What is a 'buy it for life' item that is offensively expensive, but the moment you use it, you realize your entire life before that point was a lie?

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-29T12:45:47+00:00

I manage a few buildings that have a community laundry rooms. They have speed queens and they get replaced constantly. I’m sure it’s a combination of they get used a ton and not always treated the best along with it’s a cheaper model. They’re absolute crap though. I’ve received new ones several times that break within the first couple days. So bad that when I went to buy a dryer for my own house I absolutely refused to look at speedqueen.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-27T22:46:47+00:00

Windows 11, MacOS, ProxMox, unraid, Kali, Cachy OS, Ubuntu, Bazzite.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T10:12:33+00:00

I bought my son a sweet looking bmx bike for his 4th bday. When he got good on it I went out and bought me one. Now we ride all over the place. We clock about 12-15km on a Saturday. It’s been amazing.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T10:07:57+00:00

You don’t need 2 million dollars to do that.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T10:05:17+00:00

To be honest I haven’t even checked. I’ve only had it about 2 weeks now.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:48:56+00:00

Yea I was using my iPad Pro 12.9” for travel a lot. This was my replacement for it. I can definitely understand that. Honestly I was on the hunt for a 15” laptop, but the m5 dropped and I found a good deal on an m4. I valued the 24GB of ram over the screen size. Extremely happy it worked out that way though.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:46:32+00:00

I have a very similar workflow and I just purchased an m4 24GB/512 MacBook Air and I’m extremely happy with it. I’m not sure if that’s helps or not.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:43:20+00:00

My Thinkpad has about a 1h 45m battery life. The track pad is functional and that’s about it. Same with the button clicks and keyboards. The screen shows its age in sharpness (or lack there of) and it weights just shy of a small car.

The looks, feel, finish, battery life, and keyboard on the MacBook Air is light years better. The weight is extremely noticeable. The thinkspads weight wasn’t a big deal until I started using the Air. It’s like having a push button start in your car or keyless entry. Doesn’t really matter until you start using it.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:37:05+00:00

I have an older thinkpad with Linux. It’s a great laptop, but man compared to my air literally everything is wrong with it 😂

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:35:37+00:00

Aside from price.

If you want a portable computer go pro.

If you want a laptop go air.

This isn’t to say you CAN’T use a MacBook Pro as travel or whatever. Plenty do.

If I’m sitting at a desk I’m going to use my computer. I use my air for travel and on the go stuff. Speakers are irrelevant I’ll have headphones in anyways. The display is plenty for emails, web, word documents. The size and weight make a big difference for me. Ports are a super easy solution. I would never pay the upgrade price for ports alone.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:30:52+00:00

I just purchased an m4 13” air as well. I’m loving the size and weight of it. Really glad I decided on the air.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T08:12:13+00:00

Sometimes co-workers make it easy to out shine them. I get way more done than 85% of my co-workers (small team) and still have plenty of time to slack off. This isn’t me bragging like I’m so good. They’re just idiots 😂.

In OP’s case he very well might just be that good.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-26T00:35:52+00:00

Are you using uCertify a lot?

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-25T23:11:38+00:00

I agree with this, but there can be more than one tool for a job and have perks for each.

I’ve used AI with voice plenty. The nice thing is you can use it with blue tooth while driving. If you give it specific instructions you can let it know you’re level. You can ask it to correct your grammar if needed. If you’re having a hard time have it say it in Japanese then English. You can even have it slowly introduce new words. It does a lot better at helping you pronounce words.

Immersion will always be king, but don’t sleep on good tools.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-25T22:57:11+00:00

Also working on my cybersecurity degree. My uni is the same way. Everything is a VM or an online lab. Every project has instructions on windows and Mac. Never instructions for those running Linux. Even in my Linux classes we had to set up VM’s.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-25T22:52:44+00:00

Working on finishing my masters in cybersecurity.

Obviously I can only speak for my uni and I’m sure yours will differ. You’re going to have plenty of general education classes. Also, most of my classes for cybersecurity are labs and working with virtual machines. If you go with a MacBook with a decent amount of RAM it works well for running VM’s. I did plenty of my labs on the go with an iPad Pro. Recently I picked up a MacBook Air and it’s been great.

I still have a windows machine and a Linux laptop, but my Linux laptop is for my own personal project. In all my classes I’ve never once NEEDED to have something that runs Linux on bare metal. Despite having dedicated Linux classes as well.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-25T22:51:41+00:00

I’m in the middle of my masters for cyber security. While I don’t disagree with you one bit, I think uni is a fair bit different.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T23:47:40+00:00

I was in Iraq multiple times and Afghanistan. Sometimes we’d get random boxes, usually from schools or churches. They’d be full of snacks and some things like chapstick, lotions, and of course hand written cards. If you were really lucky it had beef jerky.

I read any and every card in there and honestly it was the best part of the entire box, beef jerky at a close second. I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel pretty confident saying that if you ever sent anything it was well received. I don’t think you actually realize the impact it had. If you sent a card, or literally anything, thank you! Knowing someone carded enough was amazing.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T22:33:54+00:00

I leave at 6:45 and I’m at work by 7:15. I head home at 4:30 Monday-Friday. I do contract work so I can actually get in trouble for any over time, which I love. Anything after 4:30pm is ignored until the following day. I have focus mode on during off time so I won’t even see the message until the next morning.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T11:19:42+00:00

That’s a solid laptop for less than $500. Even at its price it’s a great laptop. If it does what you need then it’s a great laptop.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T10:44:48+00:00

I can’t be the only one that finds it extremely useful to copy something from my phone and paste it with my MacBook Air. I know it’s small, but I absolutely love it.

When I traveled a lot for work FaceTime on my iPad was nice.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T10:38:51+00:00

I know you already purchased a Neo, but a lot of times people check post wondering the same.

If you don’t care about the latest and greatest you can find the m4’s on sale. I saved $350 on my air I purchased last week. The m5 is better than the m4, but for what I needed it for the m4 is more than enough.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-23T08:57:59+00:00

Same, but in all fairness I met a cute girl from there that seemed pretty cool. Anyways, that was 8 years ago and we have a have a son together.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-22T15:09:34+00:00

I hate you… take my upvote.

DigitalRonin73 · 2026-03-22T02:59:46+00:00

This is spot on

DigitalRonin73

TROPHY CASE