HiWire

Chris Rea - The Road to Hell

It doesn't help that some of the late-model Intel Macs were serious dogs... I looked at an ailing 2017 MacBook (rebooted itself over and over) and they seem to be notorious for logic board failures. The 2019 16" MacBook Pro had a self-destructing SSD interface that fried data... not the kind of quality you'd want for spending $4,000 (and the butterfly-switch keyboards had enough problems that I had to bring a few into service). AppleCare is a quandary - it's great if you can afford it, but it's so expensive that it's difficult to justify. The current lineup is great for performance and battery life and the Mac Mini is one of the few inexpensive products. I think the base M4 is enough power for the vast majority of users - just get enough memory and storage for your needs.

I have to agree. There are lots of things wrong with Apple (and not just from 2025), but when things are working, Macs can be brilliant. I've been contemplating the upcoming Window 10 shutdown with some trepidation - Microsoft gave users a lifeline with an extra year of support, using a Microsoft account (and their Backup cloud service), but that's a deal with the devil, where you hand them all your data. What could possibly go wrong? I spent nearly half an hour looking at Microsoft Edge browser settings and I think it is sending a ton of private data to Microsoft. Many of the settings are extremely disturbing - it is using some kind of AI to "help" write your text and "accelerate" your browsing. Clearing your cache and cookies won't work any more, from what I can tell - I think it is retaining more information elsewhere, both on your system and in the Microsoft cloud. Windows 11 has been getting more and more scary, with Microsoft ramming Copilot, OneDrive, Teams and other stuff users don't want into the operating system along with new terrifying bugs and increasing surveillance with every update. You can attempt to keep abreast of all the problems - PCWorld does a good job documenting the carnage: https://www.pcworld.com/windows/news Google just forced Gemini AI on Android users - you have to opt out if you don't want Gemini sending messages, initiating phone calls or setting timers on your behalf. They're also cutting battery power to the Pixel 6a phone battery. It's all sounding really dystopian. On the Linux side, things are slowly getting better. It's still an arcane system for non-nerds, but each year the mainstream distros get easier to install and run for newbies. I wouldn't recommend stepping into Linux for non-hobbyists - I've installed Ubuntu and it's been mostly OK but you still need to know what you're doing and avoid running a new update version for over half a year. I was able to find software equivalents for many popular Windows and macOS apps, but I think Linux evangelists are misguided when they claim that it's a suitable desktop system for mainstream users. Going back to Apple - it's apparent that they have a lot of strengths as a vertically-integrated company with a well-developed ecosystem, but the high price of their hardware and relatively small market share can cause problems for home and small business customers. The sad tale Pars posted above about the M4 Mac Mini could be a warning sign.

That's about as far as they can take these cars without becoming silhouette racers... you'll see different levels of extreme car building in the various classes of WTAC (a Porsche 968 has done really well). The cars have massive power and aero to achieve record times (RWD, AWD, FWD)... without the restrictions you seen in regular wheel-to-wheel GT racing. In Japan, Tsukuba's track is used for many Time Attack competitions and WTAC has been doing the same in Sydney for years (there was a lot of coverage on the website www.speedhunters.com). Classes: https://www.worldtimeattack.com/competitors 2024:

1973 Pontiac Trans Am for 2025 World Time Attack Challenge (in Sydney, Australia - September 5-6): Datsun 1600:

The Secret of Monkey Island Opening Theme Téir Abhaile Riú - Clannad, 1976 (I did not know Enya was part of their family)

4 Hours of Imola - race highlights (European Le Mans Series):

24 Hours of Spa - race highlights:

Decode Gen Z Slang: The Sound of F1: The Movie

Kid Charlemagne:

Mina's got da funk: Lizzie Skevington plays some Jimi:

Robert Palmer sings Marvin Gaye:

Toxic CEO: Replacing everyone with AI

The US island that speaks Elizabethan English

Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)