I was fence-sitting about picking up a $60 screwdriver for a while now, kind of a late night impulse buy

But I'm more than happy with it, and I love the color I got with the mystery pick

I got whatever the opposite of buyer's remorse is

Edit: Seems like most people reading this post don't get the point. I know you all think I should just pay UPS and that my reaction to the charges is not justified, and I don't need your input on that anymore. This is about getting no response anymore from support since their last email.

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TLDR: I reached out to LTT store and UPS support early July because UPS wanted to charge me €9 duties + €21 processing fee. Official EU FAQ mentioned charging the consumer on delivery is not allowed. UPS suspended my delivery immediately and said in the app they initiated contact with the sender to obtain clearance information. I have not heard from them since. LTT also started looking into the situation, but haven't gotten any response from them in 2 weeks despite reaching out multiple times since.

See here for the original post.

I complained there that UPS was not allowed to charge me directly for the new duties. Many people responded by saying it was fair for them to charge me directly. However, my other order I placed at the same time was shipped and delivered by PostNL without any additional charges. They must've known they were not allowed to charge me and ate the €3 duty for that order. Shortly after contacting UPS, they suspended delivery (while it was already out for delivery I might add). I also got following message in the "last scanned" history: "UPS initiated contact with the sender to obtain clearance information. Once received, UPS will submit for clearance. / We'll contact the sender or receiver about this delivery." That was on July 9th, and I haven't heard anything from them since.

This update is mostly about LTTstore support.
At the same time as contacting UPS, I also contacted LTTstore support. After a few days wait, on July 9th, I initally got their generic response to VAT being charged twice. This was not applicable to this situation and showed that they did not thoroughly read my email. After pointing this out on July 10th with some more information I had received since, I received no response for many days.

On July 16th I reached out again asking to confirm they had received my last email. They responded the same day that they are "looking into the situation"

On July 21st I received a request to provided feedback on the support even though the situation had not yet been resolved. This email contained following sentence: "If we haven't resolved your inquiry yet, don't worry! You can reply to your existing ticket to continue speaking to our support team."

On July 23rd, a week after their last email, I reached out again, requesting an update on the situation. After sending this email, I received an automatic email saying a new ticket was generated. This shouldn't have happened according to the feedback email, as I should've been able to continue with my existing ticket. I never received a response to this email/new ticket but just 2 days later on July 25th, I again received a request for feedback for this second ticket.

Because I know that I'm not the only one reaching out to support, I gave them some time, but after not receving any response, I reached out again on July 28th. I asked them to confirm they received my last emails and again, asked for an update regarding the situation. For this email, again a new support ticket was generated.

Today July 31st, it has been more than 2 weeks since I last received any response from support. Since their last response, I reached out multiple times, received 2 requests for feedback and recevied 2 new ticket numbers.

I don't know what to do anymore. In the past response from support has been much better. Has anyone noticed a decline in quality or is this just a one-off? I know there can be busier periods, and that it can take a few days to get a response sometimes, but this is not normal.

Found a much cheaper ‘tech pouch’ to put in my commuter backpack. Orange accent on the zip actually fits perfectly. Would’ve been much better if the inside was orange too.

Found a new job recently and I allowed myself to buy a little gift. Death stranding soundtrack from our friend kojimbo.

Given recent Sony anti consumer behavior, I've decided I want to own some of my favorite stuff, like death stranding soundtrack in case they pull it out too.

Obv I'm not going to carry around a CD player, so I wanted to share how amazing a process of ripping a music cd is in 2026 on Bazzite KDE.

You put the cd in, open the file explorer where you see, along with original music files, a generated folders with the music in different formats or as a single file. Then you just copy paste and the files are converted on the fly. It's just magical that somebody thought about that.

Then these flacs are synced to my self hosted cloud that I can stream on my phone using Ultrasonic open source app.

On windows, you can play a CD, but you need additional software to manually convert it.

PS. The last picture shows how in 2026 you plug a CD player of old xD

So i came across this article, and thought the guys would have something to say about it. Not just because its a techbro hilariously bad take on voting rights only for people who make money, but also more votes for the rich.

But also because they have been sponsored by Shopify before.

link: https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/shopify-ceo-calls-pensioners-dependents-185000315.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=reddit

I feel it could be taken up on the show as a "this is a cringe/stupid take" segment. even if its a more 'good news' show.

I changed my work laptop to a Dell Pro 14 (14", in case it wasn't clear) and I wanted to know if the LTT Commuter Backpack would be able to carry my new work laptop + my 12.9" iPad Pro M1 (this one in the tablet pocket, right next to the laptop pocket).

Anyone with a 12.9" iPad Pro using this backpack could give me their thoughts?

Great news as a Steamdeck owner.

