I’ve also worked in state government. I am both surprised and not surprised to hear this.

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By what definition of middle class are you considering $250,000 to be middle class? That’s greater than the 90th percentile income.

I’ll also say fuck Asurion. They seemingly bricked my phone during a routine repair. Obviously they came up with a flimsy excuse for why it wasn’t their fault, but regardless I ended up walking out with a paperweight instead of a screen damaged but otherwise fully functional device. Would’ve been better off not seeking their service.

Yep, I bought a Brother laser printer for $120 a few years ago. I don’t use it super often, but it’s been reliable and easy to use whenever I need it. I’ve never had to replace the toner. It just works.

Incredible. What’s the context for when this was offered as advice?

It’s google that’s gotten worse. It’s harder to find specific or niche information nowadays because Google doesn’t respect search operators and will instead show you the results for more common searches. That might be fine if you’re looking for general information, but it means that looking up specific facts (part numbers, error messages, etc.) they will drown you in SEO-optomized vague garbage results.

I’d also love some alternatives to use for troubleshooting. I just want to find the niche forum posts where people are discussing my specific issue!

There are five lights!

Yup, you can also do some messing around with linein input on Winamp/Milkdrop to make it work right, but depending on the specific hardware setup it can be a pain. (It worked great from my aux speakers and totally broke when I tried to route the audio output through my TV/HDMI. This is a solvable problem, but annoying.)

There’s nothing I do on my current phone that I couldn’t do on a phone ten years ago, technologically speaking. When I upgraded my phone recently, it was solely because of battery deterioration and because the previous model was out of service for security updates. I don’t think I’m alone here.

I literally bought an iFixIt kit to open my phone up (for a screen replace rather than a battery swap, but still) and could not get it open after an hour+ of trying. I’d definitely believe it’s because I’m inexperienced in modern phone repair, but I’m not a generally unsavvy person. I build computers and mess around with tech as a hobbyist. I had to take it to a shop and return the kit. It’s definitely not an easy process for some devices.

I didn’t see your response before posting my own, but same, bud. I’m in the process of quitting again and it hasn’t been easy.

Nicotine. 25 days without and I keep dreaming about smoking. I’ve quit for longer before and the cravings never seem to go away.

IDK, I don’t feel like I had to say that much to get in with my alt. I just wrote about how I liked having some more heavily moderated spaces to discuss sensitive topics. I even mentioned that I planned to maintain an alt to access less moderated spaces, just that I also intended to respect the culture and the vibe of Beehaw when interacting there.

Eh, I have accounts on both instances. I’ve appreciated the active moderation on some Beehaw communities - I’d rather discuss LGBTQ issues on Beehaw than other instances, for example. But I also like to see more content elsewhere, so I’ve got my Lemmy.world account too. It’s pretty easy to account hop when using an app. It’s reminds me of being a member of multiple hobbyist forums, in a way.