I have been enjoying building a CD and vinyl collection recently. IMO there is no better listening experience than putting a disc on a reasonably high end sound system, and sitting down with the liner notes and reading about what you are hearing. No screens, just music. It’s really quite something these days.
My 2 year old son is also enjoying this process. There is something magical about him asking to “see” the music, and getting excited about the album art. Some of his music requests are based on the album art — usually ones that actually depict the musicians.
I have almost a spiritual experience when I go to vinyl record shop around the globe, it is a rare moment where I feel present and don't feel the time passing by. I also like to connect with people looking around for records and to know their background. Apps can't replace any of that.
Highly recommended. We got a 4K Blu-ray player recently, and I've been accumulating Blu-rays and 4Ks. You can often find kids movies for $2-5 used. Given that the same movies are as much as $20 to "purchase" on digital, and given how many times kids want to rewatch movies, it's a clear win.
Replacing a CPU means replacing a motherboard - this is mostly true for desktops too. And by the time you’re ready for a new CPU there is almost certainly a new type of RAM to get.
Understood - a new mainboard on the Framework website is around $700, which I still prefer to a new laptop.
I'd be willing to pay more over time to have better hardware over my laptop's life. Meaning, I'd rather pay ~$3200 over 10 years for a Framework + 2 mainboard upgrades + a RAM upgrade vs ~$2000 for a laptop that slowly gets worse over the same time period.
At least with desktop you sometimes get a CPU upgrade path.
For example, with Socket 939, I started with an Athlon 64 3000+, and upgraded later to an X2 4200+.
With Socket AM4, I skipped the first generation, got a Ryzen 2700X, then skipped the next generation, and then got a Ryzen 5900X! (But a solid 4 generations on the same socket!)
What is baffling about it? It makes sense to me. A normal cell will kill itself if asked to, a cancerous cell will refuse. On some level you could interpret this as, the cancer prioritizing its own survival over the survival of the organism. Obviously the cells aren't conscious, but the analogy seems clear to me.
I think a lot of families actually restrict or eliminate screen time altogether, and gather round using either no technology, old technology, or new technology that imitates old technology, e.g. Yoto. There is value found in reducing our technology use. Some people may want to avoid AI on ethical grounds, or may be cautious about the cognitive effects of its use.
I convinced my wife to start using a password manager, too (Bitwarden). Now she stores all of her very guessable, short, similar passwords in a manager. Sigh.
My 2 year old son is also enjoying this process. There is something magical about him asking to “see” the music, and getting excited about the album art. Some of his music requests are based on the album art — usually ones that actually depict the musicians.
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