I have an earlier version of this (got it on sale from Costco, and it was the highest-rated model by Consumer Reports at the time); I love it. It’s not great for carpets, but it’s fast and easy for hardwood floors.

Would I have bought it if it needed to connect to my cell phone? Absofuckinglutely not. Not in a million fucking years. It could have been the best goddamn vacuum in the world at sucking, powered by a miniature black hole, sucking dirt to the event horizon, and I still would have passed.

I need LESS connectivity in my life, not more.

Windows 11 LTSC

I’m using Window 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC; the biggest issue I’ve had was that I couldn’t get my video card installed. I had to wait until there was an updated driver, a few weeks after I assembled my computer. Every time I tried to install the driver that was supposed to be the correct one, I got a BSOD.

Honestly, I like 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC better than I liked the 10 Pro version that I had. And–compared to the only Linux distro I’ve used, Tails–it’s fairly straightforward. And yes, I know the Tails is kind of a pain in the ass, and it’s not fair to judge all of Linux against that. But i’m old, and cranky, and just want Win 3.11 back.

Oh, no disagreements with dilators; they’re essential for e.g., women with vaginismus that want to have ‘normal’ sexual relationships.

Oh my god, it’s so bad.

“Soft tissue lengthens, relaxing muscles and ligaments. As the tissue relaxes, the Neodymium magnets increase blood flow to the area calming nerves and promote relaxation. VuVa™ are the only patented sets available with Neodymium magnets.”

“Magnetic Therapy is based on the premise that all living organisms exist in a magnetic field, including the human body. The human body generates its own magnetic field. Therefore, the body can heal itself when electromagnetic energy is in balance.”

It’s like those stupid magnet bracelets and elbow wraps, only for your vagina. It’s all woo.

It sounds like potential guards have to have combat experience or significant police experience. So it’s probably not something the average person is going to be able to do.

OTOH, a single bodyguard mercing their protectee would nuke the whole company, which would be pretty funny.

…Or one of the guards has a family member kidnapped and held unless they oopsie, looked the wrong way.

I don’t know if this will actually pan out the way that they imply in the title; armor needs to have a lot of different characteristics in order to be practical. As in, resistance to heat and cold, resistance to acids, alkalines, petroleum distillates, salts, UV, and oxygen, and also resist deformation. Multiple materials have displays significant promise for armor, but had a very short lifespan in real-word conditions. For instance, there was a material trademarked as Zylon that was supposed to be better than Kevlar, and it was used extensively by Second Chance (a body armor company); several cops were killed when their armor failed, and the armor failed because of exposure to sweat and ambient heat.

Yeah, this is a super cool development, but remember that everything that comes out at this stage is hype.

I quit flying (domestically, at least) over the x-rays and TSA bullshit. I’m driving 13 hours today in order to avoid that particular security theater.