Not mentioned:

Canada has an economy that has performed *FAR* worse than the US, especially over the past 15 years. Inflation is far higher, taxes are far higher, housing prices are out of control, productivity is stagnant. Canada over the past 20-25 years or so has become increasingly anti-liberty, anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, and anti-free speech.

So, many Canadians have moved to the United States. Including scholars. Far in excess of any Americans moving to Canada.

And a group of 48 moving from the US to Canada is a tiny blip in the academic system.

Meanwhile, the US isn't anti-free-speech, it's just has reduced subsidies for anti-American activities. Or science based on pro-socialist graft, endless growth of government, and faked data that proves to be wrong, again and again. Or science completely contrary to logic. At the same time, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe have gone very ANTI-free speech, jailing people for wrongthink and using Orwell as a playbook.

(My father was a graduate economics professor at Simon Frasier University in Burnaby, British Columbia in the 70s and early 80s. My family moved to California, and he started a new job at Claremont Graduate School. He was paid better, paid less taxes, and our family significantly improved our standard of living. So, this isn't something that new, either.)

Apple is hosting the app store. There are *some* costs with this.

So, some commissions are appropriate here.

10% sounds good.

If end-users could use multiple stores, and there was actual competition there, the commissions there would drop a LOT. But Apple has a monopoly.

Note that Google is planning on locking down Google Play, so they're little better.

Google was grumbling several months ago about blocking *ALL* other app stores.

So, does this mean that F-Droid will become an approved app store? Because it should. Lots of great and free (and no annoying ads, no spyware) apps on F-Droid.

Installed Windows 11 a laptop with 25H2 (the latest version) yesterday (10/6/25). Prepped my installer flash drive with Rufus and set a local account via that.

Worked just fine -- no Microsoft account needed.

https://rufus.ie/en/

I second this. I took touch-typing back in 8th grade in junior high (so 1984 or 85). I learned on IBM Selectric electric typewriters. Big, heavy, bullets bounce off steel monsters with a type ball. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric)

That class was easily the #1 most useful of both years of jr. high. I've now been benefitting from that for 40 years. Writing, emails, documentation, coding -- whatever -- all have benefited over that time from touch typing. That class has probably saved me 5,000+ hours (more?) through increased typing speed over that time.

I just downloaded the new Microsoft edit from Github, and tried it. There just two files (edit.exe and edit.pdb). Copy them into a folder. You can now run. No installer needed.

So, fully portable. Shouldn't need admin rights, and won't need the Microsoft Store.

Have problems with Calc? Use this one:

https://www.moffsoft.com/freec...

I've been using this as a calc replacement for years.

Move to Brave -- since it will continue to support v2 extensions

Or move to Firefox / Waterfox / LibreWolf / PaleMoon / etc. -- any Firefox-derived browser.

I'm assuming there will likely be a few other Chromium forks out there that will continue to support v2 extensions.

And here's how to still download a 23H2 ISO. Microsoft blocks this to consumers now (thought enterprise customers should still be able to get that ISO).

Basically, you run a script that downloads files from Microsoft, and then it builds a new ISO. It's a bit annoying, and can take an hour or so, but it works.

Info here:
https://pureinfotech.com/downl...

And I have a script to disable Cortana, CoPilot, and Recall, too:

https://pastebin.com/wit4utAQ

Win 11 24H2 is *still* highly problematic. I strongly recommend that if you install Win 11, install 23H2 instead of 24H2.

And here's a batch script to lock your Windows release (23H2 or even older releases) and block Microsoft from auto-updating to a new release.

Just change the line:

      set release-level=23H2

To whatever release level you want to "lock".

Someone else here mentioned disabling your TPM module in your BIOS as well -- that should work in theory. (It certainly will block any Windows 10 --> 11 upgrades.)

https://pastebin.com/FTrF3c7W

You can also just build a bootable flash drive with the free tool Rufus, and it will take care of all of this for you.

https://www.makeuseof.com/rufu...

VMware Converter got revived, as WAY too many people complained.

Here's a link to the current latest version (6.6.0). Broadcom does seem to be maintaining it and issuing new versions.

https://support.broadcom.com/g...

You'll need to create a free account with Broadcom to download it.

(This doesn't mean that Broadcom isn't a bunch of money-grabbing f*cktards who have likely screwed themselves over in the long term. Just that this is a very useful and free tool. You can always do P2Vs with this tool, then use other tools to convert the VM to some other hypervisor.)

You get one big problem with hermetically sealed houses: mold and mildew can get really, really bad. You can get wood rot as well. There are good reasons why homes have soffit vents. (https://roofinginsights.com/what-is-a-soffit-vent/)

But having a highly energy efficient home can make economic sense and not have this problem. (Depending how much it costs to get there.) It's also a heck of a lot easier to do on new construction vs. remediation on old construction.

Windows 10 is going end of life (EOL) on Oct 14, 2025. Microsoft *might* extend this, but don't count on it. (They have extended EOL dates for other Windows versions in the past.)

After that date, Windows 10 systems won't get new security updates except if you have a paid account. (Or do some complicated workarounds / hacks.)

That's OK (maybe) if you have a system that will *NEVER* go online. Otherwise, using an OS after its EOL is very risky. This is true of any OS (including Unix/Linux).

So, like it or not, replacing Windows 10 systems (or upgrading them in-place for Windows 11) should be something Windows users should be doing over the next year.

And yes, Microsoft will note some systems are not eligible for Windows 11, and fail system requirements. The big reason for this is usually a lack of TPM 2.0 support:
https://support.microsoft.com/...

Some systems might have this, but just need this enabled in the BIOS.

Some may have TPM 1.2 or such, and can have a firmware update to TPM 2.0. (I've seen that on some Lenovo systems, and I assume that's true for some other manufacturers and their models.)

Check with the online support from your laptop/desktop/motherboard manufacturer on this.

If you're adventurous, you can also force Windows 11's setup to ignore TPM requirements and install anyway (though you may have trouble in the future if Windows updates and re-enables checking for this):

https://www.makeuseof.com/rufu...

And, yes, there's always the move to Linux/BSD/Mac/Chromebooks/whatever option. (This is Slashdot, so this *ALWAYS* must be mentioned.) This may be a good option for the technically minded *AND* those who don't need to use specific Windows applications. Wine may work for you (or not -- but may be complicated as heck). You could also run a Windows 11 VM on top of Linux/BSD, which is great for any application that doesn't need high-performance video (e.g., games, video editing, CAD, etc.). So, replacing Windows with some OS may work for you. It will likely not work for most users, especially the less technical. (For the completely non-technical grandparent types, you might very well be better with a Chromebook. Can't do nearly as much, but it's also hard to break. And it still allows anything web, Google Docs, etc.)