Last I looked there was still a surprising amount of acreage in family farms, even though it's steadily waning. Maybe you're right about mischaracterization, though.

Apparently there is. But even putting that aside, having them have access to so many people's computers is a particularly bad idea.

Perhaps. They likely might face some time in Juvie for it. As t whether they get hassled, thats a bit speculative. I'd suggest its more likely if they are hassled its because they are soft doughy little nerds.

I don't think a real or faux Pi is a good idea any more unless the size is important. You can buy a minipc for competitive prices now, and get a nice working complete system which doesn't require weird software. If you don't need any graphics performance to speak of then a N150 is pretty beefy for 10W, and plausibly under $200. I chose to have just a little graphics performance and went with a Zen3 MiniPC with 15W TDP, a bit over $300 with 32GB and 1TB. It overclocks and the graphics get kind of OK for 1080p, but it's not worth it given the fan noise. I've also seen some pretty cheap "NAS" minipcs (they just have drive bays and SATA ports, most of these only have M.2 and if you want SATA you need to convert and come up with an enclosure.)

I got what I got because of the low power consumption, the whole thing maxes at only 30W.. and also because my desktop is the same architecture, which is convenient.

Are you somehow not aware that Windows 11 is perfectly happy to allow you to turn any or all of its security features on post-installation? If you can get the system installed without any of those things, you can turn any or all of them on piecemeal (aside from dependencies) after the fact. You can even start with fdisk partitioning and no TPM in the system, and wind up all of the security stuff turned on without reinstalling Windows. I've done all of this in a virtual machine, but you can also put a TPM on some motherboards, so you can do all of these things with a real machine as well.

Microsoft is not forcing accounts on people for their good. Making it a prominent default is very reasonable. Making it this difficult to go around is unacceptable. But then, I haven't accepted Windows on the metal (except for some veritable antiques I've got here... single-and dual core Atoms) in years, and these days I don't even allow it to access the internet except via filtering proxy. Windows cannot be trusted. No corporation should be trusted, but Microsoft more than most.

Nobody thinks that, but your argument is self-defeating because you explained yourself that it takes a user doing something to compromise that machine. But Microsoft is holding the keys to every connected Windows user's computer at a very deep level, and they have shown repeatedly that they are bad at security on every level.

Microsoft has failed at security in every way possible, and usually on multiple occasions, and that's just what we know about. Mistaking them for being sufficiently competent to hold this level of responsibility over the world's computing resources is bafflingly bananas.

You seem to have missed costs going up considerably.

It's reasonable when you consider they have to "support" those drives via their various support channels.

You put in a drive with incompatible firmware, then start asking for support because an issue with the firmware comes up, it directly costs them money.

Im not arguing the cost is valid, but if you've ever dealt with large commercial product support you would completely understand why its logical.

No you cant just refuse support to those people because
A. You will still contact them and waste resources to confirm an unsupported drive
B. Most states require vendors to honor warranty/support for modified products unless the vendor can PROVE the modification is the source of the problem.
C. Even after proof, some customers would continue to argue and add legal costs
D. Finally the customer will trash talk the vendor online and word of mouth, right or wrong ... costing the vendor even more money

Or they could just block your cheap drive and not have you as a customer and lose less money cause you're a tight wad.

You're not the customer they are interested in, you're a potential cost rather than profit.

I have a LG WebOS TV, too, though it's not OLED. The reason not to have it is that the UI is shit in every way. WebOS is a terrible fucking turd even if you never use a single app.

If you are patient you can get reasonable deals on digital signage displays, many of which even have tuners. You have to be careful though, because many of those are also "smart" now.

This is true.

This is nonsense. There has never been a time when it has not been screwed with, so there's nothing at all to support that statement.

He screwed them last time, then there were bailouts, so they figured they could get more bailouts. So they voted for him again. He screwed them much worse this time, though. Many of us tried to warn them, but they dismissed us as a bunch of libtards, because they are stupid fucksticks. Farmers may be smarter than the average nerd thinks, but only because they think they are absolute idiots. They are only, as we can plainly see, mostly idiots.

He's got years yet to destroy it. Once again, cowards are cowards. For example, you're afraid of facts.

It's irrelevant anyway if you upload encrypted backups to cloud storage. That's one of the few cases where putting your data on someone else's server actually makes sense.

Managers should have 5-6 reports, but they should also do actual productive work, not only management. Maybe they only put in 8 hours of actual work a week, but a) this keeps them engaged with what is actually happening and b) if they cannot do real work, they are not qualified to manage people anyway. If it takes a long time to have check-ins with your employees then you've got big problems.

It's perfectly reasonable for them to have branded, tested drives which they certify. What's not reasonable is only allowing those drives.

I got a third-party cable for my phone that my phone recognizes as being able to charge it faster than the cable that came with the phone could. They should probably warn you that they don't have a cable or charger, in case you're getting a phone because you lost everything and don't have that stuff, but the first-party stuff isn't better these days.