(This is the kind of retiring from IT tale that I love to read and follow the trials and tribulations of over the years - good luck, thanks for open-sourcing your work!)

Now however, if people are not even internalizing those fundamentals in order to even re-write things in their own words, using their own "mental model" (perhaps correct, sometimes not) - I fear they won't even develop "mental models" and abstractions...

I have had every type of computing device, including pre-smart phone PDA's, and ultimately when I need to do something that isn't mediated by an "app", I will always gravitate towards doing it on an actual computer.

Now - while I do prefer a laptop as my primary machine - it is essentially a desktop, as I typically use it 90% of the time attached to either a dock at home or the office, with external screens, keyboard and mouse.

(Heck - my latest machine only gets about 75m of battery life... it is more a luggable than a "work-at-the-beach" kind of machine (i9, lots of ram, etc.) - and I am perfectly happy with that arrangement)

In another place, far to the north, above the arctic tree line I heard so many stories and met so many indigenous people when braving the frigid temperatures to participate in smoke breaks.

So - while horrible for health, my "anecdata" does seem to indicate that it does help break down social barriers, remove my self-imposed "shyness" regarding talking to "strangers" and strengthens community and social bonds.

(Thankfully, outside of a 6-week period where a relative was in hospice care and I was up to a "pack a day", I was able to quit easily)

OTOH - I personally don't have enough room for real books, so everything I have is digital on a NAS. It's there, but "not the same".

Digitization reminds me of part of the plot of "Rainbow's End" (Vinge), where physical books get digitized, through a destructive process...

When it was just about the "love of technology" and the building of the skills involved, things were different...

But - with a person like POTUS - and those he surrounds himself with, they will throw every possible promise to get the votes - but, each of those issues are only part of their overall agenda and platform. When they got called-out on controversial issues, they outright lied about knowing about things like "Project 2025" during the last election cycle.

Choosing to live in ignorance - or abstaining from voting is accepting that agenda and platform, regardless.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/11/10/the-cinemax-theory-of...

"convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses."

Of course, he was "just joking" and it is a "humane alternative" to genocide...

These are the people shaping politics, tech and the economy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

(Naw - the CueCat was better, at least it was a generic barcode scanner)

So - of course, I swore I would not buy another Bambu. But, when looking at the various pricing and other aspects of competitors - about a month ago I did end-up buying an H2C with double-AMS and an HT - mainly to reduce filament waste, have a larger build volume, be able to use multi-materials for support "quickly" and have active chamber heating for more "engineering" type filaments. Don't believe the hype about the chamber filter though - I have found with ABS, you still need external exhaust or air filtering as even though the chamber "closes" and recycles via the filter, you still have the "poop chute" venting fumes...

... and of course... even if I wanted to switch to LAN-mode, unfortunately OrcaSlicer does not yet support the H2C... perhaps it never will unfortunately...