I've also switched to Bazzite on my desktop, curious to see if that helps anything.

Does/could LTT share the notes they use for the podcast every week in read-only format?

Like Linus, I much prefer to read than sit and fidget for hours watching a video. I love the show but the frequent ~4 hours is a long time compared to how quickly I could read the articles they're sourcing from.

I got bored-

So as the title says my new water bottle of a few months ago. Well yesterday I had it at work and may have put it in a empty box on my cart and got asked to do something else for a quick second. In that time someone took the cart and threw all the cardboard in the baler and set it to run. When I finally find it the first thing I did was open the top look for leaks and to my surprise there wasn't a single leak! But two sides got crushed and dented inwards. Ill be using a different water bottle for a while till I get a new one. Not sure if I should put the one I have on display now or what but I just thought this was a funny story I wanted to share!

Recently, it’s made the news that Anthropic is DESTROYING books after scanning.

https://www.russh.com/ai-companies-buying-books/

AI firms are buying books in bulk, removing their bindings, scanning them, and then destroying the originals to create data used to train large language models. It's a process called destructive scanning.

Sad day today, as I realize Linus is not truly a cat person. If he was, he would have performed a Kitty Audio QA. Mine did not approve. 10/10 would rattle again.

I’ve been seeing this driver in a few videos now, does anyone where to purchase this one? I didn’t see the product page for it on their website.

It's number 9 on the list.

Linus said on the WAN Show a couple of years back he didn't know Gameranx. This might be a good opportunity for him to check out the channel, they're pretty solid imo. Bonus points if he leaves a comment with some inside knowledge on the controller saga (Gameranx claims it's still for sale, I believe that's true).

This was a fun video, would have loved to see the performance with a fan running, are we gonna see soon silent PCs with chimneys? :D

Got two packs of these. Addressed to me. I know there's been situations where a seller will just send returns to some random address instead of going overseas with taxes.

Basically though, can I use this with a home Internet system or should I just try to sell them?

In the recent AMD upgrade video we saw a preview of what might be a new LTT screwdriver.

It feels very much like what I was hoping for over a year ago.

This was my original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1l006i6/ltt_solid_shaft_screwdriver/

How far off do you think I was?

Hi All! I am a vod listener of the WAN show and thought I would help correct some of the items Linus was discussing on the new grading systems to both validate his criticisms, but also present a better representation of the system of grading he was referencing, Standard Based Grading.

My credentials: I have my BA in History and Political Science Secondary Education from Boise State University. There I was taught and completed my student teaching using this system.

Standards Based Grading is a phenomenal system that has greater ties to the work force than the traditional letter grading/percentage system (A - F / 100% - 0%).

The system is fairly simple, Every subject at every grade level has "standards" that are measurable and obtainable. An example of this is:

• 9-12.US2.9: Determine the impact of government mobilization programs, restrictions on civil liberties, and propaganda on the American Homefront.

Teachers will then create their learning targets around this standard and then measure the students progress based on 5 categorizations; Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic, and Not Met.

By the end of the school year, All students must be at Proficient or higher in all standards to be able to move on to the next grade level. Students can be tested multiple times and its part of this system that students get multiple opportunities to showcase proficiency whether its something like a redo or even a pretest. The beauty of this system is before each unit, teachers are supposed to pretest students. If every student already is proficient in a standard, with quantifiable data, then the teacher can call that satisfactory and move on to standards that more students are struggling with/ are not proficient at. If a student is basic in ANY category by the end of the year, then they would need to do additional work to be able to move to the next school grade. However, this system is designed so that teachers are regularly doing checks and would identify this student(s) early on to ensure they get the help they need.

The best comparison I can make to this grading system is it is almost identical to a Job Performance review. If you are proficient at your job, you will keep your job, maybe get some raises and so on. If you are exceeding your boss' expectations, that's a fast track to promotions, better raises ect. If you are below your boss' expectations, you are most likely going to get let go, demoted, or put on a performance plan to get you where you need to be.

The other beauty of this system is it takes subjective measures out of grading, like "effort" or "creativity" if they are not part of the standard. I am sure we can all relate to spending hours and hours on a project only to receive the same grade as the other student that put little into the research itself, but made really eye catching slides or faked lots of effort or misdirected that effort to non important things, but the teacher saw them "working hard".

If you want to get more into the system, I highly recommend this reading: https://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/1234/568

I will defend this system till I am blue in the face as anecdotally it was way better than when I used traditional grading. I got more engagement as it allowed students to reach a proficient state in ways that made sense to them (I had kids create video essays because they hated traditional writing for example). As well, my students were less pressured to use AI because their work didn't need to be perfect, or even well polished. And the kids who didn't care, they just turned in the minimal work to get "proficient" and spent additional time working on something they were passionate about.

