Finally gave the Anker 737 Power Bank a real test after sticking with RavPower for years

I always bought RavPower packs because they were cheap, but the 737's 140W output actually charged my work laptop from 10% to full in under an hour. The RavPower unit I had would barely keep it from dying. Has anyone else made a jump to a high-wattage power bank that actually worked as advertised?

My sourdough starter took three weeks to get going this winter

I keep my kitchen pretty cool, around 65 degrees, and my usual rye starter just would not bubble. I tried feeding it twice a day, moving it near the oven, everything. Finally, after almost a month, I switched to whole wheat flour and kept it wrapped in a towel, and it finally took off. Anyone else have to change their starter routine when the weather gets cold?

Heard a guy at the coffee shop say email marketing is dead, so I looked it up.

Turns out his company was just sending boring, samey emails once a month. I read a case study where a small shop in Portland tripled their open rate by sending funny, useful stories instead of just sales stuff. Anyone else find that personal tone makes a huge difference?

Warning: a demo at the Austin library made me rethink how I talk to my computer

I was at a public tech demo in Austin last month, just killing time. They had this new voice AI that could follow a whole string of commands at once, like 'open my email, find the message from Sarah, and read me the last paragraph'. I always used to give one order at a time and wait. The guy running it said it's called 'chain-of-thought prompting' and the model can handle up to 5 steps in one go. It felt weird to just talk in a full sentence like that, but it worked. Has anyone else tried giving their assistant a multi-step job like that?

My grocery bill used to be a horror show every week

I'd just grab whatever looked good and end up spending like $150 for just me. Then my friend showed me her spreadsheet where she plans meals and shops the sales at Kroger. I started doing that two months ago, and last week I got everything for $75. Has anyone else had a win like that from just planning ahead?

Was at the local con in Akron and saw a huge line for a variant cover artist, but the indie artist alley was empty. Feels like we're missing the point sometimes.

Had a real argument with my brother about the 2020 election audit in Maricopa County

He's convinced the whole recount was a cover-up and the machines were rigged from the start. I think the official results were right and the audit just proved it again. We went back and forth for an hour over pizza last night. What's your take on the whole Arizona audit thing?

Saw a deepfake of my local weather guy doing stand-up comedy at the mall

Honestly, I was at the Springfield Mall food court last week and this screen had a video of our local Channel 8 weather guy, Mike, doing a full comedy set. It was his face, his voice, everything, but the jokes were wild. I stood there for like 5 minutes before I realized the lips were a bit off and the background was just a green screen. Ngl, it messed with my head a bit because I trust that guy to tell me if it's gonna rain. Has anyone else seen a deepfake of someone they actually know in real life?

PSA: Our school's new grading algorithm flagged my son's essay as 'low effort' because of his dyslexia

My son, who's 12 and dyslexic, worked for three hours on an essay about Boston. The new automated system his school uses gave him a 40% for 'repetitive language and short sentences.' I printed the essay and showed his teacher the creative ideas he had about the Freedom Trail. She agreed the algorithm missed the point and manually overrode the score. Has anyone else seen these systems punish kids for learning differences instead of their actual work?

Vent: My boss said our new AI system could do my job in half the time

I was training the new AI tool on our data entry process, showing it how I check invoices. My boss walked by and said, 'Great, once it's done learning, it'll handle this in half the time you do.' That was the moment. I'd been helping build the thing that might replace me. I spent three days just feeling sick about it. Has anyone else had a boss just say it out loud like that?