I recently had the realization that I’ve just been putting up with Windows bullshit forever recently when a friend asked me for help with their work PC. They’re a Mac user, but they just started working from home and have been provided a Windows laptop. They sent me a bunch of rushed texts when their headset stopped working. They changed the default audio device after they launched the program. Which never works on a Windows PC. I never have that problem because I have just learned to live with it, I don’t even think about it anymore.

Now I’m really starting to notice all the little things I put up with from Windows on my machine. To be fair my Linux machine is just as janky but at least I can say I made it that way. I keep telling myself to ‘tidy’ my Linux machine up but I never do, it still plays games just fine. Usually. If I didn’t fuck with it.

Depends on where you were in the 80s and 90s. If you were in America, the future EU, or Eastern Asia, for example, those were great times. If you were in Rwanda, Bosnia, or Afghanistan (The Soviet-Afgan war) I doubt many people call that peak humanity.

Yeah you already do. I’m assuming that you’re in a public highschool. This advice becomes bad advice when there is any money on “the table”. NEVER do this at a university, private, chartered school, and absolutely NEVER do this to the person who will be giving you a paycheck.

I’ll repeat this to be clear to everyone reading this. Do not do anything on a computer or network someone else owns that they don’t allow when money you have, or money you could have gotten could be taken away.

When I said break the system I didn’t mean become so smart at computers that you can just walk past any barrier in any code. That’s impossible. Breaking the system means learning to understand the people who enforce it and working with them to get yourself around it. It means talking to the IT person, getting them to like you, then getting them to show you how to get around a firewall or tunnel out of a network or at least letting you try without getting into huge trouble.

This is the best answer. You didn’t go charging through their system with complete disregard. You made the IT staff like you first, then broke through their system. That’s social engineering at it finest here people, and is the first skill any great hacker needs to learn. Please do good with this skill.

Please read Charger8283’s reply. It’s the best one. You’re thinking small, how do I break out of their system, that will only land you in trouble. You should think big like how Charger8283 thought and break the system altogether.

If you first find vulnerabilities and report them to your school, later when you find another one you don’t tell them about it until they ask. Keep it a secret and use it for a while. Just pretend like you weren’t ready to tell them because you didn’t understand it yet.

Sometimes it pays off to play nice and stupid.

If that wasn’t a scripted ad, you should go into sales.

Alternatively they may release certain models at inflated prices to test the waters with increased pricing

I didn’t think about that. Makes me wonder if that will be their plan for the 9800 X3D.

Good plan A.

For a plan B, If your parents don’t understand why privacy is important on the internet they probably won’t understand why the echos in your room don’t seem to work. Say it’s wifi can’t reach the router, bend the cable so many times the wires break, “accidentally” become super clumsy with it and knock it over a bunch. This is absolutely a first world problem, it requires a first world solution.

You forgot your /s.

I think you’re overthinking it. I used to go into the US often for business and I have never had any of my electronic devices searched. The best advice is to leave your phone at home and buy a cheaper pre-paid travel phone. Not because of privacy but what if it’s lost, stolen, or confiscated? It’s no big deal losing a burner phone.