mytdave

I'm not installing any contact tracing app. No thanks. If they do something stupid and bake it into the OS, I'm switching back to a flip phone.

I have to take just one exception with your MacBook Air recommendation. Get RAM instead of more storage space. Neither internal RAM nor storage can be upgraded later, but it is possible to add external storage, while it is impossible to add more RAM. Always, always get the maximum RAM for all Apple products that don't have RAM slots.

People have got to get this idea of a standard connector on the end of a cable out of their heads. It's so damn myopic.

If a standard is ever agreed upon, put the standard connector on the *power brick* only (like Apple already does with USB-A) so all companies can continue to innovate with their devices. The only thing companies would have to do is include a "whatever our device connector is" to "standard" charging cable. Done. Easy. No problems for anyone. Innovation can continue, and we save on a crap-ton of e-waste by not shipping zillions of different types of power bricks. (Apple, BTW, you don't need to include a power adapter with every iPhone anymore, we ALL already have one, or two, or three, or ...).

Would that leave some waste in adapter cables? Sure, but that pales in comparison to billions of wasted power bricks with stupid, insanely stupid, permanently attached cables on them. Would the standard power connector have to be set in stone forever? No. A better connector will eventually evolve, and then the standard can be changed/updated.

Something like USB-C should be perfectly fine for a 100w or less *power delivery* connection standard for a good 20-30 years. It's taken that long to develop the new USB-C universal connector anyway (USB-A was the previous defacto-standard), so make it the standard power connector for a while and we can save on a couple of decades of excess e-waste. Update the standard when a new, significantly better one comes along. Leave companies alone so they can continue to innovate with the connectors on their *devices*.

And if you keep electing these idiots, you'll keep getting more and more of this crap. Another day with the grievance industry. Extending credit (particularly credit cards) is based on individual credit profiles (score, history, employment, ability to pay). Simple as that.