And I am not taking about voting for representatives or to elect individual people.

Have you lived in a small town with an open town meeting form of government? Roberts Rules. You sit in a big hall, sometimes there is a voice vote when you either say yay or nay and if the moderator cannot determine the yays or nays then you stand and are counted as either yay or nay. Only for votes on salaries for particular town officials do they pass around the paper for an anonymous vote. You could do something similar online for voting on spending issues or bylaws without worrying about anonymity.

If you don't want to stand up and be counted then don't vote, just like there are many people that don't come to Town Meeting.

I think Iterative and incremental development is a good approach.

I mostly agree with this. But I do see an opportunity for more participatory government if there is a way to vote online on local issues.

I live in a Town with an open meeting form of local government. That means anyone can show up and vote on items that are on the agenda. Our votes are not anonymous because anyone can look around the room and see who is voting which way on what.

Specific votes by individuals are not officially recorded, but they could be recorded by anyone. If you give up on the idea of online elections, and focus instead on online town meeting voting on particular bylaws or local spending, which doesn't need to be anonymous, then I think you could really increase participation in local issues.... which are the kinds of issues that count in people's day to day lives and where a few votes really do matter.

Even if you show up, you don't find much democracy in national or even state elections... your vote is just too watered down to really matter in most elections and even if it did matter, the people elected are beholden to the organizations and parties that got them elected. So, I'd rather see more participation in local issues, than worry about the mostly symbolic voting people do in state and national elections.