Legonatic

I also had this uneasy feeling watching the video. It certainly felt a bit like a cog in the military industrial machine. While the actual content of the video wasn't exactly bad in my opinion, I don't know how I feel about pitching anti-terror or war machines to children through the lens of, "Engineering is cool!" That said, there are many more examples of that pitch out in the world in other forms. I do think Mark could be more careful especially when he is directly promoting a company in the defense industry.

2021 had GME meme stonks and was the start of NFTs. Also COVID vax started coming out.

I am well aware of this overlap and it doesn't come as a surprise. I perhaps wish more of these creators acknowledged the military industrial complex and addressed what it means for their content and for the world of engineering.

I am an AV tech and we use a mouse jiggler script to prevent computers from going into an inactive state for presentations during events at my company. The script doesn't need to be installed, you just open the file by double clicking.

I also have a vested interest in furthering the socialist policies in the US. I would very much like to stay here since my life, my family, my friends, etc are all here. I just want this country to improve in ways I only see possible through socialism and moving from an individualist culture to a collectivist one.

Considering the chain has been owned for a few years by private equity, I don't know if it could have been any worse than that.

Hey don't spoil the surprise!

I don't currently drive since I live in NYC, but I feel that unless the facility is rather cramped or has some other oddity that most people wouldn't be accustomed to, I think valet parking is unnecessary. Usually it takes longer and incurs an extra fee in the form of a tip and I always feel a little uneasy about letting someone else drive my car. Last year I went to a KBBQ restaurant in Los Angeles that required valet parking. It was by no means a fancy restaurant and just had a slightly smaller parking lot. It felt so silly to have a valet park my friend's car in a spot that any rather average driver could manage.

My comment pertains to the USA, but regardless of where you live, there is a very strong likelihood that your local commercial stations are owned by a company like iHeartRadio and much, if not all, of the content is syndicated.

The only exception might be a local nonprofit radio station. You probably have at best one local station in this case, unless you live in a major city broadcast region. Keep in mind I mean one local station that plays music. A local NPR station is probably separate from this. Even most of NPR is syndicated, however.

If you're lucky, a local college might still have a radio station broadcasting over FM, but so many have moved online since you then don't need an [expensive and volatile] FCC license.

Lack of Ableton Live support is also why I probably won't switch to Linux. Even though years ago I used to dual boot Ubuntu and quite liked it as an OS, the lack of DAW support is the real deal breaker for me too. Ableton Live is just too good and I know it too well to switch away from it.

I used to live in Boston and only once did I find an apartment where I didn't have to pay a last month of rent up front. The rental market there is very much predatory upon the droves of college students and other young people who don't know any different or better. And for those who do know different, they basically have no choice.

I actually bought a Huawei Matebook in February 2019 (2018 model) from the Microsoft store for just over $1300. You know, the MacBook ripoff one? It was just a few months before they were banned. Honestly, that thing is still a solid laptop.

Okay battery life, really good specs, super light, amazing display. Unfortunately heats up a lot and throttles under load, but not terrible. I mainly got it for music production with Ableton Live 10, and still use it for that. Gaming is meh but can play some games at modest settings. Good for Photoshop and Premiere. Great for basic computer use. It even barely had any bloatware installed. I suppose there could be some backdoor for spying as is often rumored, but it's really not something I am that concerned about.

I guess it's a shame they got banned. I feel like there's nothing else in the PC market like it. These days it seems like I'm better off buying a MacBook Pro given my hobbies.