Costco checkout lines before Thanksgiving.

Because it’s working exactly as intended.

No need to change what isn’t broken.

/s but still sadly true

Shut the fuck up, Donny.

Accept and move on. Those that want to use it will. Others won’t. Cost isn’t everything.

In times of old, giant cell phones and lengthy, expressive saxophone interludes it was all anyone ever needed. It even came with a carrying strap for added convenience. Where’s that attention to detail now?

Megadeth - Take No Prisoners

Yeah, factories have set schedules for cleaning and maintenance, and the HMIs just fall right in with everything else. The big thing is that all the modern stuff is computer controlled and usually remotely managed.

So, a worker would either enter an order on a computer and “print” to a line from there, or a central control room manages those jobs, or sometimes there might be a few different barcodes and a scan gun to select an entry from things posted on the wall or a book. Either way, the complexity doesn’t exist at the actual machine.

The worker then goes to the machine’s HMI, validates everything is ready and the order loaded, and hits start. Once done, the machine finishes and a report is logged.

Literally wash and rinse, if needed, and repeat!

Factories that are concerned with cleanliness and contamination concerns don’t allow compute devices to traverse onto the production floor and back, in my experience. You don’t see any traditional desktops or laptops there, nor mobile devices — even personal ones — or even ToughBooks as they’re not allowed. It just comes down to sanitation concerns and risk to the plant and product(s) being produced.

Very clean. All the touchscreens are IP67 or better and can be wiped, washed, and sanitized very easily and repeatedly with minimal training. Ours are even pressure washed alongside the rest of the equipment during routine cleaning and maintenance.

Keyboards are more difficult to keep clean, have plastic bits that don’t show up on a safety metal detector on the line, and just in general aren’t needed when the only functions the operator really needs are start and stop.

Pretty common for HMIs in a factory, in my experience. Keyboards are dirty and difficult to keep clean.

I switched years ago to using Nellie’s Laundry Soda and it’s been great for us. Significantly cheaper per load, cleans well, doesn’t overpower you with fragrance, doesn’t gunk up the soap tray in the washer with the slimy residue, and is easily vacuumed up if it spills.

It’s like $90 for an 800-load bucket that weighs 26.5 lbs (12 kg) from Costco. You use 1 Tbsp (15 mL) of powder per normal load, and 2 if it’s a large or really dirty load. I almost always just use 1 and never had an issue.

Our last bucket lasted almost 2.5 years, and we are a larger family with a lot of laundry. Bought our current bucket last November, so should be good until like February 2028. I have a small plastic container on the washer and then refill it from the big bucket once every couple months.

Pair the soda with OxyClean and it works wonders.

Also stopped using fabric softener entirely and found out it’s really not needed. Dryer sheets work well if you need something; no need for liquids.

Finally, I have rediscovered how awesome bleach can be for laundry, and it is also very inexpensive, so definitely recommend looking into that, too.

EDIT: One more thing— always do your wash cycle on at least warm for virtually everything you wash. Regardless of what soap you use, liquid or powder, it’s not as effective in sudsing and such in cold water as it is warmer. I’ve noticed better results using warm for all my colors and then hot for whites, towels, and the like. Cold is only for specific scenarios or garments. In my experience, ink bleeding really isn’t a thing anymore unless you’re making your own tie-dye shirts or something, which was the justification for using cold for colors back in the day.

Wu-Tang Clan - Method Man

Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill

Metallica - Battery

Rotflmfao, even

I’ve been using Duolingo to learn a language for a few years now, enjoy it, and feel that I continue to progress. I know there are other apps out there as well but I don’t have any experience with them. Duo does have a gamification component to it — some of which you can disable, but not all — and there is a cost if you choose to subscribe.

For me, though, I’m likely going to need to immerse myself and/or take a few formal classes to get better at conversational speaking as I keep learning. Not many folks around me learning German. The app does help practice conversations and give tips, which is nice, but using a language in real life with another person is more effective for me.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Culver’s is the best, in my opinion. Five Guys is also very good but is spendy. Finally, Wendy’s makes excellent burgers as well.

Didn’t say it wasn’t bootable, but built incorrectly. In this case, using dd. I’ve seen the same results even using the official USB creation tool from Microsoft, but for whatever reason, Rufus always works. I’d just suggest building the media a different way without using dd.

The other thing you can do, since it sounds like you can still boot into Windows on his PC, is to use the Reset This PC process. That will download the media, nuke the drive and delete all the user data (you can choose to keep it also), and reinstall Windows to an out-of-box state.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t let you leverage the Rufus tools that will automatically turn off system requirements, or create a local user, at USB creation time. Offers way more than using just straight dd.

Example from another site’s article:

Usually for #3 that means the USB is built incorrectly. If you create the ISO with Rufus, it will work, and you can get around #1 and #4 that way as well.

Win11, as far as installs go, is pretty much exactly what Win10 was.

Maybe finds a few you like and make a playlist, then just watch those specific ones? Something that you can mentally focus on when in bed with your eyes closed, but also something that’s not competing to hold your visual attention as well as no giant volume swings for your audio attention. Don’t want to fall asleep to quiet dialog only to be woken by the shootout in the next scene, or fall asleep to a mellow ballad and awoken by a rock track, for example.

Edited to add: around getting bored with it— I have changed what I listen or watch every few years, but it’s a very slow ramp up of new and ramp down of old. Something your brain recognizes and likes, but isn’t trying to stay awake to read the next page or see the next episode or upcoming challenge or whatever.

Train yourself. Pavlov’s sleep. Every time you go to bed, watch/listen to the same thing. Eventually, your brain associate the thing with “time to sleep”. That’s how it works for me, anyway. I turn on the same movie and pass out in minutes. Don’t do it with one of your favorites, though.

And also, don’t do things like lay in bed watching TV or messing with your phone all the time. You want the bed to be mostly mentally associated with sleep

Dave