If they were just consultants, they'd be vulnerable to DOGE's purge.

The specific incident indicates it was done at school and generated enough smoke to send another student to the hospital for smoke inhalation. That's a good bit more serious than just damaging the laptop and may be in the same category as assault. So Juvenile Court may be appropriate.

I stayed on Win 7 for many years after support officially ended. I only really used it for gaming and tax softwared. What finally pushed me to Win 10 was when various online systems like Steam and my tax software's online filing switched to TLS 1.3, which didn't get backported to Win 7. I don't plan to move to Win 11 until something like this forces me to do so.

Maybe by then Win 12 will be out and the "every other release is not as bad" pattern will hold.

One common application that even relatively unsophisticated computer users will install and for which there isn't really a good Linux alternative is tax return preparation software. Getting these programs working under Wine or Proton is probably beyond the knowledge and skill of most Windows users.

Things like this is why I use the NetGuard VPN app. It allows you to control which apps have access to the internet. For apps that don't need an internet connection for functionality, it seems to be effective at blocking ads in the apps. It also offers capability for some filtering and traffic analysis.

I frequently use it with pgup/pgdn to cycle through tabs and also with the arrow keys, so I would defininetly miss the right Control key. I could do without the Windows or Menu key however.

Part of the trend may be due to Steam's impending discontinuation of support for Windows 7 at the end of this year. Some people may be upgrading to Linux instead of Windows 10/11. I'm certainly debating which way I want to go.

Ponecchio?

There's a good explanation of the diffraction spikes coming off the star here.

TLDR version: They're caused by the supports for the secondary mirror.

I don't think you'd get enough value out of trading in Microsoft Office to be able to cover the cost of Liberoffice.

Check out the HOHSER Firefox plugin.

It lets you hide (or highlight) specific sites in your search results.

That quote is attributed to Gerald R. Massie in 1944 after the crash-landing of the B-17 he was in.

The follow-on is, "Any landing where you can reuse the plane is a great one." (I don't remember the source of this one.)

This just means that instead of paying $60/month for service + $10/month for the hardware, you'll pay $70/month for service and get the hardware for free (or your can use your own).

There's a Firefox plugin for that. See HOHSER. I just discovered it and have it blocking results from Amazon and Ebay. Definitely cuts down on the clutter. There's a Duck-Duck-Go specific version by the same author.