So, you can work around these things but you’re going to run into problems if you do:

-If you reset the router, you need to restore the original password else they’ll know

-if they notice you using these devices when you wouldn’t have access, they’ll remove them further from your reach. Possibly permanently.

-If detected, a larger conflict is likely to be escalated. This includes a loss of the benefit of the doubt in the future.

I’d suggest that this is not the battle to fight. They’re likely fighting your apparent obsession with tech. Let them have this battle and continue your fun later.

Try the Stormlight Archive, wheel of time, or mistborn books. Maybe the redwall books if you’re younger. Fun and focus can still be had without a computer!

I’d act like it never happened. If they recognize that they got weird, then they deserve some dignity. If they don’t, then I don’t want to get into that hot mess.

The point of a digital signature is to announce that you made this document, as it exists at the time of writing. Once a change is made it should no longer identify as signed.

Most institutions don’t use this functionality, despite the usefulness of it. At present, I’d recommend using it for publicly distributed files to protect against bad actors publishing a document that pretends to be yours.

As for legally binding, ask a lawyer. Generally, things are legally binding if they’re signed by all parties. The specifics get funky, but a digital signature is a solid step for announcing that you did this thing at this datetime and a judge should recognize that if it comes down to it. Bonus points if all parties attach their digital signatures.

Real, albeit shit-tier modder here. You are correct.

Mods depend a lot of the type of mod.

Entity model changes are relatively easy, often as simple as replacing texture and model files. This is highly dependent on the tech used to make the game and how it’s packaged.

Sound files, similarly, are a file replacement job as long as nothing too funky is involved.

After this, we start to get into larger toolchains. We need tools to decode game data so it can be manipulated, tools to gain access to the game as it starts up or as it runs, and tools to use those tools to create modifications and implement them easily.

Graphics upgrade mods often use directx overrides, such as in SweetFX and Reshade. Sometimes they replace or override existing game files directly.

Bug fixes and additional functionality are where things get really interesting. At first, these are done with hacks done in the form of function overrides that can only be created after analyzing the compiled game executable. Later, tools are built that allow easier access and present game functions to other developers for easy modification.

And sometimes the difficult parts are skipped over entirely when developers include modding APIs or SDKs for public use.

Inflation’s been happening since currency was created. We don’t notice day to day because the effects are stretched over a long period.

Try calculating the value of a 2010 dollar against the current 2023 dollar. You’ll find the cumulative effect of ~5% inflation each year is significant.

In addition, periods exist throughout American history during which inflation has spiked noticably within a year or two - this is nowhere near the first time.

Sounds like you’re not familiar with driving in the US. Passing along the shoulder is both illegal and incredibly dangerous. These long roads without passing lanes, often with frequent curves making a safe line of sight for passing impossible, create a situation in which courtesy is suggested: if traffic builds up behind while you travel drastically below the nominal speed of traffic with no opportunity to pass coming up, pull over to let them pass.

Unfortunately, the middle of nowhere exists and that’s where people tend to vacation when they want to exist outside of a concrete jungle. The middle of nowhere also lacks funding for significant road infrastructure; that will not change and changing it would be so inordinately expensive that doing so would be foolish. The answer here is simple courtesy as a driver.

Also, emergency vehicles aren’t going to be stuck behind am RV - they obligate everyone to pull over by law. The issue is that emergency vehicles do not exist in these areas. None. No help available. No funding, no people to do the job. The US is vast and significant portions of land exist with barely any residents.

You can also be sure that hospitals are at least an hour’s drive away in these locations where no opportunity to pass exists. There’s no way around it: someone impeding the flow of traffic significantly without allowing faster traffic to pass is dangerous, both because of emergencies and the inevitable human tendency to pass in risky situations due to frustration.

Sure: becoming a member of a corporation costs money. You either have to pay to get it set up or buy a share to get in so those who already paid are made whole.

Unfortunately, the US as an example, our society is structured such that the majority of people here have zero savings with wages decreasing in value every year due to inflation. A person in this situation cannot produce money to buy-in; squeezing water from a stone situation.

Easy! Being stuck behind a slow moving vehicle over significant distances, especially on long stretches where passing is not viable, results in notably greater travel time; often increasing trip duration by 25%, more if RVs cover the entire stretch.

An RV driver can stop anywhere in the comfort of their RV to eat food, use their restroom, stretch on their mattress for a nap. A driver in a car often deals with unsanitary and often broken facilities along those long countryside stretches. I have IBS; an RV can extend the time I have to experience gut-stabbing pain by half an hour only to reach a clogged toilet with blood smeared everywhere and then I’m stuck behind them again or I have to go use leaves in a bush.

Point is, sometimes people are in situations where getting somewhere faster is important and we’ve not even considering medical emergencies where every minute counts and emergency services are too far distant to intervene, if cell signal exists at all to reach them. RVs usually won’t pull over to allow a person to pass despite their signals. It’s just a shitty situation and the alternative presented by most who are free of disabilities, not going out to enjoy one’s life in the fullest manner possible, at best lacks empathy.

Probably? I didn’t check on whether angle brackets or square brackets are for optional parameters. It’s an arbitrary thing and my meaning is entirely decipherable in any order.

Terminal isn’t over complicated, it’s the most basic interaction with operating systems and was the first mainstream UI to ever exist because it’s a natural extension of what interacting with a computer truly is.

Terminal has very basic, particular syntax: Command [required parameters]

It has some useful additions as well, like

| to pass the output of the precious command to another command

> to write to a file

< to read from a file

This basic structure allows additional tools to be installed and run without having to learn a unique GUI with all the quirks of the GUI designer for each application. You just add new commands and move on with your life, maybe referencing the manual page to check which parameters you need.

Windows has a very particular GUI design that everyone knows because of the way Microsoft captured the market in the early days, before laws prevented them from doing so. Windows is esoteric, it has a variety of GUI philosophies all jumbled together. Explorer/control panel exists next to “Metro” apps, now “Windows apps” and they both do separate things without ever integrating the two properly.

Windows is arcane and understanding it fully is thousands of hours of practice, if you actually try new things. Linux is perfectly usable from command line with just a few dozens of hours of practice.

I say all this as a primarily Windows desktop user who uses Linux when it comes to actually getting things done. If we taught Linux to our children in schools and if businesses provided as much Linux training to workers as they do windows training, the discussion we’d be having would be about how windows is too complicated and just needs a UI similar to the ones available with Linux.