To clarify; I have a 100W Ugreen Nexode 4 Port USB Charger that I use to charge my laptop (~60W), Steam Deck (~40W), iPhone (~20W) and AirPods (~5?W).

The problem is if my original product cable has gone walkabout temporarily and I need to use a random one to stand in - there is no clear way of telling if I’m accidentally using a 5W-max cheap cable to try and keep my laptop charged while working.

Obviously there are some context clues depending on cable thickness etc., but with how common cosmetic braiding is becoming a thing - even that’s getting harder to rely on.

Yes, you can. The charger and the device communicate between one another what they can support, and pick the highest one they both agree on.

E.G. my laptop charger can charge at full speed (100W) for my MacBook, but only at 20W for my iPhone.

That bit is pretty straightforward and transparent to end users (there are a few rare conditions where devices might not agree on the fastest, and have to fall back to a slower one); the issue is more with cables not having sufficient gauge wire, or missing connections that prevent the charger and device from communicating their full functionality.

It’s been more of a pain in the arse than initially expected.

Most motherboards (for example) only have 2-4 USB-C ports, meaning that I still need to employ A-C and C-C cables for peripherals etc.

My main gripe is that the standard just tries to do too many things without clear delineation/markings:

1. Is it a USB 2.0 (480Mbit), 5Gbit, 10Gbit or 20Gbit cable? Can’t really tell from the plug alone.

2. More importantly, for charging devices: How the heck do I determine maximum wattage I can run?

For all its faults, at least the blue colour of a USB-3.0 plug (or additional connectors for B/Micro) made it easy to differentiate !

Now I’m eyeing up a USB Cable tester just to validate and catalogue my growing collection! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Contraceptives aren’t 100% effective, not all sexual partners are willing to use them regularly, rapes can and do happen, and most importantly - bodily autonomy is something that should be respected.

Ultimately, what happens between consenting adults should be solely up to them - and not some puritanical directive from a Big Brother-style Government.

That’s how you know what Freedom^TM tastes like!

Israel attacked Iran, because Iran launched a missile rocket volley at them, because Israel was attacking Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon (Hezbollah), because Hezbollah was firing rockets into north Israeli settlements, because Israel was decimating the Gaza Strip, because Hamas launched an attack last October, because Israel… because Hamas… because… because… because…

In the end, this ‘an eye for an eye’ will leave the world blind.

That’s deflation, and is actually really bad for society and the economy overall.

Honestly, more workers need to unionise and restore wages to where they should be (pegging back to rates in the 80s - 90s), minimum wage should be closer $25/hr.

If real wages continue to rise higher than CPI for blue/white collar workers, rather than the capital class - things would be a lot better overall.

They really shouldn’t; simply because we can’t trust Israel to be a rational actor in the region and not perform a “pre-emptive” strike.

Voting is simply putting a word in for a candidate to fill in a subordinate role to your company’s HR department.

You won’t always get the one you pick, so it’s your responsibility to put forward the best candidate (primaries), vouch for them (voting), and keep them accountable to their KPIs (individual lobbying).

ETA: Remember, you’re basically looking to hire someone to look after you, your family, your friends and your community for the next n years; it also takes a lot longer to fix something, than it did to break it initially, and fixed things still wear the scars of the past.

…or it’s available on the service you subscribe to, but not in your region.

I doing think it was an one thing, but more-so a build-up over time - a death of a thousand cuts, if you will:

It was a cultural moment generally, just think back to all of those celebrity commercials (“I’m Mr. T and I’m a Night Elf Mohawk”). All cultural moments pass eventually.

The third expansion (Cataclysm) was quite weak to begin with; coupled with a lack of content in the tail-end of the second (Wrath of the Lich King), which itself was incredible - narratively wrapped up the story that began all the way back in Warcraft 3.

So a lot of people chose that time to bow out of the game, as it required a fair bit of time dedication and seemed like an appropriate time to do so - given the narrative pay-off.

Lastly, the introduction of a number of game tools to automate the group composition process meant that the impact of player reputation on servers was severely diminished. Before then, there players who were toxic (stealing items, intentionally killing the group, failing quests) were infamous on a server.

Once this tool was further opened up to allow for groups to form across multiple servers - the sense of community was shattered as you would have no way to know if the person from another server was good/bad etc. it stopped being about bringing in the individual player, and just getting a body in to fill a role.

As someone who was lucky enough to get to experience those first ~6 years; it truly was lightning in a bottle.

20 years on, I am still friends with a number of those I met in WOW - and an in contact with a few more beyond that!

Unfortunately, it does feel like that sense of community those early years fostered are long gone, save perhaps a blip when Classic first launched.

Who knows when the next game will come along, which will be able to foster such relationships.

If it’s within your budget, grab a Steam Deck and use it in docked Desktop mode. It’s a pretty great introduction into Linux IMO, especially due to the fact that Valve themselves are maintaining the OS, and since it’s running on a fixed hardware platform - most online solutions should be applicable to any problems you may encounter.

Worst case, you don’t like it you can always eBay it off to recoup most of your costs?

IMO: Pirate it guilt-free without a second thought. If you enjoy it, and deem it worthy of a rewatch - then buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.

Then rip a quality copy of it, and delete the previously downloaded one.

I imagine it would be a HIPAA violation for hospitals to release these details; you only hear about the ones that the individual families decide to make public by speaking to journalists…

…so it’s even worse/more common than you think.

Whelp, never comment again - because you aren’t going to be able to outdo yourself after this Masterpiece. 👌🏼

It’s not a stupid decision, but a stubborn one.

I’m 100% OK with that; Apple is heavy on design aesthetics. If a user doesn’t like that, they can just use their own preferred mouse - wired or otherwise.

In order: Soy, Coconut, Almond, Macadamia.

Almond uses way too much water to be environmentally sustainable, and macadamia just has a weird after-taste that I don’t like.

Soy has a bit of a bad reputation (unfairly so, due to bad ‘bro science’); but I quite like the taste and it has a pretty low emissions/water footprint comparatively.

With the current attrition rate of Russian forces, these 3K troops will likely be expended in ~2.3 days…