Wow, I might be old, I guess language changes. Crackers used to be for hackers that focus in bypassing security, like in “code crackers”. It seems it is still used for gaming scenes that reverse engineer DRM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warez_groups - and the colour of the hat, just how they used their skills.
There was some drama about FUTO here a few days ago, on the sense they were promoting fascism and using Rossmann credentials to validate it.
If I am not mistaken, this is one of the articles shared. https://drewdevault.com/2025/10/22/2025-10-22-Whats-up-with-FUTO.html
I think the user before mistook FULU with FUTO. Not sure. I cannot see any redflags on the FULU website, they do not see to be the same people. https://fulu.org/our-team
Start with building a very cheap computer with your kid.
You can buy parts for cheap or sometimes get them for free from e-waste processing places. You can do the screws to the case, but let the kid put the parts in place while you explain what they do.
Parts are easy to handle, just make sure to not damage the components as they look cute and are a bit malleable, but put too much pressure you can destroy it (not sure a kid will be strong enough for that).
It is as easy as building Lego, or putting a cartridge on an old console. This will help to make the computer less scary.
Make sure that you can do it yourself and test the parts first before involving your kid, so they do not get too frustrated if it fails.
This will cover hardware.
You can also help them to install the OS.
After, make a list of the programs you want your kid to be aware of: calculator, place to write text, anything you think it will be useful. Take some time to explain them, and do some exercises with each - let’s write a letter to a friend, etc… Let them play around with it without judgment. (remove things you don’t want them to use).
If you want to give the child some background in how software works, Logo was very popular with kids at the school.
Logo is this little turtle that you give orders, similar to imperative programming language used in most softwares.
Change colour to green, walk forward 50 steps.
And the turtle would draw a green line on the screen.
There are plenty of options for software that provides that, here is an option https://apps.kde.org/kturtle/
And, of course, try to break these in multiple days, building a PC, installing OS and playing with programs can be overwhelming for some kids.
Wasn’t there an experiment of farting in a lab and contamination of petri dishes?
Something in the lines that at least wearing one layer (underwear) is enough to prevent contamination.
Wow, there are plenty of studies, this is the funnies one I found:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1121900/
“Our deduction is that the enteric zone in the second Petri dish was caused by the flatus itself, and the splatter ring around that was caused by the sheer velocity of the fart, which blew skin bacteria from the cheeks and blasted it onto the dish. It seems, therefore, that flatus can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if he or she is clothed. But the results of the experiment should not be considered alarming, because neither type of bacterium is harmful. In fact, they’re similar to the ‘friendly’ bacteria found in yoghurt."
Back in the day I played on windows, most software companies troubleshoots and M$ MPVs recommendations were:
Since I had to reinstall windows a lot, I set my user folder & friends in another drive during installation. This gif is just about the steps to get it done.
I recently started learning rust, and one of the things I liked was the quick build times after small changes. I did not know how bad it can get until I read this article, but I haven’t tried anything besides terminal applications so far.
While I used some workarounds from my baggage using C/C++ it is nice to know other techniques people use with Rust, and it is nice to learn about Rust profiling tools as well.
Thanks for sharing, it is a very insightful article.
I think mouse and keyboard only works properly in Desktop mode. Not sure if intended or a bug.
My suggestion is to open a support ticket with Valve/Steam. They might help you troubleshoot it, but most likely they will escalate the problem to their dev team as a feature request / bug report.
I second this if he can find a 2013~2017 for free/cheaper, I use an old Macbook Air with EndeavourOS mostly for writing, but my use case is not that far from OP’s, it also runs some old games.
It is light and portable, and it is just as easy to find a refurbished option as the Thinkpad (at least in NA).
My only problems are with the drivers(the Wi-FI and the FacetimeHD camera) and the charging cable.
I tried a bunch of distros, but only with EndeavourOS I got them to work easily.
That said, if OP prefers better Linux support, and better cost x performance. He will be better suited with a Thinkpad T or X (T480/T490 or X280) refurbished will be in the price range.
X280 is barely above 1Kg, with a smaller screen.
T480 is chunkier, bigger screen and Ethernet port.
M1 mac is still problematic with Linux, with only Asahi offering limited support, and you cannot find one at OP’s price point.
No, I don’t think I ever seem one for under 700 USD, despite some “news” saying you could find at 500 USD.
Every time people ask for cheap computers, there is always people sharing their preferences without any regard for OP’s listed needs.
Oh, I did not know that. Thanks for explaining it.
I thought MS Sam was an accessibility feature, that you can enable and disable text-to-speech. Did they use that for NPCs voice-overs?
In this video, doesn’t Taliesin Jaffe misses the table, and they laugh at him?
op adding subliminal layers to the meme. 😅