and one has a complete hardware solution?

I would have a totally different feeling - if I believed that the cops would 'do' anything. They have impressed me, and my five decades on this planet, at the lengths they will go to not do their job ( or flat out do the opposite if it fits their wants. )

That prof being one that curved everyone up to make their life easier by keeping everyone happy. Rather, we needed to learn the material and figure it out asap.

I learned from that class, I didn't know how to learn - and was totally confused, as I was a great student with great grades, etc. But that talk hit me hard, I realized that he was correct - and I needed to change.

That wake up call, nearly three decades ago, has since allowed me to learn novel tools, technologies, etc - where others struggle. I have benefited personally incredibly from knowing how to learn - many won't understand what I'm saying nor will they realize why it is important. Too often, my peers - other prof's will make an easy class/test/etc to make everyone happy and pass that buck forward (after all, admin is happiest when the customers are happiest). Are we really helping these students though?

I've been lucky to work with teams from Brazil, India, China, etc - these folks have been pushed in ways that would seem inhumane by the standards I'm reading in the comments. These folks are the ones that industry (and the individual for that matter) wants and will want, as they know what they are doing and are able to learn novel technologies as they emerge.

I tell my students the importance of learning how to learn, that their competition isn't in the room with them - it's thousands of miles away...They just want an 'A' for that six figure job that they have been promised. Indeed, whenever I hear that "six figure paycheck" my heart aches and I'm saddened that someone in advising/online/etc keeps pumping this idea out. In my opinion, a bit of discomfort in a synthetic environment like academia - for the possibility of a lifetime of ease now being taboo is beyond saddening.

The amount of cheating that I ( and my fellow professors ) have seen during these past few years has absolutely exploded (in a way that is beyond belief, and I've been doing this for a while).

The techniques others have outlined/alluded to ( camera off, a big life event just happened, looking off camera, noise, etc ) are all things that I've been seeing. And whilst this is nothing to be lauded, after all how many vectors are there, I do think that perhaps a solution is looking towards academics. (just saying...)

HR dept's are simply unable/ill-equipped to handle this new reality. Honestly, at larger org's this is really an upper management issue first and foremost, as HR dept's are sort of benefiting from these frauds. ( Before you go off on that last sentence, I did say 'sort of' - and I personally believe in 'you get what you incentivize'...so)

With that said, I do have concerns. These issues center around a shift in benefits offered as a result of this new paradigm ( hate using that word but ) around the nature of work. I.e. the gig everything economy coming to your job...soon

Many folks in the US work a 9to5 not just for the pay, rather for healthcare and stability. However, it's only a matter of time that employees will become even more API'ified / made into independent contracts / etc. I know that many will welcome the flexibility - some though will not understand what this means.

I do wonder how the US will be able to handle this continued move away from 'trad' employment, given our rather odd situation of one's medical being tied at the hip to one's employer? Those that work in other jurisdictions need not fear the loss of a job as much as a US citizen. Literally, you could die ( just look at how many of those that were made unemployed during the pandemic lost access to medical. )

Just my musings...

With that said, I too think that it would be a HUGE gain for all if ownership / control could be transferred. However, most people cannot properly control stuff they dearly care for, and could see this becoming a HUGE headache for the stores to manage after the sale.

Perhaps an after purchase website that you register your info and products ( maybe connecting said devices to your phone(s) or other BLE devices .) The big issue is, you're on the job - forgot your phone/etc...and can't drill a hole. Although, most people would be more likely to forget their shoes than their phone.

One day, I asked if they ever had performed a recovery off of the tapes, as I questioned if the tapes were even being written to. (NOTE: Backups was not my job at all. )

Why had I brought this up? I would be in the server room and never saw the blinky lights on the tape...well.. blink. Everyone literally laughed at me, thought was a grade A moron.

A year later, servers died... Pop'ed in the tape... Blank. No worries, they had thousands more of these tapes. Sadly, they were all MT. They had to ship hard drives to a recovery shop, and it was rather expensive.

I left shortly after this.