Old IBM ThinkPads were actually nice laptops that held up to a lot of abuse. I can't touch anything made by Lenovo though. They've been caught more than once installing backdoors and malware (sometimes because they were paid to do it).
They've had many security issues since then, including another backdoor in 2025, but Superfish was probably their worst disaster because after it became public that every machine they sold with it was vulnerable Lenovo continued to deny it until they were finally forced to admit it and release a removal tool. That should have been the end of it, but the removal tool just uninstalled the bloatware itself while leaving the system changes it had made which introduced the vulnerability. That just gave the customers who were even aware of what was going on and downloaded the removal tool a false sense of security. Only after the media started reporting that failure did they eventually release a second removal tool that actually corrected the problem Superfish introduced. No way would I ever trust that company
They learn pretty quickly to downplay things when their whistleblower collegese either fall down the stairs or kill themselves after telling loved ones that if they die it was not by their own hands.
A former air accident investigator who works as an aviation safety consultant said "It's extraordinary that Boeing concluded that a failure of this part would not have safety consequences," and said the report was "disturbing"
Doesn't seem like gray to me. It seems a company who has a history of cutting corners and ignoring or downplaying safety problems did exactly that in this case too which resulted in the deaths of many people. UPS made an error here as well in trusting Boeing when they said it wasn't a safety issue and they should have installed the revised bearing assembly out of an abundance of caution, but I don't know much they would have known back in 2011 about the changes at Boeing that prioritized profit over safety following the merger with McDonnell Douglas
I think every company operating Boeing aircraft should have reviewed their stance on Boeing directives in light of MCAS and the aftermath by now. If they did not that is a failure of sorts as well.
Investing in free places where people can do cool things in public like libraries can help. Investing in public transportation so that more people can get around easier can help. Making sure that people have enough money that they don't need to work 2 jobs to get by and they aren't under constant worry of not being able to pay rent would help. Making sure people are able to get the healthcare they need so that they are feeling well enough to go out places would help.
It's hard to act when you're sick and exhausted and physically isolated and broke and there's nowhere in public filled with people worth visiting. Policy can help improve that situation so that action can happen.
> I am looking for actionable solutions that I can experiment with as one lone individual with time to spare on Sundays.
Since you've probably already got the time, energy, and money to invest this should be pretty easy.
The easiest answer? Go find a protest group. There are people out pretty much every week all over the place. You'll meet tons of very friendly people and you'll already have something to discuss with the strangers you meet. You can spend your weekends with new passionate people outdoors holding signs and marching around. Doesn't get more actionable than that. Comes with a low risk of getting shot or teargassed and a high risk of being profiled by the feds (although these days who isn't on a list right?)
Not political? Volunteer helping people. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and food banks are a great place to start. You'll be doing something good for others in your community and get a chance to meet and speak with other volunteers and the people you're helping. (Fair warning: repeated exposure to good people who are struggling may cause you to become more political)
Are you active? Join a sports team for a sport you enjoy or have always wanted to try. There are usually local groups looking for members and again you'll be starting with something to talk about and a shared interest.
Pay for classes in something you're interested in. Meet your teachers and classmates. Learn something cool in the process! Works best if you're learning something that requires you to create or do something.
Not in a relationship? Try dating. Be open about the fact that you're just looking to meet more interesting people. (this tip works infinitely better if you're a woman, but if you're comfortable with rejection, patient, and able to pay for multiple dating apps for indefinite periods of time where you don't get any takers it can work for almost anyone).
Pick a local bar and become a regular. Pay attention and if after a month or two you haven't clocked who the other regulars are pick a different bar and repeat. Once you've found some other regulars introduce yourself. As a bonus you'll both be socially lubricated when you meet and if it goes badly you can drown your sorrows in more drinks.
Like to drink but want to meet fewer alcoholics? Do the same thing but go to bars during karaoke and/or trivia nights.
Nerdy? Check gaming stores or the internet for a D&D group looking for members or even better look up where your local Society for Creative Anachronism meets and go there. You can meet people while you learn blacksmithing, or calligraphy, or archery.
Religious? Tour churches. This can be pretty fun even if you aren't religious. Most people will be very friendly and welcoming (results may vary depending on the church and your color/sexual orientation).
While this seems like it would make it harder for them I wouldn't be surprised if scammers eventually try to abuse this service too and I have no doubt that people would happily click these if they found in them in a phishing email, that said I give the folks behind this a lot of credit for having a way to contact them and report links if that happens.
I prefer "greed". It's the much a simpler explanation that works just as well. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the demand for soda has stayed the same or even actually declined while the supply of corn and water hasn't bottomed out or gotten proportionately more expensive for soda companies.
