I presume you are referring to the SuperFish scandal in 2015.

First, you have to define “comparable”. These are Enterprise-grade laptops. Their class includes the Dell Latitude and HP Elitebook. It doesn’t include anything you will ever find at Best Buy. It might be tempting to do so, since your visible specs like CPU and RAM are the same. But they really aren’t the same.

Within their class, Lenovo has (for over a decade) been noticeably more expensive than their counterparts. Roughly $100-150 more per unit for the T4x0/T14 vs a Latitude 74x0 (now Dell Pro) or an Elitebook 840.

Current prices are: HP Elitebook 8 G1i 14 - Core Ultra 5 236v, 16GB/512GB, $1249

Dell Pro 14 - Core Ultra 5 236v, 16GB/512GB, $1659

Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 6 - Core Ultra 235u, 16GB/512GB, $1809.

All have integrated graphics.

I don’t think the detailed specs/pricing for Gen7 (what the article is about) has been announced yet. I would expect it to be in line with previous generations, since their 9/10 repairability score was.

Now is probably a good time to remember what a VPN can and cannot do. It can block your ISP from knowing which sites you’re going to. It can bypass ISP-level blocks, including geo-blocks.

It cannot stop the endpoints (WhatsApp, both the client and server) from harvesting whatever data they want from there.

Meta is clearly concerned about bans on WhatsApp. This is nothing more than their own self-interests.

In the US, most protection comes from the breaker. It’s not common (or at least, not standard) to have overcurrent protection on extension cords, power strips, or even the outlet itself. And for typical wiring and uses, it usually works well enough. But it is possible to connect a space heater or hairdryer (1500w and 1800w respectively, due to the 80% rule for continuous draw) to that standard 16-gauge extension cord, or connect multiple space heaters to one circuit. Some homes are wired… Creatively… Making it easy to do. In these cases, you’re relying on the 15-amp breaker to trip, which would happen quickly. Not quite as quick, but still happens on a 20-amp. But it might melt a 15-amp receptacle first

If it’s a 30-amp circuit, it won’t trip at all, unless the outlet melts to a short. And this is all assuming the wiring in the wall is rated for that amperage, which is implied but not stated. There are certainly a number of stories where someone upgraded the breaker to keep it from tripping, but didn’t upgrade the wiring.

If we assume he’s talking about the wiring in the wall, this gets very simple. I once lived in a place where the upstairs bedroom and downstairs living room were on the same circuit. I currently live somewhere where a single circuit controls ALL of the bathroom outlets (multiple bathrooms), the garage, as well as outside outlets. Apparently GFCI outlets were more expensive than the entire mess of running copper all over the place.

This is highly dependent on what your needs are and how you plan to solve it. SATA-3 maxes at 6gbit, which SAS-2 had in 2009. Most cards are x8, and have at least 4 full speed SAS lanes (of whatever generation). That means 24 Gbit. PCIe x8 2.0 (from 2007) had 4 GB (32 Gbit). So if that meets your needs, you can run it on an ancient board.

However, if you need something more advanced, such as SAS-3, a SAS expander, or a card with more native lanes, then you would need to plan accordingly.

I’ve been running on an LSI 9211-4i4e, which is only a PCIe 2.0 card, for many years. I did notice my speeds dropped when I expanded the 4e to a 15-bay DAS (plus the 4 internal SATA drives), but it’s still enough to meet my needs.

It’s not really about 24/7, but it is about quality of components. Enterprise gear is made using slightly better parts and tighter tolerances. Things like more expensive capacitors rated for more hours/cycles, better power filters, things like that.

The end result (and this is easily verified) is the failure rate is much, much lower than comparable consumer-grade equipment.

There is sometimes a blurry line between what counts as enterprise vs pro-sumer vs consumer gear, though.

If you can use SAS (you’ll need a SAS PCIe card, roughly $50 used), get SAS drives. They are enterprise-grade exclusively, there is a massive supply of used drives as servers get refreshed, and a very limited secondhand market because most people can’t use SAS drives.

You won’t get the latest or largest drives, but you’ll get something that works perfectly fine for home use.

I recommend against Go Hard Drives. They get drives that previously failed but currently test ok, then wipe the SMART data. I had a whopping 133% failure rate (all 3 original, plus 1 replacement) before I returned the whole thing.

If you insist on using them, do the most extensive burn-in testing you possibly can. I would use at least a full week, to make sure it’s actually (semi-) reliable.

Given how everyone involved reacts to power dynamics, I’m certain a bunch of them would be thrilled to tell people they procured some “long pig”, and countless others would love a taste of it.

At the same time, I know how deep the grift goes, and I’m sure the providers would happily use raccoon meat instead.

Those packets are shelf-stable. It probably came from a pizza place, where there’s a bin on the counter (along with red pepper flakes) to grab if you want some on your take out order.