Reolink here too. They support open protocols and work locally with no internet access. Picture quality is decent. You can record to your own server, or fit an SD card, or both.

This article is so full of cherry-picked bullshit that I would expect a 3rd-year undergrad wrote it to be edgy. I can't get to everything, so here's the lowdown on the cost of education.

Colleges didn't "oversell" education. If the well-wishers of the world had their way, we would ALL be college educated because educated people tend to make better decisions and be less horrible to each other. The value of education is extreme. PARENTS oversell specific careers to their and in consequence mandate their children attend the most prestigious university they can get into. They also have no clue how to tell one university from the next and thus lean on prestige.

The COST of higher education (Ex. post-secondary, college, uni, etc.) is highly variable based on who is providing the education. Let's take a look at a couple examples:

The University of California (UCLA, Berkeley, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.) has 9 undergraduate campuses and is a powerhouse of research. Their campuses are RESEARCH institutions whose charge is to be the research arm for California while also creating more PhD RESEARCHERS in addition to lawyers and medical doctors. Those researcher-faculty are also required to teach classes. Please understand that I wrote that description for a reason. Research is the primary focus and education is secondary. Thus, if you are a student that needs to be spoon-fed everything, then the UC is probably going to be a bad fit.

It costs around $15,600/year for UC tuition plus a variable amount of campus fees ($1,200 - $2,200) depending on which campus you attend.

The California Statue University has 23 campuses and is a powerhouse of education. Their campuses are EDUCATIONAL institutions whose charge is to be the educational arm for California while creating industry experts (Master's Degrees) and limited doctorates (Education, etc.). Those instructor-faculty have the option to do research as well within the realm of their instructional duties. Instruction is the primary focus and research is secondary. Thus, if you're a student that is desperate to get into a lab and work on cutting edge (albeit sometimes monotonous) research, the CSU is probably going to be a bad fit.

It costs around $6,450/year for CSU tuition plus a variable amount of campus fees depending on which campus you attend.

Side Note: The #1 reason it's more "PRESTIGIOUS" to attend a UC campus than a CSU campus is because they have Nobel Prize winners and big cool experimental toys. People see that and assume, "Wow... they must be amazing educators," but it doesn't always translate. Often, you're being taught by "lecturers" (temporary instructors who JUST focus on instruction) and THOSE instructors tend to be, on average, better than research faculty. (End Side Note)

That's all very, very affordable, right? No one gets into $100K of student debt solely on the basis of paying tuition at UC Berkeley. So what are we missing? EVERYTHING ELSE.

Housing: Rentals and homes for sale near UC and CSU campuses are under extreme demand due to both student and employees wanting to live near the campus. People buy single-family homes near major campuses and rent them out to students at massive mark-ups because... it's a strong investment and home values near major university campuses bounce back FAST after any downturn.

So how much are we talking about? Near a small campus (Chico State), it's safe to budget $500-$1000/month for a room rental. Near a major UC campus, it's safe to budget $1,000-$1,500/month for a room rental. (Note: Back in the day, almost no one rented their own room. It was always 2-3 people per room. The pandemic changed that and students view the dorm experience as a "one and done" and all but demand their own room and the cost of that preference is high.)

That's just rent. When you add in bills (electricity, water, sewer, waste, broadband internet, phone), transportation (car, gas, parking), textbooks, food, and other living expenses like clothes, the total COST OF ATTENDANCE gets you over $45,000/year to attend a University of California campus. It's not the tuition... it's the EVERYTHING ELSE and that's 100% predictable because we've been watch the cost of EVERYTHING ELSE climb mercilessly upward for the last 20 years.

Don't believe me? Look at the breakdown yourself:

UCLA - https://financialaid.ucla.edu/...
Berkeley - https://financialaid.berkeley....

And you can see the history of tuition prices here: https://www.ucop.edu/operating...

Lastly, the tuition you pay during your first year at a UC campus is what you pay throughout your undergraduate experience. Tuition increases only affect the incoming class.

Gyre is a more official name for the Pacific Garbage patch, as there are presumably few kids in it

Not really IMO, moderation is broken by design at best

It was probably minimally profitable even with the Xbox 360 hardware issues. Still Xbox was a small part of MS so there was not a lot of profit pressure on them. Then MS started acquiring major developers. Activision Blizzard was a $69B purchase alone. Now MS has more profit expectations of Xbox.

Except many actions of MS says otherwise. For example, MS and Asus just released their new gaming handheld Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. It does not play Xbox games. It plays PC games. MS has been telling the consumer that ”Everything is an Xbox" from smart phones to PCs.

They probably have a similar 25% agreement.

Obama would have been impeached the second he bulldozed part of the whitehouse.

He already has unchecked power.

Will this new revenue stream decrease my taxes? Will it fund infrastructure? If taxes are paid then government services should be rendered.

I don't see a rash of bans, but I do see the same abusers of moderation given all the mod points they can use every day.

You can thank student loans for that. Earlier generations got their schooling subsidized, but now people have to get loans to pay for it themselves instead. Colleges therefore could raise tuition. Then a bipartisan effort in Congress was launched to make sure we couldn't discharge those loans through bankruptcy like you can gambling or other personal debts, which was led by Joseph R Biden. I think we know how that turned out, forgiveness for a few of the worst abused players, and blaming inability to keep his campaign promises related to partial forgiveness for all buyers blamed on Congress while he went around them to fund genocide in Gaza.

You're right there by where the earthquake happened though. Of course your mind is jumping straight to concerns like this. Makes perfect sense to me.

Isn't the premise of a dollar store (or pound store) that everything is a single price...

Otherwise it's just a cut price store and frankly, the Germans have shown us with their cut price supermarkets that they key to running a successful one is hyper organisation. Everything runs like clockwork, no confusion, Everything goes into it's assigned slot. Money is saved by reducing overall work (I.E. the staff just put boxes on the shelves and let customer take the products out themselves), reducing costs and creating consistency (I.E. if national regs state the fridge must be x Degrees C, the fridges are exactly X degrees C) then passing the savings onto the customer. There's a reason Aldi and Lidl are growing so fast in so many countries.

Running a disorganised cut price shop seems counter-intuitive as you'll just drive customers away.

Awww didums... did I point out an unfortunate fact you can't refute... or even refuse (for the uninitiated, refuting requires proof, you can refuse without proof, also repudiate)