Short of unrolling it all and weighing it by the pound the math involved in the cost of TP is complicated. That said, McDonald's use of discriminatory/surge pricing complicates the actual cost of a big mac too.
Even by the pound would be hard... quality two-ply vs low-grade gas station TP... The price per unit is also difficult to compare... are you getting the costco packs that still have the larger per-sheet area or the new, smaller sheets.
Not to mention, in general it might be a counter-intuitive index... If the spend per person on TP on average goes down, is that an uptake in bidets, lowered tp costs, or economic affects and people choosing cheaper options?
That said, I still think it could be a "fun" index to track over time.
They can keep the sheets per roll the same and still give us less for the same price if they reduce the dimensions or thickness of the sheet too. They should just give us a weight assuming the paper is less expensive than the cardboard roll inside.
> So do extremely simple systems like selling age-verification scratchcards in grocery stores
Which stores sell age-verification scratchcards? How do you make sure they can't be traced back to the person who paid for them or where they were purchased from? How would a website know the person using the card is the same person who paid for them? It may be a simple system, but it still sounds ineffective, dangerous, and unnecessary.
> Which stores sell age-verification scratchcards?
Stores that sell other age-restricted products.
> How do you make sure they can't be traced back to the person who paid for them
How would they be traced? Pay cash. I've never had my ID scanned or recorded when I buy alcohol. And now I look old enough that I don't even have to show ID.
If someone can trace the store they're bought from and you're that paranoid, rotate between stores. Buy them from a third-party. Drive to another state and buy them there. So many options.
> How would a website know the person using the card is the same person who paid for them?
They don't. How does Philip Morris know the person who bought the cigarettes is the same person lighting up? It's clearly not that important when selling actual poisons so why would it matter for accessing a website? The system works well enough to keep most kids from smoking.
Rate-limit sales in a store (one per visit) and outlaw selling or transferring them to a minor (same penalties as giving alcohol or tobacco to a child). Require websites to implement one code per account policies with a code TTL of 6 months or a year, and identify and disallow account sharing. It's Good Enough verification with nearly perfect anonymity.
So far, I've never seen an age verification scratch card sold anywhere
> How would they be traced?
Your ID is collected at retail and its barcode scanned along with a barcode on the card, your personal data and card ID get uploaded to a server operated by the entity that created the cards and/or the state. ID barcode scan can be replaced or used alongside facial recognition, data collected (directly or passively) from your cell phone, your credit card info, etc. Even just being able to link a used card back to the time/place it was purchased could be enough to ID someone and put them at risk.
> It's clearly not important when selling actual poisons so why would it matter for social media?
The main difference is that I can't upload 1 million cigarettes to the internet for anyone of any age to anonymously download and smoke, but I could upload a spreadsheet of 1 million unredeemed scratch off codes to the internet for anyone to use. It seems highly likely that codes would get sold, shared online, generated, or leaked which means cards would be ineffective at keeping children from using them.
Why should we be okay with jumping through a bunch of hoops that don't even do what they're supposed to in the first place while costing us money and opening ourselves up to new risks in the process? I reject the premise that proving my identity to a website is necessary let alone being worth the costs/risks. Scratch cards seem likely to fail at being private or effective. Of course, "Think of the children" is really only the excuse. Surveillance and control is the real motivation and any system that doesn't meet that goal is doomed to be replaced by one that does.
Buying alcohol is nothing like getting an anonymous token that grants the right to a Google account.
This is equivalent to saying you either need to be over 16 or have a parents permission which will not work for any number reasons that someone else can enumerate.
> I've never seen an age verification scratch card sold anywhere
It isn't something that exists today.
> Your ID is collected at retail...
You know perfectly well I already addressed that whole argument in my original comment. I know you're philosophically opposed to age verification (a perfectly valid opinion), but that's no reason to tear down strawmen.
> Even just being able to link a used card back to the time/place it was purchased could be enough to ID someone
Even when close to every adult is buying them every year? Doubt. But in any case also addressed with alternatives in my original comment.
> I could upload a spreadsheet of 1 million unredeemed scratch off codes to the internet
You can't, for the same reason you can't just get unsold gift card codes on the internet.
> I reject the premise that proving my identity to a website is necessary
Again, a valid and reasonable position. But how long will the internet continue to operate like that?
> Of course, "Think of the children" is really only the excuse. Surveillance and control is the real motivation
Also mostly correct. Now I don't think children should be on social media. Whether or not there's a government ban, I'll do my best to keep my kids off it. The spooks are taking advantage of "save the children" voters to advance their own agenda. If it's possible to satisfy the "save the children" crowd, without violating anyone's privacy, then the spooks lose their support.
The alternative is to sit around as age gates get thrown up and you have to upload your passport to do anything.
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