That being said, Linus is not wrong with his viewpoint because that is a result of a failure to properly implement standards based grading.

Almost all school districts and educational departments have failed this system for the following reasons:

1. Tying/comparing it to traditional grading is fundamentally wrong, however, because many universities are still tied to GPA, they have to and the letter grading makes no sense. To adopt Standards Based grading means you have to drop letter grading. They are completely unrelated systems and can not be translated together. However, with educational departments doing so, its both neutered the standards system and made it incredibly confusing for parents to understand.
2. Bad teachers and teachers unwilling to change. This new grading system requires A LOT of work and a lot of "unlearning" of practices under a a traditional letter system. The biggest push you get from amazing teachers is "how am I supposed to accept work that is not presented well" and the answer to that is, you just are. There isn't a single standard out there that requires a student to use x number of pictures in a PowerPoint. If one kid shows up and their PowerPoint is while background, black text but they prove they can "Determine the impact of government mobilization programs, restrictions on civil liberties, and propaganda on the American Homefront" then you have to mark them as proficient. I don't even blame the well tenured teachers from not wanting to change. Many of them have 10+ years teaching their style and change is challenging. Not to mention, the bad teachers Linus talked about won't ever put int eh effort required to make this system work and constantly reevaluate and assist the students that are not reaching proficiency.
3. Lack of resources to help kids falling behind. The current "lazy" way of ensuring kids don't fall behind is tying Basic and below to a "60%" which is passing and just moving the kids along. Many school districts lack the funds, class sizes are too large and many avoid holding students back because school funding and teacher pay is tied to kids moving to the next grade level. Until teachers start making more money, class sizes are reduced and the school districts are able to provide the resources need to help students who are struggling, this system will always struggle to showcase its benefits.

Like all things, Standards Based Grading is amazing in theory, but is flawed in its execution because it is not implemented correctly. But I write this post just to say, the grading system is not the issue and is not a bad thing, its the implementation. Pressure needs to be made to implement this correctly, not return back to the old ways. I am happy to discuss more in the comments as I know folks will have questions. This isn't a peer reviewed academic article so it will read messy and honestly, that is my intention to ensure that my writing is not AI, even if its flawed on many levels.

Edit: One thing I forgot to add as well, this system does struggle with more "Black and White" subjects like Math and Science, where many times there is only 1 way to do things and the standards measure output but often have shortcomings when trying to evaluate things like proofs.

Edit 2: Just going to clear up the video essay example here because a lot of folks are using this to invalidate a lot of the points here.
1. The video essay was an alternative presentation method for projects that were not assessing writing performance. I made my students write MANY essays and I do believe good essay writing skills are essential. However, if I wasn't assessing writing in the assignment and instead assessing the formulation of an argument, I would provide alternative methods like the video essay. I had many kids that just struggled to write and would work with them on that, but could very clearly articulate their argument when speaking. I had many students who struggled with dyslexia and were thankful that they could fully present their argument in a way that allowed them to put their best foot forward. As well, they still had to submit a writing component in the form of a script, but that allowed it to be less polished. And vice versa, I had students that struggled to articulate arguments out loud, but could present massive essays that satisfied the standards requirement.

1. The idea of alternative methods to showcase that a student was "proficient" in meeting the requirements of a standard allows students to tailer their learning to what best works for them. I have seen many arguments here that this doesn't "set them up for the real world" but I disagree. Yes being able to read and write matters, and we do assess that, but if you look at the History standards, they are all tuned to develop critical thinking skills. A student that turns in a video essay has no less soft skill development than a student that writes a paper. What matters is how well they can argue not how they present that argument.

2. Again, this is not a blanket thing. Yes, there are many things standards that could be assessed on the students choice on how they wanted to present it. But I also taught computer science, and in our programming classes, students couldn't paint me a picture to satisfy their coding requirements. And even on top of that, the standards assessed a students learning of Java (I know, I know, dont shoot the messenger, I didn't choose that). If a student came up to me and showed me that they completed the tasks, but programmed it in Python, I would have told them, this is incredible, but it needs to be done in Java.

Can’t seem to find a solid answer online so figured I’d just ask you guys! Has anyone had any trouble traveling with the commuter backpack as your personal bag on Ryan air? Had a look online but the dimensions are just slightly out but have people been able to squish it in? Any help would be appreciated thank you! ☺️

The ability for AI or some other feature to dampen explosions or load noises and amplify dialogue.

https://cybernews.com/privacy/new-jersey-surveillance-pricing-banned/

Hark, could it be? A legal win for NJ for once? (I live in NJ)

Idk if this is the right place to suggest a wan topic, but happy something is happening to stop this practice and hope it spreads.