It’s a constantly moving target. Yeah, you might block everything today, but then a windows update comes along and, poof, a bunch of the data harvesting is back on. I hope you were checking the detailed patch notes every time an update installs!
Getting the real requirements nailed down from the start is critical, not just doing the work the customer asked for. Otherwise, you get 6 months into a project and realize you must scrap 90% of the completed work; the requirements from the get-go were bad. The customer never fundamentally understood the problem and you never bothered to ask. Everyone is mad and you lost a repeat customer.
AI mostly seems useful when you don’t know a specific concept and just need the base ideas. That said, given it’s often confidently wrong and doesn’t involve humans actively steering you toward better ideas, I still find Stack Overflow more helpful. Sometimes the answer to your problem is to stop doing what you are trying to do and attack the problem from a different angle.
In Germany, NL, you can just plug it into socket and it works somehow.
This is incredibly dangerous as it will feed power into the grid even when the grid is down. You might say ‘that is great!’, yeah, well, the line technicians who cannot work on damaged cables because you are energizing them think otherwise.
One of the reasons home solar grid-feeding systems are expensive in the US is they have extra equipment to disconnect the system from the grid if the grid goes down. Your house can still have local power, but you won’t be energizing powerlines technicians are trying to fix.
BYD is heavily subsidized by China. Tariffs to offset the Chinese subsidies are reasonable.
Apple still has it as Gulf of Mexico.
B&H is my online go-to, with Amazon as a backup. If you have a Micro Center near you, they are a great option as well.
Try out LibreOffice, been using it for years.